Intertwingled The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson

This engaging volume celebrates the life and work of Theodor Holm “Ted” Nelson, a pioneer and legendary figure from the history of early computing. Presenting contributions from world-renowned computer scientists and figures from the media industry, the book delves into hypertext, the docuverse, Xanadu, and other products of Ted Nelson’s unique mind.

Topics and features: includes a cartoon and a sequence of poems created in Nelson’s honor, reflecting his wide-ranging and interdisciplinary intellect; presents peer histories, providing a sense of the milieu that resulted from Nelson’s ideas; contains personal accounts revealing what it is like to collaborate directly with Nelson; describes Nelson’s legacy from the perspective of his contemporaries from the computing world and the scholars who continue to examine his work; provides a contribution from Ted Nelson himself.

With a broad appeal spanning practitioners in computer science, historians of science and the general reader, this inspiring collection reveals the continuing influence of the original visionary of the World Wide Web.

Part I: Artistic Contributions

The Computer Age
Ed Subitzky

Odes to Ted Nelson
Ben Shneiderman

Part II: Peer Histories

The Two-eyed Man
Alan Kay

Ted Nelson’s Xanadu—Caution: Four Letter Words Ahead
Ken Knowlton

Hanging Out with Ted Nelson
Brewster Kahle

Riffing on Ted Nelson—Hypermind
Peter Schmideg and Laurie Spiegel

Intertwingled Inspiration
Andrew Pam

An Advanced Book for Beginners
Dick Heiser

Part III: Hypertext and Ted Nelson-Influenced Research

The Importance of Ted’s Vision
Belinda Barnet

Data, Metadata, and Ted
Christine L. Borgman

Making Links: Everything Really is Deeply Intertwingled
Wendy Hall

Ted Nelson
Frode Hegland

History Debugged
Daniel Rosenberg

We Can and Must Understand Computers NOW
Noah Wardrip-Fruin

The Future of Transclusion
Robert M. Akscyn

Ted Nelson: A Critical (and Critically Incomplete) Bibliography
Henry Lowood

Part IV: The Last Word

What Box?
Theodor Holm Nelson