Hypertext News
Welcome to the 2007 Hypertext Conference in its 20th Anniversary Year
Welcome to Hypertext 2007 (HT07) in this the 20th anniversary year of the inagural conference. I think it would be fair to say that the hypertext community has been in flux over the past few years, looking for its place in a climate where the Web predominates.
I find that in this climate, where hypertext (and its conference) is becoming overshadowed by the Web, a reexamination of our roots is not only useful but also necessary. Indeed, I feel that the 1987 conference has a particular resonance in a research climate of interfaces: the life science interface, the information interface, the medical interface... it seems to me that we have taken our eye of the true meaning of hypertext and its differences from the Web.
On further consideration, by realising the importance of interfaces, we can understand the importance of hypertext, the non-linear narrative, and research to support them. I believe that when Ted Nelson first coined the term 'hypertext' he was not thinking of a purely cold information flow but a warm and vibrant conduit for art, culture, and communication - or at least with these properties at its heart. Indeed, looking at Jakob Nielsen's 1987 Hypertext trip report he alludes to just these cultural roots:
"HyperTEXT'87 was the first large-scale meeting devoted to the hypertext concept. Before the workshop, hypertext had been considered a somewhat esoteric concept of interest to a few fanatics only."
"Andy van Dam in his opening speech called HC "beautifully engineered in spite of its many flaws" and suggested that it would "enculture" the computer community. It is simple enough to be widely used and is already emerging as somewhat of a cult (19) phenomenon. On the other hand, Jef Raskin said that HyperCard is only cheap and popular for the software itself. To run it, you need an expensive computer in the form of a Macintosh, so in reality it is "yuppie-text."
So in a world of interfaces where is Hypertext in 2007? I'd suggest at the forfront of the cultural interface.
posted by: Simon HARPER on Thursday, January 18, 2007