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Fast Forward:
Science, Technology & the Communications Revolution

From party lines to chat rooms, explore the technologies that moved at lightning speed through the 20th century.

Imagine life without the telephone, radio, movies, television or the Internet. Fast Forward is a six-week public library program exploring the 20th century technologies that opened the door to the information age. The series includes documentary film screenings and scholar-led lectures and discussions on the impact of the science and technology that expanded our world, while making it smaller.

Fast Forward explores the discoveries and inventions that took us from the horse and buggy to the information superhighway in just one century.

Session One gives an overview of the technologies that made the 20thy century the modern age, with the film Bigger, Better, Faster. The following weeks look at individual technologies, such as the telephone, movies, radio, television and the Internet.

These dramatic inventions have redefined entertainment, information and society. Learning how these technologies have built on each other gives us a key to the past, and perhaps a glimpse of the future.

Filmmaker Educational Materials At NVR

NVR examined the effects of the transition to DVD and digital media on independent film and media arts. The resulting paper, "Digital and Tangible: How DVD's are Impacting Independent Media" by Neil Sieling is a great primer on these technologies, for filmmakers and nonprofits.

"Digital and Tangible" >>

Fair Use? Free Speech!

The Center for Social Media and the Program on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest at the Washington College of Law produced a new tool for doc filmmakers: Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use.

www.centerforsocialmedia.org >>