Hypermedia

The Evolution of Hypermedia

The “father” of hypermedia, at least on a technical level, is usually thought to be Vannevar Bush (1890–1974). In 1932, he started developing ideas for a system later called the Memex (memory extender). Two important concepts were involved: the recording of individual, independent pieces of information, and the linking of these pieces that would make it possible to retrieve records very quickly by going from one to the next. For scientists, this storage and linkage system would solve the problem of keeping track of and retrieving an exponentially increasing amount of information.

The idea of linking information to a text is very old, and is most notably employed through use of footnotes and indexes in books and other printed materials. In addition, dictionary and encyclopedia readers have learned to read short pieces of information independent of other items, and to find relevant references within these short pieces.

The idea of “hypertext” can extend beyond footnotes, indices, and dictionaries, enabling readers to read and follow a story in a non-sequential manner. This idea was realized in books written with forking paths, which allow readers to decide which path to follow, and thereby decide what will happen next in the narrative. This type of hypernovel required a lot of turning of pages, and did not become particularly popular. However, when computers enabled readers to read books via computers, it became easier to “turn the pages,” and alternate paths began to be designed for computers rather than for books. The idea of links between parts is also an essential concept for the design of computer games; a quick transition between images is needed to maintain the illusion of changes in a stable world.

The first computer applications prioritized text over pictures. Word processors as well as databases and administration systems primarily needed text and numbers. The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) code provided a means by which computers could translate binary symbols into letters and numbers, but there was no way of easily working with graphics in the early days of computing. Creative visual artists found ways to generate graphical representations using ASCII, creating a genre known as ASCII art.

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