John Naughton’s Observer piece this morning is a good one:
The cultural agoraphobia from which most of us suffer leads us always to overemphasise the downsides of openness and lack of central control, and to overvalue the virtues of order and authority. And that is what is rendering us incapable of harnessing the potential benefits of networked technology. Industries and governments are wasting incalculable amounts of money and energy in Canute-like resistance to the oncoming wave when what they should be doing is figuring out ways to ride it.
Well worth checking out in full.
Very good. And the Minitel / Britannica question is right. Let’s all thank Al Gore :}