8. So, how did we get here?
Monday, November 12, 12
9. Ada Lovelace
• World’s first programmer
• Invented the machine algorithm
• “An analyst and metaphysician”
Monday, November 12, 12
10. Charles Cutter
“The desks had ... a little key-board at
each, connected by a wire. The reader
had only to find the mark of his book in
the catalog, touch a few lettered or
numbered keys, and [the book] appeared
after an astonishingly short interval.”
Charles Cutter, “The Buffalo Public Library of 1983” (Library
Journal, 1883)
Monday, November 12, 12
11. Mark Twain
“The improved 'limitless-distance'
telephone was presently introduced, and
the daily doings of the globe made visible
to everybody, and audibly discussable
too, by witnesses separated by any
number of leagues."
From the London Times of 1904 (1898)
Monday, November 12, 12
15. H.G. Wells
“The whole human memory can be,
and probably in a short time will be,
made accessible to every individual."
H.G. Wells, World Brain, 1938
Monday, November 12, 12
16. H.G. Wells
• Global encyclopedia with numerous
“tentacles” and “ganglia”
• Secure ID mechanism so that everyone can
“promptly and certainly be recognized”
• Elite class of technology “samurai” will guide
the world’s progress
Monday, November 12, 12
18. Paul Otlet
• Creator of Universal Decimal
Classification
• Founder of Mundaneum
• Author of Monde, Traité de
documentation
Monday, November 12, 12
19. Paul Otlet
“The Universal Book, formed of all
books, would become a kind of annex
of the brain itself, a substrate of
memory… ubiquitous and eternal.”
- Traité de documentation, 1934
Monday, November 12, 12
33. Vannevar Bush
• Science advisor to FDR
• President of Carnegie
Institution
• Author of “As We May Think”
Monday, November 12, 12
34. As We May Think
“Wholly new forms of
encyclopedias will appear,
ready-made with a mesh of
associative trails running
through them, ready to be
dropped into the Memex and
there amplified.”
Monday, November 12, 12
43. Doug Engelbart
• Former SRI Researcher
• Creator of oNLine System (NLS)
• Author of “Augmenting Human
Intelligence”
Monday, November 12, 12
44. Doug Engelbart
“Hunches, intangibles, and the human ‘feel
for a situation’ usefully co-exist with
powerful concepts, streamlined terminology
and notation, sophisticated methods, and
high-powered electronic aids.
- Augmenting Human Intellect, 1962
Monday, November 12, 12
50. Xerox PARC
Founded by Alan Kay and several early
Engelbart collaborators
Mission: “The Architecture of Information”
Invented the GUI, precursors of the
modern PC
Monday, November 12, 12
54. Ted Nelson
• Coined the term “hypertext” (1965)
• Author of Literary Machines, Dream
Machines, Computer Lib
• Creator of Xanadu
Monday, November 12, 12
62. On Hypertext
• Transclusion to allow deep
linking
• Bi-directional links to expose
trails between documents
• Intellectual property controls
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63. Nelson-isms
Transclusion Collateral
Docuverse hypertext
Stretchtext Humbers
Zippered lists Thinkertoys
Window sandwiches Fresh hyperbooks
Indexing vortexes Anthological
Part-pounces hyperbooks
Tumblers Grand systems
Monday, November 12, 12
64. I Don’t Buy In
The Web isn’t hypertext, it’s DECORATED DIRECTORIES!
What we have instead is the vacuous victory of
typesetters over authors, and the most trivial form of
hypertext that could have been imagined…
There is an alternative.
Markup must not be embedded. Hierarchies and files must
not be part of the mental structure of documents. Links
must go both ways. All these fundamental errors of the
Web must be repaired. But the geeks have tried to lock
the door behind them to make nothing else possible.
We fight on. More later.
- Ted Nelson
Monday, November 12, 12
67. Andries Van Dam
• Early collaborator with Nelson
• Created the first working hypertext
systems:
• Hypertext Editing System (HES)
• File Retrieval and Editing System
(FRESS)
• Intermedia
Monday, November 12, 12
70. Wendy Hall
• Developed Microcosm at University
of Southampton in mid-1970s
• First open hypermedia system
• “Linkbases” instead of markup
language
Monday, November 12, 12
79. Thank you
Alex Wright
alex@agwright.com | www.alexwright.org
Monday, November 12, 12
80. Further reading
H.G. Wells, “World Brain”
Teilhard de Chardin, Phenomenon of Man
Boyd Rayward, “Visions of Xanadu”
Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think”
Ted Nelson, Literary Machines
Doug Engelbart, “Augmenting Human
Intelligence”
Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web
Monday, November 12, 12