expresso
There are now over forty 2nd generation Expresso machines in service; in book stores, printing companies, university libraries all churning out print books from digital books. This is certainly the back side of the e-book surge. And this Expresso combines print, publish and read on demand.
booklabs
It is probably about 25 years now since the start of BookLab. Craig has adventured across many concepts of fine hand book binding and BookLab has presented these concepts in practice. Let’s get a catalog of the recent retrospective to experience some of the engagement needed to fulfill his visions.
connectivity
Connectivity is associated with live internet display, but it is a useful word and perhaps it deserves some ambiguity of really useful words. At first there is the contrast of connectivity between a reading device with a direct connectivity to the mind and another that intrudes auxiliary transmission, display and de-encryption systems. This is the connectivity of the print book contrasted with the screen book.
There is another kind of connectivity that occurred as we visited near-by Amish farms. The farms have no electricity and yet the families prosper happily and enjoy an intense connectivity. Networks of live display decorate, conflict and fill up every day. These include a rich sense of past and future, a demanding social network with intensive social media and a constant engagement with the two great ecologies of nature and spirit.
One farmer recited a community of people who attended his grandfather’s barn raising, in 1935. Another, on a different farm, recalled his earliest memory when he was prevented from participation in that same event. This is vivid connectivity.
But you can imagine that the Amish must guard every door to prevent use of electricity and internet. That is not so and young people are free to go into town to mingle with the English and connect. What the Amish do manage is the convenience of such electrical connectivity and they guard against any addiction to instant gratification that can distort or damage the other connectivity that they depend on.