Fuzzy Hypertext?

[Paul Newton <pkn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been a member of this list since it started, and have read some very
interesting posts - although this is my first posting to the list. Things
seem to be very quiet at the moment; have you all discovered a new forum
for discussion? I find the alt.hypertext newsgroup all but useless, with
very few postings and most of those focussed on web queries. Do any of you
have any suggestions for alternative lists/newsgroups? In particular, I am
looking at open hypertext systems through computation and processes, but
would be interested in any hypertext discussions.

Anyway - some hypertext theory! I have recently been applying the idea of
fuzzy logic to hypertext. I find that current implementations of hypertext
can be very restrictive by forcing the reader/author to work with very
static and discrete linking models. I realise that there has been much work
on filtering of links and more dynamic systems, but I would like to see
some representation of the fuzziness that must surely exist when an author
creates a link, or a reader follows a link.

When an author creates a link, I would like them to be able to give the
link a fuzzy level, so that they can express uncertainty eg links which are
definite, sometimes useful, only useful to the dedicated reader
etc. Further, I find it very restricting that anchors exist as such
discrete objects. It can be quite natural to link specific words
(dictionaries, indexes, tables of contents etc), but there must be cases
when hypertext would benefit from a more fuzzy definition of anchors. For
example, when I discuss a concept, I can rarely identify precise points
where the discussion starts then ends - there is a build up to the ideas,
then a discussion of consequences etc. This is a much more fuzzy definition
of an anchor, where instead of discrete boundaries, we instead have more
fuzzy, blurred edges.

I was wondering if any of you knew of any other work on this application of
fuzzy logic, or had any comments on this - how it could be used, problems
etc. Many thanks for any help, and I look forward to any responses.

Paul.

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Paul Newton                               http://www.ep.cs.nott.ac.uk/~pkn
Electronic Publishing Research Group              University Of Nottingham
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