Joe Armstrong

Ted Nelson, who coined the term "Hypertext" also coined the lesser known word "Intertwingled" - this captures the idea that all there is, is knowledge which is tangled up and linked together in a myriad of complex ways.

Computer scientists think that we can organise knowledge in a systematic way but Nelson thought this was impossible. All there is is knowledge and links.

A Tiddlywiki is a self-contained system that organises data in a non-hierarchical manner allowing it to be read and authored in a non-linear manner.

This talk will go through the evolution of hypertext, following the evolution of ideas from Vannevar Bush to Ted Nelson and thence to the World Wide Web.

Our goal is to extend the boundaries of the Tiddlywiki to a larger distributed system, that's where Erlang comes in.

We'll talk about the problems encountered in turning small consistent data collections of dense knowledge into larger distributed systems with sparse knowledge.

OBJECTIVES

Stimulate discussion and make people think