EDITORIAL

Like many publishers, we toured the Frankfurt Book Fair in uncertainty, wondering to what extent we would be able to keep pace with digital developments...

Although Facebookers, Flickr-users, bloggers and Twitterers are often ridiculed in mainland Europe, some people will be tormented by the thought that their clients may defect to these, supposedly trivial, communication media. If not before, I began having concerns when I read that in Holland, the trendsetting region of Europe, as it were, the most important cultural discussion is now conducted via the Twitter platform. It is one thing to take a liking to such networks in an experiment that may serve to test one’s potential for addiction, but it is quite another matter to perceive new media as potential replacements for conventional communication media, such as newspapers, books, readings and telephone calls.

When I asked my new Facebook “friends” about the benefits they derive from this type of communication in their work, the answer was, “none”. However, they immediately added that it was a lot of fun. This is true because you come across a great deal of unexpected information, some of it textile-related. The news of fresh discoveries regarding the age of early textiles, resulting from excavations in Georgia, reached me via Facebook (see p. 2). In the past, I would not have received this sensational news so quickly! (A report by two members of the excavation team is on its way, and has been promised for TF 1/10).

The internet constantly increases the speed at which information is transferred in every area of life. Currently, printable illustrations of textile exhibitions can be accessed immediately via the press departments of major museums and other organisers. Just five years ago, I still had to allow for weeks of waiting time in some cases.

As regards Facebook, I took the decision, with a heavy heart, to close my private page again, the main reason being that unlike Flickr, it does not allow me to opt out of advertising. Once I had read the new Facebook Privacy Policy, sentence by sentence, I felt like a purse on legs, as it seemed my only purpose was to be fleeced and spied on, down to details about my physical location at any given time. Today the aim is targeted consumer advertising, but what about tomorrow? Our magazine will remain on Facebook because our curiosity has been aroused, and we hope to receive sensational news of interest to our magazine again.

At any rate, our research for this issue has confirmed our suspicions that we should pay closer attention to new media. Perhaps it won’t be long before “social networks” come out of their shell, communicate about more constructive issues and advance specialist subjects by public discussion; that will be the day when the respective benefits of traditional and new media are used properly.

Beatrijs Sterk

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TF editors visited the Frankfurt Book Fair in search of new textile publications. For many publishers the "Digital Marketplace" was the place not to be missed