- The document discusses Ted Nelson's original hypertext system called Xanadu from 1960, which proposed concepts like deep linking, versioning, transclusion, and distributed hypertext that were ahead of its time. - It compares Xanadu's concepts to later systems like the World Wide Web, Wikipedia, and version control systems, noting that Xanadu allowed for a more complex and dynamic type of linked digital documents. - The author argues that current web and version control systems still do not fully realize Xanadu's vision, and that its concepts could help improve how information is organized and linked on the internet.

1. Jakob Voss We were promised Xanadu The original hypertext system and how we can benefit from its concepts presented at Wikimania 2010 Gdańsk Sunday, July 11 th 2010

2. Jimbo Wales Wikipedia 2001 Ward Cunningham WardsWiki 1995 Tim Berners-Lee World Wide Web 1989 Ted Nelson Xanadu 1960 digital hypertext systems Easy editing Versioning Backlinks Centralized Open Content Limited Scope (Encyclopaedia) Identifiers (URI & URL) Distributed Very limited type of Hypertext Deep digital documents Mostly Vaporware Important concepts

3. “ HTML is precisely what we were trying to PREVENT – ever- breaking links , links going outward only , quotes you can't follow to their origins, no version management, no rights management.” Ted Nelson's Computer Paradigm, Expressed as One-Liners (1999) WWW is broken

5. Versioning

6. Transclusion

7. Deep links

8. Compound Documents

9. ... A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing and the Indeterminate (1965)

10. Docuverse light

11. Memex trails

12. Versioning light Wiki Internet Archive

13. time merge change merge change change change change change change version 1 version 2 version 3 version 4 text A text F text C text D text B text E text G version 5

14. branch change change parallel text Types of changes change parallel branches sequent versions links parallel text transcluded transcluded text C text D text E text A text B

15. Deep links in Xanadu An identifier for any portion/span of text (of whatever version) can be constructed.

18. Distributed Version Control Systems * http://www.mementoweb.org/

20. Already used also for books

21. Current systems do not scale: you always to clone the full repository* * See question http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3098029

22. We can do better We can do Xanadu