"Project Xanadu, the original hypertext project, is often misunderstood as
an attempt to create the World Wide Web.
It has always been much more ambitious,
- proposing an entire form of
literature
- where links do not break as versions
change;
- where documents may be closely compared side by side and closely annotated;
- where it is possible to see the origins of every quotation; and
- in which there is a valid copyright system-- a literary, legal and business
arrangement
-- for frictionless, non-negotiated quotation at any time and in
any amount.
The Web trivialized this original Xanadu model, vastly but incorrectly simplifying these
problems to a world of fragile ever-breaking one-way links, with no recognition of
change or copyright, and no support for multiple versions or principled re-use. Fonts and
glitz, rather than content connective structure, prevail.
Serious electronic literature (for scholarship, detailed controversy and detailed
collaboration)
- must support bidirectional and profuse links,
- which cannot be embedded; and
- must offer facilities for easily tracking re-use on a
principled basis among versions and quotations.
Xanalogical literary structure is a unique symmetrical connective system
for text (and other separable media
elements), with two complementary forms of connection that achieve these functions--
survivable deep linkage
(content links) and recognizable, visible re-use (transclusion). Both of these are easily
implemented by a
document model using content lists which reference stabilized media.
This system of literary structure offers uniquely integrated methods for version
management, side-by-side
comparison and visualizable re-use, which lead to a radically beneficial and
principled copyright system (endorsed in principle by the ACM). Though dauntingly far from
the standards which have presently caught on, this design is still valid and may yet find
a place in the evolving Internet universe."