Archivist’s Pick: The Eternal Mysteries of the Internet

Here’s this month’s piece from the Drucker Institute’s archivist, Bridget Lawlor. By drawing lessons from the vast treasure trove of papers and other objects that are collected in Peter Drucker’s achives, Bridget is giving new life to decades-old material.

Although he was committed to innovation and wrote quite a bit about the impact of information technology on organizations and on society, Peter Drucker was not exactly tech-savvy. In fact, as late as 2005, he did not seem to fully grasp how the Internet could be used as an information-sharing tool.

On some level, this isn’t surprising. Drucker was a firm believer that “information should stand still.” Thus, he did not own a television. He hated going to the movies. And he despised listening to books on tape.

In this facsimile to social entrepreneur Bob Buford, the Drucker Institute’s chairman emeritus and Drucker’s close personal friend, Drucker asks Buford: “But—pardon my ignorance—how do you get people to look at the INTERNET?”