Monday, January 21, 2008

That's Right; Cuneiform

Huzzah! The Atlantic is pulling down its internet firewall -- not just on the new stuff, but on the 150 years of archives, too. James Fallows writes:

I no longer have to say, "Subscribers Only" about some articles. Still -- subscribe! The timeless story of media-and-technology is that as new "delivery vehicles" arrive, they create additional forms of receiving information; eliminate a few old forms, like the cuneiform tablet; but mainly expand the range of choices people have by leaving most old forms in place. Despite television, we still have radio; despite radio and television and the internet, we will have books; despite email we still have phone calls; and for quite a while despite the internet we will still have something physically like a book or magazine, just because there are so many times as places where it's the best way to see what you want to look at. (On my latest 13-hour plane flight, some of passengers mainly used laptops or iPods. Virtually all had some kind of book or magazine.) Magazine content, words and pictures, looks far far better in real magazines -- though the web version is indispensable.

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