Hypertext | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Hypertext is a way to organize information in a digital format that makes use of traditional text structures (words, sentences, pages, articles or chapters, books, and libraries) as enhanced by the multiple linkages (words to words, words to sentences, sentences to sentences, sentences to pages, pages to pages, pages to chapters, and so on) possible in cyberspace. When hypertexts further employ graphics, images, audio, and video, they become hypermedia. By both enhancing and subverting traditional assumptions about the linear reading of a text (i.e., word after word, sentence after sentence, page after page) hypertexts also both expand ethical reflection and create ethical issues related to access, the implications of linking choices, and more.

The architecture of information in the digital context consists of three basic elements: nodes, links, and anchors. In hypertext, information is distributed in building units called nodes. Nodes store a large amount of information, anything from a printed page to an entire book. Nodes can include text, graphics, images, and sounds (hypermedia). They are connected by links; a link between two nodes allows the reader to switch from one to another.

Anchors allow readers or users to determine whether a link exists and if so, to access it.. The reader can switch from one informational unit to another by clicking an anchor zone. Anchor zones are identifiable by some kind of emphasis; they may be a different color than other text, cause changes in the shape of the cursor, appear as icons, and so on, and usually give an indication of the link destination.

With these three basic construction elements, among others, designers can build simple and reduced hypertextual organizations, as well as large, complex ones. Well-designed hypertextual organizations are of great help in translating information to the computer screen. If providers of digital support were limited to using traditional methods of information dissemination, such as print matter, the efficiency and value of that support would be severely reduced.

Providing information through hypertext creates different ways of reading. Readers have more paths open to them because nodes offer a variety of links. Sequential or traditional reading does not allow such multiplicity. Thus hypertextual reading is termed navigation.

Vannevar Bush presented a precursor to modern hypertext technology in "As We May Think" (1945). Using the technology available at that time, Bush proposed the Memex, a device that could present independent documents in much the same way that memory works, jumping from one to another. In 1965 Theodor (Ted)
H. Nelson coined the term hypertext and discussed the Docuverse, a universe composed of a range of documents, including international literary works. He argued that one should be able to navigate through all the documents and their interrelated fragments and parts. The very same year J. C. R. Licklider published Libraries of the Future.

These ideas and concepts could not be realized until devices to implement them were created. Douglas Engelbart, for example, not only proposed theoretical concepts but played a key role in inventing devices which are now integral parts of the modern computer, including the mouse, computer windows, and other graphic interfaces.

Hypertext is the result of technological achievements in hardware and software as well as the creativity of authors who experimented with different structures. Hypertext requires communication networks, computers, authoring tools, and browsers that allow readers to see the hypertext on the computer screen and interact with it. Hypertext also requires continued exploration of the possibilities in this new information framework.

Developers, designers, and inventors have achieved major technological advances in this nascent field. Among them are Tim Berners-Lee's invention of the World Wide Web (www, the largest and best-known hypertextual construct) and HyperText Markup Language (HTML); Peter Brown's development of the first software guide for hypertext production in personal computers, accessible to computer users of all levels of expertise; and Bill Atkinson's design of the HyperCard for Macintosh, which uses the programming language HyperTalk.

Information on the www is like an unbound book. Any author can add to the work by using a link. Readers navigate through this information and each binds the material into an individual book composed of different authors' pages. Boundaries that define the notions of intellectual property are difficult to maintain and traditional methods of protecting copyrights are becoming obsolete. New legal and cultural tools are needed to deal with such changes.

The Wiki Wiki Web is an example of a hypertext construct based on the unrestricted access of users. Each user contributes to the collective work and decides where to create links. There are no webmasters or any central control. Each reader is an author and has the power to eliminate or change the contributions of others. Individual responsibility and self-control and a sense of collaboration on a collective work are guiding forces in these activities, one of which is the continuous creation of the online Wikipedia. Robert McHenry (2004), however, has challenged the quality of this "faith-based encyclopedia."

Hypertext technology allows virtually unrestricted linking of information nodes. Links to information that is clearly related to the subject matter of a particular text are certainly acceptable. But when the destination of a link is not visible, or when readers are diverted to a destination despite their intent to go elsewhere, ethical issues arise.

Likewise decisions to link to certain materials or web sites and not to others, while understandable and arguably defensible, could result in the marginalization of groups with less scientific or social prestige and power. The need to discriminate among the vast amount of information available on the Internet could lead to cherry-picking sources of information and experts in fields, thus virtually excluding access to other sources and experts. This situation raises the potential for what has been called a balkanization of the global village by Marshall Van Alstyne and Erik Brynjolfsson.

Transcending the barriers of traditional text is certainly an achievement with positive implications that are still being explored. However the potential misuse of hypertext technology or the unforeseen negative results of its use are causes for concern and thoughtful examination.

Computer Ethics;; Cyberculture;; Free Software;; Internet;; Networks;; Science, Technology, and Literature.

Landow, George P. (1997). Hypertext 2.0. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. A revised version of Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (1992).

Licklider, J. C. R. (1965). Libraries of the Future. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Van Alstyne, Marshall, and Erik Brynjolfsson. (1996). "Could the Internet Balkanize Science?" Science 274(5272): 1479–1480.

Bush, Vannevar. (1945). "As We May Think." Originally published in the Atlantic Monthly (July 1945), the text is available on a number of Internet sites, including http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~jod/texts/va nnevar.bush.html.

McHenry, Robert. (2004). "The Faith-Based Encyclopedia." Available at Tech Central Station, http://www.techcentralstation.com/11150 4A.html.

Nelson, Theodor Holm. The best single source for information on Ted Nelson and his ideas, with links to other pages, is an article on the Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson .

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