Ted Nelson is a philosopher, sociologist, and pioneer of Information Technology . His greatest contribution lies in the invention of the terms "hypertext" (1963) and "hypermedia," fundamental concepts that describe the structure of documents and information connected by links in a non-sequential way. Hypertext is the basis for navigation on the World Wide Web (WWW). He also invented the terms "transclusion" (the reuse of content in multiple documents, with automatic reference to the source) and "transcopyright" (a copyright system for these references). Nelson founded Project Xanadu (initiated in 1960), which was one of the first and most ambitious visions of a global information system, where all material would be interconnected, with version control and automated copyright payment.

Nelson's work is crucial for understanding the evolution of personal computing internet . His utopian vision of Project Xanadu, although not fully implemented as he envisioned, directly inspired the developers who later created the World Wide Web and HTML . However, he is a staunch critic of Tim Berners-Lee , which he considers a "crude simplification" of his ideas, specifically criticizing one-way links (broken links), the lack of version control, and the absence of an inherent transclusion system for clearly and automatically citing sources.

The figure of Ted Nelson is important for topics in Humanities and their Technologies and Writing, as it allows for discussion of:

• Evolution of Communication: The impact of hypertext on how we read, write, and access knowledge.
• Technology and Society: The debate on information architecture and the social implications of different forms of data organization (Nelson's idealized model versus the current WWW model).
• Copyright and Digital Ethics: The concept of transcopyright and the need for fairer systems for authors and content creators in the digital age.
• Languages ​​and Codes: Understanding the concepts of hypertext and hypermedia as structural elements of digital language.