Information Architecture and Hypertext.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) Here in lies the premise of communication in two parts. Speech, a system of symbols with a common understanding, and in this context, religion, a reason (for many) to speak. The bible, and this verse especially, in a great example of the historical transition of information architecture. The initial means for the communication and retention of information was speech. ”There have been three great events in the history of literacy, the invention of writing, the invention of movable type, and the invention of hypertext.” (NMR, 706) In Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE speech was transferred into a form of symbols that could be recorded, thereby allowing the spread of information. In the mid 1400′s Johaness Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press, allowing information to not only be reproduced faster, but in varying languages. This allowed for an immense spread in literacy. The most recent epiphany in the world of information architecture is hypertext. It was developed mostly by Ted Nelson for a for reaching technological project named Xanadu, and has been said of by Stuart Moulthrop that “Hypertext may well portend social change, a fundamental reshaping of text production and reception.” (706) This new form of technical literacy allows a reader to move not merely from top to bottom, left to right on a page, but to travel through embedded links to other sites with information that expands on the source material. The Gutenberg press allowed literacy to spread to the impoverished masses, giving them power through education to improve their lives by changing the power system at the time. While Ted Nelson had the optimistic viewpoint that hypertext would allow the masses to communicate more freely, thereby giving them more power for positive social change, many experts dispute this claim. Langdon Winner writes “empirical studies of computers and social change usually show powerful groups adapting computerized methods to retain control.” (592) Ex-Google design ethicist Tristan Harris highlights the ways in which those in power use technology to retain control in his article “How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds” giving specific examples of just how psychology and and technology are used to keep the masses both placated and addicted to their hyper textual devices. The uses of information, hypertext, systems of communication, and how all these relate to our ever-changing global cultural and political world are still yet to be seen. All we can do is hope that future pioneers hold the past, present, and futures of these topics in optimistic regards and will work for positive means.
