But what exactly is a "bit" of integrated consciousness?

Sizing Up Consciousness by Bits
This approach to consciousness seems promising.  I'm a bit skeptical, though, how a theory of consciouness can be modeled on how bits of information in computers and cellphones work when it was consciousness itself that developed those technological models.

Someone please step in and clear my fog of ignorance on this.  Perhaps it is explained in Tononi's twenty-seven page scientific journal article Consciousness as Integrated Information: A Provisional Manifesto cited in the link article, above.