Re: Originator of "hypertext"

[Ray Bruman <rbruman -at- RND -dot- RAYNET -dot- COM>]

Lisa Baker <LISAB -at- WORDPERFECT -dot- COM> writes:
> Several years ago (1989 or so) I attended a presentation at
> IBM's Santa Teresa Lab given by the fellow who originated the
> term "hypertext".  At the time he was working at Autocad doing
> R&D on electronic delivery methods, I think.  He talked a lot
> about the future of documentation and as I recall described
> something like the world-wide-web where you click a hypertext
> link and jump to a document a world away.  He also talked
> about the self-documenting application and likened it to
> Pac-Man.  The screen tells you everything you need to know.

> Does anyone know what this guy's name is?  His presentation
> impressed me and I wanted to do some more reading on his

That was Ted Nelson, widely acknowledged as a visionary.
His vision is Project Xanadu, and Autocad was going to
implement it.  He's published several books worth looking
at:  Dream Machines/Computer Lib and Literary Machines.

He's sometimes written off as an impractical visionary like
Tesla or Swinbourne, unable to complete or implement the
vision.  But his ideas are inspiring.  I've been lucky enough
to speak with him and some of his cohorts over the years.

He's been interviewed endlessly, so if you do a literature
search on his name you'll find guest editorials, conference
papers, etc.

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