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The current literature on hypertext falls more or less evenly into one of two categories that treat the technology so differently one might be forgiven for assuming there were two entirely different kinds of technology—both called "hypertext?presently in circulation. Writing and research on hypertext can, variously, be divided roughly into articles and books that deal primarily with its technical capacity the design and software engineering principles behind hypertext software and how models of human cognition either parallel or diverge from those used in designing the software interface and literature that focuses largely on its potential effects on discourse and, by extension, on society.

Unlike Nelson, however, Landow and Bolter & Joyce were drawing parallels between the definition of the post-modern Text made by critical theorists such as Barthes, Bakhtin, Derrida, and Foucault and the physical characteristics of hypertext.

• Landow: Brown: similarities between hypertext and a broad spectrum of theoretical constructs ranging from formalism to deconstruction
• Bolter: tracing the development of technologies of representation from oral cultures through to hypertext and artificial intelligence. Notes how well the post-modern theorists seem to be anticipating electronic writing

C]ritical theory promises to theorize hypertext and hypertext promises to embody and thereby test aspects of theory, particularly those concerning textuality, narrative and the roles or functions of reader and writer. Using hypertext, critical theorists will have, or now already have, a new laboratory, in addition to the conventional library of printed texts, in which to test their ideas.

vercome what Foucault had observed of publishings dedication to the restriction and not the proliferation of discourse

In all of my designs from the very beginning, the sacredness of human inspiration was the center. My typical user would come running in, rushing to the keyboard, no time to open the file, turn on the machine, or name anything. You start typing, then one thought interrupts and you start typing that other thing. And you keep backing up and returning and reweaving and every one of these should be stored on disk immediately whenever it is finished or put aside and printed out immediately whenever it is finished or put aside. So that in the event of total failure of the system, you are completely up to date.

The inspiration I had then, and this was between October and December 1960, the idea was all nailed by Christmas was the notion of transclusion as the cornerstone. People are just getting that now. You might

But now because nobody wanted to hear about Xanadu any more and because we now have a functioning worldwide hypertext system, bad as it may be. We can begin to fix it. And so what I am proposing is I now call the Osmic Standard.

And by the way, under the transcopyright system, when there is micro-purchase, I think there should also be a receipt. Because there will be copyright cops. I did not create this system. I laugh at danger, but there will be copyright cops and they will be breaking in on somebody. The whole point is that this is a squeaky clean way it can be done

Related

• Audio Excerpt

Master thesis by Matthias M?ller-Prove, 2002:

The World Wide Web took off ten years ago. Its tremendous success makes it easy to forget the more than forty years of hypertext development that preceded the Web. Similarly, modern graphical user interfaces have drawn attention away from the many compelling ideas behind earlier user interface designs. In the present thesis, numerous early hypertext and graphical user interface systems are presented and contrasted with today's Web and desktop interfaces. The designers of early hypertext and graphical user interface systems shared a common objective: the development of a personal dynamic medium for creative thought. Not very much is left from this original vision. Retrospect reveals promising insights that might help to reconcile the desktop environment with the Web in order to design a consistent and powerful way to interact with the computer.

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