The best "guestimates" of the total amount of data in the world suggest that from 1987 to 2007 the total amount of analogue and digital data in the world grew from 3 billion gigabytes to 300 billion gigabytes. The so-called data explosion is driven by the combination of exponentially expanding...

The paper describes the dynamic features of the ICT sector today, through a comparison among countries of the evolving role of investments in R&D in ICT. 41 geographical areas are analysed: 28 European member states, the EU as a whole, the United States, Canada, Australia, five Asian countries...