HYPERMEDIA

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HYPERMEDIA

• Chang-Yang Lin
• Eastern Kentucky University
• cy.lin_at_eku.edu
• www.cis.eku.edu/cylin

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Hypermedia An Introduction

• What is Hypertext/Hypermedia
• History of Hypertext/Hypermedia
• Hypermedia Systems
• Emerging Standards and Platforms
• Applications

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What is Hypertext/Hypermedia?

• Regular Text vs. Hypertext
• Sequential vs. nonsequential
• Interface a book vs. a computer system
  environment
• Traditional author vs. reader can be author
• Hypertext Definition
• Essential Concepts of Hypertext/Hypermedia)
• Nodes Units of Information
• Links Labels connecting nodes
• Navigation Process of moving through the
  hypertext database
• Hypertext/Hypermedia Terms

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Hypertext Definition

• Few Definitions
• A style of building systems for information
  representation and management around a network of
  multimedia nodes connected together by typed
  links Halasz, F.,1988
• A database that has active cross-references and
  allows the reader to jump to other parts of the
  database as desired.
• Nonsequential access
• Documents are shared across multiple
  locations/machines and allow collaboration

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NODES Units of Information

• A node usually represents a single concept or
  idea.
• Nodes are called frames (KMS), statements
  (Augment), articles (Hyperties), cards
  (HyperCard), and pages (WWW) in different
  systems.
• Nodes can contain text, graphics, animation,
  audio, video, images, or programs.
• Examples management reports, statements of
  account, email, invoices, orders, design
  drawings, photos, video explanation of how-to-do,
  product catalogs, worksheets, sources codes, and
  others.
• The contents of a node are displayed by
  activating links.

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Links Holding hypertext together

• Links are the labels that connect one node with
  another.
• Links can be bi-directional (forward and
  backward), typed, referential or hierarchical.
• Links can
• Transfer to a new topic
• Show a reference
• Provide ancillary information
• Display an illustration, photograph, or video
  sequence
• Display an index
• Run another program

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Navigation

• The process of moving from one node to another
  through the hypertext web
• BROWSING Making direct manipulation to explore a
  hypertext system
• INDEXING Making order of the chaos an example
• SEARCHING Finding something
• Keyword or text string search
• FILTERS Narrowing the search
• TOURS
• Follows a predefined path
• BOOKMARKS
• PATH Keeping track and going back

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History of Hypertext/Hypermedia

• 1945 Memex by Vannevar Bush
• 1962 Augment by Douglas Englebart
• 1965 Xanadu by Ted Nelson
• 1986 Guide by Peter Brown
• 1987 Hypercard by Bill Atkinson
• 1992 Tim Berners-Lee unleashed the WWW
• 1993 Mosaic
• 1994 Netscape Navigator
• 1996 Internet Explorer

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Hypertext/Hypermedia Systems

• A hypermedia system is a collection of tools that
  include hypermedia functionality. A tool is any
  program that helps users perform a specific task.
• Components of a Hypermedia System
• Closed Proprietary Hypermedia Systems vs. Open
  Internet Based Systems (i.e., WWW)

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Components of a Hypermedia System

• A graphical user interface, with the help of
  browsers and overview diagrams, helps the user to
  navigate through databases.
• An authoring system to create and manage nodes
  and links
• Information retrieval mechanisms to facilitate
  keyword searches, content queries.
• A hypermedia engine to manage information about
  nodes and links.
• A storage system which can be a proprietary file
  system or a knowledge base or a relational dbms
  or an object-oriented dbms.

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Proprietary Hypermedia Systems

• From mainframe-based, multiuser, text-only
  (Augment, Xanadu, FRESS) to workstation- and PC-
  based multimedia (Netpune, KMS, Guide,
  Hypercard), and to todays client-server
  architecture (Dexter, Trellis, ToolBook,
  Microscom)
• Closed Systems documents created in one system
  cannot be easily integrated with documents
  created in another system
• Multimedia
• Graphical user interfaces
• CD-ROM and WWW distributing media

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Emerging Standards and Platforms

• HTML
• Media
• GIF, JPEG Images
• MPEG, QuickTime Animation
• WAV, AU, MPEG, RA Audio
• MPEG, QuickTime Video
• Adobes PDF
• TCP/IP
• CD-ROM
• distributing hypermedia
• Desktop

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Some Intended Uses

• General reference data encyclopedia
• Completely centralized publishing online help,
  documentation, tutorial
• More or less centralized dissemination of news
  which has a limited life
• Collaborative design of something
• Instruction and training
• Unstructured business data display
• Dynamic and Interactive Applications
• Structured Information Retrieval and OLTP

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Hypertext/Hypermedia Terms

• Node A unit of information. Also known as a
  frame, card, document
• Link A relationship between two anchors
• Anchor An area within the content of a node
  which is the source or destination of a link
• Browser A program which allows a person to read
  hypertext
• Navigation The process of moving from one node
  to another through the hypertext web
• More . . .
• Source http//www.w3.org/Terms.html

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Hypertext/Hypermedia Terms (continued)

• Annotation the linking of a new commentary node
  to an existing node
• Button an anchor which is the source of a link
• Path an ordered set of nodes or anchors which
  represent a sequence in which a web can be read
• Authoring the process of writing a document
• Versioning the storage and management of
  previous versions of a piece of information
• Collaborating the process of interacting while
  creating and reading hypermedia objects