Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Nation & World

Washington Whispers by Paul Bedard

Obama's Records to be Measured in Petabytes

June 16, 2009 02:09 PM ET | Paul Bedard | Permanent Link | Print

By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers

It's taking nearly a year longer than planned to install all the Bush records into National Archive computers, largely because the digital file is historically big—100 terabytes. But archivists are already bracing for the even more high-tech Obama records, especially if the prez serves two terms. Acting Archivist Adrienne Thomas reveals that the Clinton total was just two terabytes and the agency expects the jump from W to Obama to be akin to that of Bubba to Bush. But when asked what that number would be, she deferred to staff, who said Obama's totals would be measured in "petabytes." For the record, one petabyte equals 1 quadrillion bytes.

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Tags: Barack Obama | Obama administration

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Reader Comments

Ha ha ha

Two terms... that's funny oh my side hurts.

It's not email that causes this increase - most likely its the increased use of high def video and images.

Bush's records were smaller, in part,

because many of them were not kept. Anyone remember the years of e-mails that were run through other networks and servers instead of those of the government as required by law (but not obeyed)?

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