| Searching versus Browsing in Hypertext | | BIBA | 1-30 | |
| Roy Rada; Clare Murphy | |||
| Our goal is to elaborate the relationships among tasks, user types, and tools for hypertext. We built a computer system for automatically converting books into hypertext and then converted one book into Emacs-Info, Guide, HyperTies, and a variant of SuperBook, called MaxiBook. Three classes of users were studied: experts, novices, and trainees. Users performed two question-answering tasks: one for a search question and one for a browse question. The answer to a search question could be found in one section of the book, whereas the answer to a browse question occurred across sections. Answers were evaluated for quality and speed. Experts did good searching with Guide and MaxiBooks, but the best browsing with paper. For novices, paper was the best tool on all counts -- for quality and speed, for searching and browsing. Trainee experiences were similar to those of novices. Based on our results and by contrasting models of the various tools, we infer that a good hypertext system should simulate the 'index' and 'arbitrary jump' of paper and the 'dynamic outline' and 'implicit index' of MaxiBook. While sophisticated features of our hypertext, such as an alternate outline, did not prove helpful, we show that the class of 'understanding tasks' is much larger than that of searching or browsing tasks and speculate that alternate outlines support some 'understanding tasks'. | |||
| An Experiment on the Integration of Hypertext within a Multi-User Text Retrieval System | | BIBA | 31-52 | |
| R. Perrott; O. Smith | |||
| Currently, few hypertext systems allow an author to incorporate electronic textual information into a hyperdocument without first copying it from the environment in which it is stored. In order to extend a hyperdocument, an author must either manually type in the new information or import a copy of the text. To avoid this inconvenience and thus improve the user's efficiency of operation, hypertext systems must be integrated into other environments so that an author can incorporate existing text into a hyperdocument without the necessity of duplicating the text. This paper presents the results of an investigation into how hypertext could be integrated within a multi-user text retrieval system and describes the design and implementation of a prototype system called Hyperbrowser. | |||
| Vector Spaces as the Basic Component of Interactive Systems: Towards a Computer Semiotics | | BIBA | 53-76 | |
| Peter Bogh Andersen | |||
| The practical point of departure is design and implementation of interactive multimedia applications. The focus is on the aesthetic aspects, ranging from graphical display to narratives structures. In particular, I am interested in developing a theory of narration that exploits the special dynamic characteristics of computer systems, namely that the reader can interact with the system and the system can act itself. It is suggested that a vector space consisting of objects and vectors can form the basis for such a theory; its basic narrative unit is the vector, a force emanating from an object that either attracts other objects or repels them. An interactive multimedia product will contain sets of vector spaces, each with a simple internal structure but with the ability to generate a richness of events, most of which may not even have occurred to the author. The paper presents arguments in favor of the vector in the domain of interactive narratives and public information systems. A final section suggests that Rene Thom's catastrophe theory may provide a theoretical basis for the ideas. | |||
| "Hypermedia and Literary Studies," Paul Delany and George P. Landow | | BIB | 77-79 | |
| Elisabeth Davenport | |||
| "Archives and Museum Informatics Technical Report No. 14. Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums," edited by D. Bearman | | BIB | 79-80 | |
| Tapio Varis | |||
| "Hypermedia/Hypertext and Object-Oriented Databases," edited by H. Brown | | BIB | 81-82 | |
| Craig McDonald | |||
| Automating Hypermedia for Decision Support | | BIBA | 83-110 | |
| Michael Bieber | |||
| Many 'first generation' hypermedia systems were designed to support applications, which do not require the dynamic and general characteristics necessary for our domain -- decision support systems (DSS). The heart of our research is a dynamic model of hypermedia incorporating virtual structures and computation, which we call generalized hypermedia. Generalized hypermedia broadens and automates the 'static' or non-virtual notion of first generation hypermedia for a knowledge-based DSS shell. The shell provides a hypermedia-style interface for navigating among DSS application models, data and reports. Such a shell should support applications in a variety of fields, e.g., engineering, manufacturing, finance, and therefore must provide hypermedia support as general, system-level functionality. Generalized hypermedia superimposes a hypermedia network on a DSS application, generating all hypermedia nodes, links and link markers dynamically from the application's standard, non-hypermedia knowledge base. In this paper we demonstrate how automating hypermedia can enhance decision making with a DSS. We describe generalized hypermedia and discuss the challenges presented to it by a dynamic, real-time environment. | |||
| Helping the User to Select a Link | | BIBA | 111-122 | |
| Ivan Tomek; Hermann Maurer | |||
| Links are among the distinguishing features of hypermedia and much research revolves around them. We survey issues related to links and address the problem of presenting links in such a way that the user can choose the most appropriate link. This issue is particularly important when a large number of links is available, a subject that has not received much attention yet but will become important as hypermedia document bases grow. We show that presentation of links can be dealt with by filtering out links that are not of interest to the user and by ranking the remaining nodes to simplify choice. After listing several heuristic approaches, we propose a method based on two quantitative measures of knowledge. This method can be used for rigorous numeric ranking of links on the basis of their contribution to the user's total knowledge. | |||
| Hypertext -- A Bibliometric Briefing | | BIB | 123-134 | |
| Elisabeth Davenport; Patricia Baird | |||
| "Hypertext and Hypermedia: Theory and Applications," by Nigel Woodhead | | BIB | 135-138 | |
| Alan F. Smeaton | |||
| "From Memex to Hypertext: Vannevar Bush and the Mind's Machine," by James M. Nyce and Paul Kahn | | BIB | 138-140 | |
| Elisabeth Davenport | |||
| "Hypertext'91: Third ACM Conference on Hypertext Proceedings," edited by Richard K. Furuta and P. David Stotts | | BIB | 140-142 | |
| Cliff McKnight | |||
| Consulting On-Line Dictionary Information while Reading | | BIBA | 145-169 | |
| A. Black; P. Wright; D. Black; K. Norman | |||
| Electronic documents allow readers to access definitions of unfamiliar words by clicking on the screen display. Five studies report eight comparisons which explore how changing the modality (visual/auditory) and form (verbal/graphic) of the defining information influences people's willingness to consult definitions while reading short stories. Study 1 gave verbal definitions of words that were completely novel and explored the effects of definition length and reading task. It was found that readers checked the meanings of nearly all the unknown words. This remained the case in study 2 where auditory rather than visual definitions were given; but people re-read more stories than in Study 1 suggesting gist comprehension may have been impaired by mixing modalities. In study 3 the defined words were familiar but not always precisely understood (e.g. architrave). Here people consulted significantly fewer definitions regardless of whether these included pictures. Study 4 visually cued the defined architectural terms within the text and found significantly more definitions were read. In study 5 these defined terms were listed in a separate glossary alongside the text. This affected both the frequency and pattern with which readers consulted definitions. Overall this series of studies shows that, unless readers recognise words as novel, their willingness to consult definitions depends on how the definitions are made available. | |||
| Authoring for English Literature in HyperCard: Where in the World is Blake's Tyger? | | BIBA | 171-196 | |
| David Dowling | |||
| Many universities are applying computers to English literature, but find it difficult to integrate the machine into actual teaching. The difficulties of using hypertext in critical reading are outlined in the article, and several examples of its use appraised, including Brown University's Intermedia. There are several dangers in the 'open field' approach, however, which the article outlines. The possibilities of hypertext for representing the foregrounded features of a literary text are then described, as well as its capacity to mimic or at least draw attention to the reading process itself. The author outlines in detail his own attempts to program in HyperCard: first, two Katherine Mansfield short stories; second, Blake's poem 'The Tyger'. He concludes that teacher-programmers in the Humanities should focus on solving the pedagogical issues involved in using hypertext by exploring its graphic resources to produce programs which can be genuinely useful adjuncts to classroom teaching. | |||
| StackMaker: An Environment for Creating Hypermedia Learning Material | | BIBA | 197-211 | |
| G. A. Hutchings; L. A. Carr; W. Hall | |||
| Hypermedia has for some time now been proposed as an adjunct to printed
material within the educational process. However, creating a highly
interconnected hypermedia network is complex and time consuming, with overviews
of the content and structure of the information seemingly essential in order to
avoid the disorientation and cognitive overload problems often described.
This paper describes an environment designed to remove much of the burden of creating such support facilities, allowing the teacher to concentrate on the content and structure of the information presented. | |||
| "Mapping Hypertext: Analysis, Linkage and Display of Knowledge for the Next Generation of On-Line Text and Graphics," by Robert E. Horn | | BIB | 213-215 | |
| Alistair Kilgour | |||
| "Hypertext in Context," by Cliff McKnight, Andrew Dillon & John Richardson | | BIB | 215-217 | |
| Nadia Catenzzi; Monica Landoni | |||
| "The CD-I Series," by Philips Interactive Media Systems | | BIB | 218-220 | |
| Charles Oppenheim | |||