BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 30, 2000 ISSUE
UP FRONT Needed: Execs to Fight Info Sprawl Move over, CIOs and CTOs. A University of California at Berkeley study says that the new must-have job title is the ''information manager.'' Unlike the chief information or technology officer, who manages systems, the information manager will be the one corporations tap to figure out how to organize and disseminate information for the best business results. The study's co-author, Professor Hal Varian, estimates the world's current store of data--everything from newsprint and CDs to X-rays and movies--totals 1.5 million gigabytes and is growing fast. How much is that? Consider that Thomas Jefferson's 6,000-book library, which formed the Library of Congress, could fit on one DVD--or that all the print in the world comprises only .003% of the world's data. Most of the rest is on magnetic storage. Business needs help, says Varian, who trains info managers at Berkeley's School of Information Management & Systems. ''We're all drowning in a sea of information-- the challenge is to learn how to swim.'' By Joan Oleck EDITED BY ROBERT McNATT _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Needed: Execs to Fight Info Sprawl TABLE: Know Your Data Categories INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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