NoteCards in the age of the web: practice meets perfect

ABSTRACT

Frank Halasz's "Reflections on NoteCards: Seven Issues for the Next Generation of Hypermedia Systems" was a remarkably prescient analysis that continues to influence the international hypertext research community. Meanwhile, the Web has offered a basic reality check on the seven issues and has given us, as a community, an opportunity to learn from many and diverse hypertext practitioners. In essence, the Web has brought hypertext out of the realm of research and into the realm of the everyday, the ordinary, the practical. In particular, I would like to introduce three major themes that come from observations of the Web in use: (1) The growing heterogeneity of hypermedia genres, uses, and users; (2) the need to acknowledge the distinct role of hypermedia readers and, more specifically, provide hypermedia readers with tools for personal annotation, re-retrieval, gathering, contextual access from mobile devices, and collaborative reading; and (3) the recurring tension between formal and informal hypertext structures and representations.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING
      I.7.2 Document Preparation
          Subjects: Hypertext/hypermedia

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval
          Subjects: Retrieval models
      H.3.4 Systems and Software

          Nouns: World Wide Web (WWW)
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

General Terms:
Human Factors

Keywords:
World-Wide Web, formality, hypertext/hypermedia, reading, retrieval, use, user interface design