HYPERTEXT AND THE CONDUCT OF SCIENCE

Published date01 March 1990
Pages175-192
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/eb026859
Date01 March 1990
AuthorELISABETH DAVENPORT,BLAISE CRONIN
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Library & information science
THE
Journal of Documentation
VOLUME 46 NUMBER 3 SEPTEMBER 1990
HYPERTEXT AND THE CONDUCT OF SCIENCE
ELISABETH DAVENPORT and BLAISE CRONIN
Department
of
Information Science
University
of
Strathclyde,
Richmond
Street,
Glasgow
G1
1XH
Hypertext may transform the practice and culture of science by opening up
texts for comment and verification in ways which have previously been
impossible. A brief introduction
is given
to
the
technology of hypertext, and the
effects are explored
in
contexts which range from the conceptual
base
of science
(modelling, and how and why this is done) to laboratory techniques. Some
critical areas of impact are then identified. By allowing us to see, for example,
what lies behind protocols and official versions, hypertext may reduce the
incidence of scientific fraud; it can stimulate creativity by amplifying the frame
of reference and revealing new facts to researchers; it can challenge
the
exercise
of authority
by
offering
access to
original or unorthodox material which
may
be
rejected in the process of peer review; it can provide an inside track in a
discipline for novices or outsiders who reconstruct the readings of experienced
practitioners. Existing systems may be applied to some of the purposes which
are described, though the costs of unsubsidised investment may inhibit
development.
HYPERTEXT
'THIS HUMAN RESOURCE-SHARING
has
explosive potential I look to
it with a biological metaphor as providing a new evolutionary stage for the
nervous system of social organisms, from which more highly developed
institutional forms may evolve that are much improved in: awareness of self
and environment, situational cognizance and response, visualization of the
future, system-solving capability..
.'[1].
For more than twenty years,
Englebart, the author of this quote, has worked on systems which allow co-
workers to assemble and manoeuvre information from as many sources and in
Journal
of
Documentation,
Vol.
46,
No.
3,
September
1990,
pp. 175192.
175
JOURNAL OF DOCUMENTATION Vol. 46, no. 3
as many formats as their joint enterprise requires. These workers may be
separated in space, but not in time: they can tweak models and fine tune
designs
in
what
he has
called an 'augmented blackboard' which offers multiple
users easy access to a range of media and texts. Englebart's seminal work,
currently supported by an industrial consortium, embodies the concept of
hypertext.
Hypertext is a generic label for a cluster of technologies (for input,
assembly, access, storage and retrieval) which handle material, static or
dynamic, in any medium, fixed or temporal. Its basic premise is freedom of
movement
inside
and across
texts,
defined as anything which has an author, or
an owner, in a hypertext system. Authors may suggest alternative paths
through their work (based on assumptions about the reader's level of interest
or familiarity with the subject) and signpost their sources of inspiration, or
areas which require exploration. Readers may follow such an authorised
version, or may choose to make their own links and interpret, gloss and cite
outside the author's frame of reference.
Such activity requires structures which are flexible, porous and hospitable.
Flexibility can be achieved if
texts
are seen as aggregates which are joined by
links to form a sequence. This is the text as written (where links are suggested
by
the
author),
or the text as read (where the links are made by the
reader):
the
degree of conformity between the two will vary. Porosity is achieved where
temporary links are made to external texts: one of the author's references
might be activated, for example, to illustrate or verify some point in the text.
Exogenous text might appear
in the
form of comment or
gloss
by the reader,
or the reader might wish to rework a portion of
the
primary material. In this
case,
external material might be admitted on a permanent basis and the text
would appear
as
a
new
version.
This need not replace the
old,
but may offer an
alternative to subsequent readers who, in their turn, may also wish to rework
the text: hypertext functions as an elastic palimpsest, allowing access to and
reworking of layered
texts.
Reading need no longer be purely passive: unless a
system makes a clear distinction between primary and subsequent versions of
a text, the concepts of author and reader will be difficult to separate.
Those who are unfamiliar with the technology may find the paper by
Conklin helpful[2].
He
describes
the
state of
the
art
in
1987,
and his
review
may
be supplemented with the recent book by Schneiderman and Kearsley, who
combine an introduction to the conceptual base with product descriptions
(which include some of the proprietary systems described below) and
suggestions for commercial applications[3]. The basic components of hyper-
text can be summarised as:
fragments or nodes of text
links
a storage structure which accounts for the other two
There is a range of presentation formats: the size of fragments, the nature of
links,
and the shape of storage structures vary across proprietary products;
176

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT