Hypertext, Reading and Writing
Chris Vertonghen sees writing as the savior of reading; letting people compose and link freely makes the book an unequalled participatory medium.
So my next business idea: a platform that allows anyone to import, shuffle & mix their existing stuff — be it text, music, video, or any other type of multimedia — and give them the means to publish it on-demand. I don’t think we actually need paper to do this, Hypertext will do.
Maybe the world needs more Hypertext pioneers like Mark Bernstein. Maybe the world needs more online, on-demand, well-meaning (maybe I should say grassroots) publishing houses like Lulu.
Vertonghen emphasizes the need for a publishing or distribution mechanism that values (and pays) writers. To get there, we need to value (and pay for) writing.