The printed book
The traditional method of relaying knowledge, at least for the last few hundred years, has been the book. Books reflect certain things about the nature of knowledge and how knowledge is (and should be) used. Traditional texts are bound in time and space; they are printed at one point and are unchanging, as well as being constrained by page length and design. The book also implies that the gulf between the writer and the reader cannot be bridged. Books are also viewed as autonomous; they are bound as a separate, discrete and unique contribution to the world's knowledge. They are inherently sequential, giving the author control over the order the book is to be read.