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Information Design—Week 1, Assignment 2

What is the relation of the printing press to the Internet?

The Internet’s existence, or at least its arrival in the 20th century, can be credited in large part to the creation of the printing press roughly 550 years earlier. Had not the printing press existed, the subsequent scientific revolution that it promoted could not have occurred, and the exchange of ideas would have continued in less efficient methods, such as hand-written letters. The Internet owes its existence to the printing press, its relatively ancient ancestor.

How have they both created information revolutions?

The printing press and Internet both represented fundamental changes in the way people accessed information. The printing press shifted ownership of printed materials from only the elite to the masses. It made available written information in mass-produced books and manuscripts that revolutionized society through broader availability and ubiquity of knowledge. In much the same way, the Internet made information available to the masses, but to an exponentially greater, unprecedented degree than did printed books. Virtually any information became available to anyone who chose to search for it.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press#Impact_of_printing
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web#Sociological_implications