Here’s a really brilliant post by Tim O’Reilly on the discomfort collectively felt by traditional book publishers about digital media proliferation, specifically that the book will disappear as a form of cultural expression, overwhelmed by the electric page.
I respect that his thought, even though he’s a publisher of books, is that expression will always continue, and that delivery methods have always been evolving, and always will. In the end the medium is secondary to the human message, and change will proceed forward with or without you, so get on board.
And anyway, how can we be afraid that a future with fewer books published each year (if it comes to pass) equates somehow with a snuffing out of communication and expression, artistic or otherwise? There will be as many books as people demand, but I have a feeling that this ubiquitous media proliferation has even better things in store for us, and that profundity and erudition will not suffer.
“He not busy being born is busy dying.”
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You have taken the words right out of my mouth. To me the shift in medium is a necessity as new ways of communication are brought forth. The internet and the advent of E-Books can only be viewed as a good thing. The invention of the printing press was very similar. At first it brought discomfort to the powers that be and the internet is doing the same thing but on a scale unimaginable. It is the new way to easily proliferate information to the masses.