Are e-books the next thing in publishing which will wipe out the centuries old legacy of Gutenberg or just the latest fad? I suspect that both media formats will be jostling for their own particular sweet-spot in the future world of the printed word. I have recently bought a Kindle e-book reader so I can find out for myself. You can read the review I wrote soon after I received my new toy here.
Friday 12 November 2010
Soundscapes
On a more recreational note I am intrigued by the British Library’s UK Sound Map project which is is a new community-led survey-in-sound of the acoustic landscape of Britain. I have been using my iPhone to record and post acoustic samples of public spaces in the UK and elsewhere on my Audioboo account, the mobile and web platform that allows you to upload geo-located and tagged sounds with accompanying pictures to share with others.
Privacy
One of the areas that is facing particular challenge as the fourth communication revolution unfolds is privacy. While users of social networking sites can suffer privacy infringements, it is the capacity (which has increased dramatically in recent years) for businesses and governments to accumulate personal data that presents the most serious challenge, I believe.
Whether it is Google Street View vehicles collecting data from unsecured Wi-Fi connections or governments apparently intent on collecting more and more personal data often without the individual’s knowledge, privacy is under threat as never before.
The UK Coalition Government’s recent policy reversals on medical Summary Care Records and the Orwellian sounding Interception Modernisation Programme are just two areas of government policy that should sound a warning to those who value privacy.
The Australian government’s recent proposal for data retention of phone calls and internet traffic will also need to be exposed to detailed public scrutiny before we can be sure that individuals’ privacy is not compromised.
Whether it is Google Street View vehicles collecting data from unsecured Wi-Fi connections or governments apparently intent on collecting more and more personal data often without the individual’s knowledge, privacy is under threat as never before.
The UK Coalition Government’s recent policy reversals on medical Summary Care Records and the Orwellian sounding Interception Modernisation Programme are just two areas of government policy that should sound a warning to those who value privacy.
The Australian government’s recent proposal for data retention of phone calls and internet traffic will also need to be exposed to detailed public scrutiny before we can be sure that individuals’ privacy is not compromised.
The Fourth Revolution
As John Man writes in his excellent book on Johannes Gutenberg, there are four distinct turning points on the road from grunt to e-mail: the invention of writing, the invention of the alphabet, the invention of movable type and printing and the fourth revolution - the invention of the internet.
It is the social and political as well as technical aspects of this fourth revolution which started having widespread impact in the mid 1990s that attracts my interest. Since I became aware of the internet in around 1992 and my early work on what in retrospect were rather primitive websites in 1994, I can only be grateful to be alive at a time of such intense change. I wonder how Johannes Gutenberg would feel?
With two billion people having access to the internet worldwide (in 2010) and rapidly rising, we are only at the start of a revolution which is likely to have an influence on our society in ways that we cannot yet predict.
Meanwhile the political world grapples with the impact of the internet on copyright and surveillance (to name but two of the current political hot potatoes). In the wider public arena societal issues such as privacy and how we archive an increasingly digital world will need to be considered as part of how we operate as a society.
There is plenty to think about as we ride the roller-coaster of the fourth communication revolution.
It is the social and political as well as technical aspects of this fourth revolution which started having widespread impact in the mid 1990s that attracts my interest. Since I became aware of the internet in around 1992 and my early work on what in retrospect were rather primitive websites in 1994, I can only be grateful to be alive at a time of such intense change. I wonder how Johannes Gutenberg would feel?
With two billion people having access to the internet worldwide (in 2010) and rapidly rising, we are only at the start of a revolution which is likely to have an influence on our society in ways that we cannot yet predict.
Meanwhile the political world grapples with the impact of the internet on copyright and surveillance (to name but two of the current political hot potatoes). In the wider public arena societal issues such as privacy and how we archive an increasingly digital world will need to be considered as part of how we operate as a society.
There is plenty to think about as we ride the roller-coaster of the fourth communication revolution.
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