Lost in the archive: vision, artefact and loss in the evolution of hypertext

How does one write the history of a technical machine? Can we say that technical machines have their own genealogies, their own evolutionary dynamic? The technical artefact constitutes a series of objects, a lineage or a line. At a cursory level, we can see this in the fact that technical machines come in generations - they adapt and adopt characteristics over time, one suppressing the other as it becomes obsolete. It is argued that technics has its own evolutionary dynamic, and that this dynamic stems neither from biology nor from human societies. Yet 'it is impossible to deny the role of human thought in the creation of technical artefacts' (Guattari 1995, p. 37). Stones do not automatically rise up into a wall - humans 'invent' technical objects. This, then, raises the question of technical memory. Is it humans that remember previous generations of machines and transfer their characteristics to new machines? If so, how and where do they remember them? It is suggested that humans learn techniques from technical artefacts, and transfer these between machines. This theory of technical evolution is then used to understand the genealogy of hypertext. The historical differentiations of hypertext in different technical systems is traced. Hypertext is defined as both a technical artefact and also a set of techniques: both are a part of this third milieu, technics. The difference between technical artefact and technical vision is highlighted, and it is suggested that technique and vision change when they are externalised as material artefact. The primary technique traced is association, the organisational principle behind the hypertext systems explored in the manuscript. In conclusion, invention is shown to be an act of exhumation, the transfer and retroactiviation of techniques from the past. This thesis presents an argument for a new model of technical evolution, a model which claims that technics constitutes its own dynamic, and that this dynamic exceeds human evolution. It traces the genealogy of hypertext as a set of techniques and as series of material artefacts. To create this geneaology I draw on interviews conducted with Douglas Engelbart, Ted Nelson and Andries van Dam, as well as a wide variety of primary and secondary resources

A Journal-Driven Bibliography of Digital Humanities

Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) seeks Level II funding to develop a bibliographic resource through which the journal can create, manage, export, and publish high-quality bibliographic data from DHQ articles and their citations, as well as from the broader digital humanities research domain. Drawing on data from this resource, we will develop visualizations through which readers can explore citation networks and find related articles. We will also publish the full bibliography as a public web-based service that reflects the profile of current digital humanities research. The bibliography will be maintained and expanded through incoming DHQ articles and citations, and through contributions from the DH community. DHQ is an open-access online journal published by the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO), hosted at Brown University and Indiana University, and serves as a crucial point of encounter between digital humanities research and the wider humanities community

Extending Cognitive Assistance with AI Courses of Action

NPS NRP Technical ReportThe objectives of this study is to research and assess the initial stages of the evolution of Human-Machine Teaming (HMT) mission workflows which is focused on transitioning of automation tasks from humans to machines using a technique to digitize mission workflows. Also, study the advanced stage(s) of the evolution of HMT to include Courses-of-Action (COA) in Wargaming and how decision-making (DM) AI functions play what role natural language processing (NLP) plays. In addition, this study will explore the viability of NLP in HMT peer-to-peer COAs generation. Finally, this study will leverage complex Joint Naval Force EABO scenario (UNCLASS) designed by MCWL to explore NLP and distributed agents managing the decision making of operators using various modes of HMT interface of AI run-time execution agents thereby enriching digital workflows. The research questions that will be address will include: 1) What is the best approach for a cognitive assistant to learn mission workflows so that recommendations can be made to a human operator?, 2) How can cognitive assistants switch between modes of automatic, advisory, or monitoring?, 3) What are the key parameters for switching?, 4) How does the CA learn to switch to make appropriate recommendations?, 4) What is the cognitive intersection between domain specific environment awareness and situation awareness?, and 5) What happens when a target switches context? The methodology will use quantitative research methods. The methodology for this study will be based on SME input to gain an understanding of mission workflows and tasks, MCWL-developed Joint Force EABO scenario leveraged for a case study and collaboration with the Wargaming Center in Quantico, VA. Based on a scenario, the independent variables will be the inputs into the cognitive assistant. The dependent variable(s) are the output of the system such as if the system recommends the role of automatic, advisory, or monitoring. The plan for this study is to leverage a complex joint Naval Force EABO scenario in studying a role of enrichment digitization of the workflows including utilization of scenario-driven HMT modes and sub-modes; review digital workflows from Master Thesis: "Fire Support Coordination Cognitive Assistant", USMC Capt. Benjamin Herbold, NPS, Graduation Year: June 2020; gain understanding of wargaming COA Digital Mission Command Joint Forces hypergame; develop expertise on modes of Human-Machine Teaming control and their sub-modes of automatic, advisory, and monitoring; study evolution from a single "interactive" mode of HMT proposed for the Fire Support Coordination Digital Workflows to the planning phase in Fire Support Coordination; study NLP and associated theories as a framework to situate the research; and coordinate with other entities such as MIT LL, DARPA, BAE, USMC AI COI, MCWL, and ONR.HQMC Plans, Policies & Operations (PP&O)This research is supported by funding from the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Program (PE 0605853N/2098). https://nps.edu/nrpChief of Naval Operations (CNO)Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

The role of digital libraries as boundary objects within and across communities

Despite increased study of social contexts within information science, it is still unclear if and how digital libraries support and facilitate collaboration, communities, and other social contexts. This poster presents a study that will examine the role of the LibraryThing and Goodreads digital libraries, as social phenomena and boundary objects, in information behaviors and activities taking place within, between, and across multiple existing and emergent communities. The study will focus on the two key phenomena of communities and collaboration, under a theoretical framework drawing from Star’s boundary object theory, Strauss’s social worlds perspective, and Burnett and Jaeger’s theory of information worlds. Data will be collected from the two cases using a sequential, multi-phased mixed methods design employing content analysis, a survey, and interviews. The study should have significant implications for digital library research and practice and for related research on social networking, social media, and social Web services.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Interface Fantasies and Futures: Designing Human-Computer Relations in the Shadow of Memex

This dissertation is about how designers, experimental writers, and innovative thinkers have imagined both computer interfaces and the human/machine relations that might emerge through engagement with different kinds of interfaces. Although futuristic thinking about digital media and their interfaces has changed over time, we can isolate some constants that have persisted through almost all mainstream practices of interface design, particularly in American culture. Drawing from a historical trajectory that I associate with Vannevar Bush and his speculative invention, which he called “memex” in a 1945 essay, I name these constants sterilization and compartmentalization. They are two tendencies or values that I identify in mid-20th-century dreams of mastering information spaces by mastering their interfaces. My project shows how individuals and groups have reinforced or resisted these values in the engineering and design of computer interfaces, both speculative and real. The urge to sterilize and compartmentalize computers has directly and indirectly shaped what we expect and demand from our computers (and the things we make with them) today, and these values trace the horizon of what human-computer relations could be possible in the future

Intertwingled: The Work and Influence of Ted Nelson

History of Computing; Computer Appl. in Arts and Humanities; Data Structures; User Interfaces and Human Computer Interactio