Brighton-bound
October 21, 2012
I'm looking forward to attending UX Brighton in early November. For me, this is a bit more than just another Web conference; it's also a kind of homecoming.
From
1978 to 1980, I lived in Brighton while attending school at the
long-defunct St. Wilfrid's down the road in Seaford. For two years I led
the full-on Tom Brown lifestyle - school tie, sweater, goofy shorts and
all. When I wasn't boarding at school I spent a fair bit of time
wandering around my adopted hometown - roaming the old amusement piers
where the old folks fed their pensions into the penny slot machines,
knocking around the crumbling waterfront promenade, and rummaging for
washed-up salvage on the abandoned beach past the marina. My major
Brighton claim to fame came in 1979, when I watched from the sidewalk
while they filmed Quadrophenia.
Somehow
it seems fitting that the talk I'll be giving is on the history of
hypertext, looking at some of the early precursors to the Web in search
of interesting ideas left by the historical wayside. I've always felt like I
probably left some of my pre-adolescent self in Brighton - and while of
course you can't go home again - I'm hoping that I may yet stumble
across a few misplaced memories left somewhere by the sea.
Previously: Robot Theater
Now available for pre-order:
Cataloging the World:
Paul Otlet and the Birth of the Information Age
by Alex Wright
A “shrewd, brisk biography.”
—Kirkus Reviews
GLUT:
Mastering Information Through the Ages
by Alex Wright
“A penetrating and highly entertaining meditation on the information age and its historical roots.”
—Los Angeles Times