timid lurker seeks help

[Drew Ivan <ivan@xxxxxx>]

Hi.

I've been lurking on this list for a week or so now. I'm not sure if this
question is really appropriate for the list, so I'm a bit shy about posting
it, but I'd like your help so I have no choice.

I'm writing my master's thesis (actually a "project", but the difference 
is mostly semantic) on creating an effective interface to the World Wide
Web. Briefly, I want to explore some issues pertaining to the Web and how
HTML authors can create effective Web pages. 

I have a section on the history of hypertext, so of course, Xanadu came up.
Below, I have attached the three scant paragraphs I can afford to dedicate
to Xanadu in my paper. I was hoping some of the folks close to the project
could review this first draft and advise me of any improvements I might 
make. 

Like I said, this project is about creating a user interface to the Web,
not about the history of hypertext. Thus, the treatment must be brief and
therefore shallow. Like I also said, it's a first draft, so there are 
likely to be some spelling/grammar errors or rough spots. Feel free to
point them out, but don't be surprised by them.

So if anyone here cares to read the following section of my paper and 
offer comments and corrections, I would be very appreciative.

Thank you very much.

---   Drew Ivan
---   ivan@xxxxxx
---   http://www.en.com/users/ivan


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Another important example of associatively linking information on a global
scale is Ted Nelson's Xanadu project. The first goal of this project is to
put all of the world's information online. By making all content electron-
ically accessible, it can be efficiently stored, searched, and updated. 
Most importantly, it can be linked together. The second, equally-important
goal of Xanadu is to provide a mechanism for linking the work of multiple
authors while keeping intact information about the link's origin. Thus, any
author may freely link his content to that of another author, and the author
whose work is cited can be assured of proper credit (both intellectual and
monetary).

Xanadu's method for effectively carrying out its links is called "trans-
clusion". The cited passage is not copied, merely referenced. The original
passage remains in its native context so that the author can cite it, but
when the reader follows the link to read the cited text, he can also see 
the article it comes from. The citing author may set up the link so that it
always refers to the most current version of the cited text, or he may link 
to a specific version of the text. Since all revisions are stored online, 
the reader can browse back and forth through time to see if that passage has 
been revised by the original author. 

Transclusion also allows the same piece of information to be accessed in 
several dimensions without modification. For instance "11:00am meeting with 
Sam at Rick's Cafe" on your To Do list can be linked to (1) Sam's business 
card, so you have his phone number handy; (2) the meeting's agenda; and (3) 
directions to Rick's Cafe (possibly even to a lunch menu). The same piece of 
information on the To Do list is at the intersection of the lines pertaining 
to Sam, Rick's Cafe, and meetings . This multidimensional approach to infor-
mation-linking is what prompted Ted Nelson to create the word "hypertext" to 
describe a such a system of associative linking.