Thanks, Gutenberg – but we’re too pressed for time to read

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jan/27/internet.pressandpublishing

• What strikes you as interesting?

Mmm … I liked this article … well I did until I tried to look up the link it mentions in to the study by the British Library and researchers at University College London. The link to the study which the article says is available from tinyurl.com/2eslnr seems to reach a dead link … now it could just be me and my little old computer perhaps but if it isn’t me and if the link truly is dead then this might well provide another aspect to the ‘power browsing’ and quick wins referred to in the article – did I bother trying to get to the study after my fruitless effort ? Well no …. will I look it up at some point in the future ? Possibly but probably not … Could I just be satisfied with reading (skimming) the summary info provided in the article (for a quick win) rather than looking at the study directly ? Probably ….  certainly food for thought on the old surface / deep learning debate 🙂

• How clear do you find the argument about the First Law of Technology – for example, the point about overestimating?

Well I could see where he was going with it, but I found that I needed more information in relation to where this ‘law’ had come from and whether there were any other laws that went with it … so I guess from the article itself , only a hint of the underlying principles of the laws of technology was given and therefore no I dont think it was particularly clear.

A quick google of this later gave several results eventually leading me to this blog post by Michael Sacasas which I found quite accessible to read and this gives a useful summary of all six laws of technology which have become known as Kranzberg’s Laws ….well that is assuming that I have stumbled upon the correct set of laws ….

(http://thefrailestthing.com/2011/08/25/kranzbergs-six-laws-of-technology-a-metaphor-and-a-story/)

Kranzberg, Melvin (1986) Technology and History: “Kranzberg’s Laws”, Technology and Culture, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 544-560.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3105385

I also found this useful video on You Tube by Connor Owens which gives a useful overview …

[youtube=http://youtu.be/6o5U7Hay02c]