Nelson’s ideas of an open universal hypertext system is in many was incredibly prescient of our modern web. But one thing he (and others) got wrong(1) is the concept of backlinks: the ability of a user to see, for any page, a list of other pages (including those by other authors) which link to it.
It’s hard for me to imagine what the web of today would look like with this feature. Ignoring the (probably insurmountable) technical problems, I wonder what would happen if backlinks became available to web users today. How would it change the way we interact with and design websites?
(1): perhaps “foresaw differently” is more charitable since Nelson acknowledges that many systems do not include the feature and is arguing that the system of the future should.
The early 2000s blog community invented "trackback" for that purpose, but what Nelson didn't forsee was the inevitable problem of a truly open system: spam and other abuse.
Ted Nelson is my favorite example of a—smart, no doubt—man who can have all of the right ideas* yet see no real success in his personal career. I hope he sees a little more appreciation before he goes; maybe visual connections will take off, or a ZigZag-clone.
*His ideas on DRM don't count: too far after his time.
Nelson called for universal and open, but his Xandadu project was closed and ZigZag algorithm patented. He wanted to own and control the hypertex and sell the applications that use it.
He made some moves to open it up when it was too late.
Alan Kay's tribute to Ted Nelson at "Intertwingled" Fest (how the script of Tron was the first movie script to ever be edited by a word processing program, on the Alto computer)
"Silicon Valley Story" — a Very Short Romantic Comedy by Ted Nelson
A playful story about the microcircuitry of love, with Ted Nelson as an absentminded genius, featuring Doug Engelbart as Ted's father and Stewart Brand as the villainous CEO.
Closing song: "Information Flow", sung by Donna Spitzer and the auteur.
With Timothy Leary as the Good Venture Capitalist!
Oh, joy - the play "Silicon Valley Story" by Ted Nelson is so funny, weird, and self-consciously awkward in the best theatrical sense. Brilliant. I had never seen that before.
Saved the whole list in study/ted-nelson.txt. Thank you for gathering the links and sharing. (I'm a long-time fan of your work!)
Nelson’s ideas of an open universal hypertext system is in many was incredibly prescient of our modern web. But one thing he (and others) got wrong(1) is the concept of backlinks: the ability of a user to see, for any page, a list of other pages (including those by other authors) which link to it.
It’s hard for me to imagine what the web of today would look like with this feature. Ignoring the (probably insurmountable) technical problems, I wonder what would happen if backlinks became available to web users today. How would it change the way we interact with and design websites?
(1): perhaps “foresaw differently” is more charitable since Nelson acknowledges that many systems do not include the feature and is arguing that the system of the future should.