Ted Nelson, by his own admission, is a 'paradigm builder'. Nelson believes that without new words in our language we cannot think new thoughts, we simply go around in circles, so he makes up new words for complex ideas.[1] Nelson also believes that todays one way hypertext, the World Wide Web is far too shallow. His own Xanadu© project anticipated hypertext but has always tried to develop a far deeper system than is currently available. For a description of Nelson's Xanadu© visit here.
According to Nelson,
"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."[2]
Nelson seems upset that the idea of hypertext has been used
and developed incorrectly. He want to see a deeper 'parallel hypertext with
non-breaking two-way links. Suffice it to say however that by his own admission,
Nelson believes that; "There is far too much to say, and far too little
time to say it."[3]
<<linking cybertext & ergodic literature>>
------------------------------------------
[1] In Nelson, T. n.d., What I
Do, [Online], Available:
http://ted.hyperland.com/whatIdo/
[2002, Oct. 14]. back
[2] In Nelson, T. n.d., Xanadu
Australia, [Online], Available:
http://xanadu.com.au/ [2002, Oct. 14]. back
[3] In Nelson, T. n.d., What I
Do, [Online], Available:
http://ted.hyperland.com/whatIdo/
[2002, Oct. 14]. back
------------------------------------------