April 27, 2010 Archives

Topic: Of Interaction and Knowledge in the Amazon/Google Era

Demonstrate your ability to relate what you have learned so far to a recent magazine article or news feature that describes a current trend or a recent innovation (within your lifetime) that relates to the development of the book (or related concepts, such as authorship/publication/reading/archiving).  By "relate" I mean please quote from, and use meaningfully, the assigned readings in order to defend a position on a current topic.

• Defend a specific, debatable claim (rather than explaining a situation or describing progress).
• Note that I am going to ask you to speculate about the future in Ex 5, so stick to the recent past and the present for Ex 4. 
• While "interaction" and "knowledge" are both very broad subjects, note that were are exploring those topics from within the perspective of the history and future of the book, so please try to keep some grounding in issues of reading/writing/authorship/publication/reproduction, while still making room for a treatment of the characteristics of new media.
• Demonstrate your ability to apply the readings to your chosen topic. 
• You may choose a popular source such as Wired, or a source that relates to your career or cultural interests.  You may also choose to respond to an academic article.
• Cite your sources according to MLA style  (including a Works Cited list).
  

In 1946, Vannevar Bush published "As We May Think" (I assigned it in EL236, but I'm not assigning the whole article this time -- this online handout should provide you with what you need to know).  It provides you with background information that will help you understand the assigned text, which is Buckland's analysis of the pre-history of the imaginary machine Bush described.

Bush proposed (but nobody ever built) a mechanical device that would permit a reader to locate, annotate, and connect individual microfilm pages. 

The actions he describes seem trivial to us today, just as a photocopier, or a spill-proof ball-point pen, or an eraser-tipped pencil are so much a part of our scholarly life that we can hardly comprehend their revolutionary impact upon our productivity.