Note: This article is adapted from Clay Shirky’s keynote address at the NTEN Annual Conference on April 27, 2009.

Before Robert Fulton made steamships profitable in the mid-1800s, there was a man named John Fitch who invented the first steamboat. It set sail on the Delaware River in the late 18th century. His ship successfully harnessed the new technology of steam to propel the now familiar paddle wheel.