The future of text in the new frontier of the Articulated Naturality Web

The invention of the printing press was one of the most significant
events in human history. Text became standardised whereas before it
would be copied by scribes who'd often make tiny changes and each copy
would be slightly different. It made things a lot cheaper too so the
masses could have the knowledge from books which used to be the
privilege of the rich.

The next big change was the World Wide Web. Though the internet was
originally developed for military applications it progressed to being
used by the scientific community then a decade or two later the public
heard about it through the dotcom boom. Not only could people read text
from around the world without the cost of printing a book and posting
it, they could also navigate in a revolutionary way: the hyperlink.

Ted Nelson's stroke of genius is fundamental to the power of text in the
internet though he's critical of Tim Berners-Lee's implementation of the
hyperlink is used in the World Wide Web. Nelson has the accolade of
running the longest running project in the history of IT, Xanadu Space,
which sought to reinvent text forever. He demonstrates it in this video.
Skip to about 3:30 into the video to see Xanadu Space in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En_2T7KH6RA

Text in the Articulated Naturality Web will look like this. Rather than
being accessed through a monitor a smartphone user will read the text on
screen and it will auto-scroll as their eye gets to the end of a line
using the video call camera. They'll be able to focus on a word and
double blink instead of double clicking. This will either access the
Xanadu Space 3D models or take them straight to the reference text
instantly. A quick tilt backwards of their head and they return to the
original document.

As technology evolves this will move to a handsfree experience. Pulped
wood is replaced by photons from AN headsets or contact lenses. The
Xanadu Space environment floats in front of the user as in the video.
They can interact with it how they want. Through eye and head motion or
hand gestures to interact with the virtual text and other content
objects in the Xanadu Space in the ANW.

Text will never be the same again.

Links
Ted Nelson demonstrates Xanadu Space
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En_2T7KH6RA

Download Xanadu Space (Windows only)
http://xanarama.net/

More information on Ted Nelson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson
http://ted.hyperland.com/