The computer and the print media

The computer offers extensive advantages over even the most advanced printing and information distribution technologies. Most important, it brings into the public compendium quantities of information too vast to be embodied in print. The computer has increased the power of societies, just as the printing press did. It also has the capacity to change our basic conception of reality and alter the power of the word. Because of its capacity to alter society, basic issues of access and privacy must be resolved as a new information infrastructure is created, comparable to that existing for print. Dan Lacy has been Assistant Archivist of the United States, Deputy Chief Assistant Librarian of Congress, head of the USIA overseas library and publishing program, managing director of the American Book Publishers Council, and senior vice president of McGraw-Hill, Inc.     

Rethinking Policy Diffusion: The Interstate Spread of “Finance Innovations”

Recently a number of studies have focused on states' adoptions of postsecondary-specific policies. Cutting across much of this research is the presence and influence of interstate diffusion of policy adoptions, a phenomenon for which support is scant. This paper seeks to address this through broadening the categorization of policies beyond the discrete form traditionally used to one that encompasses a larger conception of "finance policy." Our sample uses 131 finance innovations for 47 states over a 29 year period, finding that upon broadening our definition, we can detect the process of diffusion. However, the findings are striking, showing that while states do learn from one another, the process is dynamic and shifts across time.