#Head of the digital library of the electronic magazine Venezuela Analítica
Roberto Hernández Montoya has a literature degree from the Central University of
Venezuela. He is a columnist at El Nacional, Letras, Imagen and Internet World
Venezuela. He is a member of the editorial board of Venezuela Cultural,
Venezuela Analítica and Imagen. He studied discourse analysis at the School of
High Studies in Social Sciences (Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales -
EHESS), Paris. He was the founding president of the Venezuelan Association of
Editors, and the editor of the Ateneo de Caracas.
Venezuela Analítica, an electronic magazine conceived as a public forum to
exchange ideas on politics, economics, culture, science and technology, created
in May 1997 BitBlioteca, a digital library which contains material mostly in
Spanish, and also in French, English and Portuguese.
*Interview of September 3, 1998 (original interview in French)
= How do you see the relationship between the print media and the Internet?
The printed word can't be replaced, at least not in the foreseeable future. The
paper book is a wonderful thing. We can't leaf through an electronic text in the
same way. But we can find words and groups of words much more quickly. We can
read an electronic text more carefully, even with the inconvenience of reading
it on the screen. It is less expensive and can be more easily distributed
worldwide (not counting the cost of the computer and Internet connection).
= How did using the Internet change your professional life?
The Internet has been personally very important for me. It's become the centre
of my life. It's meant that our organization can now communicate with thousands
of people -- something we couldn't have afforded if we'd published a paper
magazine. I think the Internet is going to be the chief means of communication
and exchanging information in the future.