HUMAN '25: Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Human Factors in Hypertext

An AI-generated podcast companion article to augment the The 8th Workshop on Human Factors in Hypertext Session of the HUMAN '25

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In the Hypertext Community, we have long discussed the notion of re-encountering text in different contexts; re-reading is essential to any traversal of a narrative hypertext structure. In this talk, I introduce the idea of re-reading as it is applied to data-in-the-small, zooming in on the details. To illustrate, I work through a re-reading of data collected about a household enumerated in the 1925 New York State Census. Four interpretive elements are brought into play: the structure of the data, the record gathering process, a larger historical context, and the identification and use of alternative sources for the same data.

Research on hypertext and communities has largely focused on detecting communities on social platforms or using hypertext systems to support online communities. This article reverses that approach, exploring how existing, traditional communities can be mapped using the language of hypertext research. Since no community today operates entirely offline, we propose starting with how a given community articulates its digital strategies and views on networked communication.

This study focuses on the Catholic Church—a community and institution rarely examined in hypertext research—from two angles. First, as an institutional actor whose media strategy evolved from cautious engagement (Benedict XVI) to active participation in networked communication (Francis). Second, as a community for whom hypertext revives older, pre–mass media models of idea dissemination. Historically, the Church exemplified a top-down model of information flow[23]. Hypertext disrupts this model, yet Church – as the papal messages for World Communication Day demonstrate – responded pragmatically, framing the internet, hypertext, and social media as opportunities rather than threats.

This paper builds on proposals by hypertext scholars to treat hypertext as a network of people [3], as a method of inquiry [6], and as a lens to examine systems not traditionally seen as hypertextual. We present two studies—sentiment analysis and n-gram analysis—of Vatican discourse, showing how the Church’s engagement with digital tools and peer-based media reflects a growing contribution to a hypertext communication model, particularly during the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Computing fits naturally into familiar modes of history, philology, and antiquarian research. Computational insights into error detection and correction, textual integrity and linkage, and into collections and composition all find echoes in the textual practice of the ancient world. We know remarkable details about Old Babylonian school days and about the ways wealthy Romans arranged their books; reflecting on these practices from a perspective of theoretical computing reveals intriguing insights.

At the HUMAN’25 workshop, four members of the hypertext research community reflected on the “hypertext as method” argument; specifically, the idea that hypertext should be understood as a method of inquiry rather than as merely a type of system. These community members presented position statements to address challenges stemming from this proposed method, including designing interfaces for LLMs, supporting annotation and note-taking as cognitive tools, evaluating AI as a collaborator in intellectual work, and applying hypertext analysis to historical information networks. These positions and the subsequent discussion contained several common themes, including a preference for augmentation over automation and concerns that generative AI may encourage users to disengage from critical thinking.