Workshop syllabus (fwd)

[Andrew Pam <avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is the syllabus for a workshop Ted is giving at Keio University.

----- Forwarded message from Ted Nelson -----

Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 16:39:20 +0900
From: ted@xxxxxxxxxx (Ted Nelson)

Syllabus:
Workshop in New Hyperstructure

This workshop will address the issues of simple and general structure for
tomorrow's interactive media.  World Wide Web, Lotus Notes, HyperCard,
MacroMind Director, Microcosm, HyperWave, and other systems are
incompatible structurally.  The politics of standardization and complexity
of today's systems demand a simpler approach.

We will work with the proposed OSMIC standard (Open Standard for Media
InterConnection), a highly generalized system for connecting all media and
providing interchange among other compound formats.  OSMIC uses stream
linking, full net names addressing for archiving and publication, and
hypertime overview for file and workgroup synchronization.  OSMIC is not an
object system but a data structure system, allowing deep access to all
parts of the materials, deep linking and deep tracking.

We will study and experiment in hypermedia forms which are exchangeable (a
possible standard for uniting and archiving these different systems),
pluralistic (allowing all parties to make links of the same power which are
visible from both ends); and stable (maintaining connections while
evolving).

We will endeavor to design compatible mini-apps, publishing forms and
visualizations using this structure.

Week 1.
We will study the OSMIC model and its predecessors, the Xanadu designs of
1960-88, to understand the intention and generality of the system.  OSMIC
connection model: links, transclusions.
Week 2.
OSMIC OPERATIONS: text edit operations: link making, link following, link
editing, transclusion discovery, transclusion following.
Hypertime operations defined for text.  Hypertime storage of edit operations.
Week 3.
SPECIFICATIONS OF OSMIC: Integer algorithms, Perl script, mountable file
system.  The parallel extensions of SGML and HTML for OSMIC compliance.
OPERATIONAL IMPLEMENTATION: Graph of useful subgoals.
Week 4.
Student presentations of industrial alternatives to OSMIC, including
OpenDoc, OLE, NetObjects, and QuickTime structures.
Week 5.
Study of a possible sample OSMIC application: a generalized email system
with user-definable visualizations and operations.  Generalized linking and
transclusion for email reading and archiving, easy email history
management.
Week 6.
USER INTERFACE ISSUES: parallel-view text operations, complex comparison views.
Week 7.
INTERNAL INTERFACE ISSUES: technical interface as the REAL definition of
the system.  Interface specifications (calls) for interoperability among
different implementations.  Exchange formats as objects and data handles.
Adapters from and to various software formats.
Week 8.  MORE DIFFICULT ISSUES: Structure maps (specification and internal
forms), hypertime editing of links, resolution among overlapping versions.
Week 9.  Special topics, student presentations.
Week 10.  Special topics, student presentations.
Week 11.  Special topics, student presentations.
Week 12.  Special topics, student presentations.


----- End of forwarded message from Ted Nelson -----