[kipari]

Is Ted Nelson generally seen as the inventor of hypertext? Vannevar Bush's As We May Think was published in 1945, but it seems that his descriptions of what would later be called hypertext were too general for him to be seen as the 'inventor of hypertext'.

[8bitsrule]

Documenting this long-developing invention requires mention of Paul Otlet's 'Mundaneum' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mundaneum), to which he devoted decades beginning in 1910.

"Otlet regarded the project as the centrepiece of a new 'world city'—a centrepiece which eventually became an archive with more than 12 million index cards and documents."

H.G. Wells talked of a 'World Brain' in 1936. Little doubt that Bush was aware of these ideas ... not to denigrate his contribution.

Another read: 'Secret History of Hypertext' (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/in-se...)

[e12e]

If nothing else, he did coin the term.

[tudorw]

Bush's key message was 'Augmenting Intellect', so personally his angle for me was intellectual and very educationally driven, Ted'd vision was far more inclusive of the wider world of media in general, for pleasure and education, and for me reflects more clearly a vision of what we have now.