I think of hypertext as more of an *aspect* or dimension of text than a concrete type of text. (I think this goes back to a definition from Nelson's _Computer Lib/Dream Machines_, where he defines hypertext as the linkage from one node to another, noting that linear text is actually the simplest form of hypertext.) So when people say things on the web aren't hypertext, I think what they're pointing to is the highly linear nature of much web text--texts either being forty-screen-long single nodes or a linked serial progression of nodes that only offer forward/backward. So their degree of hypertextuality is somewhat limited, compared to something like Guyer and Petry's "Izme Pass," which has a higher number of options across the structure of the text.

In terms of web texts and terminology, I think we're witnessing (and participating in) an effort to coin terms that connote the newness of our technologies--I'm not sure why on Kairos we call hypertexts "webtexts", except to link what Kairos is up to the WWW (which has a certain rhetorical effect). For most of us, "hypertext" will always connotations of the work done by (as James notes) the Eastgate crew, which tends toward textual and literary more than much of the web. So the term "hypertext" is itself changing as the communities that use it change and reform around different technologies.

- Johndan

- Johndan Johnson-Eilola
Director of Professional Writing
Department of English
Purdue University
<mailto:johndan@purdue.edu>
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1356
<http://tempest.english.purdue.edu>