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Gutenberg The Geek (2012)

by Jeff Jarvis(Favorite Author)

3.66 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Amazon Digital Services

review 1: Some of the entrepreneurial comparisons to Silicon Valley are tiresome, though that's probably my own personal distaste for the economic and cultural canonization of tech CEOs. At the same time, comparisons made to technologies like the Internet and web search (e.g., Google) make this book (well, essay) worth reading. Most interesting to me is how the printing press not only heralded an unprecedented, widespread circulation of ideas, but also that many of those ideas were seen as unsavory, unscrupulous, or even illegal. Today, we see the similar trends in social networks and easy-access publishing tools that give ideas an immediate global reach (e.g., ISIL propaganda). Decades passed before the effects of the printing press were even partially fathomed by those whose lives... more it touched. When will the dust of the information age finally settle?
review 2: Interesting and short (it's a Kindle Single). It draws parallels between the history of Gutenberg's invention of the printing press and the current state of innovation on the Internet. Both technologies are changing the world, and there are some interesting parallels in how they were invented and spread. And of course, the Internet seems to (on some level) be supplanting Gutenberg. If you're interested in high-tech startups, open source software, disruption of the news and publishing business, and history, it's well worth the read. less

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