Hypermedia Cooper and Davis

What Is Hypermedia?  The combination of text, video, graphic images, sound, hyperlinks, and other elements in the form typical of Web documents.  hypermedia is the modern extension of hypertext, the hyper linked, text–based documents of the original Internet.

Hypermedia and Hypertext  Hypermedia is an acronym which combines the words hypertext and multimedia.  Hypertext is defined as a database that has active cross-references and allows the reader to “jump” to other parts of the database as desired.  Hypertext is the concept of interrelating elements (linking pieces of information) and using these links to access related pieces of information.  Hypertext is a collection or web of interrelated or linked nodes.

Hyperdocument  Below is a simplified view of an extremely small hyperdocument, having only five nodes and seven links. This figure also shows that links are tied to a specific point (or word or region) within a node, called an anchor.

Historical Perspective  1945 Vannevar Bush- first article on hypertext-the mechanical Memex system.  1960s Theodore Holmes Nelson coined the terms hypertext and hypermedia. Xanadu system  1968 Douglas Engelbart first distributed, shared screen, collaborative hypertext system at the Fall Joint Computer Conference.  1970s and 1980s other prototype and commercial hypertext systems appeared-Document Examiner, gIBIS, Guide, Hypergate, HyperTIES, Intermedia, MacWeb (by LIRMM), Max, Neptune, NoteCards, PHIDIAS, StorySpace, Writing Environment and ZOG/KMS.

Historical Perspective Cont.  The first major hypertext research conference, ACM hypertext’87, was held in April 1987 in chapel hill, USA.  1990s, HyperG (now called HyperWave) and the World Wide Web (WWW) appeared  the first distributed hypertext systems to take full advantage of the Internet after NLS/Augment.

Hypertext Components  Nodes  Composites  Link Anchor  Link Markers  Links

Hypertext Features  Navigation features-they include browsing (link traversal), backtracking, standard content-based query, and structural query based on interrelationships.  Annotation features include bookmarks, landmarks and comments.  Structural features enable navigation through local and global overviews, and along recommended paths and guided tours of interrelated items.

Hypertext Subfields  Adaptive hypertext  Hypertext design  Evaluation  Writing  Hypertext functionality  Open hypertext systems and standards

Hypertext Subfields  Adaptive hypertext systems employ a user model to customize node content and filter the available link set. Adaptive hypertext systems try to guide users towards interesting and relevant information and shield them from irrelevant information.  Hypertext design concerns analysis and design methodologies for creating hypertext systems. Hypertext design differs from standard design techniques due to its emphasis on links as first class objects and navigation.  Evaluation techniques judge the ability for users to navigate effectively within a hypertext web and remain oriented when jumping into the web at random (e.g., to a node found by a search engine).

Subfields  Authors of hypertext literature (novels, short stories and poetry) work in a non-linear creativity space in which they design not only content, but also link structure, structural features and navigation.  Hypertext Functionality group (HTF) studies techniques for applying hypertext constructs and features to the everyday, non-hypertext applications found in business, engineering and personal applications.  Open Hypertext Systems group (OHS) studies ways for different hypertext systems to coordinate information and services over the Internet.