Module 5: Hypertext

Key Terms

• Hypertext: In this module, we will discuss how the idea of hypertext evolves, but the best definition comes from Ted Nelson in 1965. He defined hypertext as: 
  
  

  A body of written or pictorial material interconnected in such a complex way that it could not conveniently be presented or represented on paper.

  Ted Nelson, “Complex Information Processing: A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate,”
  paper presented at the ACM 20^th National Conference, 1965. https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=806036

  
  In practice, we now often encounter hypertext on webpages: when you click on the University of Waterloo link, you are brought to the homepage, for example. When you do this, you're navigating content via hypertext.
  
  
• Microfilm: This was an analog technology that underpinned early speculative attempts at hypertext. Microfilm is scaled-down documents on a film strip. A newspaper, for example, is compressed into small images which are 1/25^th of their original size. A microfilm viewer contains a magnifier that lets you read this content.