纸质书要与互联网合而为一了么？.pdf 3页VIP

．1．文化纵横 ÷ 据英国BBC新闻报道 ，有着244年辉煌历程的 《大不列颠百科全书》宣布停止印刷纸质 书，全面采用数字化发行。此消息一经发布立即引起广泛关注。近年来，以电脑、手机、电子 阅 读器为平 台，以互联 网为传播手段的电子书及电子杂志逐渐成为人们的阅读新宠。我们不禁 再次思考 ：纸质书会消亡吗? AreBooksandtheInternetAbouttoMerge? 纸质书要与互联网合而为一了么? ByDamienW alter 张 沛 ／选 注 hedifferencebetweenebooksandtheInternetisminimal，andweshouldbegladthe Ttwoaregrowingcloserandcloser． It’seasytoforgetthattheworldwidewebasweknow ittodayevolvedfrom anearly attempttoputbooksontheInternet．WhenTim Berners—Leeenvisaged whatwouldbecome theworldwideweb，itwaswiththeideaofmakingacademicpapersandotherdocuments widelyavailable．Tothisendhedevised asimplewayoflayingouttextand imagesona page，inventingwhatwenow callHypertextMarkupLanguageorHTML． EarlyHTMLcoulddefinepagesandparagraphs，bold anditalicise。text，embed images andlayouttables．A littlemorethan20yearslater，HTML5includesmediaplayback and animation，and the web has now become SO ubiquitous that for mostusers it is indistinguishable rfom theunderlyingrfamework oftheInternetitself，butatitscorethe technologyofthewebremainslittlechanged．Everywebpage，howeversophisticated。itmay seem，isbasicallyadigitalbookthatwereadon our computerthroughourwebbrowser． SowhenHugh McGuire，founderofPressBooks and LibriVox，stated today thatthe book and the Internetwill merge，he was in one sense simply reiterating9whatisalready the case．Butrfom the perspectiveofpeoplewithoutthetechnicalknowledge toseehow closelyentwinedthebookandtheInternet alreadyare，ithasthewhiffofyetanotherdoom—monger proclaimingthedeathofthebookasweknow it．。 McGuire’S argument hinges on the recent emergenceofebooksasa seriouscontenderto the printbookasthedominantartifactofthepublishing industry，withsomesuggestingthatebookswillmake uD 5O％ ofthe book marketby 2015 thankstothe 44 @⑨00@ @匡 ⑨06s响 文化纵横 Kindle． iPad and smartphones．“ Ebooks are deliberately Dackagedandmarketedtoappearasmuch liketraditionalprint booksasp0ssible，somanyreaderswillbesurprisedtodiscover thatebooksarebuiltaroundmuchthesameasHTML structure thatDowerstheweb．Everyebook，nomatterhow muchlikea Drintbook itmay seem，isa web page thatweread on the simplifiedbrowser embeddedinoure—reader0ich。。。· The djstinetion between ebook and webpage is not a materiaU3one．Intechnologicaltermstheyareexactlythesame thing．Butwhen McGuire firstmooted hisargument0n Twitter in Aprillastyearmy responselike1ymirrorstheresponseofmanybookreaders， “Booksareresearched，written， edited，published，marketed … andhencepaidfor．TheInternetisego130se，henceiree· Thedistincti0nmanyofusdraw betweenabookandawebpageisone0±qualityandhence 0fvalue．Therealquestion raisedbyMcGuire’sargumentiswhetherwecontnuetoVaIue ebooksasbooks，oraswebpages．Booksaresomethingwepayofr．Webpagesarethingswe readforfrlee．Whichmodelwillwinout? Un1essvou areoneoftheverysmallnumberofpeoplewhosefortunesrestuPonthe outdatedbusinessmodelofpublishing，youshouldhopethatthelatterwins·Becausethis s aboutamuchbiggerissuethanhow writersandeditorsgetpaidofrthevaluablew0rkthey do．Forhundreds0fyearswe’vebeenslowlyexpandingthereachofhumanknowledge，both in tem sofwhatwe know and how manyofUSknow it．Todaywetakea resourcelike W ikipediaofrgranted——butcompareitw,iththesituationofonlyafew decadesago，wnen themajoritvofthepopulationhadlackedeasyaccessto such knowledge．The benefitsofexpanding accessto knowled ，bothsocialandeconomic，areincalculable5． N0w we stand atthe threshold ofpossibly the most rev0lutionary advances in human history．The combined techn0logics of the Internet — HTML webpages，ebooks，search technology，socialmediaand manv moIe． —— are very close to making allhuman knowledge accessible to allpeopleofrfree．Even the short．term consequences ofthis advance are hard to envisage。and in thelong term ithasthepotentialto imProve 0urfuture asmuch as the invention ofthe printingpressimprovedourpastandpresent· Every time society advances，itfaceschallenges @⑨00@ @匡闶 06晌 45 巾文化 纵横 ．1． from those people economically and emotionally invested in the past．Undoubtedly stone age flint knappers were less than happy about bronze—age technology disturbing their business mode1． The medievalchurchwasnonetoopleasedaboutprinting technoloyg breakingtheirhegemony蝎overknowledge， butwe’dneverhavehadtheenlightenmentwithoutit． Today the media—conglomerates， governments and educationalinstitutionsthatprofitfrom gatekeeping knowledgeofallkindsare pushingtheStop Online PiracyAct，andevenmoredraconianlegislationtotry and hold back the flood of free knowledge that threatenstheirpower． Unlesswewanttostayinthe knowledgeequivalentofthe stone age，and missth rev0lutionDromisestobringwithit，weshouldallredoubleoureffortstomakesuretheylose． Forcenturiesthebookhasbeenthehighestsymbolofknowledge．Theobjectthathas enshrined~ and preservedknowledgethrough history．Thebook isSOinextricably linked withourconceptofknowledgethatformanypeopleitishardtoseparateonerfom theother． Butforhumanknowledgetoreachitsfullpotential，wemayhavetoletgoofthebook—as—object first，0r0penourthinkingtoaradicallydifferentdefinitionofwhatabookis． 园 From http：／／www．guardian．CO．uk，Feb．15，2012 (上接第35页) Overthetopfilmswelcomed 夸张影片大受追捧 W ilsonpointedoutthatit’Salmostatrendnow，that“thewillingnesstogooverthetop， andtodosomethingstrangeiswelcomedin ab budgetmoviem”．Andit’sthetrendthat hasfans0fbadmoviesworried．“Thesaddestthingisthatoverthe32yearsthatwe’vebeen doingtheRazzies，originalbad，likeoriginalgood，hasjustfallenbythewayside“，’’Wilson said． Theproblem 印pearsto be endemic in thefilm industry，with severalbestpicture nomineesfailingtoconnectwiththeaudience．TheDescendantsiscalled “theOscarfilm thatn0bodvlikes”．AndlessthanhalfofthecriticswarlnedtonExtremelyLoud,Inc