This book explores the history of hypertext, an influential concept that forms the underlying structure of the World Wide Web and innumerable software applications. Barnet tells both the human and the technological story by weaving together contemporary literature and her exclusive interviews with those at the forefront of hypertext innovation, tracing its evolutionary roots back to the analogue machine imagined by Vannevar Bush in 1945.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘“Memory Machines” will appeal to anyone who is curious about the history of computing in general and hypertext in particular. This book is highly recommended for computer science students and for students of history of science and technology, as well as for computing and engineering enthusiasts.’ ―Stephanie Wical, Online Information Review
‘[A] richly layered account, focusing on oral histories as much as an analysis of documents. […] This volume provides a sophisticated and vital history of early computing, usefully exploring conceptual ideas around hypertext, outlining the constraints on pioneering efforts to implement models of hypertext as technical prototypes, and ultimately demonstrating how these collectively shaped all subsequent efforts to develop computer-based prototypes for information structuring and retrieval.’ ―Craig Hight, ‘Media International Australia’
Review
‘Walter Benjamin wrote that “It is not that what is past casts its light on what is present, or what is present its light on what is past; rather…what has been comes together in a flash with the now to form a constellation. “Memory Machines” is, even for one among its participants, such a constellation of the now.’ ―Michael Joyce, Professor of English at Vassar College, New York
About the Author
Belinda Barnet is a lecturer in media and communications at Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia.
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