"Re: Definition of Xanadu (fwd)

[ted@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> From avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mon Mar  4 20:38:58 1996
> Subject: Re: Definition of Xanadu (fwd) 
> To: xanadu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> From: katherine@xxxxxxxxxxx (Katherine Cochrane)
> Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 00:41:25 -0600
> Sender: avatar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> 
> >Hi Katherine--
> >
> >(Have you gone to a different last name?  Or did I just not know?)

> Thank you for the response.  Sorry I made it more difficult by changing
> back to my domain name -- I've kept lots of people confused with
> flip-flopping in that regard lately.  With luck, since I've moved to a new,
> *reliable* ISP now it won't need to change again, ever.

The misunderstandings continue.  I mistook you for Katherine Phelps,
 naturally assuming that any Katherine at xanadu.com.au was she.
That out of the way, hello.

> Should I get the gush out of the way first?  <G> It's quite a thrill to me
> to get a direct communication from someone who's work has influenced my
> life and career so heavily.  I'll tell you about it sometime if you're
> interested.  I've even been told by someone who was on the contract eval
> committee that a paper I wrote for the NASA Space Station contract proposal
> (1988), which was very hypertext/hypermedia intensive, was the determining
> factor in their awarding it to Boeing, and that it was the hyper-things
> that did it.

GOOD GOD!  INCREDIBLE!  Congrats and thank you.  (On behalf of Boeing,
 which I like; I have everybody's fondness for 747s).

- - - - -

> >Anyhow, I THINK what I mean is media.  Managing "content" is the
> > Negroponte line-- analyzing the contents, knowing what they
> > contain, being able to spew them back out in English or Swahili.
> > To me, "media" just means the text, the frames, the audio samples,
> > the brushstrokes.
> >
> >However, I need to be alert to other interpretations, so if you
> > have any, plz lemme know.

> Regarding "media" -- you are using the word differently from the way I was
> thinking of it.  I understand "media" as being the means for delivering
> content -- paper, online networks, CD-ROM, tape, floppy disks, etc.  You
> seem to have something partway between what I use "media" for and
> Negroponte's "content" in mind.  I'd call what you are discussing "methods"
> rather than "media."  You certainly are not discussing content.

Now I am TOTALLY confused. 

It doesn't so much matter which words we use, as which meanings we intend.
 I'm embarrassed to say that I often say "content," too, so I guess I use
 the words interchangeably.  Maybe I DO mean "content"-- but I'm sure I
 don't mean METHODS!

Actually, thank you for this, it's making things a bit clearer.  I think
 I mean both media, in your sense, and content.
When I say 

 Xanadu is 
 A SYSTEM FOR MANAGING CHANGES, RE-USE, INTERCOMPARISON AND OWNERSHIP
  OF CONNECTED DIGITAL MEDIA.

-- I'm referring both to the content and the places, just as saying
 someone "manages hotel rooms" is to say they manage the rooms and
 what's in them.

Enough.  Best wishes, T