I had this great idea back in
the mid-1990s to combine the best of hyper-text links and
meta-books.
In the 1980s deep in the news groups of the time a bunch of people were experimenting with the concept of a meta-story line. The one I remember from that time was a story line based upon a future space station in which a whole community lived in zero gravity. Each meta-author would add there own short story wrapped around the core premise. This team of meta-authors that had never met in person would extend and expand the original premise. They would add rooms, zero-g sports, chores, events, plot lines, and characters in ways that nobody could have imagined at the start. It was very interesting in those pre-Web days of the Internet. Yes, the Internet existed before the World Wide Web and before Al Gore (smile).
Then came the World Wide Web. A bunch of cool things happened about the same time. The HTTP protocol was born. The concept of HTML with the built in hyper-text links and the URL to define them. To top it all off for the masses, a graphical user interfaces like Netscape. Now the average person could just sit back and drive a mouse to navigate the Internet rather than having to know all the cryptic FTP sub-commands. The browser, the hyper-text link and the HTTP protocol made it all happen.
Hey, why was the <story>
So the hyperMetaBook is a book of many authors that uses the hyper-text link to tie their work together.
Idea bucket (in addition to the above)
- Stories where the next author only gets to see the last line or paragraph from the one above... The last 'chapter' would be hidden except for the final line or paragraph until somebody comes along to extend the story...
- Linear stories - but each is a different author. Like a
- Diaries or letters home. Sort of a collection of works all about the same event or theme. Example: fictional letters home from a Civil War reinacting group after a summer of events.
- Break the books into genre, age of author, etc.
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