Dangerous Questions

At the 1990 European Conference on Hypertext, the researcher and publisher Mark Bernstein posed a now notorious question: Where are the hypertexts? This is a bit like asking about the Emperor's new fashion sense -- a dangerous move, because such questions inevitably lead to other questions. In the case of hypertext, the inquiry might continue as follows: Where are the original writings made possible by this medium? What new genres, what new modes of thought does this kind of writing open up? In science, in technology, in culture... what difference does hypertext make?

These are all excellent questions, but here I want to ask another one, related to those above but more fundamental: Why aren't you reading this document in a hypertext system? Or to put this in more directly relevant terms: How is it that the hypertext research community carries on its communications primarily in print? What does this preference imply, both about our organizations and about the systems we develop and study?

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