ABSTRACT
Hypertext, by blurring the distinction between author and reader, allows, encourages, and even demands new modes of reading, writing, teaching, and learning. Because hypertext permits a reader both to annotate an individual text and also to link it to other, perhaps contradictory texts, it destroys one of the most basic characteristics of the printed text—its separation and univocal voice. In so doing it creates new understanding of collaborative learning and collaborative work. These themes are developed in a description of Intermedia, the networked hypertext system developed at Brown University by its Institute of Research in Information and Scholarship.
