I remember when... the next debate

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=4004

This link is to an interesting discussion, comparing (or not) Web 2.0 with Darth Vader.

What strikes me is that the conversations are not new; merely about new technological developments. I am old enough to remember the world pre-Internet, and the hype that it was regarded in the beginning. I recall that the president of IBM predicted that there would only ever be about six computers required in the world.

Penny Carnaby, Director-General of the National Library of New Zealand, and a former University Librarian, wrote a challenging paper for the 2006 IFLA Conference on Networking Cultural Heritage. The link is below:
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla71/papers/146e-Baba.pdf

In the question time after her presentation, she remarked that ordinary members of the community have a valid right to create 'cultural heritage', via blogs and wikis and the like, and charged librarians to think of the value of information in a much broader context than we do now.

As I type, I recall the medieval monastry libraries with the chained books, which didn't admit women who were not proper scholars. The debate about Web 2.0 is somewhat analogous, don't you think?