iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The convention for acknowledgements seems to put professional thanks first, and per-
sonal ones last, but I have decided to reverse that. I want to thank my family first.
Throughout, my wife Elli has helped me, made time for my work at the cost of her own ease,
and believed in the project and life after graduate school. Despina has provided relief and
joy and put up with a father busier than she deserves. My parents have had encouraged me,
advised me, and shared encouraging stories about their own dissertation experiences, in very
different disciplines. My brother John has encouraged me throughout and often reminds me
that people outside the academy are interested in this stuff as well.
Many people have given ideas or endured my long ramblings on editing and hypertext. I’d
like to thank Steve DeRose, Allen Renear, Elli Mylonas, Jeremy Bornstein, and the rest of the
CHUG gang for starting me back down the road of text and hypertext. Steve gave me a
wealth of detailed feedback on the dissertation when I really needed it, reminding me of
why I’m so interested in collaborative authorship anyway: I’ve had good many collaborators
over the years, particularly him. William Aegerter started me thinking of freely combinable
editing operations at the Hypertext workshop in 1987, eventually sending me down this
path. Fabio Vitali has engaged me in many productive and enjoyable arguments over the
years, often (or usually) disagreeing with me, but always providing valuable perspectives,
enthusiasm, and ambition. The “hypertext versioning group” comprising Jim Whitehead,
Anja Haake, David Hicks and Fabio all talked versioning and change control with me many
times.
I wrote the first Palimpsest paper in Abdelsalam Heddaya’s systems seminar, and he
helped me pin down many details of my earlier formulations. David Barnard has come
through with encouragement, close readings of drafts, and advice. He understood Palimpsest
the fastest of the many people to whom I have explained it. Wayne Snyder and I worked on
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The convention for acknowledgements seems to put professional thanks first, and per-
sonal ones last, but I have decided to reverse that. I want to thank my family first.
Throughout, my wife Elli has helped me, made time for my work at the cost of her own ease,
and believed in the project and life after graduate school. Despina has provided relief and
joy and put up with a father busier than she deserves. My parents have had encouraged me,
advised me, and shared encouraging stories about their own dissertation experiences, in very
different disciplines. My brother John has encouraged me throughout and often reminds me
that people outside the academy are interested in this stuff as well.
Many people have given ideas or endured my long ramblings on editing and hypertext. I’d
like to thank Steve DeRose, Allen Renear, Elli Mylonas, Jeremy Bornstein, and the rest of the
CHUG gang for starting me back down the road of text and hypertext. Steve gave me a
wealth of detailed feedback on the dissertation when I really needed it, reminding me of
why I’m so interested in collaborative authorship anyway: I’ve had good many collaborators
over the years, particularly him. William Aegerter started me thinking of freely combinable
editing operations at the Hypertext workshop in 1987, eventually sending me down this
path. Fabio Vitali has engaged me in many productive and enjoyable arguments over the
years, often (or usually) disagreeing with me, but always providing valuable perspectives,
enthusiasm, and ambition. The “hypertext versioning group” comprising Jim Whitehead,
Anja Haake, David Hicks and Fabio all talked versioning and change control with me many
times.
I wrote the first Palimpsest paper in Abdelsalam Heddaya’s systems seminar, and he
helped me pin down many details of my earlier formulations. David Barnard has come
through with encouragement, close readings of drafts, and advice. He understood Palimpsest
the fastest of the many people to whom I have explained it. Wayne Snyder and I worked on
