The document traces the evolution of written communication from ancient Sumerian cuneiform to modern digital screens. It discusses the development of alphabets in Phoenicia and Greece and the later addition of punctuation and spaces between words. The document then examines technological changes like e-paper and the growth of the internet and social media. It raises issues around data privacy, copyright in a digital world, and how technology is changing readers, writers and the marketplace of ideas.

1. Mathias Klang @klang67
The extroverted
reader

2. Sumerian Logographs
(c.a 4000bc)

3. “fndtlvsnvrydctngvrytmsmbdytrnsn
thstgntththrrmndrdbk”
Phoenician alphabet only consonants (2000 BC).

4. “ifindtelevisionveryeducatingeverytime
somebodyturnsonthesetigointotheothe
rroomandreadabook” Greeks added vowels (1000 BC)

5. “ifindtelevisionveryeducating.everytim
esomebodyturnsontheset,igointotheot
herroomandreadabook.”
Aristophanes’ plays have punctuation (200 BC)

6. “Ifindtelevisionveryeducating.Everytim
esomebodyturnsontheset,Igointotheot
herroomandreadabook.” case appears c:a 700 AD
Lower

7. Spaces between
appear about 900 AD
“I find television very educating. Every time
somebody turns on the set, I go into the
other room and read a book.”

8. The silent voids

9. An unchanging
millennium

11. Screens, battery life, weight,
1970s Xerox develops e-paper

12. 1993 2004 2010
1999 2002 2007 2009 2011

13. Only technology
(spot the ethical dilemma?)

14. Control in
digital world
Law
Contextual &
programmed social
rules
Architecture
Control in
analogue world

15. What do we own?

16. Pushing connectivity

17. Social reading

18. To be social is to share…

19. Blogger 1999
Google 1999
End of communications monopoly

20. The problem with
stimuli

21. What
technology
wants

22. if you're not
paying for
something,
you're not the
customer;
you're the
product being
sold

23. What do the people who control what
we can do, think?

24. A Squirrel Dying In
Your Front Yard May
Be More Relevant To
Your Interests Right
Now Than People
Dying In Africa
Mark Zuckerberg

25. The bling factor

26. “My fear is that these
technologies are
infantilising the brain
into the state of small
children who are
attracted by buzzing
noises and bright
lights, who have a
small attention span
and who live for the
moment.”
Prof. Susan Greenfield

29. Changing the marketplace

31. More information

32. User generated content

33. Personal data & walled gardens

34. Pricing models & purpose of
copyright

35. Alternative marketplaces

38. Endless personal library

39. The social reader: can the infinite be shared?

40. Changing the writer

42. The Gutenberg Parenthesis

44. The conservative librarian
"I have never renounced the old ways.” Lucius Malfoy

45. Hello to
Jason Isaacs

46. There is no book… there are still
readers

47. Culture is inevitable,
copyright is not

48. THANKS!

49. Mathias Klang
klang@ituniv.se or @klang67
www.digital-rights.net
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