Computer-related technologies created over the past 40-plus years

Mar 12, 2014 http://davidad.github.io blog post titled Systems Past - the only 8 software innovations we actually use

Here's the content for number 7, which laid the foundation for the World Wide Web to be first proposed by TBL in March 1989.

7. Hypermedia #

Year: 1968

Archetype

Doug Engelbart’s NLS introduced implementations of:

• hypertext links
• markup language
• document version control
• videoconferencing
• email with hypermedia
• hypermedia publishing
• flexible windowing modes

Motivation

Augmenting Human Intellect
By “augmenting human intellect” we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems. Increased capability in this respect is taken to mean a mixture of the following: more-rapid comprehension, better comprehension, the possibility of gaining a useful degree of comprehension in a situation that previously was too complex, speedier solutions, better solutions, and the possibility of finding solutions to problems that before seemed insoluble. And by “complex situations” we include the professional problems of diplomats, executives, social scientists, life scientists, physical scientists, attorneys, designers—whether the problem situation exists for twenty minutes or twenty years. We do not speak of isolated clever tricks that help in particular situations. We refer to a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-try, 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.
Existing, or near-future, technology could certainly provide our professional problem-solvers with the artifacts they need to have for duplicating and rearranging text before their eyes, quickly and with a minimum of human effort. Even so apparently minor an advance could yield total changes in an individual’s repertoire hierarchy that would represent a great increase in over-all effectiveness. Normally the necessary equipment would enter the market slowly; changes from the expected would be small, people would change their ways of doing things a little at a time, and only gradually would their accumulated changes create markets for more radical versions of the equipment. Such an evolutionary process has been typical of the way our repertoire hierarchies have grown and formed.
But an active research effort, aimed at exploring and evaluating possible integrated changes throughout the repertoire hierarchy, could greatly accelerate this evolutionary process.

Concept

Hypermedia refers to any communications medium which comprises interactive systems. The most popular forms of hypermedia are those employing hyperlinks: certain elements of a viewed object which can be activated through interaction and whose activation triggers the display of a different object, which is determined by the hyperlink and possibly also by the interaction. For example, the World Wide Web is a form of hypermedia (hypertext), though even HTML5 is not nearly as capable as hypermedia pioneers like Ted Nelson and Doug Engelbart had probably hoped.

Benefits

• Makes nonlinear communication/expression much easier
• A continuum between hypermedia authoring and program authoring eases more people into being able to craft programs to solve their own problems, which is good for freedom
• Could enable people to organize their own thoughts and lives more elegantly and smoothly

Exemplars

• HyperCard
• Twine
• Wikipedia

Drawbacks

• It’s easy to implement bad hypermedia, like HTML.
• If a software company makes good enough hypermedia, like HyperCard, it will be quickly discontinued since it will threaten the rest of the company’s product line.

#hypertext - #web