Xanadu:

The Xanadu project of Ted Nelson, which has been under
development since 1960, represents an attempt to impose a new
structural paradigm on the integration and management of
multimedia data resources.  A document in the Xanadu data
structure consists of "native bytes" which originated with the
document, and "inclusions" which are bytes native to other
documents but are represented in the current document by virtual
association (Nelson, 1988).  A structure of "pointers" (hidden and
maintained by the storage system) reference or attach the
inclusions to the current document.  The inclusion source
document can be rapidly accessed to further supplement the
current document if additional corroboration or source material
is required.  By reducing the structure of associative links to a
common denominator at the byte level of digital structure, the
Xanadu System permits the rapid construction of associative
links.  The Xanadu strategy represents an innovative means of
accommodating extensive data storage requirements in a highly
controlled information structure.  Nelson believes that his
structural paradigm represents a truly efficient storage system
with the capability to track "arbitrary links between arbitrary
portions of arbitrary documents" (Nelson, 1988).  This capability is
essential in maintaining system coherence and order, and permits
the on-line expansion of an information base through path
marking, data annotations, and the creation of new associative
links (Nelson, 1988).

<ffile35>   Hypermedia
<cfile59>   Fractal Storage