Hypertext web as a semantic network

Each node will typically represent a separate concept, and contain at least a definition and an exposition. The definition defines the concept in terms of other concepts, by providing specific semantic links to those concepts. (for an example, see our web of systems concepts). Primitive terms are undefined, or implicitly defined by their links with other primitive concepts. The exposition gives additional information about the concept (e.g. bibliographical or historical references, analogies, examples, applications), and may also contain different types of (referential) links. A node may contain text, formulas, drawings, ..., and even programs that perform specific operations (e.g. creating an instance of that concept, with specific attributes, or sending a "message" to another node).

Nodes will have a number of fixed fields, containing author, date (creation and modification), title, upward-references (referring the mother node) and downward references (referring to daughter concepts).

The meaning of a node is partially formal, determined by the network of semantic relations to which it belongs; and partially informal, determined by the personal interpretation of the user who reads the exposition, and tries to understand the concept by associating it with the context. Such a format allows the adequate representation of precise, mathematical concepts, of vague, ambiguous, "literary" ideas, and of the whole continuum in between.

See further: Joslyn C (1996).: Semantic Webs: A Cyberspatial Representational Form for Cybernetics, in: Cybernetics and Systems '96 R. Trappl (ed.), (Austrian Society for Cybernetics).