Book People Archive

Re: MP3's vs eBooks

Books are more than mere information. A good book also offers a interpretation.
Information is useless unless it is in some context. Sure, when you are
researching a topic it is important to have as many sources as possible. But
unless you make some coherence out of it all, you have wasted your time.

Rod Hay

Tony Kline wrote:

> Thanks Kate and Michael. Me too. Serendipity made me what I am!!!!
>
> I looked in my crystal ball and I saw:
>
> Given a relatively short few years the concept of a book will give way
> to the concept of related information bundles linked together. An
> electronic text will then be larger or smaller fragments of text and
> graphics, with external and internal links. It will be an organising
> framework, a leaping off point. Within one session someone might start
> reading a Dickens 'book', leap to view or read a biographical detail,
> exchange ideas on their reading and sections of text (or views) with a
> discussion group, jump to a critical analysis, follow the mention of a
> place, or a historical person etc etc, or start from some other point
> and reach the original Dicken's novel. This will support the freer less
> structured journeys of the mind. Of course there will still be a desire
> for the structured story, or poem....but also a desire for more freedom
> of navigation. I don't know how that will change attention span or
> quality of thought.
>
> This is what the Internet already is en masse, but it is fairly
> unmanageable in terms of coherent navigation. These smaller organising
> texts will need to be a combination of content and gateway....a manageable
> core with coherent links and easy ways back to an 'interest' thread.
>
> In what I have already done with high density internal hyperlinks in
> Ovid's Metamorphoses and Dante's Divine Comedy, I can see that it would
> be a simple process to create external hyperlinks....integration with
> discussion groups etc is clearly some way off....it would be demanding
> of time and energy, but a rich 'bundle' so created would be exciting in
> its potential width and depth. Such projects will require dedication
> and probably teamwork though a surprising amount can be done by those
> who care enough about the subject at hand. Should one start inside out
> or outside in?
>
> The public domain 'book' is an artefact with five hundred years history
> (of mass distribution in Europe and America). I give it much less than
> a hundred years to go. The new artefact will be the electronic 'bundle'.
> I think that is a truly exciting concept.
>            
> Regards
>
> Tony Kline

--
Rod Hay
rodhay@[redacted]
The History of Economic Thought Archive
http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html
Batoche Books
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