openpolitics.com

Xanadu’s shortcomings (from Swedish)

The developments took this turn is at least partly to attribute the shortcomings and idiosyncrasies that characterized Xanaduprojektet:

• A widespread amateurism among employees (Nelson himself included).
• An inability to identify a clear target group that would take the system in use and popularize it (Nelson and his hacker colleagues have pushed imagine themselves Xanadu users as a collection of self-taught programmers).
• A monumental disinterest in computer programming ring “front end”, that is, the side facing the user, and is colloquially become known as the interface or user interface.
• An excessive preoccupation with copyright issues (Nelson’s Xanadu would operate as a commercial network, much like a traditional phone companies, which would pay for each time quotes conditioned (see transclusion) a document. This carefree cut-and-pasting (cut -and-paste ) that have come to characterize much of the WWW , in other words, would not be allowed.
• A strong fixation on text media on auditory and visual media expense (Nelson’s continued aversion to non-textual media, evidenced by his various writings on the web).