Project Xanadu

Project Xanadu was the first attempt to create Hypertext software. It was begun back in 1960 by Ted Nelson – nearly 50 years ago!

Now, on the occasion of Nelson’s 70th birthday, version 1.0 of XanaduSpace is released.

Somehow, despite the fact that the rival Hypertext system (the World Wide Web of Tim Berners Lee) has been sarcastically described as “the joy buzzer and the whoopee cushion of the Internet”, I don’t think that the more elegantly designed Xanadu has a hope of displacing its rival. Sometimes, technical elegance is not enough. Just being good enough at the right time and place is what wins the day. I fear Xanadu is doomed to being a footnote in the history of computing.