Xanadu’s software will let users create and manage all their documents and show connections between them in ways that conventional database programs can’t. A user could not only see the current version of a legal contract, for example, but instantly compare it with all previous versions. More remarkable still, users will be able to compare voluminous collections of diagrams and architectural drawings for their similarities and differences.
Predictor: Nelson, Ted
Prediction, in context:In a 1991 article for The San Francisco Chronicle, Don Clark talks with Ted Nelson about his revolutionary networking software idea called Xanadu. Clark writes: ”Ted Nelson has lost none of his fervor for Xanadu, a radical software concept that came to him in October 1960. ‘For the last 30 years I’ve earnestly believed it was six months away,’ Nelson said in an interview. ‘That has not changed.’ Xanadu’s software … would allow groups of office workers to store and manage text, graphics, video and audio information in several new ways. Nelson believes that the software eventually will become a foundation for a kind of electronic information utility that will include franchised information around the world … Nelson said that Xanadu’s software will let users create and manage all their documents and show connections between them in ways that conventional database programs can’t. A user could not only see the current version of a legal contract, for example, but instantly compare it with all previous versions. More remarkable still, users will be able to compare voluminous collections of diagrams and architectural drawings for their similarities and differences … Once the basic software is on the market, Nelson believes entrepreneurs will also use it to set up electronic libraries that publish documents in a new way. For example, any user with a personal computer and a modem could tap into the system and store documents there. Others could quote from stored documents without asking the author’s permission, because the system would automatically bill users for royalties. Nelson believes such a system will automatically settle most legal disputes about rights to published material.”
Biography:Ted Nelson came up with the idea in 1967 to develop Xanadu, a world-wide electronic publishing system that could serve as a sort of universal library, accessible to everyone. (Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web is a similar-but-smaller-scale system.) Because he was seen as a radical and he wasn’t a trained technology professional, Nelson’s ideas were sometimes ignored. Computer hackers continued working on building the code for Xanadu over the decades. In 1999, the Xanadu code was made open-source. Nelson was known for coining the term “hypertext.” (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: November 6, 1991
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Language/Interface/Software
Name of publication: San Francisco Chronicle
Title, headline, chapter name: Radical Software Concept Nears Reality it Would Allow Office Workers to Store Text and Graphics
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Ries, Kristin N.