Opening Hypertext: A Memoir

Being the group leader for Theodor Holm Nelson's "Opening Hypertext: A Memoir," I payed very close attention to the details for this reading.  Nelson takes us through the course of his life and the different stages that led him to creating, "The Xanagroup"which was later referred to as the "Xanadu Operating Company."  The reason that this group was created because Nelson had a dream of starting an "open hypertext publishing system based on new forms of interconnection." (pg. 45) He had an extremely hard time organizing his ideas, and he wanted a way to solve the real problem, which was -- "merge into a coherent and unified literature the many different hypertextual and hypermedia objects being created, and to comprise these many contributions--styles of interactions-- into a unified literature, a unifying system that we may all access through whatever machine we choose." (pg 50) So what better way to solve this problem than to create a "Hypertext."  Hypertext is text on a computer that will lead the user to more, related information that may be of interest to them.  Nelson believes that Hypertext is that much better than written text because it can overcome the limitations we face when using written text.  The use of hypertext makes it possible to find out more and more information on something through connections and links that lead from one thing to another.  He wasn't sure if his idea could come to life that quickly, without the help of other people because it was such a large idea for one person to accomplish alone.  So after months of extensive research and the help of others, Nelson found out it could be done... and it was.  "Open Hypertext publishing is the manifest destiny of free society.  It is fair, it is powerful, and it is coming." (pg. 57)