Hypertext: Linking Ideas, Decades, and Dreams
The year was 1987. I was seventeen years old and sitting in my Computer Science 11 class, eagerly anticipating what we would be learning about next in this “cutting edge science” course. Very few students in the school were allowed to even touch the handful of computers. We felt privileged while others thought we were the ‘geeks’, after all, who else would want to waste time looking at a computer?
The teacher arrived and printed “Hypercard” on the chalkboard. Hypercard? What was that? He proceeded to introduce us to cutting edge new software that would allow us to create a set of linked cards. The user would be able to click on “hypertext” on a card and it would automatically take them to another card in the stack with information about the text they had clicked on. The entire concept of not having to scroll through information to find what you were looking for absolutely blew our minds! We were like kids given free reign in a candy store, frothing at the bit to get started! We had no idea that this was only the beginning of something big.
Hypertext is defined as “a method of storing data through a computer program that allows a user to create and link fields of information at will and to retrieve the data nonsequentially” (dictionary.com, 2015). In the 1980’s, Bill Adkinson created Hypercard as a stand alone system that allowed the user to link ideas. But how about the ability to link ideas beyond the set of hypercards? The concept was there, but how would it be developed? By 1989, Tim Berners-Lee proposed the creation of a ‘world wide web’ which would allow the linking, or hypertexting, of information on a global scale (Bolter, 2001). The internet evolution had begun! Or did the roots go back even further. The idea of hypertext did not start with Adkinson and Berners-Lee. In fact, the concept had already been percolating for many decades.
The article “As we May Think” was written by a cutting edge thinker in the year 1945. In the article, Vannevar Bush describes the technology of his time, the typewriter and adding machine, as being in the embryonic stage. He tells of how the sharing of printed text was so limited due to the sheer mass and volume. Bush envisioned changing how text was stored, perhaps onto microfilm, which could then be easily shared. His vision included a simple desktop work space with a screen, keyboard, buttons and levers. He wanted a means of linking ideas on the microfilm books to be linked for quick retrieval (Bush, 1945). Seventy years ago, Vannevar Bush had already visualized hypercard and hypertext. Yet it would be almost forty years before it became reality.
Vannevar Bush died in 1974. He never lived to see the development of hypercard or the world wide web. Fortunately, we are able to reflect on his forward thinking as it helps us not only to appreciate the development of technology, but to realize that we must continue our own visions for technological advancements.
The development of hypertext goes far beyond Bush’s original vision. It has connected the ideas of the world.
References
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Routledge.
Bush, V. (1945). . “As We May Think.”
“hypertext.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 09 Jul. 2015. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypertext>.
I find it quite amazing that Vannevar Bush was able to develop the theory of hypertext and in some respects the internet. As I sit here at my desk, with my screen I can call up information as I think of it. I can begin in one place with one idea and follow whichever trail of hyperlinks that I am interested in perusing. The thing I find most fascinating about hypertext is that even if two people start out on the same webpage they will find different information and a different end point.
Hypertext is really quite a different way of organizing information from traditional informational resources. It operates more like the tree model of encyclopedia organization as described by Boulter. I think this model makes a lot of sense for pieces of reference information because our brains make connections across imposed categories. Providing hyperlinks in a text shows a path that the author/editing team thought about, but because of the nature of the internet you can access information in a number of different ways, and in many circumstances you can add in your own findings for the next reader.
I think you have made a really good point about learning how our technology developed, but also going beyond that. Bush came up with his ideas using variations of technology he knew was available or could be developed with the technologies available. We should be thinking more about larger sociological and philosophical issues and what we would like technology to look like in the future instead of thinking about what to add to the latest device that will make people want to buy it.
Catherine
I remember using Hypercard fondly. It was highly engaging and was popular for a very long time in schools. The idea that we could link cards and stacks in a non-linear fashion was a great organizational tool for ideas and concepts.
We have certainly come a long way with being able to organize text for ease of access. Our students are comfortable with reading hypertext, or more realistically, hypermedia. They move though digital content with ease, this does not seem to be the case in creating hypermedia content. Students need more exposure and guidance in writing and creating content using multimodalities. In a graduate research paper, Harris (2010) identified a gap between the literacy skills that students require and those that are presently taught in schools. He identifies that educators need to broaden the scope of teaching literacy and move away from traditional reading and writing to address multiliteracies. The term multiliteracies is defined by the New London Group (1996, as cited in Harris, 2010) as having two aspects; increasingly societies are becoming more globally oriented, and, therefore, our understanding of literacy should change to accommodate the “multifarious cultures that interrelate and the plurality of texts that circulate”, and “the burgeoning variety of text forms associated with information and multimedia technologies” is affecting our understanding of literacy. This reinforces how we must address and teach new literacy skills and incorporate new digital tools to engage students with the concept of multiliteracies. We need to look at hypermedia as a tool for constructing and learning, in essence, use hypermedia as a cognitive tool.
Harris, R.A. (2010). Teaching for Digital Literacy: Hypermedia Texts in the Secondary English Classroom. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2429/48521.