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Hypertext Creator: Structure of the Web 'Completely Wrong'

Posted by Soulskill on from the then-just-build-a-new-one dept.

angry tapir writes "The creator of hypertext has criticized the design of the World Wide Web, saying that Tim Berners-Lee's creation is 'completely wrong,' and that Windows, Macintosh and Linux have 'exactly the same' approach to computing. Ted Nelson, founder of first hypertext project, Project Xanadu, went on to say, 'It is a strange, distorted, peculiar and difficult limited system... the browser is built around invisible links — you can see something to click on but you’ve got nowhere else to go.'"

5 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. Re:WTF? by emurphy42 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Project Xanadu: Original 17 rules

    6. Every document can contain links of any type including virtual copies ("transclusions") to any other document in the system accessible to its owner.

    Youtube demo (the actual demo starts at about 3:15)

  2. Re:WTF? by AmElder · · Score: 5, Informative

    No one can be told what Project Xanadu is. You have to see it for yourself. I found that video on youtube of Ted Nelson showing off Xanadu a few years ago.

    He might be a mad man, but he's an interesting madman.

  3. Re:Confucius say: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Your statement is not factually accurate. Ted Nelson has been sitting in his ivory tower producing nothing for 50 years, not 20.

  4. It's all about DRM by mangu · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you look at the rules he proposes you'll see that half of them are about restricting access and creating profit venues for the publishers.

    Ted Nelson's view is a web where you have to pay for each page you visit. We have seen too much of this lately

    1. Re:It's all about DRM by Sentrion · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This has always been his design from the very beginning, so of course I'm sure he's upset that so much of the web is free, both free as in speech and free as in beer. The founding fathers of the USA had good intentions, but I imagine that many of them would be shocked to see that we allow women, minorities, and non-landowners to vote in our elections. Just because the guy was first to come up with the idea does not mean that the idea cannot be improved upon. And if the end result is better than the founder's initial vision we have no obligation to turn back progress for sentimental reasons. Edison invented the phonograph but was not successful at running his record company. IBM pioneered the PC but they are no longer in that game. Time for Nelson to sit back down in his page of history and let progress move on without him.