Jeff Bezos on the “iPod of reading”
Earlier this week Amazon released their new e-book reader, Kindle, which Newsweek has referred to as the “ipod of reading.” While that headline may be the hype Amazon needed to sell out their supply in only 5 ½ hours, many of us are left scratching our heads wondering whether or not this product could launch the e-book mainstream, or fall flat; I’d rather not buy into the hype right now. With that said, one thing I can buy into are the remarks given by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in his appearance on the Charlie Rose show. Bezos sees the greater role of technology that Digital Humanists see. Fashioning his remarks to promote Amazon’s products, I’d suggest that Jeff’s perspective of the role of technology in business is directly applicable to the role of technology in education.
The internet is a horizontal enabling technology. This is why I know it’s still early in the development of the internet, because people still talk about “internet companies.” If you go back to the early 20th century people talked about “electric companies,” and they didn’t mean electric utilities, but they meant companies that use electricity. But electricity is a horizontal enabling layer – it helped all companies. [...] What we’ve seen today is that the internet is still thought of [as] vertical, and that’s how I know it’s early because every company is benefiting from the Internet.
Jeff’s quote is incredibly insightful. The internet is a horizontal enabling technology, whose role isn’t limited to tech-savvy humanists, but offers benefits to all educators alike. While the competitive market may advance the increased use of the internet by companies (that Jeff discusses), what are the forces pushing the adoption of technology and paradigm shifts within academia? When will the term “digital humanities” become redundant, with the frequent use of technology in the humanities? Jeff has a vision of larger technology trends, and I would wager a guess that his insight is what likely makes him successful in running Amazon. It’s something worthwhile to keep in mind about our own jobs. That is in no way to diminish the role of Digital Humanists today, but rather to state the complete opposite. The increased role of Information Technology in the Humanities is inevitable, and the work that Digital Humanists are doing today will become much more commonplace in the future.