Ted Nelson Media Center @mprove

An ever-growing list of papers and videos by Theodor Holm Nelson (THN).
Please let me know, if you find new references to Ted Nelson’s oeuvre: contact mprove

Thanks to Francesc Hervada-Sala, Hartmut Obendorf, and Jakob Voss.

1950s
11/1957		THN (lyrics) / Richard Caplan (music): Anything & Everything \| poster some notes on the first rock musical ever, 50 years later (22/23-Nov-2007)
1959		THN (director): The Epiphany of Slocum Furlow. 33'. Slocum Furlow Scene 7 – The Classroom
\|1959\|		THN: Life, Love, College, etc. (originally entitled We Need a Sociology Department)
1960s
1961		THN: The Whole Thing /via: my whole 1961 philosophy manuscript, as messed up by flooding WT-101 (22 pages) WT-102 (22 pages) WT-103 (26 page) WT-104 (24 page) WT-105 (18 page) WT-106 (28 pages) WT-107 (22 pages) WT-108 (30 pages)
1965		THN:The Hypertext, in: Proc. World Documentation Federation Conf. 1965
8/1965		THN: Complex Information Processing: A File Structure for the Complex, The Changing and the Indeterminate ACM 20^th National Conference, pages 84-100, 1965
22-Sep-1966		THN: Hard and Fast Thoughts for a Softcopy World at Rand Corporation (67 minutes audio)
1965		THN: Suggestion for an On-Line Braille Display. proceedings of the Society for Information Display autumn 1965
1965		THN: Computer-Indexed Film Handling. SMPTE conference preprint autumn 1965
23-Dec-1966		THN: Xanadu66 Manual
1966		THN: Hypertext Notes: ten brief essays on hypertext forms circulated in manuscript circa 1966 at Brown University – 1970(?): Ted Nelson hypertext notes – Ted Nelson’s handwritten notes on hypertext. These notes address the possibilities for hypertext applications in the field of patent law and include various annotated documents.
1967		THN: Ted Nelson’s patent database diagram
1967		THN: Getting It Out of Our System. In George Schlechter (ed), Information Retrieval: A Critical Review. p. 191-210, Thompson Books, 1967.
1967		THN: Media 72 – Fact and Thoughts on Things for Schools
11/1969		Electronics Magazine: Nelson’s the Name, and What He Proposes Could Outdo Engelbart. Electronics Magazine, 24 Nov 69, p. 79
1969		Steven Carmody, Walter Gross, Theodor H. Nelson, David Rice, and Andries van Dam. A Hypertext Editing System for the /360 in Faiman and Nievergelt (eds.) Pertinent Concepts in Computer Graphics: Proceedings of the Second University of Illinois Conference on Computer Graphics, pp. 291-330, University of Illinois Press, 1969
1970s
1970		THN: No More Teacher’s Dirty Looks. Computer Decisions September 1970, Fully reprinted in Ted Nelson, "Computer Lib" 1974
1970		THN: BARNUM-TRONICS, a grand declaration of intent in Swartmore Collage Bulletin, Alumni Issue Dec 1970
1971		THN: Computopia and Cypercrud. In: Roger Levien (ed.): Computers in Introduction. Rand Corporation, 1971
1/1973		THN: Computer Arts & Media – event invitation 29-Jan-1973
1973		THN: As We Will Think. Proceedings of Online 72 Conference, Brunel University, Uxbridge, England, 1973. Reprinted In: Nyce, James / Kahn, Paul (eds): From Memex to Hypertext : Vannevar Bush and the Mind’s Machine. p. 245. Academic Press, Boston, MA, 1991 \| 1972 edition
6/1973		THN: A Conceptual Framework for Man-Machine Everything Proceedings of the AFIPS National Joint Computer Conference 1973
1974		THN: Computer Lib / Dream Machines; Distributors, South Bend IN, 1974. (some excerpts) ChronoLink to internet archive
1974		THN, in Levien (editor): Computopia and Cybercrud. The Rand Corporation 1974
7/1974		THN, Tom DeFanti and Dan Sandin: Computer Graphics as a Way of Life Proceedings of the first SIGGRAPH conference 1974
8/1976		THN: Itty Bitty Machine Company brochure 1976-08
2/1977		THN: Selected Paper 1965-1977, 124 pages, released Feb 1977 Very General Handout (1973) New Media and Creative Facilities (1967?) Barnum-Tronics (1970) Thinkertoys and the Collateration Concept; The Hypertext Notes (The Hypertext Notes actually combine all the topics, but they are together here for simplicity’s sake.) Decision/Creativity Systems (1970) The basic Thinkertoy concept. Hypertext Note 0–10 (1967) Thinkertoys and hypertexts generally considered; the basic concept of the Xanadu (tm) Information System. Hypertext Note 102 (1976) (This is actually a companion piece to the final paper.) A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing and the Indeterminate (1965) The basic idea of collateration, interwoven with a number of other things. Hypertext, Information Retrieval and Computer-Assisted Instruction As We Will Think (1968) A new look at Vannevar Bush’s 1945 "memex" system: what Information Retrieval theorists have overlooked in the fundamental writing. Getting It Out of Our System (1967) More on Information Retrieval versus hypertext. This contains the intersting analogy between computer display and movies. Computopia and Cybercrud (1971) More on Computer-Assisted Instruction versus hypertext. This contanes the ideas of "No More Teachers’ Dirty Look" (in C. Lib). Highly Interactive Systems and Windowing A Conceptual Framework for Man-Machine Everything (1973) This basically introduces a terminology for discussing hoghly interactive computer-screen systems. (A severele altered version appeared in the proceedings of the National Computer Conference for that year.) Data Realms and Magic Windows (1975) Extension of basic concepts to business and other interactive systems. Design of a Transcendental Leterary Network (1977) This (along with Hypertext Note 102) describes the crystallized design proposed for the Xanadu Leterary Network.
1977		THN: The Home Computer Revolution
7/1977-4/1978		THN: Ted Nelson Columns From ROM Magazine, 1977-1978
2/1978		THN: Testimony in Washington /Feb 20, 1978
8/1978		THN: Computopia (tm) Now!
8/1978		THN and Erik N. Nelson: Cartoon Sketchbook 1978-1989[?]
10/1978		THN: View from the Top – Techno Politics in Penthouse 10/1978, pp 52-54
11/1978		THN: Computer Lib in Omni 11/1978, pp 59-62 \| on vendor lock-in
1979		Max Allen and Ted Nelson discuss the future of computers \| also on youtube
1980s
1980		THN: Replacing the Printed [Written??] Word: A Complete Literary System, Lavington, Simon H., : Information Processing: Proceedings of the 1980 IFIP World Computer Congress , 8, 1013-1023. North-Holland, Amsterdam
1980		THN: Interactive Systems and the Design of Virtuality. Creative Computing, 6(11 & 12), 1980 [by Tog’s Magic and Software Design]
1981		THN: Literary Machines. Swarthmore, PA. 1981
7/1982		THN: Literary Machines 9.31
1986		THN: The Tyranny of the File. Datamation magazine 15 December 1986
1987		THN: Literary Machines, volume Version 87.1. Published by author, 1987. /at internet archive
10/1987		THN: Computer Lib/Dream Machines Microsoft Press, Washington, 16011 NE 36th Way, Box 97017 Redmon, Washington, 1987.
11/1987		THN: All For One and One For All Hypertext `87 Proceedings, November 1987
1/1988		THN: Managing immense storage. Byte, 13(1):225--233, 1988.
1990s
1990		THN: The Right Way to Think About Software Design. In: Laurel, Brenda (ed): The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design. p. 235-243. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1990 amazon.com
1990		Douglas Adams: Hyperland (at Internet Archive) \| Hyperland (at Vimeo). 50' BBC 1990
11/1990		TEDtalk by TED at the TED2 conference, 9-Nov-1990 \| better audio \| toot
1990		THN: General Schematics: Introduction to the terminology
1990		THN: Interview with Ted Nelson, WGBH/BBC open vault \| This interview was used in the WGBH documentary, The Machine That Changed The World
12/1991		THN: As we will think. IN From Memex to hypertext. December 1991, Pages 245–260
1991		THN: Speech delivered at MultiMedia Expo '91, New York
1992		XOC, Inc.: Xanadu Hypermedia Server, Developer Documentation, Mindful Press, (1992).
1992 _IZHD		THN: Opening Hypertext: A Memoir. In: Tuman, M.C. (ed): Literacy Online. The Promise (and Peril) of Reading and Writing with Computers. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh (1992) – pp. 43-57
1992		THN (director): Silicon Valley Story. Preview 1.3. Starring Ted Nelson, Douglas Engelbart, Rick Mascitti, Stewart Brand, and Timothy Leary as the venture capitalist. The Timothy Leary Archives #189. (also at youtube)
1992		Ted Nelson interviewed by John Perry Barlow, Mondo 2000
1/1993		THN: Freedom and power. Proceedings from the symposium on Scholarly communication : new technologies and new directions: new technologies and new directionsPages 1–10
8/1993		THN: Xanadu Publishing in Brief 1993-08-25
1993		THN: Literary Machines. 93.1. Mindful Press, Sausalito, CA, 1993. LM^{(Oct 2000)}/ at Eastgate Systems
10/1994		THN: Xanadu: Document Interconnection Enabling Re-Use with Automatic Author Credit and Royalty Accounting. Information Services & Use , 14 (1994).
1994		THN: Cinema for the Mind, U.C. Santa Cruz part 2
1994		THN: Cinema for the Mind
1995		THN: Transcopyright: unpublished.
8/1995		THN: The heart of connection: hypermedia unified by transclusion. In: Communications of the ACM. Vol. 38(8) p. 31-33, 1995 “transpointing windows”
1995b		THN: Where the Trail Leads at The Brown/MIT Vannevar Bush Symposium 1995 – Video Archive, YouTube
1995		Ted Nelson at the Vannevar Bush Symposium 1995 \| IA video
1996		THN: Generalized Links, Micropayment and Transcopyright, Interview by Doug Crockford, IBM Research (local paper copy)
3/1997		THN: Transcopyright: A Simple Legal Arrangement for Sharing, Re-use, and Republication of Copyrighted Material on the Net. WWCA '97: Proceedings of the International Conference on Worldwide. Computing and Its ApplicationsPages 7–14
1997		THN: The Future of Information. ASCII Corporation, Tokyo, 1997 \| INFUTscans as JFax page 58: The technoid vision, as expressed by various pundits of electronic media, seems to be this: tomorrow’s world will be terribly complex, but we won’t have to understand it. Fluttering through hailstorms of granular information, ignorant like butterflies, we will be guided by smell, or Agents, or leprechauns, to this or that pretty picture, or media object, or factoid. If we have a Question, it will be possible to ask it in English. Little men and bunny rabbits will talk to us from the computer screen, making us feel more comfortable about our delirious ignorance as we flutter through this completely trustworthy technological paradise about which we understand less and less.
11/1997		THN: Embedded Markup Considered Harmful. \| ACM-DL \| In XML: Principles, Tools, and Techniques (World Wide Web Journal 2(4, Fall) 1997.
2/1997		THN: Crush and Crash: Logic of a Terrible Tomorrow. In: Communications of the ACM. Vol. 40 No. 2 p. 90-91, 1997
1998		THN and Pam, Andrew: ZigZag^(tm) Hyperstructure Kit:The ZigZag Commands. Project Xanadu, version 0.49 edition, 1998
12/1999		THN: Xanalogical Structure, Needed Now More than Ever: Parallel Documents, Deep Links to Content, Deep Versioning and Deep Re-Use. In: ACM Computing Surveys. Vol. 31 No. 4es, 1999. Virtually transcluded and re-layouted version (original at xanadu.com.au/ted/XUsurvey/xuDation.html)
12/1999		THN: The unfinished revolution and Xanadu. In: ACM Computing Surveys. Vol. 31 No. 4es, 1999 presented at Engelbart's Unfinished Revolution (Symposium), Dec ’98
Nelson 99c		THN: Time To Liberate The Web. In: Inter@ctive Week, October 25, 1999 ~~academy.smc.edu/vanallen/tednelson_liberate.htm~~
1999		THN: JFax > PDF. e-mail with Matthias Müller-Prove, Oct. 1999
Nelson 99d		THN: Way Out Of The Box ted.hyperland.com/TQdox/zifty.d9-TQframer.html
2000 – 0s
2000		THN: Re: Do I know you?. email with Matthias Müller-Prove, Apr. 2000
2000		THN: Citizen Nelson
2001		THN: Philosophy of Hypertext, PhD thesis amazon
9/2001		THN: ZigZag (Tech briefing) HYPERTEXT '01: Proceedings of the 12th ACM conference on Hypertext and HypermediaPages 261–262https://doi.org/10.1145/504216.504281
2001		Ted Nelson at ACM Hypertext 2001 in Aarhus Some quotes: 0'] This is not my planet. And this is not my conference. However… [2'10"] I think of the world wide web and XML and cascading style sheets is the ultimate triumph of the typewriter over the author. +++ three fundamental problems today: 1) hierarchical file structures 2) simulation of paper 3) the application prison +++ [12'40"] Software is a branch of movie making. +++ [17'50"] The question is about starting over. +++ ZigZag / Authoplectic structures where trees and tables are just edge cases. +++ www.gzigzag.org
2001		Visionary Lays Into the Web / We have settled for less. Ted Nelson interview on BBC Go Digital, 2001
2001		THN: Some Alternative Computer Universe IN Creative Digital Media, p33-38
8/2003		THN: Structure, Tradition and Possibility; keynote at ACM Hypertext 2003, Nottingham,abstract, photo gallery with slides
2004		THN: Ted’s best lecure ever, Oxford 16-Jun-2004
2004		THN: Rose-Hulman Institute, Sep 30 2004
6/2005		THN: Transhyperability and argumedia. The New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia (NRHM), Volume 11, Issue 1Pages 27–
2005		THN: TransLit™, the new open-source Xanadu. new (1)2005, author info
2005		THN: The Politics Of Internet Software 'Geeks Bearing Gifts'. oxford internet institute: webcast (1:26') \| archived Quote: 27'] ”War is too important to be left to the generals“. – The software is too important to human life to allow the decissions to be made by those with only technical background.
2005		THN at OpenTech 2005
?		THN: A Very General Lecture; at Oxford
9/2007		THN, Robert Adamson Smith, Marlene Mallicoat: Back to the future: hypertext the way it used to be. HT '07: Proceedings of the eighteenth conference on Hypertext and hypermediaPages 227–
2007		THN: Transclusion: Fixing Electronic Literature. Google TechTalk Jan 29, 2007 (53')
2007		THN: Intertwingularity. When Ideas Collide. Video at University of Southhampton, May 2007 – a month before his 70^th birthday (90') / at youtube
2007		THN: Ted Nelson on Software (7')
2007		THN: Ted Nelson TV interview in Brazil Some artist asked me the other night in Rio, "What are the opportunities for artist?" And I said, "It is the job of an artist to find opportunities!"
2007		Roda Viva \| Ted Nelson \| 11/06/2007
2008		THN: Ted Nelson at St. Paul's School, London, 5 Feb 2008
2008		THN: A very general lecture, 17-Mar-2008
2008		THN: Ted Nelson demonstrates Xanadu Space
12/2008		THN: Geeks Bearing Gifts (209 pages) at lulu.com / bei amazon.de / ACM-DL
6/2009		THN: Ted Nelson at 50th reunion at Swarthmore, June 2009
2009		THN: Ted at University of Bologna, 2009.06.26
2010s
2010		THN: POSSIPLEX: Movies, Intellect, Creative Control, My Computer Life and the Fight for Civilization (380 pages) ~~at lulu.com download, lulu.com printed~~
10/2010		Possiplex Book Launch at the Internet Archive, Oct 8, 2010 \| IA Video Doug Engelbart interview at Ted Nelson book launch Paul Saffo interview at Ted Nelson book launch Roger Gregory interview at Ted Nelson book launch
2/2011		THN: Personal Digital Archiving: The emeror has no clothes \| The world is build on a model of data \| /Feb 24-25
9/2011		THN: Ted Nelson at The Future of Text, 22-Sep 2011 – (Ted's presentation is between 1:40' – 2:00')
10/2011		THN: Ted Nelson on the future of text, October 2011
3/2012		THN: Indirect Documents At Last! Now for a Humanist Computer Agenda. 19-Mar-2012
5/2012		THN: Computers for Cynics 0 – The Myth of Technology, 22-May-2012 (14' 45") Computers for Cynics 1 – The Nightware of Files and Directories, 22-May-2012 (14' 45") Computers for Cynics 2 – It All Went Wrong at Xerox PARC, 28-May-2012 (14' 01") Computers for Cynics 3 – Database, 28-May-2012 (13' 35") Computers for Cynics 4 – The Dance of Apple and Microsoft, 28-May-2012 (13' 41") ~~Computers for Cynics 5 – HyperHistory, 28-May-2012 (14' 29")~~ ~~Computers for Cynics 6 – The Real Story of the World Wide Web, 28-May-2012 (13' 06")~~ ~~Computers for Cynics N – Closure: Pay Attentions to the Man Behind the Curtain, 28-May-2012 (11' 13")~~ full version
4/2013		THN interviewed by Dave Marvit /Apr 19
10/2013		THN: Ted Nelson at The Future of Text 2013 /Oct 30
2013		THN: ~~Ted at Homebrew Computer Club~~ \| uTube \| different perspective, better audio at bilibili in China
2013		THN: Ted Nelson's Eulogy for Douglas Engelbart
4/2014		THN et al.: Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson (1 day conferene at Chapman University, 24-Apr-2014)
7/2014		THN and Gardner Campbell: Living the Dream
8/2014		Triangulation 164: Ted Nelson
2015		THN: Ted Nelson at The Future of Text 2015
2015		THN: What Box? in Dechow, Struppa (ed): Intertwingled – The Work and Influence of Ted Neslon. Springer Douglas R. Dechow, Daniele C. Struppa: Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson
2016		THN: Two Cheers for Now (45') Web Science Institute, U of Southampton
2016		THN: Norway, Software and Me, Oslo 2015
2017		THN: Ted's Presentation at his 80th Birthday Party ()
3/2018		THN at Internet Archive
2018		DWeb Summit Creative Track Conversation Ted + Charles Broskoski Conversation: Ted Nelson and Charles Broskoski for Decentralized Web Summit 2018's Creative Track
2019		THN: Tools & Craft Ted Nelson, Interview by Devin Zuegel
4/2019		THN: There is Too Much to Say and it Goes in all Directions (62')
15-Feb-2019		THN: Hypercast! An experiment, 2019.02.15
9-Oct-2019		THN: Xanadu History 1960-2019, 2019.10.09
2019		Pioneers: Ted Neslon
2020s
22-May-2020		Marc Weber, Ted Nelson et al.: Ted explains Xanadu to Marc Weber's seminar
29-May-2020		Conversation between Ted Nelson and Lee Felsenstein :: 20' counter culture \| 24' social internet \| 28' SDS 940 (Engelbart’s SRI computer) \|
Jun 2020		TheTedNelson 2.0 – all tweets by Ted Nelson; captured and looped by mprove
10-Oct-2021		A presentation at Vintage Computer Festival East \| IA video
11-May-2022		THN: I Forgot, I Invented Hypertext, Stanford Seminars
Nov 2024		THN: Ted's Japan Lecture, Nov 2024
Sometime
?		THN: Simplicity Versus Power in User Systems (unpublished, referenced in DM 52)
?		THN: Errors in "The Curse of Xanadu," by Gary Wolf . ararat^{(June 2001)}
		THN: Biostrategy and Polymind
<97		THN: The Checkmate Proposal
?		THN: WORLD ENOUGH: The Manuscript Edition. Contents
?		THN: Xanadu Papers, 18 pages
1950s-1980s		Ted Nelson's Junk Mail Cartons collection at Internet Archive, more than 6,000 promotional marketing brochures on computers and office automation

Ted Nelson Media Center

1950s

1960s

1970s

Very General

Thinkertoys and the Collateration Concept; The Hypertext Notes

Hypertext, Information Retrieval and Computer-Assisted Instruction

Highly Interactive Systems and Windowing

1980s

1990s

2000 – 0s

2010s

2020s

Sometime

Ted’s Pages

Other Resources

Incoming Links

à propos