Tools for finding things out and learning from others.
A hollow marker means not fully scored yet. See how we evaluate tools. Know a tool we should look at? Suggest one, or nominate a WordPress plugin.
Catalogue · Communication · Learning
Emerging
Produces text in response to text, on a computer you control, with no connection to its maker. It works by predicting likely next words from patterns found in a very large body of writing.
Established
Lets people keep words outside memory: write them down, send them across distance and time, and read what others have written, in the tongues they already speak and for uses of their own.
Catalogue · Communication · Learning
Emerging
Produces text in response to text, as a service run by a company: answers, summaries, translations, drafts, and computer code. It works by predicting likely next words from patterns found in a very large body of writing.
since 1150 · Established
Holds text and pictures on pages bound along one edge, so a reader can carry it, open it anywhere, and return to any passage without power or permission.
since 1492 · Established
Teaches a whole population to read and write one standard language, fixed by rule, certified by schools, and required by offices.
Established
Brings children together in graded classes under certified teachers, for a set number of years, to prepare them for work and (occasionally, still) citizenship.
Established
Lends books and other materials to anyone, free, and gives them a place to read, ask questions, and look things up. Borrowing doesn’t use anything up: a returned book serves the next reader.
