Theodor Holm Nelson is an American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology.
In 1960 he founded Project Xanadu, the first hypertext project. The word “hypertext” itself, was coined by Nelson in 1963 – and it was published for the first time in 1965 in a college newspaper article about a lecture he gave.
In Literary Machines, a book published in 1980, Ted Nelson offers an overview of the concept of hypertext and of Project Xanadu.
Nelson has also worked on the following systems:
- INLUV: Interactive Non-Linear Undo and Versioning, which is a compatibility standard between different kinds of software.
- Transpublishing: which is web-enableded copyright and delivery method.
- Zigzag: which is a multi-dimensional system of interconnections between objects, processes, and documents.