Hypermedia as Integration: Recollections, Reflections and Exhortations

Hypermedia and its earlier form, hypertext, refer to the notion of information structured as linked networks, as well as to the building, storing, navigating, and searching of such structures. The talk starts with the observation that integration has always been a goal of hypermedia developers. At first, this took the form of large monolithic link-enhanced environments that included support for text editing, electronic mail, CSCW, software engineering, and project management among other applications. Later, the 'open systems' movement arrived and the meaning of hypermedia integration shifted to connecting existing applications. With the emergence of the World-Wide Web, the world's first broad-based hypermedia system, the dream of integration now extends across sites, networks, media formats, and hardware platforms. Using a current example (extending the Netscape browser to support email management), I argue that this history is not as linear as it seems, in fact the old monolithic agendas seem still to be with us.

Trigg, Randall H. Xerox (1996). Design>Web Design>Hypertext