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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!munnari.oz.au!yoyo.aarnet.edu.au!news.adelaide.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!metro!inferno.mpx.com.au!root From: avatar@notebook.sc.pronet.com (Andrew Pam) Newsgroups: alt.cyberspace,alt.hypertext,alt.internet.services,comp.groupware,comp.infosystems,comp.infosystems.interpedia,alt.answers,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: Xanadu World Publishing Repository Frequently Asked Questions Followup-To: comp.infosystems Date: 4 Apr 1994 07:51:22 GMT Organization: Project Xanadu (Australia) Lines: 523 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Expires: 1 May 1994 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <2nogtq$67v@inferno.mpx.com.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: notebook.sc.pronet.com Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions Keywords: Xanadu Distributed Hypermedia Publishing Repository X-Newsreader: IBM OS/2 PM RN (NR/2) v0.17l by O. Vishnepolsky and R. Rogers Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu alt.cyberspace:4573 alt.hypertext:2623 alt.internet.services:19943 comp.groupware:2090 comp.infosystems:2285 comp.infosystems.interpedia:319 alt.answers:2378 comp.answers:4838 news.answers:17860 Archive-name: xanadu-faq Last-modified: 1994/04/04 Version: 1.25 Xanadu FAQ ========== This document contains information about the Xanadu Project which may be of interest to the general public and readers of the comp.infosystems_ newsgroup. It is currently maintained by avatar@xanadu.com_ (Andrew Pam) of Project Xanadu (Australia) and posted approximately monthly. This FAQ and other Xanadu_information_ are also available at http://www.aus.xanadu.com/ or via gopher gopher.aus.xanadu.com. Questions in this document are numbered, and answers are labelled with letters of the alphabet. Thus 1 is the first question, and 1a is the first answer to the first question. Suggestions for additions, corrections and expansion of the material in this document are welcomed. Contents -------- 1_ What is Xanadu? 2_ What are the features of a Xanadu system? 3_ How can I contact Project Xanadu? 4_ What is the history of the Xanadu system? 5_ What Xanadu-related articles have been published? 6_ What Xanadu-related material is currently available? 7_ What is the history of the name "Xanadu"? 8_ What are the words to the Coleridge poem "Kubla Khan"? _1 What is Xanadu? ------------------ _1a Xanadu is a trade and service mark of Project Xanadu for computer software and services for electronic publishing and media manipulation. See question 3_ below for Project Xanadu contact details. _1b Xanadu is the original hypertext and interactive multimedia system, under continuous development since 1960. See question 4_ below for the history of the Xanadu system. _1c Xanadu is an overall paradigm - an ideal and general model for all computer use, based on sideways connections among documents and files. This paradigm is especially concerned with electronic publishing, but also extends to all forms of storing, presenting and working with information. It is a unifying system of order for all information, non-hierarchical and side-linking, including electronic publishing, personal work, organisation of files, corporate work and groupware. All data (for instance, paragraphs of a text document) may be connected sideways and out of sequence to other data (for instance, paragraphs of another text document). This requires new forms of storage, and invites new forms of presentation to show these connections. On a small scale, the paradigm means a model of word processing where comments, outlines and other notes may be stored conceptually adjacent to a document, linked to it sideways. On a large scale, the paradigm means a model of publishing where anyone may quote from and publish links to any already-published document, and any reader may follow these links to and from the document. _1d Xanadu is an ideal of open electronic publishing based on the paradigm mentioned in answer 1c_ above. It is intended to be especially free and fair, where all authors and readers are considered equal. It is a complete business system for electronic publishing based on this ideal with a win-win set of arrangements, contracts and software for the sale of copyrighted material in large and small amounts. It is a planned world-wide publishing network based on this business system. It is optimised for a point-and-click universe, where users jump from document to document, following links and buying small pieces as they go. _1e The Project Xanadu (Australia) formal problem definition is: We need a way for people to store information not as individual "files" but as a connected literature. It must be possible to create, access and manipulate this literature of richly formatted and connected information cheaply, reliably and securely from anywhere in the world. Documents must remain accessible indefinitely, safe from any kind of loss, damage, modification, censorship or removal except by the owner. It must be impossible to falsify ownership or track individual readers of any document. This system of literature (the "Xanadu Docuverse") must allow people to create virtual copies ("transclusions") of any existing collection of information in the system **regardless of ownership**. In order to make this possible, the system must guarantee that the owner of any information will be paid their chosen royalties on any portions of their documents, no matter how small, whenever and wherever they are used. _2 What are the features of a Xanadu system? -------------------------------------------- * Note: Some releases may not implement all of these features. _2a Every Xanadu server is uniquely and securely identified. _2b Every Xanadu server can be operated independently or in a network. _2c Every user is uniquely and securely identified. _2d Every user can search, retrieve, create and store documents. _2e Every document can consist of any number of parts each of which may be of any data type. _2f Every document can contain links of any type including virtual copies ("transclusions") to any other document in the system accessible to its owner. Permission to link to a document is explicitly granted by the act of publication. _2g Every document can contain a royalty mechanism at any desired degree of granularity to ensure payment on any portion accessed, including virtual copies ("transclusions") of all or part of the document. _2h Every document is uniquely and securely identified. _2i Every document can have secure access controls. _2j Every document can be rapidly searched, stored and retrieved without user knowledge of where it is physically stored. _2k Every document is automatically moved to physical storage appropriate to its frequency of access from any given location. _2l Every document is automatically stored redundantly to maintain availability even in case of a disaster. _2m Every Xanadu service provider can charge their users at any rate they choose for the storage, retrieval and publishing of documents. _2n Every transaction is secure and auditable only by the parties to that transaction. _2o The Xanadu client-server communication protocol is an openly published standard. Third-party software development and integration is encouraged. _3 How can I contact Project Xanadu? ------------------------------------ _3a By posting to the comp.infosystems_ newsgroup. Members of the Project Xanadu team monitor and contribute to the newsgroup on a regular basis. _3b By email to avatar@xanadu.com_ or by snail mail to: Project Xanadu (Australia), P.O. Box 409, Canterbury VIC 3126 Australia. _3c By snail mail to: Project Xanadu, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965 USA. _4 What is the history of the Xanadu system? -------------------------------------------- Ted Nelson thought up the whole thing in 1960, and has been speaking and publishing about the idea since 1965. In that year he also coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" for non-sequential writings and branching presentations of all types. (The term "interactive multimedia" seems to have become popular recently.) Since that time there have been a long series of changing designs embodying these ideas: 1960: Nelson's designs showed two screen windows connected by visible lines, pointing from parts of an object in one window to corresponding parts of an object in another window. No existing windowing software provides this facility even today. 1965: Nelson's design concentrated on the single-user system and was based on "zipper lists", sequential lists of elements which could be linked sideways to other zipper lists for large non-sequential text structures. 1970: Nelson invented certain data structures and algorithms called the "enfilade" which became the basis for much later work (still proprietary to Xanadu Operating Company, Inc.) 1972: Implementations ran in both Algol and Fortran. 1974: William Barus extended the enfilade concept to handle interconnection. 1979: Nelson assembled a new team (Roger Gregory, Mark Miller, Stuart Greene, Roland King and Eric Hill) to redesign the system. 1981: K. Eric Drexler created a new data structure and algorithms for complex versioning and connection management. The Project Xanadu team completed the design of a universal networking server for Xanadu, described in various editions of Ted Nelson's book "Literary Machines" (see answer 6b_ below). 1983: Xanadu Operating Company, Inc. (XOC, Inc.) was formed to complete development of the 1981 design. 1988: XOC, Inc. was acquired by Autodesk, Inc. and amply funded, with offices in Palo Alto and later Mountainview California. Work continued with Mark Miller as chief designer. The 1981 design (now called Xanadu 88.1) was topped off but Miller began a redesign. Xanadu 88.1 was not subjected to quality control or released as a product. Dean Tribble and Ravi Pandya became co-designers and work on the redesign continued. 1992: Autodesk entered into the throes of an organisational shakeup and dropped the project, after expenditures on the order of five million US dollars. Rights to continued development of the XOC server were licensed to Memex, Inc. of Palo Alto, California and the trademark "Xanadu" was re-assigned to Nelson. 1993: Nelson re-thought the whole thing and respecified Xanadu publishing as a system of business arrangements. Minimal specifications for a publishing system were created under the name "Xanadu Light", and Andrew Pam of Serious Cybernetics in Melbourne, Australia was licensed to continue development. _5 What Xanadu-related articles have been published? ---------------------------------------------------- * "A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing and the Indeterminate" Ted Nelson, proceedings of the ACM 20th national conference 1965 * "Computer-Indexed Film Handling" Ted Nelson, SMPTE conference preprint autumn 1965 * "Getting It Out of Our System" Ted Nelson, in "Information Retrieval: A Critical View", Schechter 1967 * "As We Will Think" Ted Nelson, proceedings of the Online '72 conference, Brunel University, Uxbridge, England * "Computer Graphics as a Way of Life" Ted Nelson, Tom DeFanti and Dan Sandin, proceedings of the first SIGGRAPH conference 1974 * "Electronic Publishing and Electronic Literature" Ted Nelson, in "Information Technology in Health Science Education", edited by Edward DeLand, Plenum Press 1978 * "Replacing the Printed Word: A Complete Literary System" Ted Nelson, proceedings of the World Computer Conference 1980 * "Interactive Systems and the Design of Virtuality" Ted Nelson, Creative Computing magazine November & December 1980 * Article in The Economist (London) 23 August 1986 * "The Tyranny of the File" Ted Nelson, Datamation magazine 15 December 1986 * "All for One and One for All" Ted Nelson, proceedings of the Hypertext '87 conference November 1987 * "Managing Immense Storage" Ted Nelson, pp. 225--238, BYTE magazine volume 13 #1 January 1988 * Hypertext '87 keynote address Andries van Dam, pp. 887-895, CACM volume 31 #7 July 1988 * "Virtual World Without End" Ted Nelson, keynote to the CyberArts International conference 7 September 1990 (See answer 6b_ below) * "HyperTed" Steve Ditlea, pp. 201--210, PC/Computing magazine October 1990 * "Two Men, Two Visions of One Computer World, Indivisible" Andrew Pollack, p. 13, The New York Times 8 December 1991 * "TidBITS#30/Xanadu" Ian Feldman, TidBITS ezine issue_#30_ 1992 * "Electric Word: Xanadu Redux" pp. 25--26, WiReD magazine issue 1.2 May/June 1993 * "TidBITS#204" Adam C. Engst, TidBITS ezine issue_#204_ 29 November 1993 * "WWW Activity at Hypertext '93" Kevin Hughes, WWW_page_ 29 November 1993 * "State of the Art Review on Hypermedia Issues and Applications" V. Balasubramian, WWW_pages_ March 1994 _6 What Xanadu-related material is currently available? ------------------------------------------------------- _6a The book "Computer Lib / Dream Machines" by Ted Nelson, 1987 Microsoft Press edition ISBN 0-914845-49-7 is available from all good booksellers for US$18.95 retail. _6b The following items are available from: Mindful Press 3020 Bridgeway #295 Sausalito, California 94965 USA Phone: (415) 331-4422 Fax: (415) 332-0136 * Books: * "Computer Lib" by Ted Nelson, 1976 collector's edition for $100. * "Literary Machines" by Ted Nelson, 1993 edition for $25. * "Xanadu Hypermedia Server documentation", 1993 draft for $250. * Papers: * "Virtual World Without End", 16 pages for $10. * "Xanadu Space '93", 8 pages for $10. * Videos: * "A Technical Overview of the Xanadu System", NTSC $75, PAL $100. * Misc: * Xanadu Flaming X pin for $50. Add $5 postage and handling per $50 ordered, plus $15 for orders outside the USA. All prices quoted are in US dollars. _7 What is the history of the name "Xanadu"? -------------------------------------------- _7a Marco Polo mentioned the original palace "Shan-Du", somewhere near Beijing, in his autobiography. _7b Samuel Taylor Coleridge published the poem "Kubla_Khan_", considered the sexiest in the English language, in the early 19th century. Supposedly Coleridge wrote a thousand lines in his mind while in an opiate trance, but was interrupted while trying to write it down by the infamous "person from Porlock" who bothered him on trivial business and made him forget the rest of the poem. This has been disputed by scholars who didn't believe there actually could have been any more to the poem. Coleridge was inspired by the autobiography of Marco Polo mentioned in answer 7a_ above, which he was reading. See question 8_ below. _7c Orson Welles, in his famous film "Citizen Kane", named the palace of Charles Foster Kane "Xanadu" after the Coleridge poem_. It was based on the real life palace of San Simeon owned by William Randolph Hearst. _7d Ted Nelson named his World Publishing Repository (trademark of Project Xanadu) project after the Coleridge poem_, to suggest "the magic place of literary memory where nothing is forgotten". _7e The secret hideout of Mandrake the Magician in the comic strip of the same name was called "Xanadu" (presumably after the Coleridge poem_). _7f The rock group Rush released a song called Xanadu, obviously inspired by "Kubla_Khan_", on their 1970s album "Farewell to Kings". _7g The 1980 movie "Xanadu" starring Olivia Newton-John as a muse was also named after the Coleridge poem_, as an allusion to literary inspiration. She also sang the title song. _7h The pop group "Frankie Goes To Hollywood" released a 1984 album named "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome", on which the title song contains the line "In Xanadu did Kubla_Khan_ a pleasure dome erect". _7i David Butler based the plot of his 1986 science-fiction novel "The Men Who Mastered Time" around the story of "Kubla_Khan_". _7j Douglas Adams used the story of the creation of the Coleridge poem_ mentioned in answer 7b_ above as a central part of the plot of his science-fiction novel "Dirk Gently's Wholistic Detective Agency". _7k Douglas Adams wrote a 1990 BBC Television documentary called "Hyperland" starring himself, former "Doctor Who" Tom Baker, Ted Nelson and many computer industry luminaries. The documentary discussed the Xanadu system and quoted "Kubla_Khan_". _8 What are the words to the Coleridge _poem "_Kubla_Khan"? ----------------------------------------------------------- In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran, Through caverns measureless to man, Down to a sunless sea. So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round: And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Infolding sunny spots of greenery. But oh! that deep chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By a woman wailing for her demon-lover! And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething, As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing, A mighty fountain momently was forced: Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever It flung up momently the sacred river. Five miles meandering with a mazy motion Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, Then reached the caverns measureless to man, And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean: And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far Ancestral voices prophesying war! The shadow of the dome of pleasure Floated midway on the waves; Where was heard the mingled measure From the fountain and the caves. It was a miracle of rare device, A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice! A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw: It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Singing of Mount Abora. Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 't would win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair. Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honeydew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge [1772-1834] Credits ------- This FAQ was written by avatar@xanadu.com_ (Andrew Pam). Much of the material in the answers to questions 1_, 4_, 5_ and 6_ was graciously provided by Ted Nelson. .. _issue_#30 http://www.aus.xanadu.com/0h/nelson90 .. _issue_#204 http://www.aus.xanadu.com/0h/tidbits .. _comp.infosystems news:comp.infosystems .. _avatar@xanadu.com mailto:avatar@xanadu.com .. _Xanadu_information http://www.aus.xanadu.com/ .. _WWW_pages http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~dduchier/misc/hypertext_review/ .. _WWW_page http://www.eit.com/reports/ht93/ht93.report.html $$