"Last year there were 28 quintillion-that's 28 followed by 18 zeroes-bits of digital information created,"Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox, told the American Marketing Association's MPlanet 2009 Conference. 

"That's more than all the words in all the books ever written….The hurricane of information has become a tsunami."

The violent storm analogies are appropriate: Not all information is reliable information and there can be chaos in overabundance. 

But, Mulcahy, who is credited with leading Xerox's dramatic turnaround, added: "The technology which created the problem can be part of the solution…If it's used smartly."

And the country has an obvious example before it.

Mulcahy said: "Personal politics aside, the Obama campaign is one of the greatest examples of what is possible in the brave new world of 21st Century marketing. They did a