[Home](https://tednelsonfan.com/) / Ideas # Six ideas, explained plainly. Hypertext, Xanadu, transclusion, intertwingularity, the docuverse and ZigZag: what each one means, where he said it, and what the Web did with it. Where a page paraphrases him, the paraphrase is ours and the source is his. - ### Hypertext: writing that branches The word is his, from 1963. So is the idea that a text need not be a line. - ### Project Xanadu: the original hypertext project Founded 1960. Still not finished, and still the most complete alternative to the Web anyone has designed. - ### Transclusion: the same content, knowably, in more than one place Not a copy. A window onto the original, with the origin still attached. - ### Intertwingularity: there are no subjects A 1974 portmanteau for the fact that knowledge does not come in boxes. - ### The docuverse and tumblers: one library, every version The universe of documents, and an address for every character in it. - ### ZigZag: a spreadsheet with as many dimensions as you need Conceived at Datapoint in 1981; patented in 2001; built by a small team ever since. --- An independent fan and tribute site celebrating the work of Ted Nelson. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or the official site of Ted Nelson or Project Xanadu. His real sites are xanadu.com and hyperland.com.