Wikipedia

Ted Nelson

For other people named Ted Nelson, seeTed Nelson (disambiguation).

Theodor Holm Nelson(born June 17, 1937) is an American pioneer ofinformation technology,philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the termshypertextandhypermediain 1963[1]and published them in 1965.[2]According to a 1997Forbesprofile, Nelson "sees himself as a literary romantic, like aCyrano de Bergerac,or 'theOrson Wellesof software'. "[3]

Ted Nelson
Nelson in 2011
Born(1937-06-17)June 17, 1937(age 87)
Chicago,Illinois,U.S.
Alma materSwarthmore College
University of Chicago
Harvard University
Keio University
Known forHypertext
Scientific career
FieldsInformation technology, philosophy, and sociology
InstitutionsProject Xanadu

Early life and education

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Nelson is the son ofEmmy Award-winning directorRalph NelsonandAcademy Award-winning actressCeleste Holm.[4]His parents' marriage was brief and he was mostly raised by his grandparents, first in Chicago and later inGreenwich Village.[5]

Nelson earned aB.A.in philosophy fromSwarthmore Collegein 1959. While there, he made an experimental humorous student film,The Epiphany of Slocum Furlow,in which the titular hero discovers the meaning of life. His contemporary at the college, musician and composerPeter Schickele,scored the film.[6]Following a year of graduate study in sociology at theUniversity of Chicago,Nelson began graduate work in Social Relations, then a department at Harvard University specializing in sociology, ultimately earning a M.A in sociology from the Department of Social Relations in 1962.[7]After Harvard, Nelson was a photographer and filmmaker for a year atJohn C. Lilly's Communication Research Institute in Miami, Florida, where he briefly shared an office withGregory Bateson.From 1964 to 1966, he was an instructor in sociology at Vassar College.

During college and graduate school, he began to envision a computer-based writing system that would provide a lasting repository for the world's knowledge, and also permit greater flexibility of drawing connections between ideas. This came to be known asProject Xanadu.

Much later in life, in 2002, he obtained hisPhDin media and governance fromKeio University.

Project Xanadu

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Main article:Project Xanadu

Nelson founded Project Xanadu in 1960, with the goal of creating a computer network with a simple user interface. The effort is documented in the booksComputer Lib / Dream Machines(1974),The Home Computer Revolution(1977) andLiterary Machines(1981). Much of his adult life has been devoted to working on Xanadu and advocating for it.

Throughout his career, Nelson supported his work on the project through a variety of administrative, academic and research positions and consultancies, including stints atHarcourt Brace and Company(a technology consultancy and assistantship where he metDouglas Engelbart,who later became a close friend; 1966-1967),[citation needed]Brown University(a tumultuous consultancy on the Nelson-inspiredHypertext Editing SystemandFile Retrieval and Editing Systemwith Swarthmore friendAndries van Dam's group; c. 1967-1969),[citation needed]Bell Labs(hypertext-related defense research; 1968-1969),[8]CBS Laboratories( "writing and photographing interactive slide shows for their AVS-10 instructional device"; 1968-1969),[8]theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago(an interdisciplinary staff position; 1973-1976)[8]and Swarthmore College (visiting lecturer in computing; 1977).[8]

Nelson also conducted research and development under the auspices of the Nelson Organization (founder and president; 1968-1972) and the Computopia Corporation (co-founder; 1977-1978). Clients of the former firm includedIBM,Brown University,Western Electric,theUniversity of California,theJewish Museum,the Fretheim Chartering Corporation and theDeering-Milliken Research Corporation.He has alleged that the Nelson Organization was envisaged as a clandestine funding conduit for theCentral Intelligence Agency,which expressed interest in Project Xanadu at an early juncture; however, the promised funds failed to materialize after several benchmarks were met.

From 1980 to 1981, he was the editor ofCreative Computing.At the behest of Xanadu developersMark S. Millerand Stuart Greene, Nelson joinedSan Antonio, Texas-basedDatapointas chief software designer (1981–1982), remaining with the company as a media specialist and technical writer until itsAsher Edelman-driven restructuring in 1984. Following several San Antonio-based consultancies and the acquisition of Xanadu technology byAutodeskin 1988, he continued working on the project as a non-managerial Distinguished Fellow in theSan Francisco Bay Areauntil the divestiture of the Xanadu Operating Group in 1992–1993.

After holding visiting professorships inmediaandinformation scienceatHokkaido University(1995-1996),Keio University(1996-2002), theUniversity of Southamptonand theUniversity of Nottingham,he was a fellow (2004–2006) and visiting fellow (2006–2008) of theOxford Internet Institutein conjunction withWadham College, Oxford.[9]More recently, he has taught classes atChapman Universityand theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz.

The Xanadu project itself failed to flourish, for a variety of reasons which are disputed. JournalistGary Wolfpublished an unflattering history of Nelson and his project in the June 1995 issue ofWired,calling it "the longest-runningvaporwareproject in the history of computing ".[10]On his own website, Nelson expressed his disgust with the criticisms, referring to Wolf as "Gory Jackal", and threatened to sue him.[11]He also outlined his objections in a letter toWired,[12]and released a detailed rebuttal of the article.[13]

As early as 1972, a demonstration iteration developed by Cal Daniels failed to reach fruition when Nelson was forced to return the project's rentedData General Novaminicomputerdue to financial exigencies. Nelson has stated that some aspects of his vision are being fulfilled byTim Berners-Lee's invention of theWorld Wide Web,but he dislikes the World Wide Web,XMLand all embeddedmarkup– regarding Berners-Lee's work as a gross over-simplification of his original vision:

HTML is precisely what we were trying to PREVENT— ever-breaking links, links going outward only, quotes you can't follow to their origins, noversion management,no rights management.[14]

Jaron Lanierexplained the difference between the World Wide Web and Nelson's vision, and the implications:

A core technical difference between a Nelsonian network and what we have become familiar with online is that [Nelson's] network links were two-way instead of one-way. In a network with two-way links, each node knows what other nodes are linked to it.... Two-way linking would preserve context. It's a small simple change in how online information should be stored that couldn't have vaster implications for culture and the economy.[15]

Other projects

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In 1957, while a student, Nelson co-wrote and co-produced what he describes as a pioneering rock musical. Entitled "Anything and Everything", it was produced and performed atSwarthmore College.[16]

In 1965, he presented the paper "Complex Information Processing: A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate" at theACMNational Conference, in which he coined the term "hypertext".[2]

In 1976, Nelson co-founded and briefly served as the advertising director of the "itty bitty machine company", or "ibm", a small computer retail store that operated from 1977 to 1980 inEvanston, Illinois.The itty bitty machine company was one of the few retail stores to sell theApple Icomputer. In 1978, he had a significant impact uponIBM's thinking when he outlined his vision of the potential of personal computing to the team that three years later launched theIBM PC.[17]

From the 1960s to the mid-2000s, Nelson built an extensive collection of direct advertising mail he received in his mailbox, mainly from companies selling products in IT, print/publishing, aerospace, and engineering. In 2017, theInternet Archivebegan to publish it online in scanned form, in a collection titled "Ted Nelson's Junk Mail Cartons".[18][19][20]

ZigZag

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Main article:ZigZag (software)

As of 2011, Nelson was working on a new information structure, ZigZag,[21]which is described on the Xanadu project website, which also hosts two versions of the Xanadu code. He also developed XanaduSpace, a system for the exploration of connected parallel documents (an early version of this software may be freely downloaded).[22]

Influence and recognition

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In January 1988Bytemagazinepublished an article about Nelson's ideas, titled "Managing Immense Storage".[23]This stimulated discussions within the computer industry, and encouraged people to experiment with Hypertext features.[citation needed]

In 1998, at the Seventh WWW Conference inBrisbane,Australia, Nelson was awarded theYuri Rubinsky Memorial Award.

In 2001, he was knighted by France asOfficier des Arts et Lettres.In 2007, he celebrated his 70th birthday by giving an invited lecture at theUniversity of Southampton.[24]In 2014, ACMSIGCHIhonored him with a Special Recognition Award.[25]

In 2014, Nelson was conferred with a Doctor of Science degree, honoris causa, byChapman University.The ceremony took place during the 'Intertwingled' conference, featuring Nelson and other prominent figures in the field, including Apple Computer founderSteve Wozniakand former Association for Computing Machinery presidentWendy Hall.At the conference, Nelson stated confidence in the potential of his Xanadu system, saying 'The world would have been a better place if I had succeeded, but I ain't dead yet.'[26]

Neologisms

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Nelson is credited with coining several new words that have come into common usage especially in the world of computing. Among them are:

Publications

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Many of his books are published through his own company, Mindful Press.[27]

  • Life, Love, College, etc.(1959)
  • Computer Lib:You can and must understand computers now /Dream Machines:New freedoms through computer screens—a minority report(1974), Microsoft Press, revised edition 1987:ISBN0-914845-49-7[28]
  • The Home Computer Revolution(1977)
  • Literary Machines:The report on, and of, Project Xanadu concerning word processing, electronic publishing, hypertext, thinkertoys, tomorrow's intellectual revolution, and certain other topics including knowledge, education and freedom(1981), Mindful Press, Sausalito, California; publication dates as listed in the 93.1 (1993) edition: 1980–84, 1987, 1990–93
  • The Future of Information(1997)
  • A Cosmology for a Different Computer Universe: Data Model, Mechanisms, Virtual Machine and Visualization InfrastructureArchivedOctober 9, 2004, atarchive.today.Journal of Digital Information, Volume 5 Issue 1. Article No. 298, July 16, 2004
  • Geeks Bearing Gifts: How The Computer World Got This Way(2008;Chapter summaries)
  • POSSIPLEX: Movies, Intellect, Creative Control, My Computer Life and the Fight for Civilization(2010), autobiography, published by Mindful Press viaLulu[29][30]

References

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  1. ^Nelson, Theodor Holm (August 1965). "Complex information processing".Proceedings of the 1965 20th national conference.ACM. pp. 84–100.doi:10.1145/800197.806036.ISBN9781450374958.S2CID2556127.
  2. ^abRettberg, Jill Walker."Complex Information Processing: A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate".Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice.Archivedfrom the original on July 7, 2013.RetrievedJuly 3,2013.
  3. ^"Ted Nelson - Forbes.com".www.forbes.com.Archivedfrom the original on August 20, 2020.RetrievedAugust 24,2018.
  4. ^John Leland(July 2, 2011)."Love and Inheritance: A Family Feud".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on June 17, 2022.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  5. ^"Internet Pioneers: Ted Nelson".Ibiblio.Archivedfrom the original on November 15, 2022.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  6. ^Ted Nelson (1959)."The Epiphany of Slocum Furlow".Student film available on YouTube.Archivedfrom the original on December 11, 2021.RetrievedNovember 2,2013.
  7. ^Keep, Christopher; McLaughlin, Tim; Parmar, Robin (July 2000)."Ted Nelson and Xanadu".The Electronic Labyrinth.University of Alberta.Archivedfrom the original on September 28, 2022.RetrievedSeptember 28,2022.
  8. ^abcd"Ted Nelson - Curriculum Vitae".Archived fromthe originalon May 6, 2015.
  9. ^"OII | Dr Ted Nelson".Archivedfrom the original on March 16, 2018.RetrievedApril 24,2018.
  10. ^Gary Wolf (June 1995)."The Curse of Xanadu".Wired.Vol. 3, no. 6.Archivedfrom the original on March 20, 2014.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  11. ^"What they say".Ted.hyperland.com.Archivedfrom the original on January 16, 2006.RetrievedMay 26,2011.
  12. ^"Letters about" The Curse of Xanadu "".Wired.Vol. 3, no. 9. January 4, 2009.Archivedfrom the original on July 16, 2013.RetrievedMay 26,2011.
  13. ^"Errors in" The Curse of Xanadu, "by Gary Wolf".vinci.org.2010. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018.RetrievedMay 25,2011.Errors in 'The Curse of Xanadu', by Gary Wolf{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. ^Ted Nelson (1999)."Ted Nelson's Computer Paradigm Expressed as One-Liners".Archivedfrom the original on March 24, 2023.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  15. ^Jaron Lanier,Who Owns the Future,New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013. p. 227
  16. ^Ted Nelson (book and lyrics) and Dick Caplan (music), Russ Ryan (poster and album label cartoons) (November 23, 1957).""Anything & Everything""– via Internet Archive.
  17. ^John Markoff (December 11, 2007)."When Big Blue Got a Glimpse of the Future".Bits.blogs.nytimes.com.Archivedfrom the original on July 24, 2011.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  18. ^"Ted Nelson's Junk Mail (and the Archive Corps Pilot)".ASCII by Jason Scott.May 31, 2017.Archivedfrom the original on December 2, 2019.RetrievedJuly 30,2017.
  19. ^"Why Is the Internet Archive Painstakingly Preserving One Man's Junk Mail?".Motherboard.July 25, 2017.Archivedfrom the original on July 29, 2017.RetrievedJuly 30,2017.
  20. ^"Ted Nelson's Junk Mail Cartons".Internet Archive.RetrievedJuly 30,2017.
  21. ^Ted Nelson."ZigZag and Its Structure".Xanadu.com.Archivedfrom the original on December 18, 2007.RetrievedMay 26,2011.
  22. ^Ted Nelson (June 25, 2007)."XanaduSpace".Xanarama.net.Archivedfrom the original on June 25, 2011.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  23. ^H. Nelson, Theodor (January 1988). "Managing Immense Storage".Byte: The Small Systems Journal.Vol. 13, no. 1. pp. 225–238.
  24. ^70th Birthday Lecture:Intertwingularity: where ideas collideonYouTube
  25. ^"ACM SIGCHI 2014 awards page".Archived fromthe originalon July 5, 2014.RetrievedApril 26,2014.
  26. ^Dawn Bonker (April 28, 2014)."In honor of Ted Nelson, computer pioneers connect at 'Intertwingled'".Chapman University.Archivedfrom the original on September 3, 2023.RetrievedSeptember 3,2023.
  27. ^"Other Publications From Mindful Press".www.aus.xanadu.com.Archived fromthe originalon November 3, 2013.RetrievedNovember 2,2013.
  28. ^L. R. Shannon (February 16, 1988)."Peripherals: A Book That Grew Up".New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on January 27, 2010.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  29. ^"Ted Nelson Possiplex book launch at The Tech Museum – Eventbrite".The Tech Museum San Jose. October 6, 2010.Archivedfrom the original on November 3, 2013.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
  30. ^"Ted Nelson Speaks About Possiplex".The San Francisco Chronicle.October 8, 2010. Archived fromthe originalon July 16, 2011.RetrievedJuly 3,2011.
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