Clay Shirky also made reference to the common link that is made between the invention of the internet and the invention of the printing press in the 15th century - an interesting topic for me and one in which I will be speaking about at the Bett Conference in the new year.
Shirky explains how the printing press was originally seen as a method of enforcing Catholic intellectual hegemony across Europe, when in fact it allowed the publication and distribution of protestant ideas leading to the Reformation, the Enlightnement and the Scientific Revolution. The ability to share new ideas changes societies.
As Shirky points out, this does not always hapen instantly. The erotic novel Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was published in 1499 - a quick realisation that the masses want to be titilated and entertained, a concept familiar to the digital revolution. But over time the printing press also gave birth to practical and inspirational ideas that changed the world. In 1665 the first scientic journal was published. Titled Philosophical Transactions the journal allowed natural philosophers (later scientists) the opportunity to synchronise their ideas in a form that was necessarily quicker to produce than a book ever could be. This in turn paved the way for the Scientifc Revolution.
Educators are starting to explore ways in which the internet and social media in particular can be used as a useful and even inspirational tool for students rather than becoming fixated with the negative and vacuous content which currently fills so much web space.
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