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A REVOLUTION WITHIN SOCIETY,

A MEDIA REVOLUTION

With the arrival of e-paper, the entire graphics chain is now digitized. The final link in this chain to go digital, paper constituted the last bottleneck in the way of an entirely digital technical system able to respond to the emergence of new communications usages associated with the converging of new medium around the Internet. A new technical system is thus now in motion, with a new economic model and a new culture equipped with a new language and new occupations. This process began at the office-technology and photocopier levels, subsequently giving rise to reprography and then digital printing in parallel with the development of offset printing, in comparison with typography, and, lastly, computerization at the societal level. Analog printing thus coexists with the digitizing process resulting from the ?all-in-one? digital revolution. Indeed, three production modes correspond to three distinct technological eras: the era of conventional printing, the era of digital and Internet-related printing, with printing on request and zero stock, and, lastly, the ?all-electronic? era. Previously, data were printed and disseminated. Today, the same data are disseminated and may be printed. E-paper means the end of the need to print and has become the final interface of a totally electronic process. This new medium will result in the disappearance of the conventional form of printing but not the end of data dissemination. The form will change, but the substance will not. Like Hermes, the Greek god of commerce and messenger for the other gods, a mediator will always be needed. Like the phoenix, this mediator dies only to be reborn in a different form - constantly, eternally. Information ? received or disseminated ? drives innovation, spurring us humans to adapt to our environment and to our society with respect to our relationships with others. In order to keep pace, printers must first redefine their role and integrate developing communication media into this role. At every stage of history, depending upon the particular social, economic or political context, each new situation has led to the emergence of new roles, new occupations and new technological disruptions. The power of the gesture, of the word and of oral memory associated with direct communication gave way to the ?writing master? and indirect communication. Thus began humanless history and memory associated with the ?master printer? and today?s ?image master?. The ?image master? must be able to manage an entire range of communications media and multimedia forms of expression and reintroduce direct oral communication conditions. Writing also constitutes an image, but the meaning we give it has evolved. Today, the hypertext, symbolic interaction, the Internet, sound and video approach the ultimate communication model ? reproduction of human communication and people?s natural abilities to communicate. Convergence and mobility will endeavour to imitate people and their ability to control and master time and space simultaneously and spontaneously. The ultimate model remains the human brain and the different senses it unites around consciousness to meet specific objectives. Today, this model technically finds expression in technological convergence made possible by digitalization, which will eliminate borders between occupations and between various forms of know-how and technologies as the effort is made to acquire people?s natural capacity to communicate.

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