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Fwd: Public Lecture - Ted Nelson founding designer of Project Xanadu

The Institute for Social Research in conjunction with the ARC Centre of
Excellence for Creative Industries & Innovation are delighted to invite
you to a public lecture from information technology pioneer and
visionary Ted Nelson.

Monday, 4 April
Time: 7.00 - 9.00 pm
Venue: State Library of Victoria, Village Roadshow Theatrette

This is a free event but Bookings are essential. Contact
isradmin@xxxxxxxxxxx indicating the number of tickets required.


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The computer world could be completely different

A Public Lecture From Ted Nelson

Fish, they say, aren't aware of water. Most people, including computer
scientists, don't notice the hidden assumptions and traditions that have
structured today's computer world and digital documents. These
assumptions push the real problems into the laps of users and
programmers.  Almost nobody notices the consequences of this locked
cosmology.  While there is no right or wrong computer world; what is
wrong is that there is only one computer world, with no other choices.

We will consider some alternatives.

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Theodor Holm Nelson is an American designer, generalist, and pioneer of
information technology. He coined the terms "hypermedia" and "hypertext"
in 1963, and is also credited with first use of the words micropayment,
transclusion, virtuality, intertwingularity and dildonics.  He is the
most important computing visionary of our time.  The main thrust of his
work has been to create a different kind of electronic document which
allows many forms of connection, instead of the "paper simulation" of
Word, PDF and the World Wide Web. Nelson founded Project Xanadu in 1960,
a project that has inspired a whole generation of computer programmers,
hobbyists and developers. The effort is documented in his 1974 book
Computer Lib/Dream Machines and the 1981 Literary Machines. He has just
published an autobiography, Possiplex.

For a video snapshot of Ted Nelsonâs challenge to computing norms see:

Ted Nelson on Pernicious Computer Traditions: http://bit.ly/LlmpI

Ted Nelson demonstrates Xanadu Space: http://bit.ly/FM0qu

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