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Ted Nelson is one of the most important figures in computing history. Everything on the web prefixed with the word "hyper" is his invention.

It saddens me that he doesn't get the recognition he deserves.

He wrote a couple of very influential books on what computing would be as early as the sixties. Very notable people have gone on record saying he was one of the most important inspirations for their work: Alan Kay, Tim Berners Lee, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, and many others.

It's difficult to pin point his precise contributions, because he's all over the place, but his contributions are many.



> Everything on the web prefixed with the word "hyper" is his invention

He coined the terms, but didn't invent the concepts. Memex was much more important in that regard.


This article muses about how much debt Bush may have owed Paul Otlet ... who'd been working along similar lines since 1895.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/in-se...


Yes, as a Belgian myself I'm aware of his work, but it was the work of Bush that directly inspired Ted, Douglas etc. Of course Bush's work builds on top of others as I'm sure Otlet will also have had his predecessors.




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