Johannes Gutenberg, the 15th century printer, could not have foreseen the full cultural impact of his innovation. His Bible, produced around 1456 in Mainz – the very city where IBM now has its main European disk factory – was the first book manufactured using movable type. Gutenberg’s technology dramatically reduced the cost of reproducing graphic material and its subsequent refinement led to enormous changes in every aspect of society. As the cost of printed materials fell, the information repositories that had been almost exclusively owned and controlled by the clergy (and supplemented by some collections in the hands of royalty and the odd scholar) gave way to a proliferation of private libraries. Where the Bible had first gone, other forms of literature, from scientific texts to volumes of erotic poetry, soon followed. Notable among the exploiters of printing technology were the Fuggers, also German, whose contribution to publishing culture was the development of the newsletter. The information superhighway of the 15th century was a collection of roads and shipping channels. It was amazingly effective. England, for example, tried to constrain the increasing flow of printed matter but only fostered an English language publishing business in Holland. In the end, England not only succumbed to the inevitable but became proficient. Censors gave way to wordsmiths and new fortunes were built on the ruins of old prohibitions. The Lloyd’s insurance market is intimately entwined not only with information but its distribution; every shipper is familiar with Lloyd’s List.
By Hesh Wiener
A more modern example is the BSkyB satellite that has largely defeated British notions of broadcast propriety but also opened the way for cable systems that will, as they mature, carry not only lucrative smut but also even more valuable data. Parallels can be made in the corporate world and they are instructive even when they are grossly flawed. Personal computers with modems have become far more important to information flow than mainframes in glass houses. The most potent combination – the mix of private data pools in corporate hands and the sea of information available through various networks – is already strengthening organisations and individuals with a vision of an information-rich future and the gumption to engage it with every available resource. What is at stake is not merely the championship of mainframes versus microcomputers or Unix versus MVS. Anyone hoping to shape an information processing strategy must look well beyond the tactical issues, however overwhelming they may seem at times. The battle to be fought is one of participation versus isolation, of light versus darkness. It is a foregone conclusion that light will prevail, as surely as one can slip a Bible between the bars of a castle gate, or into a prison cell.
From the May 1994 issue of Infoperspectives International, published by Technology News Ltd, 110 Gloucester Avenue, London NW1 Copyright (C) Technology News Ltd.
