[Sigia-l] Re: The art of reading

[Louise Hewitt]

On 6/28/05, Jursa, Jan (init) <Jan.Jursa at init.de> wrote:
> Wow. I've never heard of RSVP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation).
>
> Here is an interesting self-experiment:
>
> http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/flashreader.asp


Ow, that hurts!

One thing that seems to be missing from this debate is that a screen,
no matter how big or clever, is emitting a light, often flickering,
and tends to be hard on the eyes after a while.

No, two things - I can't take my laptop in the bathroom. 

Three things! My son can't turn the pages of his toy laptop and enjoy
chewing the screen - screens don't make nice crumply sounds.

Seriously though, there has always been this protracted debate about
how computers will replace books and we will all drive around in
flying cars (or planes as I'm sure we would insist they were called).

I've worked on enough online magazines to confidently say that it will
never happen. There is aesthetic value in print on paper, and in the
experience of reading, that will not be replaced by hunched shoulders
at desks staring at light boxes.

If I can envisage a change in publishing it will be in distribution.
Perhaps we develop 'print points' where magazines, books and
newspapers that have been distributed via the internet or whatever can
be compiled and printed off for our perusal. Like iTunes: you might be
collating locally and cherry picking your content, and the format
might be mp3, but you still listen through a pair of headphones stuck
in your ear while you're on the tube.

That said, research reading has become much more efficient in the
digital age, yes.

Ta,

Lou.