The design space of information services evolved from seminal works through a set of
prototypical hypermedia systems and matured in open and widely accessible web-based systems.
The original concepts of hypermedia systems are now expressed in different forms and shapes.
The first works on hypertext invented the term itself laid out the foundational concept of
association or link and highlighted navigation as the core paradigm for the future information
systems. The first engineered systems demonstrated architectural requirements and models and
fostered the emergence of the conceptual model related with the information systems and the
information design. The artifacts for interaction navigation and search grew from the
pioneering systems. Multimedia added a new dimension to hypertext and mutated the term into
hypermedia. The adaptation of the primitive models and mechanisms to the space of continuous
media led to a further conceptual level and to the reinvention of information design methods.
Hypermedia systems also became an ideal space for collaboration and cooperative work.
Information access and sharing and group work were enabled and empowered by distributed
hypermedia systems. As with many technologies a winning technical paradigm in our case the
World Wide Web concentrated the design options the architectural choices and the interaction
and navigation styles. Since the late nineties the Web became the standard framework for
hypermedia systems and integrated a large number of the initial concepts and techniques. Yet
other paths are still open. This lecture maps a simple genome of hypermedia systems based on
an initial survey of primitive systems that established architectural and functional
characteristics or traits. These are analyzed and consolidated using phylogenetic analysis
tools to infer families of systems and evolution opportunities. This method may prove to be
inspiring for more systematic perspectives of technological landscapes. Table of Contents:
Introduction Original Visions and Concepts Steps in the Evolution Information and
Structured Documents Web-Based Environments Some Research Trends A Framework of Traits
A Phylogenetic Analysis Conclusion
