Information Reformation
			by Bill Petro 

Sun's International Internet Associate Symposium (IAS) was held in Berlin at the 
beginning of November. There were about 5,000 attendees for the two-day
event, followed by the full-day "100% Pure Java" event.

The conclusion of the IAS event was a talk by Joe Roebuck, Sun's VP of World Wide
Field Operations (Sales) on "Change" and how it's good. In particular, the
revolution on the Internet is a change that should be welcomed. He used the
example of the medieval monks who, with the closing of the monasteries,
left to become brewers and wine makers.

Following his talk, I reminded him of a young monk who, only an hour away,
and 479 years earlier, had turned the world upside down sociologically,
with a Reformation. There are numerous parallels between what this
Augustinian monk Martin Luther did, and what has happened with the
explosion of the Internet, an Information Reformation as it were.

In the 16th century, as a result of a dispute concerning certain Church
practices, a University professor posted a call for debate on their
equivalent of a bulletin board, the door of the university's Castle church.
These 95 Theses were not intended as a call to reformation but a quiet
scholarly discussion of theological issues.

So it was, on October 31, 1517, that the 33 year old Augustinian monk
Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the Wittenberg Door, marking what
historians conveniently use as a coat hanger for the beginning of the
Reformation.

But there were two significant things in conjunction with the events of
1517 that changed history: first, one of Luther's students took the
original Latin 95 Theses and translated them into German, the language of
the common man. Now they were available to anyone who could read.

Secondly, with the aid of the printing press, invented not far away in
Maintz by Guttenberg a couple of decades before Luther's birth, copies were
distributed to the masses. Within two weeks, it had spread throughout
Germany.  Within a month, it was all over Europe.  By the end of the year,
it had spread beyond the Holy Roman Empire.

So it is with the spread of the Internet. One could say we're currently
experiencing more than an Internet Explosion or Revolution, but an
Information Reformation. Here are just a few of the parallels between the
two phenomena:

1) Common Language:

* Luther made previously exclusive information accessible to the common man
  by publishing in the common language, not the language of scholars.

* With the aid of graphical tools like popular Web browsers, anyone can
  easily read the World Wide Web and discover new information without knowing
  the classical "Geek" previously necessary to navigate the Internet.

2) Common Format:

* Luther published pamphlets in very handy sizes, extending the existing
  single page "broadside" to multiple pages in quarto and octavo sizes. He
  featured pictures using the finest woodcuts and engravings of the times.

* Graphical Web browsers that take advantage of open, standard HTML make
  information pictorial and, with advanced Java capabilities, dynamic,
  

3) Mass Distribution:

* Luther's 95 Theses, with the aid of the printing press were distributed
  to the masses within a relatively short time all over the known world. 

* With the availability of interconnected computer networks, information is 
  quickly distributed all over the World Wide Web.

4) Unprecedented Growth:

* Between 1517 and 1523, publications in Germany increases 7 fold.

* The growth of the Internet and the availability of information on the Web has 
  grown phenomenally, with a growth curve that is exponential.

5) Broadcast Marketing

* Luther took advantage of the new printing press to promote his views and 
  detract from his competitors with his pamphlets.

* Many companies, organizations, and individuals now take advantage of
  Internet home pages to "market" and promote their product, offerings, and
  views.

The historian John Foxe said that the Reformation was accomplished with words 
and books. It has more recently been said that "Words are the new weapons; 
websites are the new artillery." Indeed, we're currently experiencing more than 
just an Internet Explosion or Revolution, rather we're seeing an Information 
Reformation.