WHAT THE GEEKS KNOW

Hypertext and the Problem of Literacy

What is hypertext?“merely a direct connection from one position in a text to another” (Aarseth, 1994)

[http://www.cs.sfu.ca/CourseCentral/365/mark/material/notes/Chap1/Chap1.html]

“In hypertext … the reader determines the unfolding of the text by clicking on certain areas, the so-called hyperlinks, that bring to the screen other segments of text” (Ryan, 2001)

[http://metabole.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/literary-theory-in-digital-age.html]

First use of the wordFebruary 3, 1965Ted Nelson

"Professor Nelson Talk Analyzes P.R.I.D.E."

[http://faculty.vassar.edu/mijoyce/Ted_sed.html]

PRIDE:Personalized Retrieval Indexing and Documentary Evolution system, invention of Nelson

“He introduced the concept of the hyper-text, which would be a more flexible, more generalized, non-linear presentation of material on a particular subject.The educational possibilities in the use of the hyper-text are vast. For example, it is possible that basic texts on a subject could be interindexed, so that the necessity and difficulty of tracing footnotes and rare sources would be eliminated. In this way the problems of information retrieval because of widespread writing today would be alleviated, making decisions in many fields easier.”

[http://media.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/?p=637]

Development of the concept

Ted Nelson demonstrates Xanadu Spacehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En_2T7KH6RA

Later, Ted Nelson returned to his original ideas and developed a software Xanadu.Improving paper, rather than immitating it. 3D virtual space to represent hypertext

http://xanarama.net/

http://xanadu.com/

[http://xanadu.com/XanaduSpace/btf.htm]

Hypertext as a system

Navigation through large volumes of documents and data

Connecting separate documents or objects together in meaningful ways

‘hypertext-as-interaction with information to build associations, and through associations to build knowledge’(Schraefel et al., 2001)

Networked archive

[http://cristinaskybox.blogspot.com.au/2010/09/learning-strategies-mind-maps.html]

Hypertext is much closer to human associative thinking than traditional print text(Bush, 1996)

[http://xanadu.com/XanaduSpace/btf.htm]

[http://cmap.ihmc.us/publications/researchpapers/theorycmaps/theoryunderlyingconceptmaps.htm]

[http://marquetteeducator.wordpress.com/]

Waves in history of hypertext

1. Hypertext as a concept

2. Hypertext as an experiment

3. Hypertext as an everyday reality

The third wave

Not only text-to-text

but any type of multimedia object can be connected to any other

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1024.jpg]

All information isconnected,searchable, accessible

[http://www-computer.org/computers-and-internet]

Real-world objects have been ‘hypertextualized’ as well

[http://bitsstation.com/]

Physical object can contain a hyperlink now (QR code)

Physical world connected to virtual

[http://www.istockphoto.com][http://qrarts.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/qr-shoe-concept/]

[http://truexcullins.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/bent-plywood-and-qr-codes.html]

Floor plan diagram

Floor plans showing both plate system and hypernodal system integration

Grand Egyptian Museum hypertextual organisation of objects

a number of thematic paths

“Each alternative circulation sequence within the same space creates new associations and deepens the understanding and knowledge of the visitor to the museum. The beauty of an hypertextual system is that its very non-linearness allows and even demands these multiple passes. Context and direction are what are important, it is in there that information is held.”

[http://www.rlab-a.org/content-fragments/Hypertext/]

Archive(s)

[http://theheatwarps.blogspot.com.au/]

[http://jodyfisher.wordpress.com]

[http://www.blogosfera.rs/kategorija_lokalni_14/otvaranje-internet-citaonica-u-bavanistu-i-gaju.html]

Scholarly archive“collections of scholarly texts and the catalogues and the reference works giving access to them” (Dalgaard,2001)

[http://www.rawmilkconnect.dk/WorldlNews]

[http://elearncal.wordpress.com][http://www.emeraldinsight.com/research/guides/management/new_search_engines.htm?part=5]

Scholarly(?) archives

[http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/12/wikipedia-redesign-whats-in-store/]

Other types of archives

Blogosphere[http://carlabradman.wordpress.com/]

Fiction libraries

YouTube[http://news.cnet.com]

QUESTION

Think of other examples of digital archives

Reading at risk?“Reading”, according to NEA, is applicable ONLY to printed linear documents

[http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0805/detail/cfb04.html][http://www.personalonlinejournal.info/category/books/]

READING

NOT READING

[http://www.filebuzz.com/files/Library_Browser/1.html]

DEFINITELY NOT READING[http://www.geardiary.com/]

Today, we consume more information than ever before, but if it is not seen as reading, then:

What is reading?

What is educational reading?

Is it limited to a certain form or format? Authorship?

What is knowledge?

What is literacy?

QUESTIONSThink of digital archives you have listed in the previous exercise.

1. Which of them contain knowledge?

2. Where is the line between archives that increase literacy/contribute to personal knowledge, and those that do not?

For example, think about:• Wikipedia and Absurdopedia• Government site and twitter• Web forum and ‘informal’ areas of the forum• E-library or classical literature and a sire of amateur-produced fiction• Original amateur fiction and fanfiction

Old definition of literacy is outdated

We read different types of textsWe read text with different mediaWe read texts differentlyWe prefer to surf through web instead of reading from cover to cover

[http://www.chiefmartec.com/semantic-web/] [http://www.ingodsimage.com/?p=4285]

Interesting resourceshttp://www.eastgate.com/storyspace/index.html

“Storyspace is a hypertext writing environment, especially well suited to creating large, complex, and challenging hypertexts.”

http://xanarama.net/

Xanadu Space project

http://socialcollider.net/

Presents Twitter conversations as an interconnected archive

REFERENCES• Aarseth, E.J. “Nonlinearity and Literary Theory.” Hyper/text/theory (1994): 51–86. Print.• Bush, V. “As We May Think.” (1945): n. pag. Print.• Carr, L., D. De Roure, and W. Hall . “You've Got Hypertext.” Journal of Digital Information

(JoDI) 5.1.253 (2004): n. pag. Print.• Dalgaard, Rune. “Hypertext and the Scholarly Archive: Intertexts, Paratexts and Metatexts

at Work.” (2001): 175–184. Web. Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia.

• Moulthrop, S. “What the Geeks Know: Hypertext and the Problem of Literacy.” Proceedings of the sixteenth ACM conference on Hypertext and hypermedia (2005): 227–231. Print.

• Nelson, T. “Lost in Hyperspace.” NEW SCIENTIST 191.2561 (2006): 26–26. Print.• Nelson, T.H., R.A. Smith, and M. Mallicoat. “Back to the Future: Hypertext the Way It Used

to Be.” Proceedings of the eighteenth conference on Hypertext and hypermedia (2007): 227–228. Print.

• Ryan, M.L. “Narrative as Virtual Reality.” (2001): n. pag. Print.• Wardrip-Fruin, N. “What Hypertext Is.” Proceedings of the fifteenth ACM conference on

Hypertext and hypermedia (2004): 126–127. Print.• “Hypermedia/Multimedia.” “Hypermedia/Multimedia.” cs.sfu.ca. Web. 17 May 2012.• “Institute for the Future of the Book.” “Institute for the Future of the Book.”

futureofthebook.org. Web. 18 May 2012.