Editing Project Xanadu

{{Short description|First hypertext project, founded in 1960}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{redirect|Xanadu Project||Xanadu (disambiguation)}}
'''Project Xanadu''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|æ|n|ə|d|uː}} {{respell|ZAN|ə|doo}})<ref>{{cite video|title=Director's Cut: Ted Nelson on Hypertext, Douglas Englebart, Xanadu and More|date=February 14, 2018|publisher=[[IEEE Spectrum]]|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i67rQdHuO-8&t=462 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/i67rQdHuO-8| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|time=7:43|via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref> was the first [[hypertext]] project, founded in 1960 by [[Ted Nelson]]. Administrators of Project Xanadu have declared it superior to the [[World Wide Web]], with the mission statement: "Today's popular software simulates paper. The World Wide Web (another imitation of paper) trivialises our original hypertext model with one-way ever-breaking links and no management of version or contents."<ref>[http://xanadu.com/ Project homepage]</ref>

''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' magazine published an article entitled "The Curse of Xanadu", calling Project Xanadu "the longest-running [[vaporware]] story in the history of the computer industry".<ref name="WiredCurse">{{cite magazine |author=Gary Wolf |date=June 1995 |title=The Curse of Xanadu |url=https://www.wired.com/1995/06/xanadu/ |magazine=[[WIRED]] |volume=3 |issue=6}}|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026021059/https://www.wired.com/1995/06/xanadu/|archive-date=October 26, 2015|url-status=live</ref> The first attempt at implementation began in 1960, but it was not until 1998 that an incomplete implementation was released. A version described as "a working [[deliverable]]", '''OpenXanadu''', was made available in 2014.

== History ==
Nelson's vision was for a "digital repository scheme for world-wide electronic publishing". Nelson states that the idea began in 1960, when he was a student at [[Harvard University]]. He proposed a machine-language program which would store and display documents, together with the ability to perform edits. This was different from a [[word processor]] (which had not been invented yet) in that the functionality would have included visual [[data comparison|comparisons]] of different versions of the document, a concept Nelson would later call "intercomparison".<ref name="StruppaDechow2015">{{cite book|author1=Daniele C. Struppa|author2=Douglas R. Dechow|title=Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson|url=https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-978-3-319-16925-5|date=June 14, 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-16925-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/springer_10.1007-978-3-319-16925-5/page/n68 60]–62}}</ref>

On top of this basic idea, Nelson wanted to facilitate nonsequential writing, in which the reader could choose their own path through an electronic document. He built upon this idea in a paper to the [[Association for Computing Machinery]] (ACM) in 1965, calling the new idea "zippered lists". These zippered lists would allow [[compound document]]s to be formed from pieces of other documents, a concept named [[transclusion]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nelson|first1=T. H.|title=Proceedings of the 1965 20th national conference |chapter=Complex information processing |author-link1=Ted Nelson|series=ACM '65|date=1965|pages=84–100|doi=10.1145/800197.806036|isbn=9781450374958|s2cid=2556127|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="StruppaDechow2015" /> In 1967, while working for [[Harcourt Trade Publishers|Harcourt, Brace]], he named his project Xanadu, in honor of the poem "[[Kubla Khan]]" by [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]].<ref name="StruppaDechow2015" />

Nelson's talk at the ACM predicted many of the features of today's hypertext systems, but at the time, his ideas had little impact. Though researchers were intrigued by his ideas, Nelson lacked the technical knowledge to demonstrate that the ideas could be implemented.<ref name=WiredCurse />

=== 1970s ===
Ted Nelson published his ideas in his 1974 book ''[[Computer Lib/Dream Machines]]'' and the 1981 ''[[Literary Machines]]''.

''Computer Lib/Dream Machines'' is written in a non-sequential fashion: it is a compilation of Nelson's thoughts about computing, among other topics, in no particular order.  It contains two books, printed back to back, to be flipped between. ''Computer Lib'' contains Nelson's thoughts on topics that angered him, while ''Dream Machines'' discusses his hopes for the potential of computers to assist the arts.

In 1972, [[Cal Daniels (computer scientist)|Cal Daniels]] completed the first demonstration version of the Xanadu software on a computer Nelson had rented for the purpose, though Nelson soon ran out of money.  In 1974, with the advent of computer networking, Nelson refined his thoughts about Xanadu into a centralized source of information, calling it a "[[docuverse]]".

In the summer of 1979, Nelson led the latest group of his followers, [[Roger Gregory (programmer)|Roger Gregory]], [[Mark S. Miller]] and [[Stuart Greene (computer scientist)|Stuart Greene]], to [[Swarthmore, Pennsylvania]]. In a house rented by Greene, they hashed out their ideas for Xanadu; but at the end of the summer the group went their separate ways.  Miller and Gregory created an addressing system based on [[transfinite number]]s that they called [[tumbler (Project Xanadu)|tumblers]], which allowed any part of a file to be referenced.

=== 1980s ===
The group continued their work, almost to the point of bankruptcy. In 1983, however, Nelson met [[John Walker (programmer)|John Walker]], founder of [[Autodesk]], at [[The Hackers Conference]], a conference originally for the people mentioned in [[Steven Levy]]'s ''[[Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution|Hackers]]'', and the group started working on Xanadu with Autodesk's financial backing.

According to economist [[Robin Hanson]], in 1990 the first known corporate [[prediction market]] was used at Xanadu. Employees and consultants used it for example to bet on the [[cold fusion]] controversy at the time.

While at Autodesk, the group, led by Gregory, completed a version of the software, written in the [[C (programming language)|C programming language]], though the software did not work the way they wanted. However, this version of Xanadu was successfully demonstrated at [[The Hackers Conference]] and generated considerable interest. Then a newer group of programmers, hired from [[Xerox PARC]], used the problems with this software as justification to [[Rewrite (programming)|rewrite]] the software in [[Smalltalk]]. This effectively split the group into two factions, and the decision to rewrite put a deadline imposed by Autodesk out of the team's reach. In August 1992, Autodesk divested the Xanadu group, which became the Xanadu Operating Company and struggled due to internal conflicts and lack of investment.

Charles S. Smith, the founder of a company called [[Memex Technology Limited|Memex]] (named after a [[memex|hypertext system]] proposed by [[Vannevar Bush]]<ref name="AWMT">{{cite web |last1=Bush |first1=Vannevar |author1-link=Vannevar Bush |title=As We May Think |url=http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/4/ |publisher=[[The Atlantic]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101114081102/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/12/as-we-may-think/3881/4/ |archive-date=14 November 2010 |date=July 1945 |url-status=dead}}</ref>), hired many of the Xanadu programmers (including lead architects [[Mark S. Miller]], Dean Tribble and Ravi Pandya)<ref name="WiredCurse" /> and licensed the Xanadu technology, though Memex soon faced financial difficulties, and the then-unpaid programmers left, taking the computers with them (the programmers were eventually paid). At around this time, [[Tim Berners-Lee]] was developing the [[World Wide Web]]. When the Web began to see large growth that Xanadu did not, Nelson's team grew defensive in the supposed rivalry that was emerging that they were losing. The 1995 [[Wired (magazine)|''Wired'']] Magazine article "The Curse of Xanadu" provoked a harsh rebuttal from Nelson, but contention largely faded as the Web dominated Xanadu.<ref name="good faith collaboration">{{cite book|last=Reagle|first=Joseph Michael|title=Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia|url=https://archive.org/details/goodfaithcol_reag_2010_000_10578531|url-access=registration|year=2010|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-262-01447-2}}</ref>

=== 1990s ===
In 1998, Nelson released the source code to Xanadu as Project Udanax,<ref name="Udanax Green">{{cite web|title=Udanax Green|url=http://udanax.xanadu.com/green/index.html}}</ref> in the hope that the techniques and algorithms used could help to overturn some [[software patent]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Udanax Gold|url=http://udanax.xanadu.com/gold/|quote=this disclosure also constitutes prior art that prevents anyone else from preventing you from using the ideas embodied in this code}}</ref>

=== 2000s ===
In 2007, Project Xanadu released XanaduSpace 1.0.<ref>{{cite web|author=Ted Nelson|url=http://xanarama.net|title=XanaduSpace|publisher=Xanarama.net|date=June 25, 2007|access-date=July 3, 2011 }}</ref>

=== 2010s ===
A version described as "a working deliverable", OpenXanadu, was made available on the [[World Wide Web]] in 2014. It is called open because "you can see all the parts", but {{As of|2014|6|lc=y}} the site stated that it was "not yet open source". On the site, the creators claim that [[Tim Berners-Lee]] stole their idea, and that the World Wide Web is a "bizarre structure created by arbitrary initiatives of varied people and it has a terrible programming language" and that Web security is a "complex maze". They go on to say that Hypertext is designed to be paper, and that the World Wide Web allows nothing more than dead links to other dead pages.<ref>[http://xanadu.com Xanadu web page] [http://xanadu.com/xanademos/MoeJusteOrigins.html Sample document: "Origins", by Moe Juste] "takes a while to open because it's downloading a lot"</ref>

In 2016, Ted Nelson was interviewed by [[Werner Herzog]] in his documentary, ''[[Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World]]''. "By some, he was labeled insane for clinging on; to us, you appear to be the only one who is clinically sane", Herzog said.<ref>Herzog, Werner, director. ''Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World''. Magnolia Pictures, 2016</ref> Nelson was delighted by the praise. "No one has ever said that before!" said Nelson. "Usually I hear the opposite."

== Original 17 rules ==
# Every Xanadu server is uniquely and securely identified.
# Every Xanadu server can be operated independently or in a network.
# Every user is uniquely and securely identified.
# Every user can search, [[document retrieval|retrieve]], create, and [[Computer data storage|store]] documents.
# Every document can consist of any number of parts each of which may be of any data type.
# Every document can contain links of any type including virtual copies ([[Transclusion|"transclusions"]]) to any other document in the system accessible to its owner.
# Links are visible and can be followed from all endpoints.
# Permission to link to a document is explicitly granted by the act of publication.
# Every document can contain a royalty mechanism at any desired degree of granularity to ensure payment on any portion accessed, including virtual copies ([[Transclusion|"transclusions"]]) of all or part of the document.
# Every document is uniquely and securely identified.
# Every document can have secure [[access control]]s.
# Every document can be rapidly searched, stored and retrieved without user knowledge of where it is physically stored.
# Every document is automatically moved to physical storage appropriate to its frequency of access from any given location.
# Every document is automatically stored redundantly to maintain availability even in case of a disaster.
# Every Xanadu service provider can charge their users at any rate they choose for the storage, retrieval, and publishing of documents.
# Every transaction is secure and auditable only by the parties to that transaction.
# The Xanadu client–server communication protocol is an openly published standard. Third-party software development and integration is encouraged.<ref>Xanadu FAQ: [http://xanadu.com.au/general/faq.html#2 What requirements do Xanadu systems aim to meet?], April 12, 2002 by Andrew Pam</ref>

==Tumbler==

In the design of the Xanadu computer system, a '''tumbler''' is an address of any range of content or link or a set of ranges or links. According to [[Gary Wolf (journalist)|Gary Wolf]] in ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'', the idea of tumblers was that "the address would not only point the reader to the correct machine, it would also indicate the author of the document, the version of the document, the correct span of bytes, and the links associated with these bytes." Tumblers were created by [[Roger Gregory (programmer)|Roger Gregory]] and [[Mark S. Miller|Mark Miller]].<ref name=WiredCurse /><ref name=nelsonACM>{{Cite journal
 | author = Theodor Holm Nelson
 | title = Xanalogical Structure. Needed Now More than Ever: Parallel Documents, Deep Links to Content, Deep Versioning, and Deep Re-Use
 | url = http://www.cs.brown.edu/memex/ACM_HypertextTestbed/papers/60.html
 | journal = ACM Computing Surveys
 | volume = 31 | issue = 4 | doi = 10.1145/345966.346033
 |date=December 1999
 | pages=33–es| citeseerx = 10.1.1.418.7740
 | s2cid = 12852736
 }}</ref>

The idea behind tumblers comes from [[transfinite number]]s.<ref name=WiredCurse/>

== See also ==
* [[Enfilade (Xanadu)]]
* [[Hypermedia]]
* [[ENQUIRE]]
* [[Interpedia]]
* [[American Information Exchange]]
* Tent (protocol)
*In addition to the Web, the Project Xanadu FAQ suggests other hypermedia systems which are similar, including HyperWave (or [[Hyper-G]]) and:
**[[Microcosm (hypermedia system)]]
**[[IBM Notes]] (descendant of Notes on [[PLATO (computer system)]], featured in Nelson's ''Computer Lib'')
* [[Wiki]]
* [[Memex]]
* [[ipfs]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}


== External links ==
* [http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/firstrelease/fr_18/BBfr18a.html ''The Magical Place of Literary Memory: Xanadu''] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20041009214354/http://www.ics.uci.edu/~ejw/csr/nelson_pg.html |date=October 9, 2004 }} in [http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast Screening the Past] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116134141/http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast |date=January 16, 2013 }}, July 2005 by Belinda Barnet
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151026021059/https://www.wired.com/1995/06/xanadu/ Wired feature on Nelson and Xanadu]
** [https://web.archive.org/web/19990502202235/https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/rants.html Published comments on that Wired article, including one from Ted Nelson], [https://web.archive.org/web/20001101230424/http://www2.educ.ksu.edu/Faculty/McGrathD/Fall99/NelsonLtr.htm Full text of Ted Nelson's comment]
** [http://www.xanadu.com.au/ararat ''Errors in "The Curse of Xanadu"'' by Theodor Holm Nelson, Project Xanadu]
* {{Official website|http://xanadu.com/}}
* [http://xanadu.com.au/ Xanadu Australia]{{snd}} an active site
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* [http://www.udanax.com/ The open-source release of the Xanadu codebase]
* [http://www.abora.org/links.html Links to Xanadu projects]
* [http://www.sunless-sea.net/ The Xanadu Cyberarcheology Project]
* [http://hyperworlds.org/ Web replacement projects]
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* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090413174805/http://calliq.googlepages.com/%22xanaduproductsduenextyear%22 Xanadu Products Due Next Year]," by Jeff Merron. BIX online news report from the West Coast Computer Faire, 1988
* [https://archive.org/details/possiplexvideo Ted Nelson Possiplex Internet Archive book reading video]
* [https://sentido-labs.com/en/library/201904240732/Xanadu%20Hypertext%20Documents.html Xanadu Hypertext Documents], Design Document from 1984

[[Category:Content management systems]]
[[Category:Ted Nelson]]
[[Category:Vaporware]]
[[Category:Hypertext]]
[[Category:Computer-related introductions in 1960]]
[[Category:Software projects]]