randy%umcp-cs%UDel-Relay@sri-unix.UUCP (08/04/83)
From: Randy Trigg <randy%umcp-cs@UDel-Relay> [Adapted from Human-Nets. The organization and indexing of knowledge are topics that should be of interest to the AI community. -- KIL] Regarding the recent worldnet discussion, I thought I'd briefly describe my research and suggest how it might apply: My thesis work has been in the area of advanced text handlers for the online scientific community. My system is called "Textnet" and shares much with both NLS/Augment and Hypertext. It combines a hierarchical component (like NLS, though we allow and encourage multiple hierarchies for the same text) with the arbitrary linked network strategy of Hypertext. The Textnet data structure resembles a semantic network in that links are typed and are valid manipulable objects themselves, as are "chunks" (nodes with associated text) and "tocs" (nodes capturing hierarchical info). I believe that a Textnet approach is the most flexible for a national network. In a distributed version of Textnet (distributing Hypertext/Xanadu has also been proposed), users create not only new papers and critiques of existing ones, but also link together existing text (i.e., reindexing information), and build alternate organizations. There can be no mad dictator in such an information network. Each user organizes the world of scientific knowledge as he/she desires. Of course, the system can offer helpful suggestions, notifying a user about new information needing to be integrated, etc. But in this approach, the user plays the active role. Rather than passively accepting information in whatever guise worldnet decides to promote, each must take an active hand in monitoring that part of the network of interest, and designing personalized search strategies for the rest. (For example, I might decree that any information stemming from a set of journals I deem absurd, shall be ignored.) After all, any truly democratic system should and does require a little work from each member.
KIRK.TYM@OFFICE-2@sri-unix.UUCP (08/11/83)
From: Kirk Kelley <KIRK.TYM@OFFICE-2> I have spent most spare minutes for the last ten years designing a distributed hyper-service using NLS and Augment as a development tool. We can simulate, via electronic mail, the beginnings of a self-descriptive service-service called the "Publish adventure". The Xanadu project's Hypertext, because of its devotion to static text, is a degenerate case of the Publish adventure. If you are interested in collaborating on the design of the protocol, let me know. -- Kirk Kelley