Ted, Ted, Ted: An Open Letter to Ted Nelson.
Ted, Ted, Ted: An Open Letter to Ted Nelson
Preamble: For those who aren't fully aware of their computing history, hypertext existed long before the World Wide Web. I got into it in 1987 shipping on of the first PC based hypertext products -- and I was early on PCs but late overall. Actual dates differ but the first real concepts stemmed from Vannevar Bush's article on the Memex, "As We May Think". The next real steps came from Doug Englebart's ground breaking work at SRI (among other things Doug invented the mouse, movable windows, outline processing and more) and from that of Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu. Ted is the brilliant person who gave us all the term "hypertext". We all have heroes and Doug and Ted, both of whom I was lucky enough to meet once upon a time, are two of mine.
Still I've got to call a spade a spade....
Dear Ted,
We've met in the past the ACM Hypertext conferences and to this day, one of my favorite photos is a shot of you and I together that someone took at a tradeshow. I just saw http://ted.hyperland.com/ and I have to say that I'm genuinely disappointed. Here's why: I understand that you don't like the web, that it differs from your rich, original vision. So What? The web still lacks features that my own product, HyperWriter, last updated in 1996 (and still in use!) had. But I'm here. So are all the other original hypertext vendors. Eastgate, another early vendor, is even making a wicked cool blogging tool for Macintoshes.
Here's my beef: The website that you put up -- A MONTH AGO -- is basically illegible. The text doesn't even wrap. How do you expect people to take you seriously if we can't read it? Your ideas are still brilliant but if people can't read them, will they matter? You inspired us all and now you leave me scratching my head. If you don't want to make HTML, fine. There's 50 hackers on every corner that would make you a site that would kick the snot out of what's currently at http://ted.hyperland.com/.
Think about it.
Still a fan, after all these years....
Scott
References
Pictures
October 12?, 1987 - The very first tradeshow where our
hypertext product (Black Magic which begat HyperWriter) was shown.
Historical Note: I am still partners with Brian Giedt (lead engineer and he's still brilliant) [The FuzzyBlog!]
5:47:08 PM 
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