If you attended the keynote for the SSP’s 2008 Annual Meeting, you heard Alex Wright of the New York Times give a fascinating talk about Paul Otlet. Now, in an article in the Times, Alex drills down into some of Otlet’s works and provides fascinating multimedia.

This proves that ideas and how they manifest themselves are both keys to adoption. A great idea executed in a way that is inaccessible to the intended user — which usually happens because the visionary is well ahead of the available infrastructure and user mental models needed for success — will have a fate similar to the innovations Otlet envisioned.

Recommended reading. Enjoy.

Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson

Kent Anderson is the CEO of RedLink and RedLink Network, a past-President of SSP, and the founder of the Scholarly Kitchen. He has worked as Publisher at AAAS/Science, CEO/Publisher of JBJS, Inc., a publishing executive at the Massachusetts Medical Society, Publishing Director of the New England Journal of Medicine, and Director of Medical Journals at the American Academy of Pediatrics. Opinions on social media or blogs are his own.

Discussion