In the 1500s copyright was easy to manage if you controlled printing. For a few hundred years, The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers did exactly that. The organisation dates back to 1403 and some of the principles of copyright law grew out of the practices used at the Stationers' Company for entering works into the register.

The rich heritage does not mean that the Stationers' Company is just about books, newspapers and other print media. Last week, members gathered at the Stationers' Hall in the City of London to discuss the impact of technologies that are shaping media today. Moderated by the BBC's Peter Day, Liz McCord introduced Orange's plans for services based on IMS; Alan Greenberg from Apple shared experiences from his work with podcasting in education; Shaun Gregory talked us through The Telegraph's adoption of digital technologies.

In my contribution to the discussion, I tried to paint a picture of how progress can be seen as a sequence of disruptions (starting with the introduction of the printing press in the 1400s, and the latest being how micro-blogging is disrupting blogging), the increasing significance of social networks in commerce, adoption strategies driven by the freemium business model, lower barriers to entry and participation, and how I see some of the main trends (open, free, social, simple, mobile) leading to more choice for consumers and businesses alike.

The debate was lively and proved that most of the members of The Worshipful Company are busy adopting new technologies while a few seemed more in tune with the official title of the forum: "It will never catch on".