Week 4- Failed Project Analysis

Week 4- Failed Project Analysis
Post #6

Failed Prediction: Project Xanadu

The Analysis

Why did Xanadu fail?

In a nutshell, I believe Xanadu failed to emerge as a successful prediction (and ends up in the failed category) because Mr. Nelson wanted a “perfect” system or world, and would not release control of the software or system until it met his predetermined internal definition of success—his system was never “good enough” in his eyes.

Too much to ask for?

Xanadu was meant to be a universal library, a worldwide hypertext publishing tool, a system to resolve copyright disputes, and a meritocratic forum for discussion and debate. By putting all information within reach of all people, Xanadu was meant to eliminate scientific ignorance and cure political misunderstandings.
And, on the very hackerish assumption that global catastrophes are caused by ignorance, stupidity, and communication failures, Xanadu was supposed to “save the world” ostensibly from itself…

With the explosion of scientific discovery in computing that occurred in the early 1980s, the most successful projects seemed to be the ones first-to-market in many cases.
The early 1980s also saw a number of experimental hypertext and hypermedia programs, many of whose features and terminology were later integrated into the Web (see history above for more on this).

Perhaps, the Xanadu story would be one of success if only Nelson had pushed to market with what he had and who knows; maybe we would be cursing him instead of Bill Gates!??

Perhaps the Xanadu project had too many “rules” or requirements?

In all likelihood, the open source projects of today may have the right idea in this area—put your code “out there” and let others help you test/break it to get it built quicker and more reliably…

Please provide your thoughts and insights on why you think Xanadu failed!??