1. Ted Nelson a pioneer of information technology, rebel and
nonconformist. After trying to stab his 5th grade teacher with a
screwdriver he began to live by the phrase “most people are fools,
most authority is malignant, God does not exist, and everything is
wrong.” He coined the words “hypertext” and “hypermedia” in
1965.
2. Hypertext is “nonsequential” text, basically hyperlinking; clicking
on a word to delve deeper into a document. In 1968 Nelson
worked with Andries van Dam to develop the Hypertext Editing
system which organized data into links. Nelson believed that
hypertext was the way of the future and is best known for his
invention of project Xanadu
3. Xanadu was the first hypertext project created by Nelson in 1960
while he was a grad student at Harvard. His goal was to create a
computer network with a simple user interface that would serve
as a worldwide hypertext publishing tool, a system to resolve
copyright disputes, and a forum for discussion and debate.
4. Nelson wanted to make all information available to all people. He
believed in two-way linking and non-hierarchical organization. It
would be a networked system of the entire world’s literature and
other public and private information through hypertext. Readers
would be able to delve deeper into those documents through
hypertext as well. Instead, the world wide web took over, which
Nelson vehemently despises. (change this slide)
5. To Nelson, there are so many problems with the Web that “trying to
fix HTML is like trying to graft arms and legs onto a hamburger.” He
thinks “Today's one-way hypertext-- the World Wide Web-- is too
shallow. The Xanadu project foresaw world-wide hypertext decades
ago, and tried creating a much deeper system.” He thinks its
unreliable because all information is coming from a single
location.
6. You also can’t add your own notes and comments to content you
are accessing, and copyright protection is very difficult. Previous
and alternate versions are almost never available, and what
Nelson most hates is how links go only one way so when you link
to something it doesn’t link back to you. (make this the I just
wanna link you slide)
7. What Nelson wanted to accomplish with Xanadu is go beyond the
mere imitation of paper like in our current software design, and
make everything editable, quotable, and annotatable all the time
and also make sure everyone knows what is modified and who
made the revisions. Information would be viewed, structured and
formatted in various ways having multiple dimensions and views.
(welcome to xanadu site)
8. The same data could be included in vast numbers of sets, lists and
structures. Each user could have many personal dimensions
linking all the documents they’ve ever accessed, and would be
able to view these documents from any computer connected to
the internet so their personal computing environments would
follow them globally. Others would be able to see your dimension
and vice versa. He wanted to create almost like another reality.
(first xanadu space slide)
9.
The objective was to create a unified quotable world where the
contents of documents are sold as well as free. He wanted the
world’s libraries to be available everywhere by using a microsale
system with easy automatic payments if you wanted to use
copyrighted content. He called this “transcopyright.” (chart slide)
10.
Everyone’s work would be referenced by transclusion;
documents would be compounded like transparent overlays so
the original work could be seen underneath. There would also be
unbreakable 2-way links so renaming files and changing servers
would be easier. The data would be permanently stored and
backed in several locations. (other xanadu space slide)
11.
Nelson had the idea of QFrames where adjacent window
border indicate correspondences and lines drawn between screen
windows compare and link side by side, with changes, deletions
and additions made visible. There would also be many author and
reader definable link types, like commenting, disagreeing,
correcting, outlining, adding, etc. (qframes slide)
12.
Xanadu looks much more complicated than the web, but
Nelson seems convinced it would be much easier because he
despises our current interface. It’s interesting that the idea
became before the web, and if it had actually worked our internet
could be completely different today. We might just be so used to
paper that the web just makes sense. (the term interface…)
13.
In addition to Xanadu, Nelson wrote a couple books, the
most popular being Computer Lib/Dream Machines in which he
predicted personal computing and universal interactive screens
back in 1974. Surprisingly, personal computing began four
months later. Ted is widely known in the computer field for
pioneering and speaking on the idea of interactive media since the
early sixties. (book pages)
14.
Nelson believes that everyone should have an interface they
like, but all that’s available is what is done by programmers and it
may not be easy to understand. Nelson hates not having control,
which is why he deems the way computers are handled to be
“oppressive”. He says that the purpose of computers is human
freedom, but he thinks the power is in the wrong hands. (and
please mr programmer…take out slide before this)
15.
Aside from this, Ted Nelson also coined the term
“teledildonics” in 1975, sex toys that can be controlled by a
computer with physical sensations transmitted over a data link
between participants, allowing for global sexual intercourse. This
is good for long distances, handicapped people and those with
STDs, and also people too shy to have sex in real life. (same)
16.
Although Nelson is full of ideas, he somehow can never
implement them. This is probably due to his extreme case of ADD,
making him unable to concentrate. Nelson calls it a “Hummingbird
Mind”, of which he has to take multiple medications for. The idea
for Xanadu dates back to 1960, yet decades later nothing ever
came of it. (hummingbird)
17.
In 1998 an incomplete implementation was released, but
development issues plagued the Xanadu project. Nelson’s limited
knowledge of math and programming made him hire a small,
talented team of hackers, but none of them would ever stick
around for long. Lack of funding was also a problem. It’s only
Nelson’s spirit that keeps the project going. (get a pic of hackers)
18.
He is viewed by many as a failure, which is evident in an
article written by Gary Wolf in Wired magazine, bashing him for
his inability to complete anything in his life. However, even still,
Nelson inspired many great minds and ultimately led to the
internet we have today. Users having the ability to freely share
their content instantly worldwide was essentially Nelson’s dream,
although it didn’t happen quite as he wanted. (wolf)
19.
Nelson said that “books would be obsolete” by 1962, making
it apparent that his ideas were too far ahead of his time. Skillful in
predicting, but not implementing, it’s interesting to think what a
world with successful Ted Nelson ideas would be like and what
the future could hold. Perhaps our digital age will someday be
more display driven and evolve into something Nelson would
approve of. Computers arise! Haha.
He calls Xanadu the “longest-running vaporware story in the history of
the computer industry”.