The original idea of hypertext owes to Vannevar Bush, when in 1945, in his article ” Seize we may think “, describes the MEMEX device in which:
” A person stores his or her books, annotations, records and communications, and this collection of information is mechanized so that he or she can be consulted with high speed and many flexibility “.
According to Bush MEMEX’s essential characteristic is its skill of “tying” or associating two articles.
In 1965, Ted Nelson was the first one in coining the word “hypertext” (not linear text) and he defines it like:
” A body of written or pictorial material interconnected in a complex form that cannot be represented in suitable form using role “.
The hypertext is a technology that organizes a base of information in blocks different from contents, connected across a series of links which activation or selection provokes the recovery of information.
It has been defined as an approach to handle and to organize information, in which the information is stored in a net of nodes connected by links. The nodes contenienen texts and if they contain in addition graphs, images, audio, animations and video, as well as feasible code or another form of information they gives the name of hyperway, that is to say, a generalization of hypertext.
Considering how the human knowledge is represented, the man operates for association, jumping of an article to the next one, in almost instantaneous form. The paradigm hyperhappens tries to shape this process with links among pieces of information contained in nodes.
Unlike the printed books, in which the reading is realized in sequential form from the beginning until the end, in a hypermedial environment the “reading” it can be realized in not linear form, and the users are not forced to continue an established sequence, but they can move across the information and turn the pages intuitively of the contents for association continuing his interests in search of a concept. In the figure, later, there is represented the sequential style, the hierarchic style, the style reticulado and the hyperway.
So, it is clear that the hypertext is a new and practical devide which will revolutionaize the digital word.
References:
* Hypertext. (2009, December 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:55, December 29, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hypertext&oldid=332522736
* Ted Nelson. (2009, November 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:56, December 29, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ted_Nelson&oldid=328464346
* Vannevar Bush. (2009, December 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:58, December 29, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vannevar_Bush&oldid=332535705
* What is Hypertext?. Retrieved 14:01, December 29, 2009, from: http://www.w3.org/WhatIs.html
* Hypertext. An Internet Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:05, December 29, 2009, from: http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/Topics/12.htm
* Hypertext Definition. Retrieved 14:05, December 29, 2009, from: http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/ht/defineov.html
