ABSTRACT
The history of writing may be complex and obscure but it tells a straightforward story: that the capability to communicate through forms of writing has become increasingly widespread. Although throughout history human beings have made marks or constructed artefacts-the sooty imprints of a human hand on a cave wall, the scratched letters on a medieval window or a letter carefully written on vellum-nevertheless, for most of this time, only those who were privileged in some way had the means to publish widely. Even then the potential readership, writers (or at least publishers) could reach was always constrained by the number of physical copies of the book or other artefact which were produced. Today, however, there is much to suggest that modern societies have reached a new stage in the relationship between writer, publisher and reader with the recent rise of electronic and digital publishing.
