And this has encouraged us to think of information as stable - as a body of knowledge which can be acquired, taught, passed on, memorised, and tested of course.
The very nature of print itself has fostered a sense of truth; truth too is something which stays the same, which endures. And there is no doubt that this stability, this orderliness, has been a major contributor to the huge successes of the industrial age and the scientific revolution. […]
But the digital revolution changes all this. Suddenly it is not the oldest information - the longest lasting information that is the most reliable and useful. It is the very latest information that we now put the most faith in - and which we will pay the most for. […]
Education will be about participating in the production of the latest information. This is why education will have to be ongoing throughout life and work. Every day there will be something new that we will all have to learn. To keep up. To be in the know. To do our jobs. To be members of the digital community. And far from teaching a body of knowledge that will last for life, the new generation of information professionals will be required to search out, add to, critique, 'play with', and daily update information, and to make available the constant changes that are occurring."
The Internet will not do away with the print media, the cinema, the radio or the television. As a new information and communication medium, it is creating its own space while adapting itself to the other media, and vice versa.
From my point of view, the greatest contribution of the Internet to the print media is that people no longer run after information, but that the information is there, available on their screen, and the quantity of this information is really impressive. While, in the beginning, connecting to the Internet was rather complicated for the average user, it has now become simple (for example, with the iMac). One improvement we are all waiting for, however, is a shorter connection time when accessing any website or individual pages we may wish to consult, especially those with many pictures. Let us hope that is coming soon.
But, once more, we have to remember that, as revolutionary as it can be, Internet is still only a means, as stated in Technorealism Overview: "Regardless of how advanced our computers become, we should never use them as a substitute for our own basic cognitive skills of awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment."
10. INDEX OF WEBSITES
ABU: la bibliothèque universelle (ABU: Association des bibliophiles universels)
AJR/NewsLink (AJR: American Journalism Review)