Did you see the programme about the Gutenberg Press?
I love the BBC iplayer, I can watch what I want when I want to as long as it's on the BBC of course. For some reason I missed the programme last week about the Gutenberg Press and I ashamadly admit to know very little about the history of the first ever printing press.
The programme was fantastic, watch it now( it's only on the iplayer for another 4 days), but it got me thinking about the good old 1400's and even then "jobs for life" didn't exist.
The demand for books was ever increasing as universities became more common and students needed books. If you were a scribe in those days you'd have thought wey hey this job is great. I am in a warm environment (this was needed to generate consistency from the quill) and the demand is far outstripping supply so my skills will take me far. Wrong!
Johannes Gutenberg apparently took his inspiration from the Grape Presses that surrounded him as he grew up in the biggest wine region in Europe. He was an engineer, a merchant, an intellectual and an entreprenuer. As an intellectual he realised the demand for books was going to dramatically increase and needed to find a way to automate the process of writing. Unfortunately he went bankrupt before truly gaining recognition. In the words of the carpenter in this documentary, "the printing press took off like the internet has today"
The Printing press which was the greatest invention since the wheel eventually made the scribes job redundant, extinct or whatever you want to call it. But it created our industry that we know and love today. If we continue to develop new processes eg Digital, then there is no reason why we can't thrive for the next 600 years. Remember we were the original Google.
History shows us that there never has been such a thing as a "job for life" and we all need to adapt and innovate to meet the demands of today's world.
The programme was fantastic, watch it now( it's only on the iplayer for another 4 days), but it got me thinking about the good old 1400's and even then "jobs for life" didn't exist.
The demand for books was ever increasing as universities became more common and students needed books. If you were a scribe in those days you'd have thought wey hey this job is great. I am in a warm environment (this was needed to generate consistency from the quill) and the demand is far outstripping supply so my skills will take me far. Wrong!
Johannes Gutenberg apparently took his inspiration from the Grape Presses that surrounded him as he grew up in the biggest wine region in Europe. He was an engineer, a merchant, an intellectual and an entreprenuer. As an intellectual he realised the demand for books was going to dramatically increase and needed to find a way to automate the process of writing. Unfortunately he went bankrupt before truly gaining recognition. In the words of the carpenter in this documentary, "the printing press took off like the internet has today"
The Printing press which was the greatest invention since the wheel eventually made the scribes job redundant, extinct or whatever you want to call it. But it created our industry that we know and love today. If we continue to develop new processes eg Digital, then there is no reason why we can't thrive for the next 600 years. Remember we were the original Google.
History shows us that there never has been such a thing as a "job for life" and we all need to adapt and innovate to meet the demands of today's world.
posted by Heidi Whitelock @ 10:17
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