Research on Interactive text

A proposal for a research project involving Keith Martin (London College of Communication) and Frode Hegland (The Liquid Information Company Ltd) to extend the functionality of text in digital environments.

We believe that the written word is a fundamental unit of knowledge and it is therefore of the utmost import that we can interact with it richly and flexibly.

Problem

Current interactive text is mostly limited to manually created, hand-made, one way, one direction, author-controlled links. This has not improved over the last few decades since the links inception in the 1960’s, in fact, on several digital platforms it’s been reduced.

Context

This is based on ongoing collaborative research and development that has been going on externally between Keith Martin and Frode Hegland, and which would benefit from being recognized and supported in an academic research framework.

The research project has grown out of collaboration with Doug Engelbart, inventor of the personal computer, with active involvement of Dave Farber (often referred to as the grandfather of the internet), Vint Cerf (co-author of TCP/IP, the internet protocol), Bruce Horn (creator of the first Macintosh Finder) and Ted Nelson, who coined the term ‘hypertext’.

Focus

Research the potential benefit to new ways to interact with digital text on multiple platforms.

The concept involves developing an interaction language and methodology for manipulating text and accessing information where we take ownership of the problem (text can be more richly interacted with) rather than any one specific interaction solution.

Integration

Hosting or co-hosting The Future Of Text seminars with leading industry figures every 6 months. The first seminar was held at The British Library in September with most of collaborators listed above, in addition to Tom Standage (editor of Economist.com). The full video is online at http://vimeo.com/30992192

Outcomes

Software for various platforms, which currently include web browsers and Mac OS X.

Research findings will be published in multiple media formats.