Theodor Holm Nelson (born June 17, 1937) is an American pioneer of

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

, philosopher, and sociologist. He coined the terms ''

hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typic ...

'' and ''

hypermedia Hypermedia, an extension of hypertext, is a nonlinear medium of information that includes graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks. This designation contrasts with the broader term ''multimedia'', which may include non-interactive linear ...

'' in 1963 and published them in 1965. According to his 1997 ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' profile, Nelson "sees himself as a literary romantic, like a

Cyrano de Bergerac Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th ce ...

, or 'the

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

of software'."

Early life and education

Nelson is the son of

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

–winning director

Ralph Nelson Ralph Nelson (August 12, 1916 – December 21, 1987) was an American film and television director, producer, writer, and actor. He was best known for directing '' Lilies of the Field'' (1963), '' Father Goose'' (1964), and '' Charly'' (1968 ...

and AcademyAwardwinning actress

Celeste Holm Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American actress. Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Elia Kazan's '' Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947), and was nominated for her roles in '' Come to the Stable'' (1949) and ''A ...

. His parents' marriage was brief and he was mostly raised by his grandparents, first in Chicago and later in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

. Nelson earned a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in philosophy from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...

in 1959. Following a year of graduate study in sociology at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, Nelson began graduate work in Social Relations, then a department at Harvard University, specializing in sociology, and ultimately earned a M.A in sociology from the Department of Social Relations in 1962. After Harvard, Nelson worked as a photographer and filmmaker for a year at

John C. Lilly John Cunningham Lilly (January 6, 1915 – September 30, 2001)John C. Lilly
at

's Communication Research Institute in Miami, Florida, where he briefly shared an office with

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropology, anthropologist, social sciences, social scientist, linguistics, linguist, visual anthropology, visual anthropologist, semiotics, semiotician, and cybernetics, cybernetici ...

. From 1964 to 1966, he was an instructor in sociology at Vassar College. During college and graduate school, Nelson began to envision a computer-based writing system that would provide a lasting repository for the world's knowledge, and also permit greater flexibility of drawing connections between ideas. This came to be known as

Project Xanadu Project Xanadu ( ) was the first hypertext project, founded in 1960 by Ted Nelson. Administrators of Project Xanadu have declared it superior to the World Wide Web, with the mission statement: "Today's popular software simulates paper. The World ...

. Much later in life, in 2002, Nelson obtained his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in media and governance from

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

Project Xanadu

Nelson first conceived of what would become Project Xanadu in the early 1960s, with the goal of creating a computer network with a simple user interface. He started referring to this project to others using the name Xanadu in 1966. The effort is documented in the books ''

Computer Lib/Dream Machines ''Computer Lib/Dream Machines'' is a 1974 book by Ted Nelson, printed as a two-front-cover paperback to indicate its " intertwingled" nature. Originally self-published by Nelson, it was republished with a foreword by Stewart Brand in 1987 by Micr ...

'' (1974), ''The Home Computer Revolution'' (1977) and ''

Literary Machines ''Literary Machines'' (short title) is a book first published in 1981 by Ted Nelson and republished nine times by 1993. It offers an extensive overview of Nelson's term "hypertext" as well as Nelson's Project Xanadu. It also includes other theor ...

'' (1981). Much of his adult life has been devoted to working on Xanadu and advocating for it. Throughout his career, Nelson supported his work on the Xanadu project through a variety of administrative, academic, and research positions and consultancies, including stints at

Harcourt Brace and Company Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. It was known at different stages in its history as Harcourt Brace, & Co. and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. From 1919 to 1 ...

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

(a tumultuous consultancy on the Nelson-inspired

Hypertext Editing System The Hypertext Editing System, or HES, was an early hypertext research project conducted at Brown University in 1967 by Andries van Dam, Ted Nelson, and several Brown students.Brown University Department of Computer Science. (23 May 2019)A Half-C ...

and

File Retrieval and Editing System The File Retrieval and Editing SyStem, or FRESS, was a hypertext system developed at Brown University starting in 1968 by Andries van Dam and his students, including Bob Wallace (computer scientist), Bob Wallace. It was the first hypertext system ...

with Swarthmore friend

Andries van Dam Andries "Andy" van Dam (born December 8, 1938) is a Dutch-American professor of computer science and former vice-president for research at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Together with Ted Nelson he contributed to the first hypert ...

's group; c. 1967–1969),

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

(hypertext-related defense research; 1968–1969),

CBS Laboratories CBS Laboratories or CBS Labs (later known as the CBS Technology Center or CTC) was the technology research and development organization of the CBS television network. Innovations developed at the labs included many groundbreaking broadcast, industr ...

("writing and photographing interactive slideshows for their AVS-10 instructional device"; 1968–1969), the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

(an interdisciplinary staff position; 1973–1976) and Swarthmore College (visiting lecturer in computing; 1977). Nelson also conducted research and development under the auspices of the Nelson Organization (founder and president; 1968–1972) and the Computopia Corporation (co-founder; 1977–1978). Clients of the former firm included

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, Brown University,

Western Electric Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, ...

, the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, the

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. Notable Jewish museums include: Albania * Solomon Museum, Berat Australia * Jewish Museum of Australia, Melbourn ...

, the Fretheim Chartering Corporation and the Deering-Milliken Research Corporation. He has alleged that the Nelson Organization was envisaged as a clandestine funding conduit for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

, which expressed interest in Project Xanadu at an early juncture; however, the promised funds failed to materialize after several benchmarks were met. From 1980 to 1981, he was the editor of ''

Creative Computing ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format t ...

''. At the behest of Xanadu developers

Mark S. Miller Mark S. Miller is an American computer scientist. He is known for his work as one of the participants in the 1979 hypertext project known as Project Xanadu; for inventing Miller columns; and the open-source coordinator of the E programming lang ...

and Stuart Greene, Nelson joined

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

-based

Datapoint Datapoint Corporation, originally known as Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC), was a computer company based in San Antonio, Texas, United States. Founded in July 1968 by Phil Ray and Gus Roche, its first products were, as the company's initial ...

as chief software designer (1981–1982), remaining with the company as a media specialist and technical writer until its

Asher Edelman Asher Barry Edelman (born November 26, 1939) is an American financier. Biography Edelman was the son of New York real estate investor, Richard M. Edelman. He graduated from Bard College and in 1961, he went to work for Halle and Stieglitz wh ...

-driven restructuring in 1984. Following several San Antonio-based consultancies and the acquisition of Xanadu technology by

Autodesk Autodesk, Inc. is an American multinational software corporation that provides software products and services for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, education, and entertainment industries. Autodesk is headquarte ...

in 1988, he continued working on the project as a non-managerial Distinguished Fellow in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

until the divestiture of the Xanadu Operating Group in 1992–1993. After holding visiting professorships in

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

and information science at

Hokkaido University , or , is a public research university in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Founded in 1918, it is the fifth-oldest government-authorised university in Japan and one of the former Imperial Universities. The university finds its roots in Sapporo A ...

(1995–1996),

(1996–2002), the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

and the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

, he was a fellow (2004–2006) and visiting fellow (2006–2008) of the

Oxford Internet Institute The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research, combining social and computer science to explore information, communication, and technology. It is an integral part of the University of Oxford's Social Science ...

in conjunction with

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street and Parks Road ...

. More recently, he has taught classes at

Chapman University Chapman University is a private research university in Orange, California, United States. Encompassing eleven colleges, the university is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The school maintains its foundi ...

and the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

. The Xanadu project failed to flourish, for a variety of reasons which are disputed. Journalist Gary Wolf published an unflattering history of Nelson and his project in the June 1995 issue of ''

Wired Wired may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''Wired'' (Jeff Beck album), 1976 * ''Wired'' (Hugh Cornwell album), 1993 * ''Wired'' (Mallory Knox album), 2017 * "Wired", a song by Prism from their album '' Beat Street'' * "Wired ...

'', calling it "the longest-running

vaporware In the computer industry, vaporware (or vapourware) is a product, typically computer Computer hardware, hardware or software, that is announced to the general public but is late, never actually manufactured, or officially canceled. Use of the w ...

project in the history of computing". On his own website, Nelson expressed his disgust with the criticisms, referring to Wolf as "Gory Jackal", and threatened to sue him. He also outlined his objections in a letter to ''Wired'', and released a detailed rebuttal of the article. As early as 1972, a demonstration iteration developed by Cal Daniels failed to reach fruition when Nelson was forced to return the project's rented

Data General Nova The Nova is a series of 16-bit computing, 16-bit minicomputers released by the American company Data General. The Nova family was very popular in the 1970s and ultimately sold tens of thousands of units. The first model, known simply as "Nov ...

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...

due to financial exigencies. Nelson has stated that some aspects of his vision were fulfilled by

Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research fellow a ...

's invention of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

, but he disliked the World Wide Web,

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

, and embedded markup – regarding Berners-Lee's work as a gross over-simplification of his original vision:

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 Version control (also known as revision control, source control, and source code management) is the software engineering practice of controlling, organizing, and tracking different versions in history of computer files; primarily source code t ...
, no rights management.

Jaron Lanier Jaron Zepel Lanier (, born May 3, 1960) is an American computer scientist, visual artist, computer philosophy writer, technologist, futurist, and composer of contemporary classical music. Considered a founder of the field of virtual reality, La ...

explained the difference between the World Wide Web and Nelson's vision, and the implications:

A core technical difference between a Nelsonian network and what we have become familiar with online is that elson'snetwork links were two-way instead of one-way. In a network with two-way links, each node knows what other nodes are linked to it. ... Two-way linking would preserve context. It's a small simple change in how online information should be stored that couldn't have vaster implications for culture and the economy.

Other projects

In 1957, Nelson co-wrote and co-produced what he describes as a pioneering rock musical entitled "Anything and Everything"; it was performed at

. Two years later, during his senior year at Swarthmore, Nelson made an experimental humorous student film, ''The Epiphany of Slocum Furlow'', in which the titular hero discovers the meaning of life. Musician and composer

Peter Schickele Peter Schickele (; July 17, 1935 – January 16, 2024) was an American composer, musical educator and parodist, best known for comedy albums featuring his music, which he presented as being composed by the fictional P. D. Q. Bach. He also hoste ...

, also a student at Swarthmore College, scored the film. In 1965, Nelson presented the paper "Complex Information Processing: A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate" at the

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * IATA airport code for Arica Airport in Amazonas Department, Colombia Computing ...

National Conference, in which he coined the term "hypertext". In 1976, Nelson co-founded and briefly served as the advertising director of the "itty bitty machine company", or "ibm", a small computer retail store that operated from 1977 to 1980 in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

. In 1978, he had a significant impact upon

's thinking when he outlined his vision of the potential of personal computing to the team that three years later launched the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...

. From the 1960s to the mid-2000s, Nelson built an extensive collection of direct advertising mail he received in his mailbox, mainly from companies selling products in IT, print/publishing, aerospace, and engineering. In 2017, the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

began to publish it online in scanned form, in a collection titled "Ted Nelson's Junk Mail Cartons".

ZigZag

As of 2011, Nelson was working on a new information structure, ZigZag, which is described on the Xanadu project website, which also hosts two versions of the Xanadu code. He also developed XanaduSpace, a system for the exploration of connected parallel documents (an early version of this software may be freely downloaded).

Influence and recognition

In January 1988 ''Byte'' magazine published an article about Nelson's ideas, titled "Managing Immense Storage". In 1998, at the Seventh WWW Conference in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia, Nelson was awarded the

Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award The "Yuri Rubinsky Memorial Award" was a prize that was awarded annually at the International World Wide Web Conference. Yuri Rubinsky, in cooperation with the International WWW Conference Committee (iW3C2), presented the SoftQuad Award for Excell ...

. In 2001, he was knighted by France as Officier des Arts et Lettres. In 2007, he celebrated his 70th birthday by giving an invited lecture at the

. In 2014, ACM

SIGCHI The Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction (SIGCHI) is one of the Association for Computing Machinery's special interest groups which is focused on human–computer interactions (HCI). It hosts the flagship annual international H ...

honored him with a Special Recognition Award. In 2014, Nelson was conferred with a Doctor of Science degree, honoris causa, by

. The ceremony took place during the 'Intertwingled' conference, featuring Nelson and other prominent figures in the field, including Apple Computer founder

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...

and former Association for Computing Machinery president

Wendy Hall Dame Wendy Hall (born 25 October 1952) is a British computer scientist. She is Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton. Early life and education Wendy Hall was born in west London and educated at Ealing Grammar ...

. At the conference, Nelson stated confidence in the potential of his Xanadu system, saying 'The world would have been a better place if I had succeeded, but I ain't dead yet.'

Neologisms

Nelson is credited with coining several new words that have come into common usage especially in the world of computing. Among them are: *

and

in 1963 and first published in 1965 *

transclusion In computer science, transclusion is the inclusion of part or all of an electronic document into one or more other documents by reference via hypertext. Transclusion is usually performed when the referencing document is displayed, and is norma ...

virtuality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

intertwingularity Intertwingularity is a term coined by Ted Nelson to express the complexity of interrelations in human knowledge. Nelson wrote in ''Computer Lib/Dream Machines'' : "EVERYTHING IS DEEPLY INTERTWINGLED. In an important sense there are no " subjects" ...

teledildonics Teledildonics (also known as cyberdildonics) is the name coined for virtual sex encounters using Computer network, networked electronic Sex toy, sex toys to mimic and extend human sexual interaction. The term became known after technology critic an ...

(devised by Nelson in 1975 before its later popularization by

Howard Rheingold Howard Rheingold (born 1947) is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities. B ...

)

Publications

Nelson publishes some of his books through his self-owned Mindful Press. * ''Life, Love, College, etc.'' (1959) * ''

: New freedoms through computer screens—a minority report'' (1974),

Microsoft Press Microsoft Press is the publishing arm of Microsoft, usually releasing books dealing with various current Microsoft technologies. Microsoft Press' introduced books were ''The Apple Macintosh Book'' by Cary Lu and ''Exploring the IBM PCjr Home Comp ...

, revised edition 1987 with forward by

Stewart Brand Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938) is an American project developer and writer, best known as the co-founder and editor of the ''Whole Earth Catalog''. He has founded a number of organizations, including the WELL, the Global Business Networ ...

: * ''The Home Computer Revolution'' (1977) * ''

: The report on, and of, Project Xanadu concerning word processing, electronic publishing, hypertext, thinkertoys, tomorrow's intellectual revolution, and certain other topics including knowledge, education and freedom'' (1981), Mindful Press; publication dates as listed in the 93.1 (1993) edition: 1980–84, 1987, 1990–93 * ''The Future of Information'' (1997) * * ''Geeks Bearing Gifts: How The Computer World Got This Way'' (2008
Chapter summaries
* ''POSSIPLEX: Movies, Intellect, Creative Control, My Computer Life and the Fight for Civilization'' (2010), autobiography, Mindful Press.

References

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

, January 29, 2007.
Ted Nelson Possiplex Internet Archive book reading video
October 8, 2010.
Ted Nelson original interview footage from PBS's Machine That Changed the World
1990.
Video excerpts of a dinner at Howard Rheingold's home with Doug Englebart and Ted Nelson
August 18, 2010. * , August 18, 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Ted 1937 births American educators American expatriates in the United Kingdom 21st-century American philosophers 20th-century American philosophers American sociologists American philosophers of technology Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford Harvard University alumni Living people American people of Swedish descent American people of Norwegian descent Swarthmore College alumni Keio University alumni Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Electronic literature