What makes a paper relevant?

• understanding the parallels and divergences between printing and the Internet
  
• understanding the history and impact of printing

Purposely missing is a parallel structure for the history and impact of the Internet. Of primary importance at this point is to understand how printing developed and what approaches were taken to its regulation. The social impact and incipient regulation of the Internet and its infrastructure are certainly of interest, but primarily only in their parallels with printing. As the investigation evolves, a parallel taxonomy for the Internet may be added, but for now the concentration will be on printing. For more on the impact of networked computers see the links/references page.

Of particular relevance are the history and impact of non-European printing. In Europe it was the printing press that had the greatest impact. In Asia Minor, for example, it was probably the banning on the printing press that had the greatest impact. In China, xylography probably had a greater impact than the printing press. These and similar histories are particularly relevant to this investigation.

Finally, to be relevant, a paper should be widely available in either printed or electronic form. If in electronic form, the URL will be linked from this page. If printed, a link to Amazon.com will be given where possible.

Papers are categorized below with a brief synopsis and - within category - are ordered by age, most recent first.

An evolving taxonomy of relevance

As this site is intended to encourage and summarize an ongoing discussion of printing and the Internet, please send any comments on or additions to this page to dewar@rand.org .

General Parallels Between Printing and the Internet

Draws parallels between the printing press and the Internet (particularly that each gave the individual more power), and says the Internet adds interactivity to the mix (as did the telephone). But he winds up cautiously, citing Jared Diamond as saying that the Internet won't compare in its impact with that of the printing press.

Gehl, John, and Suzanne Douglas, "From Movable Type to Data Deluge"
(http://www.rand.org/parallels/papers)

Discusses the "quickening" brought about by the Internet and the one other time such a quickening had occurred - with the invention of the printing press in Europe. Discusses some of the radical consequences of the printing press (including "a new Europe and an entirely new world"). Wonders (without deciding) whether the Internet will lead to an "age of knowledge" or "a new Dark Age dominated by worship of the mysterious and incomprehensible machines that surround" its inhabitants.

Hauben, Michael, "The Expanding Commonwealth of Learning: Printing and the Net"
( http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/ch106.x16) (1994).

Draws a variety of parallels between behaviors in the printing press era (as described in Elizabeth Eisenstein's book The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993) and behaviors observable in the Internet age. He stops with the parallels and draws no inferences except that the Internet can be seen as an extension of communications developments begun by the printing press.

The general history and impact of printing

A seminal work on the impact of the printing press on Early-Modern Europe. To quote one review: "Although the importance of the advent of printing for Western civilization has long been recognized, Professor Eisenstein's The Printing Press as an Agent of Change provided the first full-scale treatment of the subject." She argues that the printing press was an important agent of change in the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.

The impact of printing on social/cultural life

In a speech given at a meeting of the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft fur Informatik), Postman points out that new technology is always a Faustian bargain and warns of a downside to the Internet that carries forward a downside of printing - the illusion that in more information we will find the solution to our problems. He argues that what printing did was destroy the medieval sense of social integration; the sense that there was a rhyme and reason to the earth and mankind's place on it. More information, more conveniently packaged, more swiftly delivered, is but (as Thoreau put it) "improved means to an unimproved end."

Dewar, James A., "The Information Age and the Printing Press: Looking Backward to See Ahead"
( /publications/P/P8014/ ) 1998.

Although more widely aimed than just at education, this paper argues that both the printing press had and the Internet could have significant effects on the way we preserve, update, disseminate, retrieve, own and acquire knowledge. Uses Elizabeth Eisenstein's work to argue that the printing press had a profound effect on its day and argues that the above parallels with the Internet suggest it, too, could have a profound effect on today's world. Argues, further, that in some cases the unintended consequences in the printing press era dominated the intended ones (Copernicus, for example, was using cosmological date to determine when Easter was and upended all of medieval cosmology) and the same is already happening in some impacts of the Internet. Finally, argues that this calls for a different kind of policy making.

Valverde, Llorenç ,"Rites, Rituals, and the Passage of Time: Change in a Technological Age." Available online to members of the Internet Society
( http://www.isoc.org/isoc/ ) (translated by Anne Kay) 1998.

This article is put under education for its discussion of the future of education, though it also ranges more broadly. Valverde's draws as parallels between the printing press and the Internet excess information, isolation and lack of presence. He suggests that the education system, spawned in its current form by the printing press, must change. He worries that the current system prepares students for an industrial society and that it needs to prepare students for a world dominated by ideas - prepare them to exercise their imagination and creativity. He sees the information age as a new Rennaissance.

Crawford, Jack, "Rennaissance Two: Second Coming of the Printing Press?",
( http://21net.com/online/l_renais2.htm ) 1995.

Picks up the theme that the printing press and the Internet give more power to the individual. Crawford's interest is in the future of education and his thesis is that the Internet will have a transforming effect as did the printing press. The effect on education will be despite any efforts to the contrary, so his recommendation is that those involved in schools should encourage connection with the Internet in order to best prepare for the inevitable.

Watson, Richard, "Creating and Sustaining a Global Community of Scholars"
( http://www.misq.org/archivist/vol/no18/issue3/vol18n3art1watson.html ) 1994.

Describes the printing press, postal system and libraries of the Middle Ages in Europe as an efficient means of sharing thoughts and discoveries and creating a community of scholars. Then points out the primary limitations of that system (sluggish human search of printed material and international mail, and the duplication of the library system), and calls for the creation of a broader community of scholars, students, and practitioners centered around the liberating technologies of the Internet and computers.

The impact of printing on business/financial life

The impact of printing on scientific/technological life

The impact of printing on political/governmemtal life

Recognizes that and why law slow to adapt to choices posed by new technology in general. In a very brief discussion of the printing press and law Standler concentrates on the repressive laws that were adopted by a threatened established order. He concludes that such censorship was/is both ineffective and stifles civil liberties. Discusses some then-current court decisions on Internet restrictions. Suggests that technology will be more responsive than law in coming to grips with Internet legal challenges.

Reports, books awaiting synopsis and taxonomic placement

David Chott, "A Comparison of the Internet Revolution and the Printing Revolution"

http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~dchott/thesis.html#end2

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520204506/qid=951619818/sr=1-2/102-9802517-3028829

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0231107137/ref=ed_oe_p/102-9802517-3028829

http://www.isdw.com/gutenberg.html

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/Overviews/arnett/Antinet.html

http://www.kun.nl/phil/center/revolution.html

http://www.aber.ac.uk/~ednwww/Undgrad/ED10510/dle701.html

http://www.ifla.org/documents/infopol/copyright/hald.txt

http://www.internetsummit.org/lectures/transcripts/nelson.htm