!%@:: A Directory Of Electronic Mail Addressing And Networks by Rick Adams, Donnalyn Frey (review)

SOCIETY OF TEXT: HYPERTEXT, HYPERMEDIA AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF INFORMATION. Edward Barrett, edt MIT Press, Cambridge , MA, U.S.A., 1989.459 pp. Trade, $37.50. ISBN: 0-262-00291-5. Reviewed byStephen Wil50n, Art Department , San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway, San Francisco, CA 94132, U.S.A. 'Hypertext' and 'hypermedia' are the names given to computer-based information storage and retrieval systems that support flexible, non-linear methods of 'reading'. In these systems a user is not forced into a linear method of pursuing information such as is usual in books, films and musical compositions. Rather, the computer allows the user to follow interest and information needs in accordance with dynamically changing flows of inquiry. For example, in current systems, someone reading text on a computer screen can use a mouse to point at sections for which more detail is wanted. The computer branches to show material linked to the original. Additional choices in supplementary material lead to further linked material in ongoing cycles of information navigation . In full hypermedia systems, the information can appear in visual and sound form as well as text. Some psychologists believe this form of research and information processing is more in tune with natural associational tendencies of the mind. Some claim that hypermedia promises as profound a cultural revolution as did the printing press. Hypertext and hypermedia are most often discussed in the context of education and information archiving. For example, Apple Computer's apocryphal "Knowledge Navigator" video promotion illustrated a college professor of the future who used his computer to conduct ad hoc research integrating and synthesizing multimedia information from around the world. Hypermedia also opens fascinating challenges and opportunities for the arts that are not being discussed . Until recently, the literature on hypertext has been scarce, and that on hypermedia almost non-existent. Edward Barrett's collections of essays, SocietyofText and Text, Context and 246 Current Literature Hypertext, survey some of the issues related to hypertext. Barrett was active in MIT's major research projects trying to create online hypermedia educational offerings in which students could pursue non-linear inquiry and in which the dialogue between students and faculty became part of the searchable information base. Text, Context and Hypertext addresses issues such as conceptual and technical details of creating hypertext systems , the application of hypertext to computer system documentation and the organization contexts in which these systems are applied. Societyof Text considers topics such as the genealogy of hypertext development and the details of new systems such as MIT's Project Athena and Brown's Intermedia . These books are frustrating. Barrett 's major orientation and example base seem to be the development and use of online documentation for complex computer systems. Readers in these fields will find the books quite useful. Hypertext and hypermedia, however , raise conceptual issues far beyond these narrow fields; for example , how information needs to be organized differently for hypertext as opposed to conventional books, the mental models and underlying metaphors implicit in hypermedia, differences in processes of reading versus hypermedia 'browsing', waysin which artificial intelligence can assist an information seeker, and interface design for these systems. Several of the essays partially address these issues although the general reader will probably crave for more than is offered. Also, the editor makes little attempt to synthesize or conceptualize these issues. Perhaps most importantly for Leonardo readers, the emphasis on applications of hypertext to computer system documentation almost totally neglects the meaning of these new forms for literature and the arts. Hypermedia offers a powerful conceptual base for thinking about computer -assisted, interactive multimedia art. With the provision of a common information base ofimage, sound and text, the navigational paths, the structuring of the information space, the design of the interface, the intelligence of the system in assisting the user to navigate and the interplay of the different media all become aesthetic opportunities and the bases for creation of new art forms. Barrett's books will help familiarize the reader with the area of concern and provide brief forays into some of the conceptual issues. They do not, however, go very far into these fascinating new territories. !%@:: A DIRECTORY OF ELECTRONIC MAIL ADDRESSING AND NETWORKS by...