Can you identify the people who made the following stimulating comments about electronic text?
(1) What media titan in 1980 said, “Someday, Don, all news—and advertising—will be delivered digitally? There will really be no need for paper and ink.”
(2) What author in 1969 predicted the “Newspad,” a foolscap-sized device that in the future would display the world’s major electronic papers? To use the gadget one would enter a code to select a newspaper. The front page would be displayed with tiny headlines for each story. Next one would enter another code so that the “postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen” and the article was readable with comfort. The author envisioned that “The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions, one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorbing the ever-changing flow of information from the news satellites.”
(3) What prominent newspaper publisher said recently: “I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the (newspaper) in five years, and you know what? I don’t care either.” The publisher bemoaned the costs of printing plants in comparison to websites by saying “The last time we made a major investment in print, it cost no less than $1 billion. Site development costs don’t grow to that magnitude.”
(4) Since this blog contains so many articles about the One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) story, here is an invigorating quote from an influential political commentator. Who wrote the following in 1996?
It is no tragedy if we have to make do with second-rate inventions like the personal computer until the next Model T comes along. But the technohype that surrounds us has some real costs. It causes businesses to waste money; it causes politicians to seek high-tech fixes (give every child a laptop!) when they should be getting back to the basics (teach every child to read).
Hint for 1: The controversial mogul is noted for business acumen in recognizing the importance to mass media of technological developments such as satellites.
Hint for 2: The novel that contains the prediction was set at the turn of the century.
Hint for 3: In February David Rothman mentioned this publisher’s comment on the TeleRead blog.
Hint for 4: The commentator has a column in the New York Times.
Moderator’s note: Hey, no fair Googling! We’ll publish the answers in the next day or so. – DR
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