What is Xanadu?
The Xanadu Australia formal problem definition is:We need a way for people to store information not as individual "files" but as a connected literature. It must be possible to create, access and manipulate this literature of richly formatted and connected information cheaply, reliably and securely from anywhere in the world. Documents must remain accessible indefinitely, safe from any kind of loss, damage, modification, censorship or removal except by the owner. It must be impossible to falsify ownership or track individual readers of any document.
This system of literature (the "Xanadu Docuverse") must allow people to create virtual copies ("transclusions") of any existing collection of information in the system regardless of ownership. In order to make this possible, the system must guarantee that the owner of any information will be paid their chosen royalties on any portions of their documents, no matter how small, whenever and wherever they are used.
Project Xanadu http:// www.xanadu.com.au
1965 - Ted Nelson- coined the term "hypertext"
Ted Nelson, a professional visionary,1 wrote in 1965 of "Literary Machines,"2 computers that would enable people to write and publish in a new, nonlinear format, which he called hypertext.3 Hypertext was "nonsequential" text, in which a reader was not constrained to read in any particular order, but could follow links and delve into the original document from a short quotation.4 Ted described a futuristic5 project, Xanadu[®6], in which all the world's information7 could be published in hypertext. For example, if you were reading this book in hypertext, you would be able to follow a link from my reference to Xanadu to further details of that project. In Ted's vision, every quotation would have been a link8 back to its source, allowing original authors9 to be compensated by a very small amount each time the quotation was read10. He had the dream of a utopian11 society in which all information could be shared among people who communicated as
equals.12 He struggled for years to find funding for his project, but success eluded him.
FOOTNOTES CORRECTING THE ABOVE:
1. No one has ever paid me to be a visionary.
2. I don't believe I used the term "literary machines" until 1981, when I made it the title of a book. However, 1965 is when I first used the word "hypertext" in print.
3. It is vital to point out that Tim's view of hypertext (only one-way links, invisible and not allowed to overlap) is entirely different from mine (visible, unbreaking n-way links by any parties, all content legally reweavable by anyone into new documents with paths back to the originals, and transclusions as well as links-- as in Vannevar Bush's original vision).
4. Going back to the original must not be done by links but must be done by deeper transclusive means. The link mechanism, particularly the embedded link of the Web, cannot do this correctly.
5. "Futuristic" is one of those words which implies that an idea is not a possibility-- just a crazy dream, and thus only an inspiration. I believe Tim thinks he made my ideas practical, whereas I think he oversimplified them-- with today's extreme complexity as the result.
6. "Xanadu" is a registered trademark which I maintain at considerable cost, and I ask all parties to respect this by using the "®" or "(R)" symbol for the first use of the trademark "Xanadu" in each document.
7. Not "all the world's information", but all the world's documents. The concept of "information" is arguable, documents much less so. I believe Tim is finding his concept of pure information, the "Semantic Web", much more difficult to achieve than hypertext documents.
8. No, not a link; a transclusive pathway. The two mechanisms are entirely different. A link connects two things which are different. A transclusion connects two things which are the same.
9. Not authors, rightsholders. Sometimes the author is a rightsholder, sometimes not. A rightsholder is generally someone who has bought or contracted the rights from the author. While we have sentimental concern for authors, in our system of law the rightsholder can be anyone, just as the owner of land is rarely the original settler any more. Besides fairness to authors and artists, a key objective is to bring in the commercial rightsholders-- big publishers, university presses, movie studios-- who will not otherwise publish their content digitally. Many people think I am against free content; nonsense. I want to create a shared world of mixable content both free and paid.
10. No, not every time it was read (pay per view) but the first time purchased, as with a paper document.
11. "Utopian" is another synonym for "impossible", like "futuristic" in footnote 5. This shows a problem of understanding.
12. "Communicated as equals" is a gracious but confusing phrase. The author and the reader are not exactly equal, they occupy different roles with frequent conflict. If he means that anyone can be an author and anyone can be a reader, that has always been true (since self-publishing has always been respectable). I would say "shared a level playing field". But I appreciate the spirit of this phrasing.
http:// ted.hyperland.net/
NLS "ONLINE SYSTEM' - 1968
- Douglas Englebert
- The screen/Mouse and 'The journal'
Welcome to the Invisible Revolution, the story of Doug Engelbart, the man who invented much of the information environment we live in today - the computer mouse, word processing, email, hypertext and so on. In short: Interactive computing.
This is his story, and the story of his fellow dreamers, thinkers, doers - revolutionaries - who changed our lives forever.
How did we go from using computers with punched cards - where you'd have to wait a day for the results of your calculations - to sitting around in coffee shops with laptops? It's a long and fascinating story, told here with text, voice and video.
We hope you find Doug's story as important and inspirational as we do and that you will take the time to look beyond the tools he invented and reflect on the reason he invented them.
The 40th anniversary of Doug's demo was celebrated December 2008. Have a look at why it's such a big deal for our history and our future: The Significance of Two Pasts.
Frode Hegland & Fleur Klijnsma
London
• http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/
ASPEN MOVE MAP 1978
Hypermedia - MIT media lab
• http://www.naimark.net/projects/ aspen.html
HYPERCARD - APPLE 1987
Bill Atkinson
International HyperCard User Group (iHUG)
Pantechnicon Wiki, created by Alain Farmer has become a boon recently for serving as a center of information. This page highlights worldwide efforts and activities the past several years that have kept HyperCard visible to the public, and to Apple Computer.
iHUG visited the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in 2003 and published an interesting review of open source technologies from a HyperCard user perspective.
We are a virtual user group. Many of our members have used HyperCard for years. We include professionals in education and businesses all over the world. Many are seasoned scripters and carry an amazing knowledge of the software.
iHUG Membership is free. We meet virtually real-time on the mailing list. iHUG offers a place to present what can be achieved with the software. We also create CD-ROMS that promote the strengths Apple HyperCard provides Macintosh users, especially its relevence to Apple's QuickTime and AppleScript technologies.
Please contact us if you have questions. Join our mailing list and ask online if you like. It's a fun and enjoyable experience learning with people who regularly think about Apple HyperCard.:)
Apple HyperCard was used to create the HTML on this web site.
WWW - 1989
Tim Berners Lee @ CERN
A graduate of Oxford University, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, in 1989. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.
He is the 3Com Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence ( CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). He is also a Professor in the Electronics and Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK.
He is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization founded in 1994 which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. He is a founding Director of the Web Science Trust (WST) launched in 2009 to promote research and educaton in Web Science, the multidisciplinary study of humanity connected by technology.
He is also a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, launched in 2009 to fund and coordinate efforts to further the potential of the Web to benefit humanity.
During 2009 Tim also advised the UK Government's "Making Public Data Public" initiative.
In 2001 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has been the recipient of several international awards including the Japan Prize, the Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize, the Millennium Technology Prize and Germany's Die Quadriga award. In 2004 he was knighted by H.M. Queen Elizabeth and in 2007 he was awarded the Order of Merit. In 2009 he was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of "Weaving the Web".
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