Information Prose :: A Manifesto in 47 Points :: Version 1.0

by Jeremy P. Bushnell, jeremy@invisible-city.com

39. There is nothing about hypertext that demands that a story incorporating it must be written with forking paths and multiple endings.

40. Hypertext writers who write "closed" hypertexts — works that only contain links to other parts of themselves — deprive hypertext of its most radical feature: the ability to refer to information outside of itself. The bibliography is the model here.

41. Information prose writers should embrace the elements of hypertextuality which aid documentary. Think of the hypertextual features long used by encyclopedias (cross-references).

42. Information prose writers should, furthermore, embrace the elements of multimedia which amplify the power of documentary. Compare an encyclopedia with illustrations to one without. Compare a traditional encyclopedia to Encarta.

43. To put it in the words of a friend: "You can now footnote a sound."

44. Inasmuch as the Web supports hypertextuality and (to a lesser extent) multimedia, the Web helps to make information prose possible.

45. However, the Web is not the only thing that makes information prose possible. Information prose is not dependent on hypertextuality, and hypertextuality is not dependent upon computers. Think of indexes, think of tables of contents, think of the numbers in the corners of pages.

46. Aside from the merits of supporting hypertextuality and multimedia, there are other advantages of writing for the Web, two of the most obvious being the ability to make unlimited copies and the ability to distribute copies worldwide at minimal (or no) expense. These merits have been amply written on elsewhere. There are obvious disadvantages as well. Information prose writers should support and contribute to efforts to overcome these, which will help to secure the Web as a vital medium for their future expression.

47. The present is here. It it time to begin. Pass it on.