Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ list)

Archive-name: hypertext-faq
Posting-Frequency: every two weeks
Last-modified: 13 August 2002
URL: http://www.csd.uwo.ca/%
Created: 2 February 1997 by J. Blustein
Maintainer: J. Blustein <jamie@csd.uwo.ca>
Copyright: (c) 1997-2002 Jamie Blustein, all rights reserved. See part C of question 6.1 for details.


This document is my personal attempt to answer some of the most
frequently asked questions in alt.hypertext and provide some necessary
background. Although I am solely responsible for its content I've tried to
keep it close to what I think of as the consensus view on all the topics I
discuss. I welcome all constructive criticism (and compliments). Please
send them by e-mail to <jamie@csd.uwo.ca>. Do not send me junk mail!



Subject: Document format

Each question begins with `Subject:' on a line of its own. If you have a
suitably equipped newsreader then you can automatically skip to the start
of the next section, e.g. trn will display the start of the section when
you press ^G (control-G). course if your newsreader won't do that
automatically, you can still use a search command to find the next
question: For example, to find the answer to question X.Y (where X and Y
are numbers) search for a line beginning with `Subject: QX.Y)', there will
be only one. The character sequence `QX.Y)' appears only in the table of
contents and at the beginning of question X.Y. Recently updated questions
are marked with a `*' at the beginning of the line in the table of
contents.

An HTML document, based on this plain text list, is at
<URL:http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~jamie/hypertext/faq/>. To find out what
other versions of this document there are see question 6.1.



Subject: Table of Contents

A `*' at the beginning of a line in the table of contents marks a
recently updated question. See question 6.4 for a list of recent updates.

About The alt.hypertext Newsgroup
Q1.1) What is alt.hypertext about?
Q1.2) Is it okay to post about new hypertext software, titles, etc. here?
Software, Literature, Conference Announcements
Q1.3) Is there an archive of alt.hypertext postings?
* Q1.4) Where are collections of postings about specific topics?
Link types

Hypertext In General
Q2.1) What are hypertext and hypermedia? How do they differ?
* Q2.2) What are some historical milestones about hypertext?
Q2.3) What conferences are there about hypertext?

Hypertext Models
Q3.1) What hypertext systems I can read about online?
Hyper-G, Microcosm, Storyspace, Webthing, World Wide Web, Xanadu
Q3.2) Are there any hypertext standards?

References to other electronic resources
* Q4.1) About hypertext/hypermedia
Q4.2) About electronic publications
* Q4.3) About human-computer interaction

I've fallen in with the wrong crowd. Please help me out.
Q5.1) Help! I'm new to this whole Usenet/'net thing
* Q5.2) I just want to know about WWW/HTML. Where should I go?
* Q5.3) Gosh, this group is noisy. Are there any mailing lists?
Hyper-theory, ht_lit, EJournal/EJRNL

About this document
Q6.1) Where can I get a copy? (and some legal niceties)
Author/, Versions/Availability, Distribution rights
* Q6.2) Future plans
Q6.3) Acknowledgments
Thanks, Citations for quotations
* Q6.4) Recent changes



** Section 1: About The alt.hypertext Newsgroup **

Subject: Q1.1) What is alt.hypertext about?

alt.hypertext is a Usenet newsgroup intended to support discussion of,
and dissemination of information about hypertext and hypermedia.
alt.hypertext is not a suitable forum for discussion of WWW-specific
issues.

If you would like more information about what a Usenet newsgroup is then
you should read question 5.1. If you are looking for information about the
World Wide Web (WWW) or its associated hypertext markup language (HTML)
then you should read question 5.2. The answer to question 2.1 defines
hypertext and hypermedia.



Subject: Q1.2) Is it okay to post about new hypertext software, titles,
etc. here?

A. New software
Announcements about new hypertext products are welcome in
alt.hypertext. If hypertext is only a minor part of the product then
please consider setting the Follow-up header to point elsewhere. If
you are unfamiliar with that way of working then we'd all benefit from
you reading some of the postings in the news.announce.newusers
newsgroup.

B. New hypertext literature (fiction and non-fiction)
Announcements and discussion of works in hypertext and about
hypertext are both appropriate in alt.hypertext.

C. Conference announcements
Many conferences have some hypertext components. If you have a
conference announcement that you think will be of interest to the
hypertext/hypermedia community then please post a copy of it to
alt.hypertext. The news.announce.conferences group is another good
place for such postings.
Question 2.3 is about conferences related to hypertext.



Subject: Q1.3) Is there an archive of alt.hypertext postings?

I know of no publicly accessible archive of alt.hypertext postings. But
there are some small collections of postings about specific topics. They
are listed in question 1.4.

If there was an alt.hypertext archive then I'd expect to be able
to find it in Cameron Laird's List of Usenet Archives at <URL:http://
starbase.neosoft.com/~or Kevin
Atkinson's Usenet Info Center at <
home.html>.

To find old postings and discussions you could use a search engine, such
as Deja News <URL:http://www.dejanews.com/or Alta Vista <URL:
;what=news>. You
might also find something at Infinite Ink's Finding News Groups (use <URL:
or <URL:http://www.
best.com/~ii/internet/newsgroups.html>) or Yahoo! <URL:http://www.yahoo.
com/text/News/Usenet/helpful. Cameron Laird provides more suggestions in
his above mentioned List.

If anyone wants to create an archive, please tell me.



Subject: Q1.4) Where are collections of postings about specific topics?

So far I only know of collections of postings about link types. If you
know of anymore then please tell me so that it may also be included here.
Question 4.1 lists some online hypertext resources, not just postings that
appeared in alt.hypertext.

A. Link Types (What they are and how many are enough)

Thomas Trickel has compiled and edited a discussion of link types
from 1993 in various hypertext systems into <URL:http://www.ronan.net
/~ttrickel/ hypertext/usentlnk.htm>. He has also written a short
related essay about link properties at <URL:http://www.ronan.net/
J. Blustein also has a summary of
the discussion at <URL: http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~jamie/.Refs/
>.



** Section 2: Hypertext In General **

Subject: Q2.1) What are hypertext and hypermedia? How do they differ?

The ED Additions Series defines hypertext as
Text which does not form a single sequence and which may be read
in various orders; specially text and graphics which are
interconnected in such a way that a reader of the material (as
displayed at a computer terminal, etc.) can discontinue reading
one document at certain points in order to consult other related
matter. [See Q6.3 for complete citation]

Theodore `Ted' Nelson, who first coined the terms hypertext and
hypermedia, wrote in _Literary Machines_ that `As popularly conceived,
[hypertext] is a series of text chunks connected by links which offer the
reader different pathways.' Neither hypertext nor hypermedia require the
use of links.

Hypermedia is similar to hypertext but includes media other than text,
e.g. a hypermedia document could include text and graphics, or sound and
animation.

Mark Bernstein has pointed out that, in practice, many hypertext
documents have some graphical content (just as texts often include
illustrations). Note that the definition quoted above makes the same
point. The distinction between hypertext and hypermedia is so blurry that
some authors call them both hypertext.



Subject: Q2.2) What are some historical milestones about hypertext?

Vannevar Bush is often credited with describing the first hypermedia
system, named memex. He wrote about it in his 1945 article _As We May
Think_. There is an HTML versions at <
>. Paul has also been credited
with the development of what we now think of as hypertext, in 1934. See
<~wrayward/otlet/xanadu.htmfor a version
of an article from the Journal of the American Society for Information
Science v.45 pp.235-250 for more details.
Ted Nelson coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia to describe his
proposed system called Xanadu. According to an article in Vassar College's
Miscellany News, he used the term hypertext in a talk there in 1965
<URL:http://iberia.vassar.edu/~mijoyce/Ted_sed.html>. The Xanadu homepage
is at <>. His book _Literary Machines_
is largely about Xanadu. Douglas Engelbart demonstrated the first
computerized hypertext system, called NLS/Augment circa 1968. He also
invented the computer mouse, graphical user interface, etc.! For more
information about Englebart and his projects see the Bootstrap Alliance
homepage at <URL:http://www.bootstrap.org/>. Randy Trigg wrote the first
Ph.D. dissertation based on hypertext circa 1986. The first hypertext
conference was held in 1987. The alt.hypertext newsgroup was created in
1992.

_Memex and Beyond_ is a major research, educational, and collaborative
web site integrating the historical record of and current research in
hypermedia: <>.

Jorn Barger's hypertext timeline is at <
web/timeline.html>.



Subject: Q2.3) What conferences are there about hypertext?

Hypertext is used in many computer-based technologies and so you can find
hypertext in many fields of inquiry. For example you can find articles and
presentations in about hypertext in conferences about: digital libraries,
documentation, education, literature, and user interfaces. There are
however two main conferences for the discussion and study of hypertext in
general: the Hypertext conference (HT) and Digital Arts and Culture (DAC).
course the World-Wide Web (WWW) and Annual Conference on World-Wide Web
Applications (ACWWWA) will be of interest to many people who read this
document as well.

Hypertext is a broad-based conference for exchanges about hypertext. It
draws artists, developers, and researchers. According to the DAC 2001
homepage, DAC `aims to embrace and explore the cross-disciplinary and
cross-cultural theory and practice of contemporary digital arts and
culture.'

Information about those conferences, or links to that information, can be
found at
* Hypertext: <URL:http://www.acm.org/sigweb/>
* DAC: <>
* WWW: <>
* ACWWWA: <>



** Section 3: Hypertext Models **

Subject: Q3.1) What hypertext systems I can read about online?

It seems impractical to list all of the myriad of hypertext/hypermedia
systems available today. I've included some major systems here. If you
feel that some other system has been unfairly excluded then please write
me. If this list grows too long then it might become a separate posting or
removed altogether. See also HyTime in question 3.2 below. The Electronic
Literature might have a list of hypertext tools and systems
available at their website <>.

* HyperWave (formerly Hyper-G) <URL:http://www.hyperwave.com>
HyperWave is a sophisticated Web document management system
for large information spaces. The project began under the name
Hyper-G in 1990. Among other things, it features hierarchical
structuring, link management, attribute and full text search,
access control, and interactive link and document editing.

See also the comp.infosystems.hyperg newsgroup.

* Microcosm <>
An open and extensible hypermedia system designed for managing
and disseminating unstructured digitally encoded files.
[URL updated 11 Jan 1998]

* Storyspace <A
commercial product described as a `writing environment designed
for the process of writing. Storyspace is especially well suited
to working with large, complex, and challenging hypertexts.'
According to Mark Bernstein, its most distinctive features are
its hierarchical backbone structure and dynamically flexible
links with `guard fields', i.e. conditional links (links that
are available only if certain nodes have been visited.

* Webthing <>
Webthing's Holistic Hypertext is an object-oriented hypertext system
designed for collaborative authoring and implemented on the
WWW. Documents in Webthing generate HTML links from other documents
on-the-fly, relieving authors of the need to manage HTML links, and
eliminating the problem of outdated or uncoordinated references.
[URL updated 27 Jan 1998]

NB: This system will be unavailable for an unspecified time. For more
information send e-mail to <webthing@webthing.comor see the
Webthing, Ltd. website at <URL:http://www.webthing.com>.

A search for WWW-based wikis will likely turn up systems with
related functionality. A search for the term open hypermedia
sytem will likely turn up more systems and architectures.
[Note added 08 May 2002]

* World Wide Web <>
A very popular link-based hypertext system based on a client-server
architecture running on the Internet.

See also question 5.2 for some other resources.

* Xanadu <>
The system Ted Nelson wrote about in his ground breaking book
_Literary Machines_.

See also the Xanadu FAQ list (posted to several newsgroups, including
alt.hypertext, and available: (a) in text form from <URL:ftp://rtfm.
>; (b) and HTML form from
<>).



Subject: Q3.2) Are there any hypertext standards?

Yes, the extensible markup language (XML) and its related standards are
rapidly being taken up and will all be official very soon. Some of those
related standards include XLink and XPointer (for linking and related
activities) and the synchronized multimedia integration language (SMIL) for
synchronized events.

Robin Cover has an outstanding index of XML material at <URL:
>.

There is also a, mostly outdated, IS standard for describing hypermedia
called HyTime. The full title of that standard is _Information Technology -
Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language (HyTime)_ (IS/IEC 10744:1992).
It is an international standard for describing hypermedia. The original
standard (not including the Technical Corrigendum) was edited by Charles
F. Goldfarb (with assistance from Steven R. Newcomb). The standard was
published in Geneva by the International for
Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission in 1992.

Many pointers to HyTime information are available from the HyTime User's
Group homepage <URL:http://www.HyTime.organd Robin Cover's HyTime webpage
<>. Both the comp.text.sgml and
alt.hypertext newsgroups host HyTime discussions.



** Section 4: References to other electronic resources **

Subject: Q4.1) About hypertext/hypermedia

There are far too many online resources about hypertext to list here so
only the most major ones are included here. As with all sections of this
list, your suggestions for additions are welcome.

* SIGWEB (the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest
Group on Hypertext/Hypermedia) has a WWW homepage at
<URL:http://www.acm.org/sigweb/>.

* The Directory Project <URL:http://dmoz.org/lists hypertext
in at least these four categories: Critical (literary) theory,
Information overload, Fiction E-zines, and Ted Nelson's
multi-dimensional data organizing system, Zig Zag.

* LINKBase is a bibliographic reference system for hypertext-related
publications at
<>.

* The Hypertext/-media Resources at the University of Konstanz are
quite good:
<>.

* Eastgate Systems's Selected Hypertext Resources on the Web is
a compilation of resources on hypertext theory, hypertext fiction,
and criticism, including many original essays and reviews. It is at
<>.

* BowerBird was a specialized search engine on hypertext topics. The
engine was created by Adrian Miles. It used to be at <URL:
but has been indefinitely
suspended.

* Collections of previous alt.hypertext discussions are listed in
question 1.3.



Subject: Q4.2) About electronic publications

There are so many documents about electronic publications that it is very
difficult to list even one that is of particular interest for hypertext.

The description of alt.etext in the Usenet Info Center at <URL:http://
contains references to
some sites.

EJournal (which is discussed in question 5.3) is particularly occupied
with electronic text.

SIGWEB members have access to electronic copies of most of the ACM
Hypertext and Digital Libraries proceedings. (See question 4.1 for
information about SIGWEB.)



Subject: Q4.3) About human-computer interaction

There is much information and opinion about HCI available electronically.
I expect that from what is listed here you will be able to find what you
want.

Keith Instone maintains Usable Web (a guide to WWW usability resources)
at <URL:http://usableweb.com/>.

Gary Perlman's _what's happening_ column in _interactions_ magazine is a
great place to find out about HCI resources on the 'net <URL:http://www.
acm.org/ He suggested the following
newsgroups are relevant for HCI researchers: comp.human-factors,
comp.cog-eng, sci.cognitive, sci.psychology, and comp.groupware. The
human-factors group has an old FAQ list at <URL:
http://edgarmatias.com/faq/>.

The WWW Virtual Library once had sections for HCI and Cognitive Science
(at <URL:http://hydra.bgsu.edu/HCI/and <URL:http://www.cog.brown.edu
/pointers/cognitive.htmlrespectively).

Noted hypermedia expert Jakob Nielsen writes a monthly column, called
Alertbox, about HCI with a particular focus on the WWW. Articles are
available at <>.



** Section 5: I've fallen in with the wrong crowd. Please help me out. **

Subject: Q5.1) Help! I'm new to this whole Usenet/'net thing

The following two newsgroups contain some excellent introductory
postings: news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions.

Whoever is providing you with access to Usenet should be able to give you
some basic introduction or instruction. This isn't because they are
necessarily nice, but because if they don't at least attempt to tell you
the basics then they can't blame you when you do something awful. If they
haven't offered you any advice or instruction then ask someone responsible
for some pointers to useful information. I advise you not to ask another
newcomer -- that is a great way to propagate misconceptions.

There are many introductory books about the global Internet and Usenet.
If you learn well from books then you might consider buying one or
borrowing it from a library. Some books are available for free, others are
available for sampling online as an enticement to get you to buy them. For
a fuller discussion of such books see: (a) the misc.books.technical
newsgroup; (b) the Unofficial Internet Book List at the rtfm.mit.edu FTP
site <
book-list>.



Subject: Q5.2) I just want to know about WWW/HTML. Where should I go?

There are several newsgroups devoted exclusively to discussion of the
WWW. For an overview of those groups see Thomas Boutell's FAQ list at
<or in one of the comp.infosystems.www
newsgroups, alt.culture.www or in an archive of news.answers postings such
as at <>.

There are many online resources about HTML. I have no particular one to
recommend however.
If you are looking for information about ease of use then you might be
interested in:
* All Things Web which calls itself `A collection of resources for
Webspinners & authors' at <URL:http://www.pantos.org/atw/(but which
doesn't seem to have been updated in a few years);

* Rapid Navigation in Documents: Design of documents and viewers
to support structured hypertext and easy skimming (Michael Hoffman's
collection of opinions and pointers) at
<>;

* Question 4.3 about human-computer interaction.



Subject: Q5.3) Gosh, this group is noisy. Are there any mailing lists?

Yes, there are some mailing lists about the issues which are also
appropriate for alt.hypertext. Specifically, there are the HYPER-THERY
and HT_LIT lists. EJournal (an electronic journal) has discussion of
hypertext issues, but it is not a discussion list. Details of all of those
mailing lists are below. You might also be interested in the list of
conferences related to hypertext (in question 2.3).

At the Hypertext 2000 Authors' Workshop about twelve lists were mentioned
that might be of interest to hypertext authors. If you are want to learn
more about those lists then I suggest that you check out the Electronic
Literature 's website, at <>,
because they have a much better chance of keeping up with the ever changing
world of mailing lists than I do.

For a more complete list of mailing lists see _Publicly Accessible
Mailing Lists_ and _Mailing Lists Available in Usenet_. Both are available
through Usenet and are archived at many sites. Details about all of those
lists are also below.

A. HYPER-THERY
The hyper-theory mailing list was created to serve as a medium for
discussion on hypermedia theory, to help researchers, developers, and
users pursue their interests in the field of hypermedia theory and
implementation details, this list was created to serve as a high
signal to noise ratio resource.
The list owner, Art Pollard, reserves the right to move the mailing
list into a moderated format if it is necessary to maintain the list's
focus.

T SUBSCRIBE:
Send an e-mail message to majordomo@math.byu.edu containing:
subscribe hyper-theory <your e-mail address>
in the *body* of the message.

After subscribing, you will receive this description of the
list as well as additional instructions for unsubscribing.

B. HT_LIT
The ht_lit mailing list is for the discussion of hypertext fiction,
hypertext theory, and hypertext and literary studies. There is an
archive at <>. Kia Mennie
<kmm@aaln.orgis the list owner. Feel free to contact her for more
information before subscribing.

T SUBSCRIBE:
Send an e-mail message to subscribe@journal.biology.carleton.ca
containing:
subscribe ht_lit
in the *body* of the message.

C. EJournal (aka EJRNL)
From the homepage:
EJournal is an all-electronic, e-mail delivered, peer-reviewed,
academic periodical. We are particularly interested in theory
and practice surrounding the creation, transmission, storage,
interpretation, alteration and replication of electronic `text'
-- including `display' -- broadly defined. We are also
interested in the broader social, psychological, literary,
economic and pedagogical implications of computer-mediated
networks. The journal's essays are delivered free to Internet
addressees.

T SUBSCRIBE:
Send an e-mail message to listserv@albany.edu with the following as
the first (and only) line of text:
SUB EJRNL Your Name