often people have quoted gutenberg and the press being something similar back in the 15th century, where people had the right to print and that gave the basis for democracy because you were able to use pieces of information to get people properly informed. what we have today is an extraordinary thing, having access to information at any time from your own machine, information that is doubling every day or every two hours. it becomes a question of how you prioritize information and how you get access to information. the decision maker is dealing with e commerce across the european union, and you have to get it right. we work closely with the internet education foundation. we are doing something in town on thursday morning on privacy and intellectual property. the idea is not to make sudden decisions. what we try to do is get the right kind of experts from the telcom and software companies to get better information and better legislation. you have to guarantee the rights of the people so they can have confidence in it. confidence is extremely important. >> our guests this week, both member

the printing press was developed in the 15th century, around the 1450s by gutenberg in germany.rinting press had an enormous effect on our culture, on human culture, because it allowed knowledge and culture to be spread really quickly to a lot of people. so soon after the press was invented in the 1450s, it spread throughout europe in 20 to 25 years. today, you know, we're all used to just hitting a button and getting whatever you want, and whatever typeface you want immediately. this was a lot more trouble, a lot more work. type was all in little pieces, much like these. individual pieces of metal or wood, and you had to put them together upside down and backwards, so it was a lot of work, and took a lot more people than it, than printing takes now. >> reporter: so can you give us a little demonstration on how it works? >> sure. in the press right now, i've got some wood type locked up from our collection. it's some wood type from the 19th century. it just says the word "seaport." and below that, i have a little "bowne & company incorporated, established 1775." so first, i've g

i mean, often people have quoted gutenberg and the press been something similar way back in the 15th century, or people of the right to print an active basis for democracy because your paper and you can use pieces of information to get people properly informed. but we have today is an extraordinary thing of having access to information at any time from their own machine of information which is doubly every day or half day or every two hours. so it becomes a question of how to prioritize information get access to information and we are in the european parliament and most of the framework, which is 500 million people, then you've got to get it right. this is one of the roles, where we work very closely in the internet education foundation and the congress we are doing something on privacy and intellectual privacy actually so the idea is not to take sudden decisions because you get a huge pressure for lobby which comes in a glass legislature saying this is that we've got to do it. you guys don't have the slightest idea, but what we try to do is an all party approach coming to the right

we are at the most profound inflection point for communications innovation in commerce since the gutenberg printing press. our ability to meet this moment and seize the opportunity to this new communications technology is critical to our economic recovery and our economic future. one reason i am confident about our future is that, as they sat in the book, america has a proven formula for adapting to change in growing our economy. they call this pharma led the five pillars of american prosperity. world's leading education, immigration policy that invite the world's best and brightest. investment in basic scientific research and development. encouraging and entrepreneurship while safeguarding consumers. and the building and continuum of modernizing of our infrastructure. these are interrelated. in fruit -- improving infrastructure supports education and entrepreneurship and vice versa. success is always been tied together in the u.s. railroads and highways connect people to each other, facilitating commerce, unleashing ingenuity and fueling economic growth. telephones did this and we did not