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Revision as of 02:11, 27 June 2007 editOhnoitsjamie (talk | contribs)Edit filter managers, Autopatrolled, Administrators260,839 edits already mentioned in earlier paragraph← Previous edit Revision as of 18:51, 27 June 2007 edit undoMarkBernstein (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users4,219 edits impracticality of Memex redacted, as recent work has shown is could have been (and was) built.Next edit →
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Recorders of information have long looked for ways to categorize and compile it. Early on, experiments existed with various methods for arranging layers of ]s around a document. The most famous example of this is the ]. Various other ] works (for example ], ]s, etc.) also developed a precursor to hypertext, consisting of setting certain words in small capital letters, indicating that an entry existed for that term within the same reference work. Sometimes the term would be preceded by a pointing hand ], <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">☞like this</span>, or an ], <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">➧like this</span>. Recorders of information have long looked for ways to categorize and compile it. Early on, experiments existed with various methods for arranging layers of ]s around a document. The most famous example of this is the ]. Various other ] works (for example ], ]s, etc.) also developed a precursor to hypertext, consisting of setting certain words in small capital letters, indicating that an entry existed for that term within the same reference work. Sometimes the term would be preceded by a pointing hand ], <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">☞like this</span>, or an ], <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">➧like this</span>.


Later several scholars entered the scene who believed that ] was drowning in ], causing foolish decisions and duplicate efforts among scientists. These scholars proposed or developed proto-hypertext systems predating electronic computer technology. For example, in the early ], two visionaries attacked the cross-referencing problem through proposals based on ]-intensive, ] methods. ] proposed a proto-hypertext concept based on his monographic principle, in which all documents would be decomposed down to unique phrases stored on ]s. In the ], ] proposed the creation of a ]. For cost and other practical reasons neither proposal got very far. Later several scholars entered the scene who believed that ] was drowning in ], causing foolish decisions and duplicate efforts among scientists. These scholars proposed or developed proto-hypertext systems predating electronic computer technology. For example, in the early ], two visionaries attacked the cross-referencing problem through proposals based on ]-intensive, ] methods. ] proposed a proto-hypertext concept based on his monographic principle, in which all documents would be decomposed down to unique phrases stored on ]s. In the ], ] proposed the creation of a ]. The onset of the War delayed further work for nearly a decade.


===The Memex=== ===The Memex===
All major ] of what we now call hypertext start in ], when ] wrote an article in '']'' called "]," about a futuristic device he called a ]. He described the device as a mechanical desk linked to an extensive archive of ]s, able to display ]s, ]s, or any document from a ]. The Memex would also be able to create 'trails' of linked and branching sets of pages, combining pages from the published microfilm library with personal annotations or additions captured on a microfilm recorder. Like other devices described in ] the Memex was not a practical invention. Bush's vision was based on extensions of 1945 technology - microfilm recording and retrieval in this case. However, the modern story of hypertext starts with the Memex because "As We May Think" directly influenced and inspired the two ] men generally credited with the invention of hypertext, ] and ]. All major ] of what we now call hypertext start in ], when ] wrote an article in '']'' called "]," about a futuristic device he called a ]. He described the device as a mechanical desk linked to an extensive archive of ]s, able to display ]s, ]s, or any document from a ]. The Memex would also be able to create 'trails' of linked and branching sets of pages, combining pages from the published microfilm library with personal annotations or additions captured on a microfilm recorder. Bush's vision was based on extensions of 1945 technology - microfilm recording and retrieval in this case. However, the modern story of hypertext starts with the Memex because "As We May Think" directly influenced and inspired the two ] men generally credited with the invention of hypertext, ] and ].

Recent research has revealed that a Memex-like device was designed, patented, and used in the 1930's by Emmanuel Goldberg, then CEO of Zeiss-Ikon.


===The invention of hypertext=== ===The invention of hypertext===
] coined the words "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in ] and helped ] develop the ] in ] at ]. Engelbart had begun working on his ] system in ] at ], although delays in obtaining funding, personnel, and equipment meant that its key features were not completed until ]. That year, Engelbart demonstrated a hypertext interface to the public for the first time, in what has come to be known as "]". ] coined the words "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in ] and worked with ] to develop the ] in ] at ]. Engelbart had begun working on his ] system in ] at ], although delays in obtaining funding, personnel, and equipment meant that its key features were not completed until ]. That year, Engelbart demonstrated a hypertext interface to the public for the first time, in what has come to be known as "]".


After funding for NLS slowed to a trickle in ], progress on hypertext research nearly came to a halt. During this time, the ] at ] started as an ] research project under the supervision of ]. Only much later would its participants realize that their system was a hypertext system. ZOG was deployed in ] on the ] and later commercialized as ]. Funding for NLS slowed after ]. Major work in the following decade included Brown's Intermedia, Xerox PARC's NoteCards, Shneiderman's TIES, and ] at ]. ZOG started as an ] research project under the supervision of ]. Only much later would its participants realize that their system was a hypertext system. ZOG was deployed in ] on the ] and later commercialized as ].


===Applications=== ===Applications===
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==Implementations== ==Implementations==
Besides the already mentioned ], ], ], ], and ], there are other noteworthy implementations of hypertext, with different feature sets: Besides the already mentioned ], ], ], ], and ], there are other noteworthy early implementations of hypertext, with different feature sets:
*] — A 1970s multi-user successor to the ]. *] — A 1970s multi-user successor to the ].
*] — Used to display online help in ] operating systems. *] — Used to display online help in ] operating systems.
*] — A mid-1980s program for group web-authoring and information sharing. *] — A mid-1980s program for group web-authoring and information sharing.
* Storyspace -- a mid-1980's program for hypertext narrative
*] — The ] help system. *] — The ] help system.
*] with the ] extension — A recent innovation in web-language related to ]. *] with the ] extension — A recent innovation in web-language related to ].
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* {{cite conference | author = Nelson, Theodor H. | title = A Conceptual framework for man-machine everything | booktitle = AFIPS Conference Proceedings VOL. 42 | year = 1973 | pages = M22-M23 }} * {{cite conference | author = Nelson, Theodor H. | title = A Conceptual framework for man-machine everything | booktitle = AFIPS Conference Proceedings VOL. 42 | year = 1973 | pages = M22-M23 }}
* {{cite journal | last = van Dam | first = Andries | title = Hypertext: '87 keynote address | journal = Communications of the ACM | year = July 1988 | volume = 31 | pages = 887-895 | url = http://www.cs.brown.edu/memex/HT_87_Keynote_Address.html }} * {{cite journal | last = van Dam | first = Andries | title = Hypertext: '87 keynote address | journal = Communications of the ACM | year = July 1988 | volume = 31 | pages = 887-895 | url = http://www.cs.brown.edu/memex/HT_87_Keynote_Address.html }}
* {{cite book | last = Buckland | first = Michael | title = Emanuel Goldberg and His Knowledge Machine | | publisher=Libraries Unlimited | year = 2006 | id = ISBN 0-31331-332-6}


==External links== ==External links==

Revision as of 18:51, 27 June 2007

Hypertext most often refers to text on a computer that will lead the user to other, related information on demand. Hypertext represents a relatively recent innovation to user interfacing, which overcomes some of the limitations of written text. Rather than remaining static like traditional text, hypertext makes possible a dynamic organization of information through links and connections (called hyperlinks). Hypertext can be designed to perform various tasks; for instance when a user "clicks" on it or "hovers" over it, a bubble with a word definition may appear, or a web page on a related subject may load, or a video clip may run, or an application may open.

Etymology

The prefix hyper- (Modern Greek term for "over" or "beyond") signifies the overcoming of the old linear constraints of written text. The term "hypertext" is often used where the term hypermedia might seem appropriate; the two have always been synonymous but "hypertext" is grammatically simpler.

Types and uses of hypertext

Hypertext documents can either be static (prepared and stored in advance) or dynamic (continually changing in response to user input). Static hypertext can be used to cross-reference collections of data in documents, software applications, or books on CD. A well-constructed system can also incorporate other user-interface conventions, such as menus and command lines. Hypertext can develop very complex and dynamic systems of linking and cross-referencing. The most famous implementation of hypertext is the World Wide Web.

History

Early precursors to hypertext

Recorders of information have long looked for ways to categorize and compile it. Early on, experiments existed with various methods for arranging layers of annotations around a document. The most famous example of this is the Talmud. Various other reference works (for example dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.) also developed a precursor to hypertext, consisting of setting certain words in small capital letters, indicating that an entry existed for that term within the same reference work. Sometimes the term would be preceded by a pointing hand dingbat, ☞like this, or an arrow, ➧like this.

Later several scholars entered the scene who believed that humanity was drowning in information, causing foolish decisions and duplicate efforts among scientists. These scholars proposed or developed proto-hypertext systems predating electronic computer technology. For example, in the early 20th century, two visionaries attacked the cross-referencing problem through proposals based on labor-intensive, brute force methods. Paul Otlet proposed a proto-hypertext concept based on his monographic principle, in which all documents would be decomposed down to unique phrases stored on index cards. In the 1930s, H.G. Wells proposed the creation of a World Brain. The onset of the War delayed further work for nearly a decade.

The Memex

All major histories of what we now call hypertext start in 1945, when Vannevar Bush wrote an article in The Atlantic Monthly called "As We May Think," about a futuristic device he called a Memex. He described the device as a mechanical desk linked to an extensive archive of microfilms, able to display books, writings, or any document from a library. The Memex would also be able to create 'trails' of linked and branching sets of pages, combining pages from the published microfilm library with personal annotations or additions captured on a microfilm recorder. Bush's vision was based on extensions of 1945 technology - microfilm recording and retrieval in this case. However, the modern story of hypertext starts with the Memex because "As We May Think" directly influenced and inspired the two American men generally credited with the invention of hypertext, Ted Nelson and Douglas Engelbart.

Recent research has revealed that a Memex-like device was designed, patented, and used in the 1930's by Emmanuel Goldberg, then CEO of Zeiss-Ikon.

The invention of hypertext

Ted Nelson coined the words "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1965 and worked with Andries van Dam to develop the Hypertext Editing System in 1968 at Brown University. Engelbart had begun working on his NLS system in 1962 at Stanford Research Institute, although delays in obtaining funding, personnel, and equipment meant that its key features were not completed until 1968. That year, Engelbart demonstrated a hypertext interface to the public for the first time, in what has come to be known as "The Mother of All Demos".

Funding for NLS slowed after 1974. Major work in the following decade included Brown's Intermedia, Xerox PARC's NoteCards, Shneiderman's TIES, and ZOG at Carnegie Mellon. ZOG started as an artificial intelligence research project under the supervision of Allen Newell. Only much later would its participants realize that their system was a hypertext system. ZOG was deployed in 1980 on the U.S.S. Carl Vinson and later commercialized as Knowledge Management System.

Applications

The first hypermedia application was the Aspen Movie Map in 1977. In 1980, Tim Berners-Lee created ENQUIRE, an early hypertext database system somewhat like a wiki. The early 1980s also saw a number of experimental hypertext and hypermedia programs, many of whose features and terminology were later integrated into the Web. Guide was the first hypertext system for personal computers. Then, in August 1987, Apple Computer revealed its HyperCard application for the Macintosh line of computers at the MacWorld convention in Boston, Massachusetts. HyperCard was an immediate hit and helped to popularize the concept of hypertext with the general public. The first hypertext-specific academic conference took place that November, in Chapel Hill NC. Meanwhile, Nelson had been working on and advocating his Xanadu system for over two decades, and the commercial success of HyperCard stirred Autodesk to invest in his revolutionary ideas. The project continued at Autodesk for four years, but no product was released.

Hypertext and the World Wide Web

In the late 1980s, Berners-Lee, then a scientist at CERN, invented the World Wide Web to meet the demand for automatic information-sharing between scientists working in different universities and institutes all over the world. Early in 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois released the first version of their Mosaic browser to supplement the two existing web browsers: one that ran only on NeXTSTEP and one that was only minimally user-friendly. Mosaic ran in the X Window System environment, which was then popular in the research community, and offered usable window-based interaction. It allowed images as well as text to anchor hypertext links. It also incorporated other Internet protocols, including the Gopher protocol. Web traffic quickly exploded from only 500 known web servers in 1993 to over 10,000 in 1994, after the release of browser versions for both the PC and Macintosh environments. Thus, all earlier hypertext systems were overshadowed by the success of the World Wide Web, even though it lacked many features of those earlier systems, such as typed links, transclusion, and source tracking.

Implementations

Besides the already mentioned Project Xanadu, Hypertext Editing System, NLS, HyperCard, and World Wide Web, there are other noteworthy early implementations of hypertext, with different feature sets:

Academic conferences

Among the top academic conferences for new research in hypertext is the annual ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia (HT 2006). Although not exclusively about hypertext, the World Wide Web series of conferences, organized by IW3C2, include many papers of interest. There is a list on the web with links to all conferences in the series.

Hypertext fiction

See main article Hypertext fiction

Hypertext writing has developed its own style of fiction, coinciding with the growth and proliferation of hypertext development software and the emergence of electronic networks. Two software programs specifically designed for literary hypertext, Storyspace and Intermedia became available in the 1990s.

Storyspace 2.0, a professional level hypertext development tool, is available from Eastgate Systems, which has also published many notable works of electronic literature, including Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story, Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl, Stuart Moulthrop's Victory Garden, and Judy Malloy's its name was Penelope. Other works include Julio Cortazar's Rayuela and Milorad Pavic's Dictionary of the Khazars.

An advantage of writing a narrative using hypertext technology is that the meaning of the story can be conveyed through a sense of spatiality and perspective that is arguably unique to digitally-networked environments. An author's creative use of nodes, the self-contained units of meaning in a hypertextual narrative, can play with the reader's orientation and add meaning to the text.

Critics of hypertext claim that it inhibits the old, linear, reader experience by creating several different tracks to read on, and that this in turn contributes to a postmodernist fragmentation of worlds. However, they do see its value in its ability to present several different views on the same subject in a simple way.

Critics and theorists

See also

References

  1. http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q1/0260.html
  2. http://1997.webhistory.org/www.lists/www-talk.1993q1/0261.html
  3. http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~scriptor/papers/arthur.html


  • Bolter, Jay David (2001). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 0-8058-2919-9.
  • Byers, T. J. (April 1987). "Built by association". PC World. 5: 244–251.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Cicconi, Sergio (1999). ""Hypertextuality"". Mediapolis. Ed. Sam Inkinen. Berlino & New York: De Gruyter.: 21–43. {{cite journal}}: External link in |title= (help)
  • Crane, Gregory (1988). "Extending the boundaries of instruction and research". T.H.E. Journal (Technological Horizons in Education) (Macintosh Special Issue): 51–54.
  • Engelbart, Douglas C. (1962). "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework, AFOSR-3233 Summary Report, SRI Project No. 3579". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Heim, Michael (1987). Electric Language: A Philosophical Study of Word Processing. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07746-7.
  • Landow, George (2006). Hypertext 3.0 Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization: Critical Theory and New Media in a Global Era (Parallax, Re-Visions of Culture and Society). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-8257-5.
  • Yankelovich, Nicole (1987). "Creating hypermedia materials for English literature students". SIGCUE Outlook. 20 (3): All. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Nelson, Theodor H. (September 1965). "Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex, the changing and the indeterminate". ACM/CSC-ER Proceedings of the 1965 20th national conference. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Nelson, Theodor H. (September 1970). "No More Teachers' Dirty Looks". Computer Decisions.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  • Nelson, Theodor H. (1973). "A Conceptual framework for man-machine everything". AFIPS Conference Proceedings VOL. 42. pp. M22–M23. {{cite conference}}: Unknown parameter |booktitle= ignored (|book-title= suggested) (help)
  • van Dam, Andries (July 1988). "Hypertext: '87 keynote address". Communications of the ACM. 31: 887–895.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
  • {{cite book | last = Buckland | first = Michael | title = Emanuel Goldberg and His Knowledge Machine | | publisher=Libraries Unlimited | year = 2006 | id = ISBN 0-31331-332-6}

External links

History

Hypertext Conferences

Hypertext Fiction

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