From the opening, my mind began to ponder on how the government was funded science. This reminded me of a discussion in one of my other classes about how the royals (kings and queens) would fund literary pieces, like the King's Men plays. It lead me to think about the history of funding for books. It's a topic that I haven't looked very deeply into but learning about the technology does make me curious about how it was funded. Did the royals find literacy valuable enough to fund it? If so, how come? What was their return on investment?
It's easy to see the connection between research and book publishing. After searching various places for specific information, it only makes sense to document it. It becomes a chain of events because research could be turned into textbooks, which would be used for research that could be turned into new textbooks, and the cycle continues. I wonder how everyone feels about Foucault's idea of what an author is. i think that's an interesting topic of discussion.
In terms of gathering research, this section mentions databases. I think of the Internet as a large database of information, and with ebooks taking the place of electronic products, I think the Internet is one of the greatest things to happen for the book, though people may disagree. Now an author's material can be shared across n different countries. There is a significant difference in speed when it comes to looking for books. Researchers can now do a quick search through online catalogues. In regards to using the computer as storage, that's an incredible advantage. Writers can began a work and save it, as well as save pieces that want to pull from.
This section is highly technical in comparisons to some of the other sections, as it mentions terms like "router. Just as a comment, I think it's funny (not in a ha-ha way) that we don't really view technology as technology unless computer language is involved.
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