The Wheel to the Web: 30 Technologies That Changed Everything

Hmmmm – what stuff changed librarianship forever . . .

The Wheel to the Web: 30 Technologies That Changed Everything

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/wheel_web_30_technologies_changed_everything

1. The wheel
2. The lever
3. The inclined plane
4. The pulley
5. Needle and thread
6. The screw
7. Boats
8. The hinge
9. The arch
10. Stone crafting
11. Electricity
12. Powered mechanics
13. Controlled fire
14. Integrated circuits
15. Artificial intelligence
16. Glue
17. The forge
18. Gunpowder
19. Printing press
20. The telegraph
21. Chemical batteries
22. Radio
23. Airfoil
24. Plastic
25. Motion detectors
26. Microwave ovens
27. Computers
28. Lasers
29. The Internet
30. Charge-Coupled Device
31. Accelerometers

What’s missing that’s important?

Television?

Magnetic recording?

Refrigeration?

Semiconductor?

Telephone?

Nuclear bomb?

Sextant, interchangeable parts, indoor plumbing, the zipper, the paper clip

Fish hook? The fishing net? Irrigation? Granaries? Farming? Air conditioning?

Stephen’s draft list of technologies that changed librarianship forever

1. Books
2. Scrolls
3. Printing
4. Recordable media
5. Photocopiers
6. The Internet & Web
7. Classification, Taxonomies, Ontologies, Cataloguing, Metadata, etc.
8. Cards (borrower and catalogue)
9. Shelving
10. Computers and Software
11. Search engines
12. Digitization
13. Locks and keys
14. Public education and public libraries
15. The novel, the poem, the play, the scholarly work . .
16. Schooling, academia
17. RFID and barcodes

Any more you add in the comments?

Which are the top 3?

What are the disruptors to each?

Stephen