Author Archives: GilPress

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About GilPress

I launched the Big Data conversation; writing, research, marketing services; http://whatsthebigdata.com/ & https://infostory.com/

InfoStory Quotes: The Internet Topples Tyrants (cont.)

Posted on February 3, 2011 by GilPress

In 1772, the town of Boston established a Committee of Correspondence as an agency to organize a public information network in Massachusetts; the Committee drafted a pamphlet and a cover letter which it circulated to 260 Massachusetts towns and districts, … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotes, Social Impact | Leave a comment

This Day In Information (Extra!): OED, 1st Volume

Posted on February 1, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1884, the first part (or “fascicle“) of the Oxford English Dictionary was published, a 352-page volume, defining words from A to Ant. The full title of the dictionary when it was first released was A New English Dictionary … Continue reading →

Posted in Dictionaries, Knowledge compilations, This day in information | Leave a comment

This Day In Information: The Last Telegram

Posted on February 1, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 2006, Western Union announced on its Website that it “will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services.”

Posted in Telegraph, This day in information | 1 Comment

This Day In Information: IBM and Social Security

Posted on January 31, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1940, Ida M. Fuller became the first person to receive an old-age monthly benefit check under the new Social Security law. Her first check, dated January 31, was for $22.54.

Posted in IBM, This day in information | Leave a comment

InfoStory Quotes: The Internet Will Abolish War and Topple Tyrants

Posted on January 31, 2011 by GilPress

“When a telegraph network spanned the globe, war would be no more, and cannonballs and mortars would be locked up in museums as curiosities and remnants of a barbarous age” —New York Herald, July 12, 1846 “Every message [the telegraph … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotes, Social Impact | 2 Comments

This Day in Information: 1st Telephone Switchboard

Posted on January 28, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1878, the first commercial switchboard began operating in New Haven, Connecticut. It served 21 telephones on 8 lines consequently with many people on a party line. On February 17, Western Union opened the first large city exchange in … Continue reading →

Posted in Telephone, This day in information | 3 Comments

Digital Tipping Point: Kindle Vs. Paperbacks

Posted on January 28, 2011 by GilPress

According to its press release, Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books.

Posted in Digitization, Tipping points | Leave a comment

Daniel Bell on Information Explosion

Posted on January 27, 2011 by GilPress

Daniel Bell, who passed away Tuesday (obituaries here and here), first became widely known for his book The End of Ideology. An “ardent appraiser” of our lives in information, he also wrote (in 1980) about the “End of the Alexandrian … Continue reading →

Posted in Data growth, Forecasts, Libraries, Social Impact | Leave a comment

This Day In Information: IBM’s SSEC and Creating the Public Image of Computers

Posted on January 27, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1948, IBM’s Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC) was announced and demonstrated to the public.

Posted in Computer history, Social Impact, This day in information | 3 Comments

This Day In Information (Exxtra! Exxtra!): The Birth of Electronics

Posted on January 25, 2011 by GilPress

Today in 1915, Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated the first transcontinental telephone service in the United States with a phone call from New York City to Dr. Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

Posted in Social Impact, Telephone, This day in information | Leave a comment