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I don't get the Ted Nelson hype. What is the unique contribution of Ted Nelson? If it is the idea of hypertext then I fear there were many other who had similar

I don't get the Ted Nelson hype. What is the unique contribution of Ted Nelson? If it is the idea of hypertext then I fear there were many other who had similar notions. Sincerely interested in someone explaining it.

kragen 5y ago
He was the one who inspired a lot of those "many other". Read Computer Lib/Dream Machines and you'll see what the computer world was like at the time. Also, for historians, his archives are extremely valuable.
- wrycoder 5y ago
  I bought a copy when it first came out. I remember sitting in the car outside the bookstore reading it - it was fascinating, I couldn't wait until I got home.
- jeffbarr 5y ago
  Hello old friend!
  - kragen 5y ago
    Hello Jeff! What's a nice guy like you doing in a degraded place like this?
teknolog 5y ago
I happened to be invited to dinner with him on his houseboat in Sausalito about five years ago. He gave me a copy of his "book" and a personal demo of Xanadu running in an emulator. Seems to me he had some pretty innovative ideas early on, but he's not really an engineer and he could never make it work. He was sort of at the right place at the right time to make some kind of impact anyway. He's also really good at self promotion.
spoonjim 5y ago
There were a bunch of guys thinking about similar problems, yes, but these guys were the original vanguard of thinking about information organization and dissemination. They were the Notion and Roam Research of the 60s.
jazzyjackson 5y ago
don’t forget teledildonics. from the bio on the site selling his book: “ Nelson co-founded Itty bitty machine company, or "IBM", which was a small computer retail store operating from 1977 to 1980 in Evanston, Illinois. The Itty bitty machine company was one of the few retail stores to sell the original Apple I computer. In 1978 he had a significant impact upon IBM's thinking when he outlined his vision of the potential of personal computing to the team that three years later launched the IBM PC.” (heartily recommend getting a paper copy of the book if you got $120 lying around, it’s really a unique stack of paper) https://computerlibbook.com/pages/about-ted-nelson https://computerlibbook.com/pages/about-ted-nelson
CalChris 5y ago
He's kind of the Shiva Ayyadurai of hypertext.
- lioeters 5y ago
  > V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian-American engineer, politician, entrepreneur, anti-vaccine activist, and promoter of conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and unfounded medical claims. > ..In a 2011 article published by Time, Ayyadurai claimed he invented email as a teenager in the late 1970s.
jacknews 5y ago
We're constantly told by the VC community that ideas alone are worthless, and yet ...

kragen 5y ago

He was the one who inspired a lot of those "many other". Read Computer Lib/Dream Machines and you'll see what the computer world was like at the time. Also, for historians, his archives are extremely valuable.

wrycoder 5y ago
I bought a copy when it first came out. I remember sitting in the car outside the bookstore reading it - it was fascinating, I couldn't wait until I got home.
jeffbarr 5y ago
Hello old friend!
- kragen 5y ago
  Hello Jeff! What's a nice guy like you doing in a degraded place like this?

teknolog 5y ago

I happened to be invited to dinner with him on his houseboat in Sausalito about five years ago. He gave me a copy of his "book" and a personal demo of Xanadu running in an emulator. Seems to me he had some pretty innovative ideas early on, but he's not really an engineer and he could never make it work. He was sort of at the right place at the right time to make some kind of impact anyway. He's also really good at self promotion.

spoonjim 5y ago

There were a bunch of guys thinking about similar problems, yes, but these guys were the original vanguard of thinking about information organization and dissemination. They were the Notion and Roam Research of the 60s.

jazzyjackson 5y ago

don’t forget teledildonics. from the bio on the site selling his book: “ Nelson co-founded Itty bitty machine company, or "IBM", which was a small computer retail store operating from 1977 to 1980 in Evanston, Illinois. The Itty bitty machine company was one of the few retail stores to sell the original Apple I computer. In 1978 he had a significant impact upon IBM's thinking when he outlined his vision of the potential of personal computing to the team that three years later launched the IBM PC.” (heartily recommend getting a paper copy of the book if you got $120 lying around, it’s really a unique stack of paper) https://computerlibbook.com/pages/about-ted-nelson https://computerlibbook.com/pages/about-ted-nelson

CalChris 5y ago

He's kind of the Shiva Ayyadurai of hypertext.

lioeters 5y ago
> V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai is an Indian-American engineer, politician, entrepreneur, anti-vaccine activist, and promoter of conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and unfounded medical claims. > ..In a 2011 article published by Time, Ayyadurai claimed he invented email as a teenager in the late 1970s.

jacknews 5y ago

We're constantly told by the VC community that ideas alone are worthless, and yet ...