In discussing the history of media, and technology for that matter, any *NEW* technology that emerges usually has two things in common that tend to attach to it -
1) Anyone receiving a benefit from existing technology that may be displaced by the new thing tends to fear it, and therefore tries to rail against it, and even might try to legislate or litigate against it. Radio was viewed (initially) as a threat to newspapers. Television was viewed as a threat by the motion picture industry. The Internet was viewed as a threat by radio, and also by postal workers. The VCR was thought to be destructive to the motion picture industry, until they realized that they could shuttle stinker pictures out to home video and recoup any losses they may have incurred in their production. 2) Sometimes new technologies come onto the scene -- and no one can figure out a way to make money from it, at least for awhile. 3) More often than not, new technologies have to be tweaked and improved to make them effective. When they first roll out, they're not all that great. _______________________________________________ Swlfest mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/swlfest To unsubscribe: Send an E-mail to [email protected]?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above. For more information on the Fest, visit: http://www.swlfest.com http://swlfest.blogspot.com
