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- Newsgroups: alt.hypertext
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!usc!rpi!newsserver.pixel.kodak.com!psinntp!psinntp!wrldlnk!usenet
- From: "Ernest Perez" <demoep@psilink.com>
- Subject: Re: Interaction with a hypertext
- In-Reply-To: <14796@mindlink.bc.ca>
- Message-ID: <2924703016.5.demoep@psilink.com>
- Sender: usenet@worldlink.com
- Nntp-Posting-Host: 127.0.0.1
- Organization: Access Information Assoc., Inc.
- Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 15:45:40 GMT
- X-Mailer: PSILink (3.2)
- Lines: 38
-
- >John Maxwell <John_Maxwell@mindlink.bc.ca> writes...
- >My impression of how a hypertext should be (ideally, anyway) is an endless sort
- >of "comments in the margins" sort of discourse between the first author of the
- >work and then subsequent reader-authors. Jay David Bolter, in his book "Writing
- >Space" talks about the breakdown of traditional ideas of authorship and the
- >repurcussions this has for the kinds of rhetoric we're used to.
- >I have yet to see a hypertext system that makes it so easy for a reader to add
- >to the text that his or her comments become part of the text for the next
- >reader.
-
- Neil Larson of MaxThink has developed this community authorship approach
- with his "knowledge annealing" concept. He proposes that an original
- author of a hypertext with network or BBS access act somewhat as a
- moderator. He advises that any/every user be able to make additions,
- annotations, and suggestions, and that the "administrator" regularly
- edit the system to incorporate new structure, content, and indexing or
- access ideas. Not just leave them as marginal notes, but evolve the
- system to take advantage of the additional material.
-
- Larson feels that as the hypercritter gets *really* good and responsive to
- the needs of the user community, there won't be that many more suggested
- changes. He is referring here more to a topical or informational hypertext
- system.
-
- Several corporations are using MaxThink hypertext on a LAN with this
- kind of approach. For domain information, litigation support, help desks,
- etc. They seem pretty happy with the results.
-
- Larson tends to put his money/programs where his mouth is. He has created
- "HyBBS," a simple MS-DOS BBS program ($89) with a special call-in terminal
- program that allows users to call in and navigate the system links, put
- one-liner annotations directly on system nodes, including added links to
- their own comment screens, etc. I set one up temporarily to see how it
- worked; it was addictive (as hypertext tends to be). But I didn't have an
- extra PC and phone line to do more than let a few people play with it for
- a short time.
-
- -Ernest Perez
-