THIS is a project to create a hypertext system within the existing Web that is based on the concepts of Xanadu®, the original hypertext system project. To read more about the inspiration and philosophy behind the work, head to the WEB OF EXPLAINERS.

There are two software components to the system:

• Alph.js/The DOCUPLEXTRON: a zoomable workspace for writing, reading, and linking Web resources together
• Alph.py/...the server. It doesn't have a fun name yet. Easy publishing with query interfaces for metadata and links – that's the idea.

And some specifications to glue everything together:

• <x-text> is an HTML element for hosting text transclusions
• Simple Selectors are, as you can probably guess from the name, simple fragment selectors for "flat" media types (plain-text, images, audio/video streams...) that make it easier to address specific portions of these resources
• Alph Link Documents are JSON-LD documents for storing and sharing links between resources
• Alph's LD Vocabulary defines the terms used in Alph Link Documents and the LD server responses coming from Alph.py.
• Xpointers are a way-old Web specification that didn't take off, but I use 'em for selecting fragments of HTML documents, which isn't very xanalogical, but it's pretty handy for interoperating with the existing Web

HIGH-MINDED PROJECT GOALS

I want us all to be able to easily publish images, texts, sounds, and videos to the Web.

I want us all to be able to easily create and share links between the resources that we create.

I want us all to be able to query media resources on the Web and find-out who made them.

I want us all to be able to query media resources on the Web and find-out what links to them, and where they're being used.

I want us all to be able to quote, share, mix-up, and mash-up resources from around the Web in an ethical way, where media always stays connected to its original source, retaining its authorship information and links to its originating context.

I want us all to be able to do these things in a dynamic, graphical way, with visible links and side-by-side resources.

And this should all be a free and open platform, like the Web itself, that people can use with whatever software they want – including the software they write themselves.

PERSONAL PROJECT STATEMENT

I'm trying to create the Web that I want.

Part of that means having a system/environment for writing and research in which my own private notes and sketches are floating in a visual idea-space alongside texts and images (and sounds and videos!) from others across the Web.

Part of that also means putting features into the Web that I've always thought should be there, like effortless and immediate access to authorship information, and the ability to jump from any text quotation or embedded image right to its original, full context. And of course, linking! Easy, visible, universal linking from one chunk of media to another.

I first started reading about Xanadu when I was in my 20s. I did, indeed, fully drink the Kool-Aid (Ted said this to me on a video call back in 2017 after patiently listening to me excitedly regurgitate his own ideas back to him). I'm now in my 40s and Ted's ideas remain an inspiring vision for what the Web could and still can be.

...and since no one else is doing it, I guess I'll do it myself – even if it's held together with Bondo® and duct tape!

—Adam/LÆMEUR <adam@laemeur.com>