Here's an interesting bag-o-bits, lots of diagrams so I'll only excerpt
the beginning of it. Think about how some of the XML eventing, wrapping,
routing, and peering tools y'all are making could work with an internal
or external consistent namespace to enable persistent multiway linking
in the way that the inimitable Monsieur Nelson has been suggesting. Perhaps
I should say, "Nelson-san", given the location...
http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/XUsurvey/xuDation.html
Xanalogical Structure, Needed Now More than Ever:
Parallel Documents, Deep Links to Content,
Deep Versioning and Deep Re-Use
Theodor Holm Nelson, Project Xanadu* and Keio University
* "Xanadu" is a registered trademark; "xanalogical structure" is intended
as a related generic (non-trademark) for general use.
SUMMARY
Project Xanadu, the original hypertext project, is often misunderstood as
an attempt to create the World Wide Web.
It has always been much more ambitious, proposing an entire form of
literature where links do not break as versions change; where documents may be
closely compared side by side and closely annotated; where it is possible
to see the origins of every quotation; and in which there is a valid copyright
system-- a literary, legal and business arrangement-- for frictionless,
non-negotiated quotation at any time and in any amount. The Web trivialized
this
original Xanadu model, vastly but incorrectly simplifying these problems to
a world of fragile ever-breaking one-way links, with no recognition of change
or copyright, and no support for multiple versions or principled re-use.
Fonts and glitz, rather than content connective structure, prevail.
Serious electronic literature (for scholarship, detailed controversy and
detailed collaboration) must support bidirectional and profuse links, which
cannot
be embedded; and must offer facilities for easily tracking re-use on a
principled basis among versions and quotations.
Xanalogical literary structure is a unique symmetrical connective system
for text (and other separable media elements), with two complementary forms
of connection that achieve these functions-- survivable deep linkage
(content links) and recognizable, visible re-use (transclusion). Both of these
are
easily implemented by a document model using content lists which reference
stabilized media.
This system of literary structure offers uniquely integrated methods for
version management, side-by-side comparison and visualizable re-use, which lead
to a radically beneficial and principled copyright system (endorsed in
principle by the ACM). Though dauntingly far from the standards which have
presently caught on, this design is still valid and may yet find a place in
the evolving Internet universe.
-- ======================================================================== Strata Rose Chalup [KF6NBZ] strata "@" virtual.net VirtualNet Consulting http://www.virtual.net/ ** Project Management & Architecture for ISP/ASP Systems Integration ** =========================================================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 27 2001 - 23:18:55 PDT