Connectivity through History

From Gutenberg to Web-- this is the statement that this course revolves around. Not only is it the official name of the class, it is also the phrase that unifies us as a group. In the fall, all of our tweets ended with the common hashtag, #gut2web. This hashtag served the purpose to bring all of our tweets into one place and to communicate that we were tweeting for a common purpose. And while I thought this little hashtag would only be relevant in the context of our fall course, I was proven wrong during this winter term.

Throughout our trip so far, this hashtag has been used often on our personal social media accounts such as Instagram and Facebook. And the more I see it, the more I consider the meaning of this course. The creation of the Internet brought about about so many ways we can be interconnected as people. It lets us share information quickly and vastly. It is what lets us send our abroad photos back home and our text updates with a click of a mouse. The amount of times I have heard talk of wifi during this course truly shows the importance of the Internet in this day in age. Everyone is always on the constant search for Internet access so they can share what they need to share with their networks. But yet, we don't often think about everything that got society to this point. Therefore, this week truly made me consider the concept of this course more deeply.

Before the Internet, there were books. The written word was the communication avenue of choice. We had an impromptu teaching of how these books came about when some of us stumbled into an old time print shop accidentally in Wittenberg. We learned all about how printing presses work and about the man behind the machine himself, Johannes Gutenberg.

After this brief introduction in Wittenberg, we further delved into the topic of printing  the next day at the German Technological Museum. At the museum, we looked at versions of old printing presses and typewriters.

             

      

While these seemed like they were just machines to make words appear on paper, they served the much greater purpose of creating a reusable and mass produced form of communication. The written word brought society far, but the printed word brought it farther. And even further than that, the computer sent us into another dimension.

A couple rooms away from the printing press exhibit, there was the computer exhibit of the German Technological Musuem. This room was full of history on the invention of arguably one of the most useful inventions of our time, the computer. 

Below is a picture and description of the first computer in Germany, the Z11:

         

This computer was the start of the many computers around today. Its invention brought about the iPhones, tablets, and laptops we use everyday. The things that bring us back together no matter if we are hundreds of miles away from home or just a hashtag away.

-Chelsea Weber