Comments on: How Xanadu Works: technical overview http://dubinko.info/blog/2009/11/22/how-xanadu-works/ From an XML geek, a reader, a writer, a connector, a man of the people (says keep hope alive) Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:18:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: uberVU - social comments http://dubinko.info/blog/2009/11/22/how-xanadu-works/comment-page-1/#comment-4716 uberVU - social comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:54:22 +0000 http://dubinko.info/blog/?p=696#comment-4716 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by hrjn_rss: How Xanadu Works: technical overview: Comments http://url4.eu/pXbg... Social comments and analytics for this post…

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]]> By: Mark Bernstein http://dubinko.info/blog/2009/11/22/how-xanadu-works/comment-page-1/#comment-4714 Mark Bernstein Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:07:34 +0000 http://dubinko.info/blog/?p=696#comment-4714 I find this a very fine summary of Xanadu, especially useful because (naturally) the original description didn't use terms like "browser" that had not yet been invented. It's important to understand that Xanadu assumed one true repository. At the time, it seemed the only way; the idea of a decentralized and democratized hypertext system seemed a fantasy, and even Xanadu's central storage service and payments strategy was widely dismissed as utopian. I find this a very fine summary of Xanadu, especially useful because (naturally) the original description didn’t use terms like “browser” that had not yet been invented.

It’s important to understand that Xanadu assumed one true repository. At the time, it seemed the only way; the idea of a decentralized and democratized hypertext system seemed a fantasy, and even Xanadu’s central storage service and payments strategy was widely dismissed as utopian.

]]> By: Dorian Taylor http://dubinko.info/blog/2009/11/22/how-xanadu-works/comment-page-1/#comment-4711 Dorian Taylor Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:23:48 +0000 http://dubinko.info/blog/?p=696#comment-4711 The bidirectional linking capacity of Xanadu has confused me for some time. I cannot for the life of me imagine how bidirectional links could exist across organizational boundaries. It seems the only way they could happen is through some sort of escrow (which I assume to be Xanadu or its franchisees/licensees). Likewise with enforcing micropayments (of which I assume the big X gets a cut). The other thing I found strange was the per-byte pricing. How is the price set? Does it start at parity and change up or down with demand? But it's data, you can just make more of it (in fact it's harder not to), so wouldn't raising the price more than linearly relative to demand be artificial inflation? What about the fact that not all symbols are bytes? Do I get a 25% discount if I only fill 6 of 8 bits of every byte? Do I need to pay a royalty to ANSI, ISO or the Unicode Consortium for interpreting bytes as characters? What about Unicode, anyway? Different prices for different encodings? What about other, longer data structures that make no sense if not complete? Could I cheat by requesting content with missing pieces and fill them in heuristically? What about conventional (e.g. GZip) compression? (Sorry, don't mean to harangue…) I haven't gotten my hands on a copy of Literary Machines or Computer Lib (or Dream Machines, or Geeks Bearing Gifts) yet, so perhaps I'm missing something. I have read the Gary Wolf and other articles, and played with ZigZag demos, and whatever else I could find and manage to run. From the information I have so far though, Xanadu appears as if it is a conceived as a centrally planned and controlled monopoly that gets the last word on content, and I don't know how good of an idea that is in general. If the cost of a decentralized and democratized hypertext system is the enforcement of bidirectional links and micropayments, that seems like a reasonable trade-off. In my experience, the Web's technological underpinnings don't completely preclude those behaviours on a voluntary basis. The same goes for hyperaddressability and transclusion (albeit via copying). Otherwise, Nelson's ongoing jihad on opaque files and strict hierarchies in my opinion is completely sound. Despite that, I cannot perceive what mechanism would insulate Xanadu from moral hazard. The bidirectional linking capacity of Xanadu has confused me for some time. I cannot for the life of me imagine how bidirectional links could exist across organizational boundaries. It seems the only way they could happen is through some sort of escrow (which I assume to be Xanadu or its franchisees/licensees). Likewise with enforcing micropayments (of which I assume the big X gets a cut).

The other thing I found strange was the per-byte pricing. How is the price set? Does it start at parity and change up or down with demand? But it’s data, you can just make more of it (in fact it’s harder not to), so wouldn’t raising the price more than linearly relative to demand be artificial inflation?

What about the fact that not all symbols are bytes? Do I get a 25% discount if I only fill 6 of 8 bits of every byte? Do I need to pay a royalty to ANSI, ISO or the Unicode Consortium for interpreting bytes as characters? What about Unicode, anyway? Different prices for different encodings? What about other, longer data structures that make no sense if not complete? Could I cheat by requesting content with missing pieces and fill them in heuristically? What about conventional (e.g. GZip) compression? (Sorry, don’t mean to harangue…)

I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy of Literary Machines or Computer Lib (or Dream Machines, or Geeks Bearing Gifts) yet, so perhaps I’m missing something. I have read the Gary Wolf and other articles, and played with ZigZag demos, and whatever else I could find and manage to run. From the information I have so far though, Xanadu appears as if it is a conceived as a centrally planned and controlled monopoly that gets the last word on content, and I don’t know how good of an idea that is in general.

If the cost of a decentralized and democratized hypertext system is the enforcement of bidirectional links and micropayments, that seems like a reasonable trade-off. In my experience, the Web’s technological underpinnings don’t completely preclude those behaviours on a voluntary basis. The same goes for hyperaddressability and transclusion (albeit via copying). Otherwise, Nelson’s ongoing jihad on opaque files and strict hierarchies in my opinion is completely sound. Despite that, I cannot perceive what mechanism would insulate Xanadu from moral hazard.

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