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Ted Nelson's Xanadu and his opinion about WWW

The Web isn't hypertext, it's DECORATED DIRECTORIES! What we have instead is the vacuous victory of typesetters over authors, and the most trivial form of hypertext that could have been imagined. The original hypertext project, XanaduÆ, has always been about pure document structures where authors and readers don't have to think about computerish structures of files and hierarchical directories.

Xanadu

The Xanadu project has endeavored to implement a pure structure of links and facilitated re-use of content in any amounts and ways, allowing authors to concentrate on what mattered. Instead, today's nightmarish new world is controlled by "webmasters", tekkies unlikely to understand the niceties of text issues and preoccupied with the Web's exploding alphabet soup of embedded formats.

XML is not an improvement but a hierarchy hamburger. Everything, everything must be forced into hierarchical templates! And the "semantic web" means that tekkie committees will decide the world's true concepts for once and for all. Enforcement is going to be another problem :) It is a very strange way of thinking, but all too many people are buying in because they think that's how it must be. There is an alternative.

Markup must not be embedded. Hierarchies and files must not be part of the mental structure of documents. Links must go both ways. All these fundamental errors of the Web must be repaired. But the geeks have tried to lock the door behind them to make nothing else possible.

Above content quoted from:

Ted Nelson's Thinking in http://ted.hyperland.com/buyin.txt

The original file of above quotation is a simple text file without any flowerish formating of the text document. The reason behind is that Mr. Ted Nelsons thinks that the content is matter instead of the flowerish formatting which may inhibit others to do connections with his file.

Refering to above comments from Mr. Ted Nelson, he disagrees that WWW is Hypertext as many people perceived. He said link must go both way. However, will this create any problem to the existing WWW? How about the security issue? Anyone is having the freedom to edit what you have authored. This is particularly attracts attention of some sensitive information dissemination webs like government organization, financial organization and etc.

Footnote by webmaster

















 

 

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