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Sun 27 Jun, 2004 02:45 am
kicky (love that new avatar matey!!) recently asked 'how big is the Internet?'. A good-ish question, but one that doesn't quite encompass the really big issue:
Just what does it take to make the WWW/Internet function?
So, my question is:
'What is the Internet worth?"
Google are planning a float for an estimated US$25 billion. That's the sort of money were starting with!!
Every server in every company + every home computer + every user? Would it be something as easy as that, or is it the entire value of the hardware/software connected and the on-line time for every user?
What about the brain-work of all of us? If we agreed to stay on-line and act as a 24 hour information source, what would THAT be worth? Would it be a figure that incorporated the expenses involved in keeping us all on-line and connected and acting as a group?
Saw a show today (while at work) that said there's more information swapped between computers each day than has been traded in every conversation ever had by humans from the time we could talk.
From my meagre understanding the internet is now the 'business' of the information age. It is an eclectic mix of private and public businesses with the additional, and direct, input of hundreds of millions of people - without cessation, without filters and realtime. We all bear a little bit of the cost, but what is the whole of this 'value' in the end? Is there a even a possbible final quantifyable figure?
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