Review: The technical issues weren't the half of it
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 23, 2012
I knew, of course, that Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, an invention that along with the compass and gunpowder, would have enormous impacts on the world. In this brief but fascinating article, author Jeff Jarvis gave a capsule biography of Gutenberg, but his focus was on presenting Gutenberg the entrepreneur. Gutenberg spent almost two decades developing and perfecting the printing press, and having little personal wealth, he had to find investment capital to keep going until his presses began to generate revenue.Just as today, everything cost money: manufacturing the presses and associated hardware; metals - iron, lead, copper, antimony; high quality paper; and wages and room and board for as many as twenty workers. Borrowing the money was Gutenberg's only alternative, but when the loan came due, would he be able to repay his benefactor?The author made some interesting direct comparisons of Gutenberg's strategy with modern-day entrepreneurs, and he went on to compare the significance of today's Internet with the influence that the printing press had on life almost half a millennium ago, with a warning that just as censorship of printed books is dangerous, governments and corporations must be prevented from taking control of the Internet.Some interesting ideas and some nice tidbits of history wrapped up in only 300+ Kindle locations.