The Expanding Commonwealth of Learning: Printing and the Net By Michael Hauben A revolution in communications is happening today. People around the world are connecting to each other via the computer data telecommunication networks. These networks (or "The Net") are further decreasing the gap between people that other communi- cations and transportation technologies have been bridging for the past 500 years, at least since the development of the print- ing press in the mid fifteenth century. The technology which the Net is continuing the development of, I am arguing, is that of the printing press. The printing press might seem to be an unlikely choice compared to say, the television, radio, tele- phone, or news media. It is important to examine the current developments and study the history of the printing to understand why I chose the printing press as the forefather of the develop- ing computer networks. There are many computer networks which interconnect to form the Net. The largest interconnection of networks is known as the Internet. Networks, around the world, which utilize the TCP/IP communications protocol can directly connect to the Internet to serve many people. Many other non-TCP/IP based networks also connect to the internet through gateways which serve to translate between the differing protocols used between the Internet and these other networks. The Internet has grown rapidly because it accepts communications with networks based on dissimilar technol- ogies. Each individual smaller network serves a distinct number of computers connected to it, which in term serves a set number of people (often called users). In turn, each local network can utilize the services or computing power of many other networks connected via the Internet. Often networks chose to provide a particular service publicly to any other network connected to the Internet, in exchange for the services which other networks chose to leave publicly open. Examples of services which exist include file transfer (ftp), remote login to other computers (telnet), remote execution of programs, electronic mail (e-mail), access to various informa- tion data bases (gopher, WWW), other information searching utilities (archie, veronica, Mosaic), real-time chat (irc), and a distributed news service which allows people to share information publicly and become citizen reporters (Netnews). The two most important services relevant to this paper are e-mail and Netnews (or Usenet News). E-Mail allows for the private and semi-private distribution of information and communications through either e-mail to a particular person or persons, or to a designated set of people via electronic mailing lists. Netnews allows for the public dissemination of information, thoughts, ideas and ques- tions in an open fashion. It is open because when a netizen (citizen of the Net) makes a contribution to any of its news- groups (one of the many defined subject areas for discussion) through a post (a message "posted" to a newgroup by a netizen) and chooses world distribution, anyone from around the world who chooses to read that particular newsgroup will have a chance to read that particular message. This very point of global distri- bution to where ever the "usenet" reaches, is important in my comparison between the technologies of the printing press and of the Net. In addition to direct connections to the Internet, there are other forms of connection. For example, Unix to Unix Copy (UUCP), provides the ability to utilize the phone lines and other non-- continuous forms of communication in order to connect to the Net. UUCP provides the possibility of hooking into the Net to upload and download electronic mail and Netnews from remote machines, either hooked to the Internet, or also via UUCPnet. This form of connection does not allow the execution of other of the services available to a fully connected computer, such as telnet, ftp, etc. However, connection via UUCP only costs the price of a phone call to the next node to exchange information. A direct connec- tion via TCP/IP, PPP, or SLIP often costs more. The cost of a telephone call makes UUCP approachable by most home computer users. Low cost is an appropriate goal, as it is important to make the Net available to as many people as can utilize it. Around the same time that computer communications networks started to emerge from purely computer communications research communities (the early 1970s), the personal computer (PC) was being developed by various students and other proponents of the free-speech on the west coast of the United States. The personal computer is important because it made the power of the computer available on a fairly broad manner which introduced people who otherwise would not have had access to time on a larger minicom- puter or mainframe owned by universities, businesses and the government. The personal computer movement opened up computers to the mass of people at least in the U.S. As computers are multi- purpose, they can be used to accomplish many things. A PC can be made to duplicate the functions of a printing press, with little or no experience. A printer combines movable type and engravings (woodcut, or otherwise) to mass produce copies of a page combin- ing varied images (text, graphics, etc). The personal computer brought this power from the master printer to the individual - both in price and availability. The personal computer (e.g.: Apple II family, Commodore, Atari, TRS-80, etc leading to the IBM PC family, the Apple Mac family, Amiga, etc.) linked to an electronic printer (first dot matrix and daisy wheel, later laser printers) and even more recently scanners which convert images into usable data - make the production and reproduction of information widely available. Even if one does not own a PC, one can rent time on one in a store. Copy Shops (in themselves part of the continual process making publishing ubiquitous) have begun to have PCs available to rent time on. These advances make the act of publication immensely easier - however, the question of distribution still needs to be solved. In the sixteenth century, the rise of the print shop and printing trades meant printing grew rapidly and distribution grew as a consequence. This leads me to expect that comparing the emergence of the printing press to the emergence of the global computer Net will uncover some fascinating similarities. The printing press developed out of a scribal culture. This scribal culture could only go so far in furthering the distribu- tion of information and ideas. Texts existed, but were largely unavailable for use by the common people, to prevent wear and tear on these rare copies. There were very few copies of books as each copy of a book was hand-copied from a previous copy. Prob- lems with this method included scribes making mistakes while copying texts. Since a single scribe usually only had access to one copy of the text he was copying, this scribe would not know if he was duplicating mistakes another scribe had made. This effect of copying mistakes, or non-exact copies, lead to numerous "versions" of the same text. Scholars who wanted to study various texts had to travel in order to have a good variety of material to study from - and so the majority of people could not afford, or have to time to do this. Which texts were copied also depended on which texts the scribes thought could sell. Elizabeth Eisen- stein writes: [one] needs to recall the conditions before texts could be set to type. No manuscript, however useful as a reference guide, could be preserved for long without undergoing cor- ruption by copyists, and even this sort of "preservation" rested precariously on the shifting demands of local elites and a fluctuating incidence of trained scribal labor...wear and tear...moisture, vermin, theft or threat.(Eisenstein 78) Even such efforts did not preserve many valuable texts. Plenty did not survive. (Read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.) The development of the printing press sometime in the 1460's spread quickly throughout Europe. This spread ended the age of the scribe and ushered in the age of printers. Eisenstein writes about the spread, Unknown anywhere in Europe before the mid-fifteenth century, printer's workshops would be found in every important munic- ipal center by 1500. (12) When talking generally about the printing press and "print- ing", I will refer to the same range of inventions as Eisenstein does in describing such the use of movable metal type, oil-based ink, wooden handpress, and so forth. (Eisenstein, 13) Eisenstein points out that the printing press dramatically increased the pure number of books, while at the same time decreasing the number of hours of labor necessary to create books. In her mind, this made the move from copying manuscript by hand to that of the printing press one of a revolutionary nature, and not evolutionary claimed in much of the literature about this transformation. (13) I would like to doubly emphasize this revolutionary nature, especially as it proves a historical and theoretical basis for demonstrating that the developing computer networks are of a similar nature, but the next step in the chain of communications developments. The printing press was a new technology which meant the way texts were handled and dealt with changed. From its origins, the men who ruled the presses, the printers, started experimenting with how the printing press might change texts. Textual tech- niques such as "graduated types, running heads . . . footnotes . . . table of contents . . . superior figures, cross references. . ." (22) showed how the press was breaking through the boundaries which had previous limited scribal culture. The establishment of printing shops in the major European cities gave rise to a cross-cultural exchange between the differ- ent people who filled all the niches required by the publishing of these new books. These progenitors of the trade were on the forefront of the sweeping intellectual changes which the press's made possible. (45) The same can be seen in the development of the computer networks. E-mail was first experienced by these developers more than 15 years before anyone outside the community first was able to access and experience the wonder of being able to connect to people around the world. The press helped to liberate individual knowledge. Before the press, ordinary people really could not be authors. After the advent of the press, publishers realized the value of utilizing others' knowledge to improve their product. This came about, because the ability of the press to turn out multiple copies of a first edition quickly, meant a second, and third editions, and so on could also be printed. Eisenstein writes that this meant printers "were also able to improve on [themselves]...suggests how the immemorial drift of scribal culture had been not merely arrested but actually reversed" (73) On the Net, people often keep track of things, such as lists of an musicians records (discographies), FAQ files (frequently asked question), which tell answers to common questions about a certain subject which a newsgroup covers and so forth. Authors of these works often act as both editor and compiler. People send further information, which the keeper of the file often adds. This makes for a communal base of information which is often available to anyone minimally connected by at least electronic mail. Eisenstein's description of communal information gathered also reflects how such procedures work on the Net. But others created a vast network of correspondents and solicited criticism of each edition, sometimes publicly promising to mention the names of readers who sent in new information or who spotted the errors which would be weeded out. (74) People who asks questions on the discussion sections of the Net (either Netnews or Mailing lists) - often summarize what others' answers and post this message back to the Net. Often when doing this, this person prints a thank you to the list of people who answer. Also when people send in corrections to FAQs and such, often the keeper of the FAQ keeps a list at the end thanking the people. These networks of correspondence are shown by an example of a particular text by Eisenstein. By the simple expedient of being honest with his readers and inviting criticism and suggestions, Ortelius made his Theatrum a sort of cooperative enterprise on an internation- al basis. He received helpful suggestions from far, and wide and cartographers stumbled over themselves to send him their latest maps of regions not covered in the Theatrum. (74) Today, netizens make it a point to be helpful - as it has been helpful to them, they make their contribution. In the current state of the Net, the culture has been shaped by a range of people who utilize the Net as a helpful resource. In exchange for the value, they give back to the Net. The tale of the Theatrum shows there is a historical basis for this "stumbling over oneself" in order to try and be helpful. I wrote about this and the Net in my paper entitled "The Net and the Netizens: The Impact the Net has on People's Lives": Netizens make it a point to be helpful and friendly - if they feel it to be worthwhile. Many Netizens feel they have an obligation to be helpful and answer queries and followup on discussions to put their opinion into the pot of opin- ions. Over a period of time the voluntary contributions to the Net have built it into a useful connection to other people around the world. The flow of information to the publishers of the Theatrum meant that at least 28 editions were published by the time of the publisher's (Ortelius's) death in 1598. (74) Usenet is by its very nature constantly evolving too. The very element of usenet is the temporal post. It is temporary, because the software is designed to "expire" or delete messages after a certain time period. Without constant contributions from people to Netnews, there would be no messages to read or discussions to take part in - thus Usenet has to constantly evolve. As much of the Net consists of information depositories, any addition increases the whole of the value available to netizens. (See Netizens paper) Publishers requests for information led to people starting their own research and work. "Thus a knowledge explosion was set off." (75), Eisenstein exclaims. The Net follows in the presses lead, by having one set of people asking questions, leading to another set of people conducting research. In this sense the Net can serve the role as a thinktank for the ordinary person. So the kick the printing press gave the world is being repeated by the Net. It is excellent that Netnews can serve in this function. The German historian, Johann Sleidan, backs Eisenstein's observation by saying in his "Address to the Estates of the Empire" of 1542, "[The] art of printing [has] opened German eyes even as it is now bringing enlightenment to other countries. Each man became eager for knowledge, not without feeling a sense of amazement at his former blindness." (150) This sentiment was echoed by many netizens in response to re- search I did about the value of the Net for my "Netizens and the Net" paper. People were amazed at what the Net made possible and how it was changing their lives. Eisenstein comments on the role of feedback surprised me. She wrote that feedback helps to "define the difference between data collection before and after the communications shift. After printing, large-scale data collection did become subject to new forms of feedback which had not been possible in the age of the scribes." (76) This statement surprised me, as I had not thought that authors or publishers would get response to the books they printed. Maybe in this day with the enormous amount of books available, feedback seems to not have a place or even exist. For what might seem unnatural now, was the normal manner of things in the sixteenth century. One development the computer discussion networks make possible, is very easy and natural manner of sending feedback. Once one reads a message (either public or private), a simple keystroke allows you to compose an answer or response, and another keystroke is often all it takes to send the response off. This is often "easier" than writing to a publishing house, or calling a television station. Since responding to other messages becomes such a natural part of the on-line process, the procedure becomes almost automatic. Many people who use usenet today, find television dull, and unthought provoking. Doug Thompson, a user of Usenet, wrote "TV is so bloody tame and boring in comparison to usenet." Others have told me that they have completely stopped watching TV and reading the newspaper in leu of using Usenet. David Hume describes this process of constant improvement which printing made possible, "The Power which Printing gives us of continually improving and correcting our Works in successive Editions appears to me the chief advantage of that art."(77) Eisenstein continues this idea to say "the future seem[ed] to hold more promise of enlightenment than the past." (78) This promise of a better future is seen by those on the net too. Part of the reasoning behind this optimistic feeling is that the Net is making social connections which were never before possible, or which were relatively hard to achieve, are now possible. Geography and time are no longer boundaries. Social limitations and conventions no longer prevent potential friend- ships or partnerships. In this manner netizens are meeting other netizens from far-away and close by that they might never have met without the Net. I write in my "Net and Netizens" paper, Connections not before possible, imaginable or feasible, whether global (across the world) or just around the corner (locally), are now happening everyday. People can meet others on a global or local basis based on their interests and beliefs, rather than only through personal introductions and pre-Net social networks. Eisenstein reports that the printing press made similar broadening connections possible, that would have been unheard of before the press. She writes Vicarious participation in more distant events was enhanced; and even while local ties were loosened, links to larger collective units were being forged. (95) Standardization of information about other parts of the world broadened people into knowing the facts of the world, rather than what was thought about the world. Eisenstein ex- plains: encouraged by the output of more uniform maps containing more uniform boundaries and place names...Similar develop- ments affected local customs, laws, languages, and cos- tumes.(56) The Net broadens people by introducing people's ideas and opinions into every netizens use of the Net. This leads to access to more and differing viewpoints than was normal in a persons' daily life. Rather than computers and phonelines being the linking components to allow these new connections, printer's houses served as places to stop when traveling. Eisenstein writes: ...point to the formation of polygot households in scattered urban centers upon the continent. During the sixteenth century, such printing shops represented miniature "inter- national houses." They provided wandering scholars with a meeting place, message center, sanctuary, and cultural center all in one. The new industry encouraged not only the formation of syndicates and far-flung trade networks, simi- lar to those extended by merchants engaged in the cloth trade, or in other large-scale enterprises during early modern times. It also encouraged the formation of an ethos which was specifically associated with the Commonwealth of Learning - ecumenical and tolerant without being secular, genuinely pious yet opposed to fanaticism, often combining outward conformity to diverse established churches with inner fidelity to heterodox creeds. (101) The social networks made possible by Usenet and the emergence of the printing press seem very similar. Even though Netnews has no guiding body, netizens have developed social rules which control and mediate the medium. As the forum is very democratic, crack- pots who have nothing intelligent to add, or only want to be disruptive or offensive do exist. People often take up the debate and through argumentation and posting of opposite opinions allows others to make up their own minds as to the value of the original postings. The new cross-cultural networks facilitated by the presence of the press encouraged "forms of combinatory activity which were social as well as intellectual." (45) Differing ideas were for the first time set against one another. The theories of Arabists were set against the theories of Galenists and those of Aristotelians against Ptolemaists. Eisenstein writes Not only was confidence in old theories weakened, but an en- riched reading matter also encouraged the development of new intellectual combinations and permutations. Combinatory intellectual activity, as Arthur Koestler has suggested, inspires many creative acts. (44) The Net helps people communicate with each other, who might not have communicated before. Strangers meet each other because of interest in each other's ideas and this leads to "new intel- lectual combinations and permutations." The connection of differing ideas and people meant the first century of printing is recognized by what Eisenstein writes was "intellectual ferment and by a 'somewhat wide-angled, unfocused scholarship.'" (45) The new availability of different theories or opinions about the same topics led Eisenstein to conclude that the contribution a scientist like Copernicus was able to make was not that he produced a new theory, but rather he was "confronting the next generation with a problem to be solved rather than a solution to be learned." (223) Lastly on this subject, Eisenstein equates the quickening of science toward a "cognitive breakthrough of an unprecedented kind." (225) The Net is now furthering this break- through, which because of the emergence of the printing press is no longer unprecedented. Part of the magic of the ability to mass produce copies of books cheaply, is that the author's words could be spread around the world. This proved to be powerful. Maurice Gravier commented on the power the press presented to the Protestant reformers: "The theses... were said to be known throughout German in a fortnight and throughout Europe in a month . . . Printing was recognized as a new power and publicity came into its own. In doing for Luther what copyists had done for Wycliffe, the printing press transformed the field of commu- nications and fathered an international revolt. It was a revolution. The advent of printing was an important precon- dition for the Protestant Reformation taken as a whole; for without it one could not implement "a priesthood of all believers." At the same time, however, the new medium also acted as a precipitant. It provided the "stroke of magic" by which an obscure theologian in Wittenberg managed to shake Saint Peter's throne." (154) This idea is repeated by Daniel Defoe when he wrote "The preach- ing of sermons is speaking to a few of mankind, printing books is talking to the whole world." And now posting to Netnews, which is much easier and quicker than the process of printing a book, is talking to "the whole world," too! A figure which grew to be important to this new world of printing, was the master printer. In addition to dealing with the business of running a print shop, and finding and promoting potential authors, his workshop became the center of the intel- lectual excitement which arose. Eisenstein explains: [The master printer's] workshop became a veritable cultural center attracting local literati and celebrated foreigners, providing both a meeting place and message center for an expanding Commonwealth of Learning. (25) This development of an intellectual family started to bring the world closer together. Eisenstein explains throughouly, In the late sixteenth century, for the first time in the history of any civilization, the concept of a Concordia Mundi was being developed on a truly global scale and the "family of man" was being extended to encompass all the peoples of the world. (182) She goes on to explain that the hospitality which the printers provided to fellow travelers and intellectuals helped to make this happen. The Net continues in this tradition of uniting the world. It is easy to hold conversations and develop relationships with others from around the world. The Net speeds this transaction as the conversation is brought from the print shop into a netizen's home. A major advancement which the personal computer and the Net make possible over the press is accessibility of publishing. Anyone who owns a personal computer can develop and print their own books, signs, and so forth. The Net comes in to help with distribution Eisenstein talks about something a little different when she writes about the standardization that printing brought about: one might consider the emergences of a new sense of individ- ualism as a by-product of the new forms of standardization. The more standardized the type, indeed, the more compelling the sense of an idiosyncratic personal self. It was just this sense that was captured in the Essays of Montaigne.(56) As the Net only presents people via their ideas and writing styles - people have to write the way they want themselves to be viewed - thus people develop their own styles, and reading posts can at times can be an enjoyable experience. One joke printed in the New Yorker magazine went "No one knows you're a dog on the Internet" as said by a dog. Nice, also no-one knows if you're white, black, yellow, purple, ugly, beautiful, short, tall, and so forth. Thus discrimination and normal social impressions disappear. This is helpful. People are only discriminated against if they act stupid, or prove unhelpful to the net. One problem which has not been solved yet is sexual harassment. Women with user names that are identifiable as a woman's still receive some attention and sometimes harassment. The Press affected both tool making and symbol making, which leads to new ways of thinking. Such a change helps to move the world forward. Eisenstein writes The decisions made by early printers, however, directly affected both tool making and symbol making. Their products reshaped powers to manipulate objects, to perceive and think about varied phenomena. (pg. 64) Computers in general directly affect tool and symbol making. The tools on the Net are new tools - and thus lead to varied ways of thinking and dealing with information - thus how people think about these procedures. And now - with new ways of manipulating information - people should think about the brainwork fostered by hypertext, and database searches of new types of databases. Printing made consultation of various texts much easier - no longer did someone have to be able to be a "Wondering Scholar" to gain access to various information. With the development of the Net, information access becomes much more varied and widespread from one's very home. The library (and libraries around the world besides other data banks and knowledgeable people) are becoming accessible via the Net from Home. Only a few libraries have access to the contents of their indexes only, but that is rapidly changing also. Projects such as the Gutenberg Project and various digitized libraries are trying to make library resources avail- able from any computer hooked into the Net. The observations contained in The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe and my observations about the developing Net have presented how the printing press and the Net have initiated intellectual stimulation. These trends lead the push towards democracy, as people are given the chance to start thinking, ideas of self-rule will appear. Eisenstein writes about this: Puritan tradesman who had learned to talk to God in the presence of their apprentices, wives, and children were already on their way to self-government. (167) Mass production via printing makes it possible to have enough books to go around so that everyone who wants a copy can have one. Thomas Jefferson stressed this "democratizing aspect of the preservative powers of print which secured precious documents not by putting them under lock and key but by removing them from chests and duplicating them for all to see." (81) Eisenstein goes on to write: The notion that valuable data could be preserved best by being made public, rather than being kept secret, ran coun- ter to tradition, led to clashes with new censors, and was central both to early modern science and to Enlightenment thought.(81) Eisenstein ends her thoughts about the democratic powers of the press by saying the importance of the role that printing has played is overlooked. (81) The Law was also affected by the onset of the ability to duplicate numerous copies of a single document cheaply. People saw that this capability would be helpful in making the Law available for the common person to read and understand, and watched carefully. One John Liburne, a "rebellious subject" of the Stuart Monarchy, felt that the "law of the land" should be freed from the confines of Latin and old French so that "every Free-man may reade it as well as the lawyers." People like him also held that knowledge which had been esoteric, "rare, and difficult," should be transformed into a form where it could be useful to all. Eisenstein also quotes Floria, "whose translations and dictionaries put the dictum into practice." He embodied the democratic possibilities of the printing press by saying: "Learn- ing cannot be too common and the commoner the better . . . Why but the vulgar should not know all." (165) This is a helpful way of approaching the Net. The culture currently attached to the Net relates that much of it should be available openly for the rest of the Net to use. There is a collective communal aspect which is contained in the democratic aspect of it too. The simple fact of the matter is that every single person who is connected to the net, can make a post to Netnews, or send electronic mail to whomever. (See my paper "The Computer as Democratizer.") The scribal traditional restricted the choice of what was copied to those who had substantial monies. Eisenstein explains: As long as texts could be duplicated only by hand, perpetua- tion of the classical heritage rested precariously on the shifting requirements of local elites. (125) Netnews reacts similarly to today's mass media. With these 'traditional' forms of mass media - the content is decided by the national "elites". However, with Netnews - no-one is an elite - and the content is decided by every single person who is active on the net. Eisenstein links this semi-"control" of elites over what manuscripts were copied to the role of the printer and publisher who has it in his interest to unleash all sorts of books. Eisenstein writes: The politics of censorship made [the printers] the natural opponents not only of church officials but also of lay bureaucrats, regulations and red tape. As independent agents, they supplied organs of publicity and covert support to a 'third force' that was not affiliated with any one church or one state. This third force was, however, oblivi- ously affiliated with the interests of early modern capital- ists. (178) As capitalists, these publishers were still "the natural enemy of narrow minds," (177) and "encouraged the adoption of a new ethos which was cosmopolitan, ecumenical, and tolerant without being secular, incredulous or necessarily Protestant...." (178) The Net follows through on this example by providing a space separate from either commercial purposes or certain reli- gious or political limitations or ideas. In connection to the printing press becoming a new way for people to challenge the status quo, Eisenstein asks the following question, "Did printing at first serve prelates and patricians as a 'divine art,' or should one think of it rather as the 'poor man's friend'?" (31) She goes on to say it might have served in both roles, but that literacy seemed more "compatible" with the life of a peasant than that of a noble or lord. (31) This asks us to raise the same question about the Net, should one think about the Net as a 'poor man's friend'? If we think of the Net as an alternative to the current media of Television, Radio, and Newspapers and Magazines - the answer is yes. People who have money can afford to somehow own a segment of the mass media described above, and control the content of that media (see Netizen), whereas the Net is controlled by the mass of people connected to it, so it is 'the poor man's' version of the mass media. The power of printing ushered forth a democratic trend not only in society as a whole, but also in the realm of education. Along with the craftsman from outside the academic community, undergraduate students gain from the opportunities to teach him or herself. Eisenstein explains: Learning to read is different, moreover, from learning by reading. Reliance on apprenticeship training, oral communi- cation, and special mnemonic devices had gone together with mastering letters in the age of the scribes. After the advent of printing, however, the transmission of written information became more efficient....bright undergraduates [can] reach beyond the teacher's grasp. (35) That users of Netnews "learn by reading" as the media is mainly a written one. This is one feature of the information- gathering tool that helps to differentiate it from the televi- sion, radio and telephone, which are visual and audio mediums, and not written medium. Users of the Net also set the content by raising questions, or making points or statements meaning that netizens can use the Net to learn by discussing things they want to learn about (i.e.: Personally I have learned much more about music - in terms of what kinds of musics exists, what certain musicians sound like, what music exists which might not be available in my local store, etc. - than I did before I connected to the Net.) The impact upon science by the print technology was enor- mous. It was made visible in the seventeenth century. Collabora- tion and cooperation were made possible over longer distances by the power of print. Eisenstein found a good example in the science of Astronomy. The change she sees happened within Copernicus's lifetime when: Copernicus was not supplied, as Tycho's successors would be, with precisely recorded fresh data. But he was supplied, as Regiomontaus's successor and Aldus Manutius's contemporary, with guidance to technical literature carefully culled from the best Renaissance Greek manuscript collections, and for the first time, made available outside library walls. (209) Science is much faster because of the quickness of communi- cation afforded by the Net. Often articles to be published in scientific journals are available as preprints - and thus sent out to other scientists to comment on. Probably the most famous example of this recently, was when two University of Utah re- searchers announced that they had successfully developed a way to create what was called cold fusion. Other researchers all over the world tried to reproduce these results. A newsgroup sci.physics.fusion was very quickly set up and researchers questions and results and problems were posted regularly and frantically. In that way what might have taken years to retest and figure out was more or less sorted out in three or four months. The physicists found the rapid exchange of data and results invigorating and encouraging and feel they were more productive and sharper in their work because of the net. Also, they argued that the use of the Net saved much valuable research time which might have been wasted if the original claims had not been shown to have been false in such a short amount of time and to such a wide body of scientists. The invention of the printing press led to many developments which were not possible before the power of printing. It is important to see this history, which "laid the basis for modern science ... and remains indispensable for humanistic scholar- ship." (275) Eisenstein makes a poignant model by claiming that printing is responsible for "our museum without walls." (275) As a storehouse of information and living information contained in other people, the Net could also be seen as a living "museum without walls." In her conclusion Eisenstein states that "Cumula- tive processes were set in motion in the mid-fifteenth century, and they have not ceased to gather momentum in the age of the computer printout and the television guide." (276) She holds insight in these words, but falls short of the reality in that the personal computer were available and being used for personal- ized publicizing at the time this book was written. We are in an age of amazing changes in communications technologies, and it is important to realize how these changes are firmly based on an extension of the development of the printing press in the fif- teenth and sixteenth centuries. Works Cited Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press (Cambridge: 1993) Hauben, Michael. "The Computer as Deomcratizer: James Mill and Usenet News" Unpublished Paper, Columbia University 1991. Hauben, Michael. "The Net and Netizens: How the Net Impacts Peoples Lives" Unpublished Paper, Columbia University 1993. Hauben, Michael. "The Social Forces Behind the Development of Usenet News" Unpublished Paper, Columbia University 1992. This is work is being contributed to the Net to support its cooperative nature. It may be freely distributed for noncommercial purposes. Commercial use is not permitted. Ronda Hauben Michael Hauben