The shock of the old

The leader in the Observer this weekend on the Hay-on-Wye book festival raised some pertinent points of interest for me.

Old technology has a noble history of refusing to die. For decades, vinyl has defied the march of the compact disc. Radio was not killed by television. Nearly every desk in every office in the land is piled with barricades of A4, resisting the proselytisers of paperlessness.

And

The world of publishing is far from untouched by technology. Computers have changed the way writers organise their words - and their thoughts. The internet changed the way books are traded. Blogs have changed the way they are reviewed. As a panoramic account in today's Observer Review illustrates, the books industry has been transformed beyond recognition in the last 10 years. Far more are published. Far greater sums of money change hands.

And finally

New technology has also increased the sheer volume of work published. But a good story, like a good song, has a way of standing out from the crowd. The recipe for success, for creating a literary sensation, is still talent, fired by inspiration, delivered with conviction. A great book remains stubbornly, enigmatically, inimitably analogue.

I find myself agreeing with this sentiment - although I blog and lecture on digital communities and the theories on engagement - those that know me well - will often find me taking out of my bag laptop, iPod and a book I happen to be reading. With a pen inside which I use to underscore those bits I find interesting, useful, provoking.

Comments

[Al Briggs]

The expectation that any "old" media will "die" is wrong, they just take up their space in the ecosystem (however small that might be).

This is nothing new in the 70s Marshall McLuhan came up with the idea of the Media Ecosystem and Media Ecology.

It seems straight forward to me - all media are useful - but each new media (at whatever period in history it is discovered) tends to dilute the effect of the others when it gets added into the mix.

[Alan Moore]

Dear Al,

We agree that one new technology does not replace, but dilutes. And I presented myself as still belonging to that diluted analogue world. Yet we also see significant cultural and social implications of living in a connected and networked society.

Also I think we are midwives to a new media eco-system. And that will be fascinating to watch evolve as I have done already over the last 8 years.

Thanks for posting

Alan