The primary journal in the field of Hypertext and Hypermedia research, “New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia”, has published a special bi-annual issue on the theme of “Scholarly Hypermedia”.
Edited by KMi's Simon Buckingham Shum, this issue focuses on how early visions and technologies since WWII for linking and structuring information have transformed scientific and scholarly communication, and how it could in the future. While for many people, Hypertext=World Wide Web, this issue makes it clear that there is more to hypertext than what we currently witness in our web browsers:
“I propose that Scholarly Hypermedia be concerned with no less a challenge than improving the tools via which scholars will publish, analyse, challenge and integrate knowledge on a global scale. I have argued elsewhere that the pioneers of hypertext were strongly motivated to improve the way in which scholars/scientists could publish and engage in rigorous argumentation (Buckingham Shum, 2003). Bush and Engelbart both gave extended end-user scenarios centred around hypertextualised scholarly discourse. Nelson and Berners-Lee were, meanwhile, particularly exercised over the difficulty of linking heterogeneous content on a large scale, in order to support the ad hoc structuring of ideas and resources to express the idiosyncratic worldviews that individuals might hold. Together, these make for a compelling vision of what might be, and which has seen some quantum implementation leaps in the last 60 years. For those of us who are gripped by this vision, the task is to reflect on how far we have got, whether the visions need refining, and where we should go next.”
The special issue contents are as follows.
Editorial: Introduction to Scholarly Hypermedia
Simon J. Buckingham Shum
Association and Argument: Hypertext In and Around the Writing Process
David Kolb
Transhyperability and Argumedia (Invited commentary on Kolb)
Theodor Holm Nelson
New Dimensions and Meta-Questions (Response to Nelson)
David Kolb
Interaction Design for Scholarly Writing: Hypertext Representations as a Means for Creative Knowledge Work
Kumiyo Nakakoji, Yasuhiro Yamamoto, Mina Akaishi and Koichi Hori
The Dynamic Review Journal: A Scholarly Archive
Gary Wills, Timothy Miles-Board, Christopher Bailey, Leslie Carr, Quintin Gee, Wendy Hall and Simon Grange
Hypermedia as a productivity tool for doctoral research
Albert M. Selvin and Simon J. Buckingham Shum
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