Memex and Beyond Web Site

Archives

The archives will contain either full copies of historical papers, such as the Engelbart archives, or detailed descriptions of papers including the abstract, author names, affiliations and addresses, and related concepts. The papers from the Hypertext conferences are archived in the latter way since SigLink copyright restrictions prevent us from publishing the full text.

The current contents include: the abstracts of Hypertext '87 and Hypertext '96 conferences, extracts from ACM Interactions article on the Brown University/MIT Bush Symposium and notes from the Symposium panels.

In addition, they contain the text of Hypertext '87 Keynote Address by Andries van Dam, of Brown University. Highlights include brief histories of HES and FRESS, and van Dam's own "Nine Issues", which dovetail nicely with Halasz' Seven Issues (which paper also appeared at this conference).

Table of Contents

A Hypertext Writing Environment and Its Cognitive Basis

A Study of Navigational Support Provided by Two World Wide Web Browsing Applications

Abstraction Mechanisms in Hypertext

All for One and One for All

Automatic Hypertext Link Typing

Automatic Text Decomposition Using Text Segments and Text Themes

Browsing the WWW by Interacting with a Textual Virtual Environment -- A Framework for Experimenting with Navigational Metaphors

Brown University/MIT Bush Symposium

Comprehending Non-LInear Text: The Role of Discourse Cues and Reading Strategies

Constraint-Based Hypertext for Argumentation

Content Oriented Relations between Text Units - A Structural Model for Hypertexts

Content-Oriented Integration in Hypermedia Systems

Developing and Distributing Hypertext Tools: Legal Inputs and Parameters

Document Examiner: Delivery Interface for Hypertext Documents

Evaluating HyTime: An Examination and Implementation Experience

Experiences in Developing Collaborative Applications Using the World Wide Web 'Shell'

Exploring Representation Problems Using Hypertext

From the Old to the New: Integrating Hypertext into Traditional Scholarship

gIBIS: A Hypertext Tool for Team Design Deliberation

Guided Tours and On-Line Presentations: How Authors Make Existing Hypertext Intelligible for Readers

HAM: A General-Purpose Hypertext Abstract Machine

HyperCafe: Narrative and Aesthetic Properties of Hypervideo

Hypermedia Operating Systems: A New Paradigm for Computing

HyperStorM: An Extensible Object-Oriented Hypermedia Engine

Hypertext '87 Keynote Address

Hypertext and Creative Writing

Hypertext and Pluralism: From Lineal to Non-lineal Thinking

Hypertext and the New Oxford English Dictionary

Hypertext Habitats: Experiences of Writers in NoteCards

Hypertext with Consequences: Recovering a Politics of Hypertext

Hypertextual Dynamics in A Life Set for Two

HyPursuit: A Hierarchical Network Search Engine that Exploits Content-Link Hypertext Clustering

Information Reuse in Hypermedia Applications

KMS: A Distributed Hypermedia Systems for Managing Knowledge in Organizations

Logic Programming with the World-Wide Web

Manipulating Source Code in DynamicDesign

Media-Based Navigation with Generic Links

On Designing Intelligent Hypertext Systems for Information Management in Software Engineering

Practical Methods for Automatically Generating Typed Links

Programmable Browsing Semantics in Trellis

Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems

Relationally Encoded Links and the Rhetoric of Hypertext

Scripted Documents: A Hypermedia Path Mechanism

Searching for Information in a Hypertext Medical Handbook

SuperBook: An Automatic Tool for Information Exploration - Hypertext?

Systematic Hypermedia Application Design with OOHDM

The Architecture of Static Hypertexts

The Flag Taxonomy of Open Hypermedia Systems

The Hype in Hypertext: A Critique

The HyperDisco Approach to Open Hypermedia Systems

The Notes Program: A Hypertext Application for Writing from Source Texts

The Structure of Hypertext Activity

Thoth-II: Hypertext with Explicit Semantics

Toward a Dexter-Based Model for Open Hypermedia: Unifying Embedded References and Link Objects

Turning Ideas into Products: The Guide System

User Interface Design for the Hyperties Electronic Encyclopedia

Ut Picture Hyperpoesis: Spatial Form, Visuality, and the Digital Word

VerSE: Towards Hypertext Versioning Styles
 
 
 

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Title

**** Engelbart Award Winner****

HyperCafe: Narrative and Aesthetic Properties of Hypervideo

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Nitin "Nick" Sawhney, David Balcom, and Ian Smith

The Georgia Institute of Technology School of Literature
Communication, and Culture College of Computing
Atlanta, GA 30332-0165 USA
Email: { nitin, dbalcom, iansmith }@cc.gatech.edu

Abstract

HyperCafe is an experimental hypermedia prototype, developed as an illustration of a general hypervideo system. This program places the user in a virtual cafe, composed primarily of digital video clips of actors involved in fictional conversations in the cafe; HyperCafe allows the user to follow different conversations, and offers dynamic opportunities of interaction via temporal, spatio-temporal and textual links to present alternative narratives. Textual elements are also present in the form of explanatory text, contradictory subtitles, and intruding narratives. Based on our work with HyperCafe, we discuss the components and a framework for hypervideo structures, along with the underlying aesthetic considerations.

Indexed Terms

aesthetics, multi-threaded narratives, spatial navigation, temporal links, digital video.
 

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Title

Content-oriented Integration in Hypermedia Systems

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Kyoji Hirata and Yoshinori Hara

C&C Research Laboratories
NEC USA Inc.
110 Rio Robles Ave.
San Jose, CA 95134
Telephone: (408)943-3002
Email: {hirata,hara}@ccrl.sj.nec.com

Hajime Takano and Shigehito Kawasaki

C&C Research Laboratories NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation
1-1 Miyazaki 4-Chrome
Miyamae-lu
Kawasaki, Kanagawa 216, Japan
Email: { takano, kawasaki } @mmp.cl.nec.co jp

Abstract

In this paper, we present the concept and the general framework of a new integration model for hypermedia systems, the content-oriented integration. Content-oriented integration provides an integrated navigational environment that consists of both conceptual-based navigation and media-based navigation. For the conceptual-based navigation, each media representation is translated into a conceptual representation with the help of media recognition techniques and media understanding techniques. The media representation derives its own semantics by connecting the media-independent part to the conceptual representation such as an object name, keywords, etc. Media-based navigation supports media-dependent information difficult to translate into the conceptual representation. Conceptual-based navigation and media-based navigation enrich navigational capabilities in complementary fashion.

We also describe our content-oriented integrated hypermedia system "Himotoki." It provides a wide variety of navigational tools such as visual content-based navigation, moving hot-spot navigation and schema navigation. Each media translation is modularized as the corresponding media augmenter so that it can flexibly adapt to a distributed environment. Applications such as "Electronic Aquatic Life" and "Hypermedia Museum" demonstrate the usefulness of these navigational tools.

Indexed Terms

content-oriented integration, concept-based navigation, media-based navigation, media augmenter, recognition engine, matching engine, moving hot-spots, content-based retrieval
 

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Title

**** Engelbart Award Nominee****

The Structure of Hypertext Activity

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

Jim Rosenberg

R.D.#1 Box 236
Grindstone, PA 15442
Telephone: (412)785-9398
Email: jr@amanue.pgh.net

Abstract

A framework for discussion of hypertext activity is introduced using the concepts acteme, episode, and session. Acteme is a low-level unit such as link-following; episode is a collection of actemes that cohere in the reader's mind; session is the entirety of contiguous activity. Well known issues in hypertext rhetoric are recast in this framework and generalized to all varieties of acteme. We consider whether the episode is a virtual document, user interface issues pertaining to the episode, multi-episode structure, concurrency issues, and reader-as-writer activity, with a frequent emphasis on hypertext gathering.

Indexed Terms

hypertext, rhetoric, acteme, episode, session, gathering, contour, emergent structure.
 

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Title

Practical Methods for Automatically Generating Typed Links

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Chip Cleary and Ray Bareiss

The Institute for the Learning Sciences
Northwestern University
1890 Maple Avenue, Evanston, IL 60201
Telephone: (708)491-1500
Email: {chip I bareiss} @ils.nwu.edu

Abstract

Our research concerns how to construct knowledge-rich hypermedia systems for use as aids to problem-solving. One of the most difficult steps in building such systems is constructing a fertile set of hypermedia links between the nodes they contain (i.e., text segments, graphics, and video clips). This paper describes the progress we have made in formalizing and automating the process of creating typed links, that is links that not only join nodes, but also label the relationship between them. We present four different methods we have developed for automated linking, each of which uses a different scheme for representing nodes, and we evaluate each method by the criteria of recall, precision, thoroughness, and ease of use. Two of these methods, designed for two different user populations, are being incorporated into the ASKTool, a hypermedia editor currently in use at the Institute for the Learning Sciences.

Indexed Terms

automated linking, typed links, structured hypermedia system
 

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Title

Automatic Hypertext Link Typing

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

James Allan

Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval
Department of Computer Science
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003
Email: allan@cs.umass.edu

Abstract

We present entirely automatic methods for gathering documents for a hypertext, linking the set, and annotating those connections with a description of the type (;.e., nature) of the link. Document linking is based upon high-quality information retrieval techniques developed using the Smart system. We apply an approach inspired by relationship visualization techniques and by graph simplification, to show how to identify automatically tangential, revision, summary, expansion, comparison, contrast, equivalence, and aggregate links.

Indexed Terms

link generation, link types, information retrieval
 

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Title

Automatic Text Decomposition Using Text Segments and Text Themes

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Gerard Salton, Amit Singhal, Chris Buckley, and Mandar Mitra

Department of Computer Science
Cornell University
Email: {singhal, chrisb, mitra}@cs.cornell.edu

Abstract

With the widespread use of full-text information retrieval, passage-retrieval techniques are becoming increasingly popular. Larger texts can then be replaced by important text excerpts, thereby simplifying the retrieval task and improving retrieval effectiveness. Passage-level evidence about the use of words in local contexts is also useful for resolving language ambiguities and improving retrieval output.
Two main text decomposition strategies are introduced in this study, including a chronological decomposition into text segments, and semantic decomposition into text themes. The interaction between text segments and text themes is then used to characterize text structure, and to formulate specifications for information retrieval, text traversal, and text summarization.

Indexed Terms

text structuring, text decomposition, segments, themes, information retrieval, passage retrieval, text summarization.
 

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Title

Ut Pictura Hyperpoesis: Spatial Form, Visuality, and the Digital Word

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

John Tolva

Department of English
Campus Box 1122
Washington University
St.Louis, M O 63130-4899
Telephone: (314)727-7547
Email: jntolva@artsci.wustl.edu

Abstract

This essay discusses the visual characteristics of hypertext (space, contour, depth) by situating it, as an artistic form, in the literary traditions that it extends and modifies. While, from a literary perspective, hypertextuality is nothing new, what is revolutionary is the way that computerized hypertext emulates the spatial and visual qualities that literary texts have historically struggled to effect. To illustrate the concept of spatial form I have chosen to analyze the mola web, a hypertext which is unique, though not abnormal, in the extremity of its link structure. One needs only think of the ubiquitous metaphor of the labyrinth in hypertext criticism or of the recent attention given to spatial user interfaces to see how dependent is the idea of hypertext on a spatial form.

Indexed Terms

hypertext, spatial form, ekphrasis, visual, flatland, mola, World Wide Web
 

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Title

Hypertextual Dynamics in A Life Set for Two

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

Robert Kendall

Writing Program
New School for Social Research
66 West 1 2th St.
New York, NY 10011
Telephone: (212) 229-5880
Email : 102012.1273@compuserve.com

Abstract

In most hypertexts the contents of nodes and the positions of links are fixed. Making these elements dynamic can help writers solve structural problems and help prevent navigational dilemmas for readers. The hypertext poem "A Life Set for Two"demonstrates several techniques for doing this. Floating links are positioned dynamically in response to the reader's progress. Variable nodes change their texts according to factors such as their context within the current reading. The texts of individual nodes are also influenced by global states--settings that can be changed manually by the reader or automatically by the program.

Indexed Terms

poetry, dynamic links, floating links, variable nodes, embedded variables, global states, reading templates
 

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Title

Hypertext with Consequences: Recovering a Politics of Hypertext

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

Diane Greco

Program in the History and Social Study of Science and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room E5 1-070
Cambridge, MA 02139
Email: dgreco@mit.edu

Abstract

This paper aims to situate the practice of creating hypertexts and hypertext authoring systems within a larger political framework. Although hypertext design and use has always been both political and about human bodies, hypertext theorists have generally failed to explore the political dimensions of this lineage. The paper concludes with a discussion of recent work which bears on non-technological issues such as collaborative authoring, genre status of hypertexts (fiction or non-fiction) and reproduction of proprietary materials.

Indexed Terms

hypertext, rhetoric, cyborgs, technology and society, literary theory, postmodernism, authorship, copyright
 

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Title

Information Reuse in Hypermedia Applications

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Franca Garzotto, Luca Mainetti, and Paolo Paolini
Hypermedia Laboratory - Politecnico di Milano
Via Ponzio 34/5, 20133 Milano, Italy
Universita di Lecce - Informatics Engineering
Lecce, Italy
Email: [garzotto, mainetti, paolini] @elet.polimi.it

Abstract

Reuse -- broadly defined as the use of existing information objects or software artifacts in different contexts and for different purposes--is a technology for improving productivity, reducing the production effort and cost, and increasing the quality of end applications (promoting consistency and therefore improving usability). Reuse is a crucial issue in hypermedia applications. Reuse may be applied to items of different sizes and different complexity (from an elementary value to a large structured portion of the application). It may involve several aspects of the hypermedia application (content, organization, presentation and connections). It can be implemented with different techniques, by creating a new copy of an item, or by sharing the same item in two (or more) different contexts. In this paper we analyze hypermedia reuse under these different viewpoints, discuss a classification of different types of reuse, and present a few examples from commercial and prototype hypermedia titles. From the analysis of these case studies we derive technical hints, recommendations and pitfalls-to-avoid, that would help hypermedia authors handle reuse in the most effective way possible. We also suggest reuse techniques that can be incorporated in future authoring systems.

Indexed Terms

hypermedia, reuse, authoring, design, models, evaluation, usability.
 

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Title

Evaluating HyTime: An Examination and Implementation Experience

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

John F. Buford

Distributed Multimedia Systems Laboratory
Department of Computer Science
University of Massachusetts Lowell
One University Avenue
Lowell, MA 01854, USA
URL: http://dmsl.cs.uml.edu
Email: buford@cs.uml.edu

Abstract

HyTime defines an extensive meta-language for hypermedia documents, including general representations for links and anchors, a framework for positioning and projecting arbitrary objects in time and space, and a structured document query language. We propose a set of criteria for evaluating the HyTime model. We then review the model with respect to these criteria and describe our implementation experience. Our review indicates both the benefits and limitations of HyTime. These results are relevant to systems and applications designers who are considering HyTime, and also to possible future revisions of the standard.

Indexed Terms

HyTime, hypermedia models, hypermedia standards
 

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Title

Systematic Hypermedia Application Design with OOHDM

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Daniel Schwabe, Gustavo Rossi*, and Simone D. J. Barbosa

Departamento de Informatica
Pontificia Universidade Catolica
R. Marques de Sao Vicente, 225
Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22453-900, Brazil
Telephone: +55-21-529 9544
Email: [schwabe,rossi,sim]@inf.puc-rio.br
(*) also LIFIA, F. Cs. Exactas-UNLP, and CONICET, Argentina

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the process of hypermedia applications design and implementation, focusing in particular on two critical aspects of these applications: the navigational and interface structure.
We discuss the way in which we build the navigation and abstract interface models using the Object-Oriented Hypermedia Design Method (OOHDM); we show which concerns must be taken into account for each task by giving examples from a real project we are developing, the Portinari Project. We show which implementation concerns must be considered when defining interface behavior, discussing both a Toolbook and a HTML implementation of the example application.

Indexed Terms

hypermedia design, methodology, modeling, object orientation, navigation, interfaces
 

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Title

**** Engelbart Award Nominee ****

The Flag Taxonomy of Open Hypermedia Systems

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Kasper Osterbyeand Uffe Kock Wiil

Department of Computer Science
Aalborg University,
Fiedrik Bajers Vej 7E
9220 Aalborg 0st, Denmark
Email: {kasper, kock}@iesd.auc.dk

Abstract

This paper presents a taxonomy for open hypermedia systems. The purpose of the Flag taxonomy is manifold: (1) to provide a framework to classify and concisely describe individual systems, (2) to characterize what an open hypermedia system is, (3) to provide a framework for comparing different systems in a system independent way, and (4) to provide an overview of the design space of open hypermedia systems.
The Flag taxonomy builds on the achievements of the Dexter model. It extends the terminology of the Dexter model to adequately cover issues that relate to open hypermedia systems such as integration and use of third party applications to edit and display hypermedia components.
Two of the most prominent open hypermedia systems, DeVise Hypermedia and Microcosm, are used as case studies. The Flag taxonomy is used to compare these systems on a carefully selected set of aspects that distinguish open hypermedia systems from other hypermedia systems.

Indexed Terms

open hypermedia systems, Dexter model, taxonomy, link protocol, third-party viewers, integration
 

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Title

The HyperDisco Approach to Open Hypermedia Systems

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

Uffe Kock Wiil

Department of Computer Science
Aalborg University,
Fredrik Bajers Vej 7E
9220 Aalborg 0st, Denmark
Email: kock@iesd.auc.dk

Abstract

Computing support for large engineering enterprises provides an example of the need for hypermedia-based collaborative computing systems composed of a large number of distributed heterogeneous tools. These computing environments place complex requirements on the underlying hypermedia platform. To support integration of independently written tools for these environments, hypermedia platforms must address several important issues such as scalability, openness, distribution, heterogeneity, interoperability, extensibility and computation.

This paper describes the HyperDisco approach to open hypermedia systems. HyperDisco provides an extensible object-oriented hypermedia platform supporting intertool linking, computation, concurrency control, notification control, version control, access control, query and search, and various other features. The present work has two main objectives: 1) to provide a platform to integrate existing and future distributed heterogeneous tools and data formats and 2) to provide a platform to extend integrated tools to handle multiple collaborating users and multiple versions of shared artifacts. The paper presents important dimensions of hypermedia platforms that helped to formulate the goals for HyperDisco, the HyperDisco prototype, and two integration examples to illustrate the distinctive features of the HyperDisco approach.

Indexed Terms

open hypermedia systems, integration, hypermedia platforms, collaborative work, system architectures, data models, inter-tool linking, link services, hyperbase management systems, scalability, openness, distribution, heterogeneity, interoperability, extensibility, computation
 

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Title

**** Engelbart Award Nominee ****

Toward a Dexter-based model for open hypermedia: Unifying embedded references and link objects

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Kaj Gronbaek

Computer Science Department
Aarhus University
Ny Munkegade, Bldg. 540
DK 8000 Aarhus C
Denmark

Randall H. Trigg

Xerox PARC
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
USA

Abstract

The Dexter Hypertext Reference model is well suited to modeling anchor-based hypermedia systems and static hypermedia structures. But it is less clear that Dexter is adequate for systems whose linking is based on embedded references like the World Wide Web (WWW), nor for modeling the dynamic aspects of contemporary hypermedia systems like DHM and Microcosm. This paper proposes a new Dexter-based extensible object-oriented model designed to cover a broader spectrum of the features of contemporary hypermedia systems. The model introduces two new concepts, LocationSpecifiers and ReferenceSpecifiers, which let us model links as references embedded in documents as well as links as objects in separate databases. This suggests the idea of new systems that could support both styles as one step toward integrating global networked information sources with application-bridging systems on local hosts. In addition, our model is better equipped to handle dynamic hypermedia structures. As an example, a model of Microcosm's Generic Link is given which extends that important concept in useful ways.

Indexed Terms

open hypermedia, link objects, embedded links, Dexter hypertext reference model, dynamic hypermedia, generic links, Extended Dexter model
 

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Title

A Study of Navigational Support Provided by Two World Wide Web Browsing Applications

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Steve Jones

School of Informatics
University of Abertay Dundee
Dundee DD1 1HG
Scotland
Email: steve.jones@tay.ac.uk

Andy Cockburn

Department of Computer Science
University of Canterbury
Christchurch
New Zealand
Email: andy@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz

Abstract

This paper describes a usability study of the Hypertext navigation facilities provided by two popular World Wide Web client applications (also termed 'browsers'). We detail the navigation tools provided by the clients and describe their underlying page retrieval models.

We introduce a notation that represents the system states resulting from the user's navigation actions in World Wide Web subspaces. The notation is used to analyze the client applications. We find that the client user interfaces present a model of navigation that conflicts with the underlying stack-based system model.

A small usability study was carried out to investigate the effects of the clients' browser behavior on users. The study reveals that users have incorrect models of their navigation support, and they have little confidence in the application of their models when using the clients.
The paper concludes with a description of future work and a discussion of implications for WWW page and client designers.

Indexed Terms

World Wide Web, hypermedia navigation, usability
 

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Title

Browsing the WWW by Interacting with a Textual Virtual Environment -- A Framework for Experimenting with Navigational Metaphors

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Author

Andreas Dieberger

Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Literature, Communication, and Culture
Atlanta, GA 30332-0165
Telephone: (404) 894-2730
Fax: (404) 853-0372
Email: andreas.dieberger@lcc.gatech.edu

Abstract

This paper describes a system that combines a textual virtual environment (MOO - MUD Object Oriented) and a WWW browser. The MOO provides a text-only but information-rich spatial user interface in which objects and locations can be associated with pointers to WWW pages. When using a specialized MOO client, navigation in the MOO causes the corresponding Web pages to be loaded. The overall effect is the possibility of navigating the Web using spatial navigational metaphors. Textual virtual environments support the creation of diverse navigation tools and metaphors.

The Juggler we describe can thus serve as an experimental tool to explore diverse navigational metaphors for the WWW. The system uses references to Web pages which can be arranged in any possible way and allows users to overlay a new secondary structure on existing Web structures, even using Web pages not on one's own Web server. Textual virtual environments further support almost real time communication and interaction between several users. Because of the extensive interaction possibilities, the Juggler system can be used to discuss material on the Web, conduct guided tours through the Web, or give presentations using material available on the Web.

Indexed Terms

WWW, navigation, spatial hypertext, metaphors, collaborative navigation
 

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Title

**** Engelbart Award Nominee ****

HyPursuit: A Hierarchical Network Search Engine that Exploits Content-Link Hypertext Clustering

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Ron Weiss, Bienvenido Velez, Mark A. Sheldon, Chanathip Namprempre, Peter Szilagyi, Andrzej Duda, and David K. Gifford

Programming Systems Research Group
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
545 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Telephone: (617) 253-6264
Email: rweiss@lcs.mit.edu

Abstract

HyPursuit is a new hierarchical network search engine that clusters hypertext documents to structure a given information space for browsing and search activities. Our content-link clustering algorithm is based on the semantic information embedded in hyperlink structures and document contents. HyPursuit admits multiple, coexisting cluster hierarchies based on different principles for grouping documents, such as the Library of Congress catalog scheme and automatically created hypertext clusters.

HyPursuitabstraction functions summarize cluster contents to support scalable query processing. The abstraction function satisfy system resource e limitations with controlled information loss. The result of query processing operations on a cluster summary approximates the result of performing the operations on the entire information space. We constructed a prototype system comprising 100 leaf World-Wed Web sites and a hierarchy of 42 servers that route queries to the leaf sites. Experience with our system suggests that abstraction functions based on hypertext clustering can be used to construct meaningful and scalable cluster hierarchies. We are also encouraged by preliminary results on clustering based on both document contents and hyperlink structures.

Indexed Terms

network resource discovery, hypertext clustering, hyperlink structures
 

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Title

Hypermedia Operating Systems: A New Paradigm for Computing

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Peter J. Nuermberg, John J. Leggett, and Erich R. Schneider

Hypermedia Research Laboratory
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3112
USA
Telephone: (409) 862-3217 Email: {pnuern, leggett, erich}@bush.cs.tamu.edu

John L. Schnase
Center for Botanical Informatics
Missouri Botanical Garden
St. Louis, MO 63166-0299
USA
Telephone: (324)577-9570
Email: schnase@mobot.org

Abstract

Hypermedia is often viewed as either a paradigm for human-computer interaction or information organization. Human-computer interaction provides a view of hypermedia that involves the creation, manipulation, and access of information through a 'point-and-click' navigation mechanism. Information organization provides a view of hypermedia that involves the storage of information as a set of data and metatdata objects, where metadata objects capture structural relationships among information objects. This paper describes a third view of hypermedia - hypermedia as a computing paradigm.

In this paper, we explore the implications of pushing hypermedia beyond its traditional role in human-computer interaction and information organization into the computer's core operating environment. We believe the result hypermedia operating systems provide a new paradigm for computing -- one in which human-computer interaction, information storage and retrieval, programming, and control are integrated in a common conceptual framework. We discuss the basic concepts of hypermedia operating systems and describe a general hypermedia operating system architecture and prototype. While this work represents only a beginning, we feel that viewing hypermedia as a computing paradigm offers a broad new field of research.

Indexed Terms

open hypermedia systems, operating systems, system architectures, hyperbases, link services, hypermedia applications, HOSS
 

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Title

HyperStorM: An Extensible Object-Oriented Hypermedia Engine

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Ajit Bapat, Jurgen Waesch, Karl Aberer, Jorg M. Haake

GMD-IPSI
Dolivostr. 15, D-64392
Darmstadt, Germany
Telephone: ++49-6151-869-{960, 959, 935, 918}
Email: {bapat, waesch, aberer, haake}@darmstadt.gmd.de

Abstract

It is a well-known problem that developers of hypermedia applications need assistance for modeling and maintaining application-specific hypermedia structures. In the past, various hypermedia engines have been proposed to support these tasks. Until now, hypermedia engines either provided a fixed hypermedia data model and left extensions to the hypermedia application or they left the modeling of the hypermedia data completely to the application developer and only provided storage functionality which had to be plugged into the data model by the application developer. As an alternative, we propose an extensible object-oriented hypermedia engine which supports the specification of application semantics as application classes within the hypermedia engine, thereby supporting complex operations maintaining application-specific as well as application -independent constraints.

In the HyperStorM hypermedia engine, the storage layer and the application layer of a hypermedia systems are implemented within the object-oriented database management systems VODAK. Only the presentation layer is kept outside the OODBMS. This approach facilitates both the reuse of database functionality as well as the flexibility necessary to support the efficient development of different kinds of hypermedia applications. First evaluations show that our approach represents a much more powerful hypermedia engine than previous approaches, thus giving a new quality to hypermedia application development.

Indexed Terms

hypermedia engine, open extensible hypermedia systems, database management system support for hypermedia applications
 

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Title

Media-based Navigation with Generic Links

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Paul H. Lewis, Hugh C. Davis, Steve R. Griffiths, Wendy Hall, and Rob J. Wilkins

The Multimedia Research Group
Department of electronics and Computer Science
University of Southampton
England, SO171BJ
Email: phl@ecs.soton.ac.uk

Abstract

Microcosm is an open architecture hypermedia system in which documents remain in their native format and link information is held in separate link databases. This has facilitated the introduction of generic links which, once authored from a text string to a destination anchor, may be followed from any occurrence of the text string in any document, The generic link provides substantial reductions in authoring effort for large hypermedia systems, but the limitation of the generic link to text string source anchors needed to be addressed.

This paper describe extensions to the Microcosm architecture to create MAVIS, Microcosm Architecture for Video, Image, and Sound, in which generic links may be used from both text and non-text media. This development makes it possible to navigate through non-text media using content as the key and, through the facilities of the dynamic link, content-based retrieval is also available. Examples. of content-based navigation with image, video, and sound are presented.

Indexed Terms

open hypermedia, content-based navigation, information retrieval
 

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Title

**** Engelbart Award Nominee ***

VerSE: Towards Hypertext Versioning Styles

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Anja Haake and David Hicks

GMD-IPSI
Dolivostr. 15, D-64392
Darmstadt, Germany
Email: {ahaake, hicks} @darmstadt.gmd.de

Abstract

Much of the previous work on version support for hypertext has focused primarily on the development of functionality for specific hypertext systems and/or a specific hypertext application domain. Although these models address crucial version support problems in specific hypertext application domains, they cannot be easily adapted and then integrated into other hypertext applications.

Hypertext version support environments have been introduced to help alleviate these problems. They are designed to meet the version support needs of a wide range of hypertext applications. However, so far few high level versioning facilities have been constructed in these environments, creating a gap between the facilities provided directly within the environment and the versioning needs of some applications.

The intent of this research is to bridge this gap. It turned out that task-based versioning styles are easy to use by both hypertext application developers and hypertext application users. As show in previous work, task-based versioning helps to alleviate cognitive overhead and disorientation problems for users. In addition, it requires little investment from the point of view of application development, since task-based versioning does not necessarily require an application to incorporate an extra notion for individual versions. This paper presents of set of task-based hypertext versioning styles that are offered in the VerSE flexible version support environment and shows the direction towards the design of additional versioning styles.

Indexed Terms

version support/control, version support environment, versioning styles/policies, task-based versioning
 

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Title

Logic Programming with the World-Wide Web

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Seng Wai Loke and Andrew Davison

Department of Computer Science
University of Melbourne
Parkville, Victoria 3052
Australia
Telephone: +613 9344 {9170, 9172}
Email: {swloke, ad} @cs.mu.oz.au

Abstract

We introduce LogicWeb, an integration of structured logic programming and the World-Wide Web. We show how LogicWeb enables programmable behavior and state to be incorporated into Web pages, allowing them to be viewed as modules or objects with state. LogicWeb renders a Web page as a live information entity, able to determine its own response to user queries, and modify the behavior of hyperlinks. This amalgamation of logic and the Web makes it possible to reason with Web pages, state relationships between pages, and dynamically generate pages. A prototype system is described, which extends Mosaic with LogicWeb capabilities using the Common Client Interface. In addition, we outline a client-based search tool written with LogicWeb and compare it with an existing package.

Indexed Terms

World-Wide Web, structured logic programming, mobile code, Mosaic, Common Client Interface, Prolog
 

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Title

Experiences in Developing Collaborative Applications Using the World Wide Web 'Shell'

Source

Hypertext '96 Proceedings

Authors

Andreas Girgensohn, Alison Lee, and Kevin Schlueter *

NYNEX Science and Technology,
500 Westchester Avenue
White Plains, NY 10604
USA

*Also University of Toronto
Department of Computer Science
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A4
Canada
Email: {andreasg, alee, kevins} @nynexst.com

Abstract

The components of the World Wide Web, which we call the World Wide Web Shell, provide a framework for collaborative application development in much the same way as an expert system shell does for expert system development. This development is quick enough to support rapid prototyping. Once the collaborative application is developed, the WWW Shell facilitates the distribution of the application and its data to geographically-separated users on diverse computing platforms. We have developed and deployed two collaborative applications, Design Intent and NYNEX Portholes, using the WWW Shell. These applications are described and our experiences developing them with the WWW Shell are detailed. In the process of developing these applications we discovered limitations of the WWW Shell which we present, along with suggested modifications and extensions to address them.

Indexed Terms

collaborative application, World Wide Web, rapid prototyping, HTTP server and clients, Portholes, Design Intent, forms and scripts, work groups, community of users, awareness and familiarization.
 

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Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Title

All for One and One for All

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Nelson, Theodor H.
 
 

Abstract

Hypertext, or non-sequential writing with free user movement along links, is a simple and obvious idea. It is merely the electronification of literary connections as we already know them.

It took a great length of time to interest people in hypertext. However, researchers everywhere are becoming interested in the idea, and indeed we now see a heartening proliferation of hypertext systems in both prototype and commercial versions.

However, we stand in danger of recapitulating the ongoing disaster of the computer world: the incompatibilities, not just of equipment and storage media, but of software and data formats. These have made computers a terrible mess for users everywhere.

Hypertext offers vast new possibilities of access and clarity of information for everyone. If the availability of hypertext is to be conditional and incompatible across systems, this great hope will be dashed.

Project Xanadu
 

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Title

KMS: A Distributed Hypermedia Systems for Managing Knowledge in Organizations

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Robert Akscyn, Donald McCracken, Elise Yoder

Knowledge Systems Incorporated
4750 Old William Penn Highway
Murrysville, PA 15668

Abstract

KMS is a commercial hypermedia system developed by Knowledge Systems for networks of heterogeneous workstations. It is designed to support organization-wide collaboration for a broad range of applications, such as electronic publishing, software engineering, project management, computer-aided design and on-line documentation. KMS is a successor to the ZOG system developed at Carnegie Mellon University from 1972 to 1985.

A KMS database consists of screen-sized WYSIWYG workspaces called frames that contain text, graphics and image items. Single items in frames can be linked to other frames. They may also be used to invoke programs. The database can be distributed across an indefinite number of file servers and be as large as available disk space permits. Independently developed KMS databases can be linked together.

The KMS user interface uses an extreme form of direct manipulation. A single browser/editor is used to traverse the database and manipulate its contents. Over 85% of the user's interaction is direct -- a single point-and-click designates both object and operation. Running on Sun and Apollo workstations, KMS accesses and displays frames in less than one second, on average.
 

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Title

HAM: A General-Purpose Hypertext Abstract Machine

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Brad Campbell and Joseph M. Goodman

Tektronix, Inc.
Computer-Aided Software Engineering Division
P.O. Box 4600, MS 94-480
Beaverton, Oregon 97076
 
 

Abstract

The Hypertext Abstract Machine (HAM) is a general-purpose, transaction-based, server for a hypertext storage system. The server is designed to handle multiple users in a networked environment. The storage system consists of a collection of contexts, nodes, links, and attributes that make up a hypertext graph. This paper demonstrates the HAM's versatility by showing how Guide buttons, Intermedia webs, and NoteCards FileBoxes can be implemented using the HAM's storage model.

We also describe our content-oriented integrated hypermedia system "Himotoki." It provides a wide variety of
 

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Title

Turning Ideas into Products: The Guide System
 

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Peter J. Brown

Office Workstations Ltd.
5 Abbeymount Techbase
2 Easter Road
Edinburgh EH7 5AN

Computing Laboratory
The University of Canterbury
Kent CT2 7NF
 

Abstract

The Guide system is a successful commercial product that originally came out of some ideas of a research project. Unlike many other hypertext systems, Guide is aimed at naive users and authors in the personal computer market. This paper evaluates the basic principles of Guide, and describes the interplay between the product and the continuing hypertext research programme.
 
 

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Title

Hypertext and Creative Writing

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Jay David Bolterand Michael Joyce

University of North Carolina
CB# 3145 Murphey Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3145
San Jose, CA 95134
Telephone: (408)943-3002
Email: {hirata,hara}@ccrl.sj.nec.com
 

Abstract

Among its many uses, hypertext can serve as a medium for a new kind of flexible, interactive fiction. Storyspace (tm) is a hypertext system we have created for authoring and reading such fiction. Interactive fiction in the computer medium is a continuation of the modern "tradition" of experimental literature in print. However, the computer frees both author and reader from restrictions imposed by the printed medium and therefore allows new experiments in literary structure.
 
 

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Title

From the Old to the New: Integrating Hypertext into Traditional Scholarship

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Gregory Crane

Co-Director, Perseus Project
Assistant Professor of Classics
Harvard University
 
 

Abstract

Hypertext allows academics to structure and manipulate their ideas in a radically new way, but it should also reinforce traditional scholarly activity. Those designing Hypertext systems that are intended for the general academic market must be careful to support not only new possibilities, but those functions with which academics are already familiar. Further, many scholars hope that their documents will be useful for decades to come. We need standard document architectures that will separate a particular Hypertext from the system in which it was designed.
 

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Title

Searching for Information in a Hypertext Medical Handbook

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Mark Edwin Frisse, M.D.

Washington University School of Medicine
660 South Euclid Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63110
 
 

Abstract

Effective information retrieval from large medical hypertext systems will require a combination of browsing and full-text document retrieval techniques. Using a prototype hypertext medical therapeutics handbook, I discuss one approach to information retrieval problems in hypertext. This approach responds to a query by initially treating each hypertext card as a full-text document. It then utilizes information about document structure to propagate weights to neighboring cards and produces a ranked list of potential starting points for graphical browsing.
 
 

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Title

Hypertext and Pluralism: From Lineal to Non-lineal Thinking

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

William O. Beeman, Kenneth T. Anderson, Gail Bader, James Larkin, Anne P. McClard, Patrick McQuillan, and Mark Shields

Office of Program Analysis
Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS)
Brown University
P.O. Box 1946
Providence, RI 02912
 
 

Abstract

One goal of American and Northern European higher education is to promote acquisition of a pluralistic cognitive style, which has as an important property -- non-lineality. This paper investigates the effects of using an advanced hypertext/hypermedia system, Intermedia, to develop instructional material for two university courses in English and Biology intended to promote acquisition of non-lineal thinking. Use of Intermedia is shown to produce significant learning effects, which are somewhat more pronounced for persons involved in developing materials than for students using the system.
 
 

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Title

Hypertext Habitats: Experiences of Writers in NoteCards

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Randall H. Trigg and Peggy M. Irish

Intelligent Systems Laboratory
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
 
 

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation into the use of the NoteCards hypertext system for writing. We describe a wide variety of personal styles adopted by 20 researchers at Xerox as they "inhabit" NoteCards. This variety is displayed in each of their writing activities: notetaking, organizing and reorganizing their work, maintaining references and bibliographies, and preparing documents. In addition, we discuss the distinctive personal decisions made as to which activities are appropriate for NoteCards in the first place. Finally we conclude with a list of recommendations for system designers arising from this work.
 
 

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Title

Comprehending Non-LInear Text: The Role of Discourse Cues and Reading Strategies

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Davida Charney

Department of English
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
 
 

Abstract

By studying the structure of written discourse and the processes by which readers acquire information from texts, we have learned a great deal about how to design texts that facilitate learning. However, recent advances in computer technology have enabled the development of new forms of text that violate standard assumptions of what texts are like. These new forms may pose serious problems for learning because they lack discourse features that reader rely on for assimilating new information. In particular, readers traditionally rely on the writer to determine the sequence of topics and to employ conventional cues that signal relationships among topics, such as relative importance or chronology. However, on-line hypertext systems present texts non-linearly, requiring readers to decide what information to read and in what order. This paper assesses the potential impact of non-linear texts on theories of discourse and on current cognitive theories of text processing. It also describes research in progress on readers' sequencing strategies in hypertext. Research on the effect of hypertext on reading will have important practical implications for designing hypertext systems that satisfy reader's needs.
 
 

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Title

The Notes Program: A Hypertext Application for Writing from Source Texts

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Christine Neuwirth, David Kaufer, Rick Chimera and Terilyn Gilliespie

English Department
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
 
 

Abstract

Notes is a hypertext application developed to investigate the effects of computers on the writing process. In particular, on the processes of acquiring and structuring knowledge when writing from source texts. Notes is designed to help writers record their own ideas (e.g. reactions, inferences, plausibility assessments), recover the context for those ideas easily and view ideas from multiple perspectives. In this paper we outline the theoretical basis for the design of the Notes program. Then we briefly describe the program itself and its relation to relevant research. Finally we describe our experience with users.
 
 

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Title

Hypertext and the New Oxford English Dictionary

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Darrell R. Raymond and Frank William Tompa

Centre for the New Oxford English Dictionary
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L 3G1
 
 

Abstract

An alternative to manual composition of hypertext databases is conversion from existing texts. Such conversion often requires careful analysis of the text document in order to determine how best to represent its structure. We illustrate some of the issues of onversion with an analysis of the Oxford English Dictionary.
 
 

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Title

Content Oriented Relations between Text Units - A Structural Model for Hypertexts

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Rainer Hammwoehner and Ulrich Thiel

University of Constance
Department of Information Science
Project TWRM-TOPOGRAPHIC
Postfach 5560
D-7750, Konstanz, F.R.G.
 
 

Abstract

A common feature of various recently developed information systems is the decomposition of linear document structures which are enforced by conventional print media. Instad, a network organization of information units of different forms (textual, graphical, pictorial, and even auditive presentation modes may be combined) is provided. Documents organized this way are called "hypertexts". However, two questions arise immediately when an effort is made to build information systems on the basis of this conception:

- What are the "units" constituting a hypertext?

- What sort of links between the units will be provided?

Most approaches to hypertext systems impose the task of deciding these questions on the authors of hypertexts, thus the systems are hypertext management devices (eg Christodoulakis et al. 86, Woelk et al. 86). The approach taken in this paper leaves a more active role to the software by applying knowledge-based techniques.

The starting point is the automatic content analysis of machine-readable full-text documents which may be downloaded from a full-text database. The analysis process results in a partitioning of the document into thematically coherent text passages, which are one kind of node of the hypertextual version of this document. Other nodes contain graphics, tables, and summarization. The content analysis is accomplished by a semantic parser, which has access to an explicit model of the discourse domain. The TOPIC-System (Hahn/Reimer 86) comprises prototypical implementations of these components, Dues to the semantic modeling, relations between the nodes may be formally defined in order to provide content-oriented browsing facilities. The graphical retrieval system TOPOGRAPHIC (Thiel/Hammwoehner 87) employs an already implemented subset of them to guide users to relevant text parts.

In this paper we outline a structure model for hypertexts based on partial representations of the meaning of text parts. Formal definitions of content-oriented relations between such text units are given in terms of a logic specification language.
 

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Title

SuperBook: An Automatic Tool for Information Exploration - Hypertext?

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Joel R. Remde, a href="people.html#Gomez_Louis M.">Louis M. Gomez, and Thomas K. Landauer

Bell Communications Research 435 South Street
Morristown, NJ 07960
 
 

Abstract

The goals and methods of the text browser, SuperBook, are compared with those of hypertext systems in general. SuperBook, intended to provide improved access to text existing in electronic form, employs cognitive tools arising from human-computer interaction research, such as full-text indexing, adaptive aliasing, and dynamic views of hierarchical information. SuperBook automatically preprocesses online text written for paper publication, and produces a multi-window display, including a dynamic table of contents, pages of text, and a history of search words. Although SuperBook and hypertext share common goals of improved search and navigation, SuperBook is designed for accessing existing documents while most hypertext systems are better suited for authoring new information structures. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of each of these kinds of systems.
 
 

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Title

User Interface Design for the Hyperties Electronic Encyclopedia

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Ben Shneiderman

Department of Computer Science
Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, and
Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
 
 

Abstract

Printed books were an enormous stimulus to science, culture, commerce, and entertainment. Electronic books and hypertext systems may produce a similar stimulus in the next century, but current designs are poor. Typical screens are too small, too slow, too complicated, and too hard to read. With careful attention to the user interface and the underlying technology, we have a chance to create a new medium that is potentially more attractive and effective than printed books in many situations.

Electronic books can have color, animation, sound, rapid access, compactness, rapid traversal and search, user annotation, electronic dissemination and updating, dynamic text to reflect the user's needs and other features yet undreamed of.
 

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Title

A Hypertext Writing Environment and Its Cognitive Basis

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

John B. Smith, Stephen F. Weiss, and Gordon J.Ferguson

University of North Carolina
Department of Computer Science
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175
Telephone: (919) 962-1792
 
 

Abstract

WE is a hypertext writing environment that can be used to create both electronic and printed documents. It is intended for professionals who work within a computer network of professional workstations. Since writing is a complex mental activity that used many different kinds of thinking, WE was designed in accord with an explicit cognitive model for writing. That model raises several important questions for both electronic and printed documents. The paper includes a discussion of the underlying cognitive model, a description of WE as it currently exists and as it will be extended in the near future, as well as a brief outline of experiments being conducted to evaluate both the model and the system. It concludes by re-examining some of the issues raised by the cognitive model in light of WE, especially the role of constraints in hypertext systems
 
 

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Title

Constraint-Based Hypertext for Argumentation

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Paul Smolensky, Brigham Bell, Barbara Fox, Roger King, and Clayton Lewis

University of Colorado at Boulder,
Department of Computer Science,
Department of Linguistics, and
Institute of Cognitive Science
Boulder, CO 80309
 
 

Abstract

In this paper we describe a hypertext system we are developing for the support of reasoned argumentation: the EUCLID project. We use the project to address two general problems arising with hypertext: the problems of controlling user/document interaction, and the problem of controlling the screen. We suggest that guiding user's interaction with hypertext is difficult because of the unique form of discourse that hypertext represents, and that structuring and designing the hypertext system to respect the particular discourse structure characteristics of that material. EUCLID's design is tuned to the structure of reasoned discourse.

The problem of screen management in EUCLID is a serious one, because our presentation of complex arguments requires mapping the complex logical relations between parts of realistic arguments onto complex spatial relations between items in the display. We describe a general system we are developing which provides this high degree of control for hypertext screen management. This system represents a constraint-based approach to hypertext, in which the items from the underlying database that are to be displayed may each contribute a number of constraints on the layout; a general constraint-satisfier then computes a screen layout that simultaneously satisfies these constraints. Each time an item is to be added to or deleted from the screen, the constraint set is adjusted and the screen layout is recomputed; thus the spatial relationships on the screen provide at all times a veridical representation of the underlying relations between displayed database items. This kind of strong screen control is demanded by hypertext applications which, like ours, are fine grained: the number of nodes and links being displayed number in the hundreds.
 

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Title

gIBIS: A Hypertext Tool for Team Design Deliberation

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Jeff Conklin and Michael L. Begeman

MCC (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp.)
3500 West Balcones Center Drive
Austin, TX 78759-6509
Email: conklin@mcc.com, begeman@mcc.com
 

Abstract

This paper introduces an application-specific hypertext system designed to facilitate the capture of early design deliberations, which implements a specific design method called Issue Based Information Systems (IBIS). The hypertext system described here, gIBIS (for graphical IBIS), makes use of color and a high speed relational database server to facilitate building and browsing type IBIS networks. Further, gIBIS is designed to support the collaborative construction of these networks by any number of cooperating team members spread across a local area network. Early experiments suggest that the gIBIS too, while still incomplete, forges a good match between graphical interface and design method even in this experimental version
 

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Title

Exploring Representation Problems Using Hypertext

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Catherine C. Marshall

Xerox Special Information Systems
250 N. Halstead Street
Pasadena, CA 91109
 
 

Abstract

Hypertext is a technology well-suited to exploring different kinds of representational problems. It can be used first as an informal mechanism to describe the attributes of objects and to capture relationships between the objects. The, hypertext structures can be constrained into a more formal representation of a domain, model, or analytic technique. A range of strategies for using hypertext can be employed to describe a problem and converge on an appropriate representation; competing representations can be informally evaluated to compare their relative expressive power.

This paper discusses several applications that have used NoteCards, a hypertext idea processing system, to tackle representation problems. Examples from each problem domain have been collected using the hypertext system as the initial acquisition vehicle. Subsequent analysis using hypertext structuring tools has revealed the semantics of each problem domain enabling the development of competing representations. Abstraction of the structure and form of these representations can be used to guide system extensions. These tailored extensions support the evaluation of a representation's relative merits; the representation that has been developed in response to a particular problem can be applied to analogous problems to determine the limits of its scope.

The first application described in this paper models a type of policy decision-making process; the second looks at approaches to representing the logical structure of an argument; and the third suggests some methods for capturing the structure of a political organization as an alternative to a conventional database design. The applications are discussed in terms of the issues they raise and the trade-offs they involve, how hypertext-based tools have been used to exploit the representations, and the solutions and techniques that have been developed in the process of creating each representation.
 

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Title

Thoth-II: Hypertext with Explicit Semantics

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

George H. Collier

Bell Communications Research
MRE2Q373
435 South Street
Morristown, NJ 07960
 
 

Abstract

This paper describes a hypertext system - Thoth-II. This system provides a rich means for modeling semantic interconnections among texts. It allows a user to browse texts, exploring their relations with other texts. These relations are modeled by a directed graph. The texts are embedded in the graph. Connections among specified phrases in the text and the graph structure are automatically formed. In the browsing mode the user is presented with an interactive graphic display of the directed graph. In the text mode the user can use multiple windows to display and interact with the stored text.
 

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Title

The Architecture of Static Hypertexts

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Tim Oren

Apple Computer
10500 North DeAnza Boulevard
MS 27AJ
Cupertino, CA 95014
 
 

Abstract

This paper's purpose is to describe how the hypertext technique can make CD-ROM (and other static storage media) a more comfortable environment for human use. I begin by considering implementation issues for hypertext on CD-ROM and surveying currently available products. I suggest desirable goals for the use of hypertext on the static CD medium, and propose that their achievement will follow from a correct choice of conventions of use and construction of the hypertext database. Such goals include augmenting text search algorithms, recovering lost benefits of the print medium, designing meaningful connections between documents to assist human communications, and allowing variable interactivity with the user.
 

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Title

Document Examiner: Delivery Interface for Hypertext Documents

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Janet H. Walker

Symbolics
11 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
 
 

Abstract

This paper describes the user interface strategy of Document Examiner, a delivery interface for commercial hypertext documents. Unlike many hypertext interfaces, Document Examiner does not adopt the directed graph as its fundamental user-visible navigation model. Instead it offers context evaluation and content-based searching capabilities that are based on consideration of the strategies that people use in interacting with paper documents.
 

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Title

The Hype in Hypertext: A Critique

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Jef Raskin

Information Appliance
1014 Hamilton Court
Menlo Park, CA 94025
 
 

Abstract

Hypertext has received a lot of mostly uncritical attention. The author sees it as one part inspiration and nine parts hyperbole. A number of user interface and technical problems are discussed.
 

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Title

Relationally Encoded Links and the Rhetoric of Hypertext

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

George P. Landow

Brown University
Department of English
Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS)
Providence, RI 02912
 
 

Abstract

More than two years' work on designing, writing, editing, and linking documents in Context32, the first course employing Intermedia developed at Brown University's IRIS (Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship), has provided valuable experience of hypertext and hypermedia systems. Context32, which contains more than a thousand text and graphic files joined by approximately 1300 links, appears the most ambitious implementation thus far of a full hypertext and hypermedia system intended for multiple users. Members of the development team at IRIS have previously described various aspects of Intermedia's object-oriented programming, general design, and educational goals. This paper presents conclusions about what works best at each end of a hypertext path or linkway and proposes that, like other forms of discourse, hypertext requires systems of conjunctive and other relational devices.
 

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Title

Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Frank G. Halasz

MCC (Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp.)
3500 West Balcones Center Drive
Austin, TX 78759-6509
 
 

Abstract

NoteCards is a general hypermedia environment designed to help people work with ideas. Its intended users are authors, designers, and other intellectual laborers engaged in analyzing information, designing artifacts, and generally processing ideas. The system provides these users with a variety of hypermedia-based tools for collecting, representing, managing, interrelating, and communicating ideas.

This paper presents the NoteCards system as a foil against which to explore some of the major limitations of the current generation of hypermedia systems. In doing so, this paper highlights seven of the major issues that must be addressed in the next generation of hypermedia systems. These seven issues are: search and query, composite nodes, virtual structures, computational engines, versioning, collaborative work, and tailorability. For each of these issues, the paper describes the limitations inherent in NoteCards and the prospects for improving the situation in future systems.
 

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Title

Developing and Distributing Hypertext Tools: Legal Inputs and Parameters

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Henry W. (Hank) Jones, III, Esq.

Morris, Manning & Martin
Corporate Technology Group
Suite 1600, East Tower, Atlanta Financial Center
3333 Peachtree Road
Atlanta, Georgia 30326
 
 

Abstract

To realize the promise of hypertext, researchers and developers must understand how their work is impacted by copyright, product liability, and other sets of legal rules. Certain key legal problems, and corresponding possible solutions, are analyzed.
 

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Title

Abstraction Mechanisms in Hypertext

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Pankaj K. Garg

University of Southern California
Computer Science Department
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0782
Email: garg@cse.usc.edu
 

Abstract

Abstraction is the means by which information can be stored and retrieved from an information structure at different levels of detail and from different perspectives. As such, abstraction mechanisms in hypertext are interesting to study and evaluate. In this paper we study the abstraction mechanisms in hypertext from a theoretical perspective. Abstractions then become various first-order logic formulae. Specifically we consider abstractions: sets, sequences, aggregations, generalization, revisions, and information structures. Interesting results of this work are the definition of level of generality of a hypertext node, the demonstration of revision histories as a partial order, and the notion of compatible-similar nodes. Also defined in this paper is the notion of primitive hypertexts versus application hypertext, and the usage of attributes of nodes (illustrated by the use of keywords) across various abstractions. An illustration of the concepts is given using the contexts mechanism suggested by Delisle and Schwartz.
 

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Title

Manipulating Source Code in DynamicDesign

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

James Bigelow and Victor Riley

Tektronix
Computer Aided Software Engineering Division
Design Automation Group
P.O. Box 4600, MS 94-480
Beaverton, OR 97075
Email: jimbi@copper.tek.com, victorr@copper.tek.com
 

Abstract

DynamicDesign is a Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) environment for the C language with a layered system architecture for modularity and versatility. DynamicDesign is composed of facilities to edit hypertext objects, maneuver through hypertext graphs, build a hypertext graph from a set of existing C source files, and browse source code, documents, and system requirements. This paper discusses the DynamicDesign facilities that deal with the source code, sourceBrowser, and source tree builder utilities.

GraphBuild is a utility used to convert C source code into a hypertext source graph, based on the program's call tree. A data dictionary is constructed for the program that contains its local and global variables.

The source browser allows the user to traverse, view, and edit a source code tree. Additional facilities for understanding and maintaining the source code and its auxiliary documentation are provided by the browser.
 

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Title

On Designing Intelligent Hypertext Systems for Information Management in Software Engineering

Source

Hypertext '87 Proceedings

Authors

Pankaj K. Garg and Walt Scacchi

University of Southern California,
Computer Science Department
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0782
Email: garg@cse.usc.edu, scacchi@cse.usc.edu
 

Abstract

Information management in large scale software engineering is a challenging problem. Hypertext systems are best suited for this purpose because of the diversity in information types that is permitted in the nodes of a hypertext. The integration of a hypertext system with software engineering tools results in a software hypertext system. We describe the design of such a system called DIF. Based on our experiences in using DIF, we recognized the need and the potential for developing a hypertext system that could utilize knowledge about its users and their software tasks and products. Such a system might then be able to act as an active participant in the software process, rather than being just a passive, albeit useful storage facility. As such, we define an Intelligent Software Hypertext System (I-SHYS) as a software hypertext system which is knowledgeable about its environment and can use such knowledge to assist in the software process. This knowledge is partly embedded in the design of an I-SHYS (in terms of the 'agents' that I-SHYS supports) and partly defined during the execution of I-SHYS (in terms of tasks that agents perform). We present a framework fro defining and organizing this knowledge, describe potential uses of such knowledge, identify limits of our approach, and suggest methods for circumventing them.
 

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Title

Scripted Documents: A Hypermedia Path Mechanism

Source

Hypertext '89 Proceedings

Author

Polle T. Zellweger

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
 
 

Abstract

The concept of a path, or ordered traversal of some links in a hypertext, has been a part of the hypertext notion from its early formation. Although paths can help to solve two major problems with hypertext systems, namely user disorientation and high cognitive overhead for users, their value has not been recognized. Paths can also provide the backbone for computations over a hypertext, an important issue for the future of hypertext. This paper constructs a framework for understanding path mechanisms for hypertext and explores the basic issues surrounding them. Given this framework, it reviews path mechanisms that have been provided by other hypertext systems. Finally, it describes the Scripted Documents system, which has been developed to test the potential of one powerful path mechanism.
 

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Title

Guided Tours and On-Line Presentations: How Authors Make Existing Hypertext Intelligible for Readers

Source

Hypertext '89 Proceedings

Authors

Catherine C. Marshall and Peggy M. Irish

Systems Sciences Laboratory
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
3333 Coyote Hill Road
Palo Alto, California 94304
 
 

Abstract

Hypertext systems like NoteCards provide facilities for authoring large networks. But they provide little support for the associated task of making these networks intelligible to future readers. Presentation conventions may be imported from other related media, but because the conventions have not yet been negotiated within a community of hypertext readers and writers, they provide only a partial solution to the problem of guiding a reader through an existing network of information. In this paper, we will discuss how a recent facility, Guided Tours, has been used to organize hypertext networks for presentation. The use of Guided Tours in NoteCards has exposed a set of authoring issues, and has provided us with examples of solutions to the problems associated with on-line presentations.
 

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Title

Programmable Browsing Semantics in Trellis

Source

Hypertext '89 Proceedings

Authors

Richard Furuta and P. David Stotts

Department of Computer Science
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
 
 

Abstract

Different researchers have different ideas about how a hypertext should be navigated. Each new implementation of a hypertext browser works slightly differently from previous ones. This is due both to variations in personal taste and to discoveries of new, useful ways to organize and present information.

In this report we outline a technique by which a hypertext system can offer flexible, programmable browsing behavior, or browsing semantics. Differences in the way documents are to be browsed can be specified by an author on a document-by-document basis, or by a style designer for an entire class of documents. The ability to specify and modify how a browser presents information is an important and useful property in general. We first discuss the issues involved in programmable browsing semantics, and then we present one method of providing them within the context of the Trellis project at the University of Maryland.

The Trellis model of hypertext [Stot88, Stot89b] is a notational and analytical framework in which two critical aspects of a hypertext are unified: the logically linked information structure, and the experience a reader has when browsing the structure. The unifying formalism in Trellis is net theory, specifically that of place/transition nets, or Petri nets [Pete81, Reis85]. Petri nets have an easily exploited dualism that naturally facilitates this two-way specification. Represented as bipartite graphs, they describe links among information elements just as well as directed graphs do, without any loss of expressive power. Being automata as well, their execution properties can be used to specify restrictions and conditions on how information fragments are to be visited. These are the browsing semantics that are the focus of this report.

Net theory provides a mathematically rich and notationally flexible basis for hypertext. First, a Petri net is a process model, and browsing a hypertext is a process. Secondly, a Petri net is inherently a concurrency model, so it provides a simple notation and semantics for expressing simultaneous display of multiple information elements. Thirdly, in the twenty years since their creation, a large body of Petri net analysis techniques has been developed that can be directly applied to problems in the hypertext domain. Together these points allow expression of, and reasoning about, the experience a reader will have while navigating a document. These capabilities include synchronization of simultaneous traversals of separate paths through a hypertext (including multiple readers), as well as access control and other security considerations (specifying nodes that can be proven accessible only to certain classes of reader).

At the most abstract level, this work can be viewed as exploring an analogy between structured programming and hypertext authoring. The analogy appears to provide solutions not only to the problem of specifying and implementing variable browsing semantics, but to the problem of how to perform disciplined construction of (very) large hypertext documents as well. Our report on what we have learned from this analogy is presented in the three major sections. Section 2 first presents an overview of browsing primitives in Petri net-structured hypertext and explains how an author can customize and vary the browsing behavior of such documents. It includes a brief introduction to Petri nets and the Trellis model for readers not already familiar with these topics. Section 3 then discusses constrained document classes and develops the structured programming analogy for hypertext authoring. It also presents the authoring language Alpha as one example of how to write structured hypertexts. Alpha is a textual authoring language for construction of structured hyperdocuments in the aTrellis system. The Alpha language encourages hypertext authors to employ top-down design instead of simply assembling document components from the bottom up. Finally, Section 4 discusses other systems with browsing flexibility, and presents some extensions being made to the Trellis model that will add even greater flexibility to its semantic programmability.
 

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