Comments on: documents, e-books, pages http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/cpfinal New (Social) Structures for New (Networked) Texts Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:08:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Terje Hillesund http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/cpfinal/documents-e-books-pages/#comment-155 Terje Hillesund Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:49:03 +0000 http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/commentpress/2007/10/11/documents-e-books-pages/#comment-155 In this paragraph I think you contradict yourself and again exaggerate your point. I do agree that most of the digitation of text is based on the printing paradigm (what else should it build on?) and that this printing- thinking (and its deep embeddedness in economic and social practices) still dominates electronic publishing in such a degree it impedes the development and proliferation of new forms. However, “pages”, “documents” and “e-books” are not primarily a heritage of the print-model, but rather of the codex-model, as are many features (of CommentPress), such as “paragraph”, “chapter”, “title”, “margin”, “white space” etc. and even “comment” which of course is an explanatory note in a text, usually in the margin of the manuscript (In my opinion several basics of the XML markup paradigm is build on the codex’ way of visually and spatially organizing written information). However, there is nothing wrong in building on features developed within the codex model (or for that matter within the writing systems as such; “character”, “letter”, “capital” etc.), the codex after all being a rather successful conveyer of information. This, of course, doesn’t mean CommentPress (and others) shall not develop new textual communication forms building on possibilities offered by the computer technology and networked communication (interactivity, hypertext, linking, near-to-simultaneous communication, communities etc.). Still, we can not elude our heritage, stretching thousands of years back and may consequently also give some credit to the e-book developers and advocates, that, building on the book heritage and introducing new technical solutions (adapted fontsize, re-flow, character enhancements, paging etc.), are trying to transfer prolonged and reflective reading on to a digital platform, an effort that has turned out to be very demanding indeed, indicating that in some forms of reading the centuries of expertise and know-how accumulated in printing may be of some relevance after all. In this paragraph I think you contradict yourself and again exaggerate your point. I do agree that most of the digitation of text is based on the printing paradigm (what else should it build on?) and that this printing- thinking (and its deep embeddedness in economic and social practices) still dominates electronic publishing in such a degree it impedes the development and proliferation of new forms. However, “pages”, “documents” and “e-books” are not primarily a heritage of the print-model, but rather of the codex-model, as are many features (of CommentPress), such as “paragraph”, “chapter”, “title”, “margin”, “white space” etc. and even “comment” which of course is an explanatory note in a text, usually in the margin of the manuscript (In my opinion several basics of the XML markup paradigm is build on the codex’ way of visually and spatially organizing written information). However, there is nothing wrong in building on features developed within the codex model (or for that matter within the writing systems as such; “character”, “letter”, “capital” etc.), the codex after all being a rather successful conveyer of information.

This, of course, doesn’t mean CommentPress (and others) shall not develop new textual communication forms building on possibilities offered by the computer technology and networked communication (interactivity, hypertext, linking, near-to-simultaneous communication, communities etc.). Still, we can not elude our heritage, stretching thousands of years back and may consequently also give some credit to the e-book developers and advocates, that, building on the book heritage and introducing new technical solutions (adapted fontsize, re-flow, character enhancements, paging etc.), are trying to transfer prolonged and reflective reading on to a digital platform, an effort that has turned out to be very demanding indeed, indicating that in some forms of reading the centuries of expertise and know-how accumulated in printing may be of some relevance after all.

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