Hyper Text History

Perhaps you are looking for BackButtonForBrowsingHyperText?

You would think that Hypertext would have fairly recent origin, like say the 60s or 70s. But think again. Hypertext is thought by some to have originated in 1945.

From VannevarBush's 1945 essay "AsWeMayThink":

Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his records more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory. His excursions may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important.

Vannevar Bush introduces a concept for handling the rapidly developing information developed during the 2nd World War in the period following it. His description of the "memex" is amazingly similar to a modern microcomputer and the process he describes for navigation is the forerunner of the modern "browser" (see MemexVision).

See Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond [ISBN 0-12-518408-5] (paperback).

See also: Nyce, J. and Kahn, P., From Memex To Hypertext, Academic Press, 1991, ISBN:0125232705

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1. PaulOtlet publishes "Traité de documentation", proposing, among other innovations, annotated links between documents

http://boxesandarrows.com/forgotten-forefather-paul-otlet/


1. Vannevar Bush proposes Memex (see AsWeMayThink)

1. Ted Nelson introduces Xanadu and the word "hypertext"(reference?)
2. 6
3. The Hypertext Editing System and FRESS, Brown University, Andy van Dam
4. Doug Engelbart demo of NLS system at FJCC
5. Edward Packard writes "Sugarcane Island" the first known "Choose Your Own Adventure" Book.

http://www.netaxs.com/~katz/game/advyou.htm


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6. ZOG (now KMS): CMU
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10. "Choose Your Own Adventure" Books become popular with children in US.
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15. Filevision Macintosh application from Telos
16. Michael Lebowitz "Creating Characters in a Story-Telling Universe"

Creation of a story telling program ColumbiaUniversity
http://mh.cla.umn.edu//ebibss2.html


1. Symbolics Document Examiner, Janet Walker
2. Intermedia, Brown University, Norman Meyrowitz
3. NoteCards, Xerox
4. OWL introduces Guide, first widely available hypertext
5. Stephen T. Kerr. "Instructional Text: The Transition from Page to Screen." VisibleLanguage introduced.

http://mh.cla.umn.edu//ebibsw1.html


1. Apple introduces HyperCard, Bill Atkinson
2. Hypertext'87 first major conference on hypertext
3. Eric Drexler and Ted Nelson develop the concept of 'ents'; AutoDesk funds a new attempt to implement Xanadu
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6. World Wide Web at CERN becomes first global hypertext, TimBernersLee
7. New York Times Book Review cover story on hypertext fiction
8. Mosaic from National Center for Supercomputing Applications; AutoDesk withdraws from the XanaduProject
9. Hypermedia encyclopedias sales cause the diminishing influence of the printed ones
10. WikiWiki - An online hypertext authoring system utilizing WikiWords as HyperLinks,

easily editable by all users introduced by WardCunningham


1. Bibliography of Early Electronic Texts some of which employing hypertext

http://mh.cla.umn.edu//ebib.html


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4. Code from two iterations of the XanaduProject is released OpenSource under the names 'Udanax Green' and 'Udanax Gold'
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6. January - WikiPedia - An online hypertext collaborative encyclopedia formed
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Is the history of hypertext complete? Has the ubiquity of the World Wide Web, HTML, & HTTP made hypertext research a dead field?

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CategoryInternet CategoryWebDesign CategoryHypercard