As the name suggests, electronic literature is inextricably linked to technology and the development of the IT sector. Every electronic tool, digital device, software program or reading modality can be turned into a medium for creating electronic literature.
A look at the history of web technology reveals that every five years there is a major change in the field of New Media as the scheme below illustrates. For each new technology or innovation brought by web technology, there are works of electronic literature that translate, sort of speak, the technology into a literary work.
Description of the scheme:
Weak or narrow AI is designed to perform a specific task:
Strong AI or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a hypothetical type of AI that possesses human-like intelligence and would be capable of:
Around the year 1895, various worked on the creation of wireless communication. In 1896, the invention of the radio was patented by Guglielmo Marconi.
On 5 November 1898, Eugène Ducretet established the very first radio contact in Morse code between the Eiffel Tower and the Pantheon, four kilometers away. A transmitting station was then installed permanently on the Tower.
The Lumière brothers present projected moving pictures to a paying audience in December 1895 in Paris, France
The Tabulating Machine Company (TMC), founded by Herman Hollerith in 1896, was a pioneer in punched-card data processing, most notably for the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1911, TMC was one of several companies that merged to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, which was renamed IBM in 1924.
In 1906, the Tabulating Machine Company (TMC) developed its first automatic feed tabulator, a significant advancement in punched card technology capable of processing 150 cards per minute. This machine was also known as the Hollerith Punched Card System.
In 1911, the Tabulating Machine Company merged with other companies to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). CTR was renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924.
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti founds the avant-garde movement Futurism in 1909.
Founded in 1911.
The Enigma machine is a cipher device used by the German military during World War II. It was invented by Arthur Scherbius in 1918.
Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Tristan Tzara, Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janco and Hans Arp found the avant-garde movement Dada in Zürich (Switzerland) at the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916.
Foundation of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. as a subsidiary of AT&T in 1925. In 1996, the two companies split into AT&T and Bell Labs.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth designs the first electronic television in San Francisco in 1927.
Claude E. Shannon writes his master's thesis, "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits", in 1937/1938.
Konrad Zuse develops the Z3 between 1938 and 1941. The Z3 is considered the world's first program-controlled computer
Several scientists who contributed to the development of computers conducted wartime research.
Konrad Zuse develops the Z4 in 1945.
Tommy Flowers, Harry Fansom and Don Horwood develop and assemble the Colossus 1943, the world's first electronic computer.
Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman develop the code-breaking machine known as the Bombe.
John von Neumann, works at the Manhattan Project.
Konrad Zuse.
Claude E. Shannon, works as cryptographer at the Bell Labs.
J. Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly, work on the ENIAC project.
Vannevar Bush develops Memex in 1945. Read his seminal article "As We May Think" published in 1945.
Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Tootill build the "Baby" computer at the University of Manchester (UK). It's the first computer which could run a program electronically stored in its memory.
Roberto Busa begins working on his 30-year project, Index Thomisticus, in 1946.
Ángela Ruiz Robles invents the Enciclopedia Mecánica, or Mechanical Encyclopaedia in 1948, which is considered to be an early version of an ebook.
Christopher Strachey creates “Love Letters” in 1952.
Konrad Zuse releases the Z1 in 1955 and the Z2 in 1957.
Read this article about Zuse
1958
Theo Lutz creates "Stochastische Texte" using the Zuse Z2 electronic mainframe in 1959. See the digital and interactive version of "Stochastische Texte" on this page.
Founded in 1960.
Ted Nelson founds Project Xanadu in 1960.
Morton Heilig invents the Sensorama in 1962.
Ted Nelson coins the term 'hypertext' in an essay published in 1963.
Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais found the OULIPO in 1960.
Nanni Balestrini creates “Tape Mark I” in collaboration with IBM engineer Alberto Nobis, using the IBM 7070 computer in 1961.
Founded in Sicily (Italy) in 1963.
Julio F. Cortázar publishes the novel "Rayuela" (Hopscotch) in 1963. See the digital and interactive version of "Rayuela" on this page.
Brion Gysin records a series of sound poems for the BBC radio in 1966.
Emmett Williams creates a generative poem in 1966. He randomly chose 26 words from a dictionary and associated each in a list with a letter of the alphabet to form lines; the letters of words in one line are then permuted to make subsequent lines.
Olivetti releases the Programma 101 in 1965.
Joseph Weizenbaum releases ELIZA in 1966.
NASA develops the AGC in 1966. The original Apollo 11 guidance computer (AGC) source code is available on GitHub
Founded in 1968.
Douglas Engelbart makes a computer demonstration called "The Mother of All Demos" in December 1968. In this demonstration he shows the first example of word processing, the mouse, hypertext, hyperlinking, and the graphical user interface (GUI).
Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman founds the Palo Alto Research Center PARC, a division of the Xerox company, in 1969.
Bell Labs, General Electric, and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) develop Multics, the first commercial time-sharing operating system, in 1969.
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie develop Unix in 1970. Unix is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system for the IBM PC compatible machine.
Datapoint Corporation releases the Datapoint 2200 in 1970. It is an early programmable computer terminal that is considered a precursor to the modern personal computer, featuring an integrated keyboard, CRT screen, and processor.
Douglas Engelbart patents the computer mouse in 1970.
Kenneth Colby develops PARRY in 1972. Parry is an innovative and early example of a chatterbot that can engage in a conversation with a human.
Edoardo Sanguineti publishes "Il Giuoco dell'Oca" in 1967.
The Nova Trilogy or The Cut-up Trilogy is a name commonly given by critics to a series of three experimental novels by William S. Burroughs and is composed of "Nova Express", "The Ticket That Exploded", and "The Wild Boys", written between 1954 and 1968.
B. S. Johnson publishes "The Unfortunates" in 1969.
Philip K. Dick publishes "Ubik" in 1969.
Kenneth Gangemi publishes "Olt" in 1969
Madeline Gins publishes "Word Rain" in 1969.
Richard Horn publishes "Encyclopedia" in 1969, an early example of hypertext fiction and multilinear narrative.
IBM releases the floppy disk in 1971.
Raymond Tomlinson invents the e-mail, choosing the "@" sign to connect the username with the destination address.
Federico Faggin and Masatoshi Shima, begin working on the 4004 microprocessor in April 1970. The first fully operational 4004 was delivered in March 1971 for Busicom’s 141-PF printing calculator prototype. General sales begin in July 1971.
Launched in 1971.
Motorola first mobile phone in 1973.
Altair 8800 is the first commercially successful microcomputer. It was released in 1975 by MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Paul Allen and Bill Gates develop Microsoft's first product, an Altair BASIC interpreter, to run on the Altair 8800 personal computer. This project marks the beginning of Microsoft, which they officially form in July 1975.
Founded in 1976.
Donald Knuth releases TeX in 1976.
IBM releases the IBM Series/1 computer in 1976.
Founded in 1976.
Commodore releases the Commodore PET in 1977.
In 1974 a group formed by Brian S. Rosen, James R. Teter, William H. Broadley, J. Stanley Kriz, Raj Reddy and Paul G. Newbury, created the startup Three Rivers Computer Corporation (3RCC) amd developed the computer workstation PERQ in the late 1970s.
Will Crowther creates "Colossal Cave Adventure", the first widely played multi-user dungeon game.
IBM releases the IBM PC and the disk-based operating system DOS in 1981.
Peter J. Brown develops the hypertext system called "Guide" in 1982. It was later ported to the Apple Macintosh (1986) and to to Microsoft Office (1987).
Released in 1982.
Motorola releases the Dynatac 8000X in 1984.
Ian Ritchie founds the software company OWL in 1984.
Steve Jobs, influenced by Xerox GUI, demonstrated at Xerox PARC in 1979, creates Apple Macintosh in 1984. (15 years after PARC was founded)
Paul Braffort and Jacques Roubaud found the ALAMO in 1981.
Founded in 1982.
Michael Joyce creates "afternoon, a story" using Storyspace.
Commodore releases the Amiga 1000 in 1985.
Apple Computer develops the software application HyperCard in 1987.
Released in 1987.
Rollo Carpenter develops Jabberwacky in 1988.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web in 1989.
The first European Conference on HyperText; November 1990, Versailles.
Jay David Bolter, John B. Smith and Michael Joyce release Storyspace in 1987. It's a software program for creating, editing, and reading hypertext fiction.
Released in 1991.
Creative Labs launches Dr. Sbaitso in 1992.
Released in 1993.
Tim Berners-Lee founds the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1994.
Founded in 1994.
Released in 1994.
Richard Wallace launches Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity A.L.I.C.E. in 1995.
Founded in 1994.
Pedro Barbosa develops Sintext-Web.
The fist version is based on DOS.
The first browser war, from 1995-2001.
The second browser war, since 2004.
From 1995-2000.
Developed from 1995-2022.
Mark Andreessen and Jim Clark found Mosaic Communications Corporation which later becomes Netscape Communications Corporation. The company develops the Netscape Navigator from 1994-2008.
Developed from 1996-2021.
Released in 1995.
Released in 1996.
The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) develops the EPUB format from 1997-2017.
Launched in 1998.
Founded in 1998.
Released in 1998.
Founded in 1999.
December 1999.
Founded in 1999.
Released in 2000.
Aple launches the iPod in 2001.
Founded in 2001.
Founded in 2001.
Founded in 2003.
Founded in 2003.
Founded in 2003.
Founded in 2003.
Founded in 2004.
Developed from 2003-2013.
Mark Bernstein develops Tinderbox for Mac OS and Mac OS X in 2002.
Gavin Inglis publishes "Same Day Test" in 2002.
Founded in 2005.
Founded in 2005.
Founded in 2006.
Founded in 2006.
Launched in 2007.
Amazon releases the MOBI format in 2005 and the Kindle format in 2007.
The MOBI format is ed from 2005-2011/2022.
Apple launches the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010.
Launched in 2009.
Launched in 2009.
Patrick Boivin publishes "La Linea interactive", in 2008.
Jenni Mason publishes "Choices"
Paolo Cirio publishes "The Big Plot", in 2009.
Launched in 2009. Twine is a free open-source tool created by Chris Klimas for making interactive fiction and hypertext fiction in the form of web pages.
Apple launches Siri in 2010.
Founded in 2010.
Founded in 2010.
Founded in 2013.
Microsoft launches Cortana in 2014.
Amazon launches Alexa in 2013.
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The W3C buys the EPUB format and launches the EPUB3 in 2017.
The European Accessibility Act is passed in 2019.
Kate Pullinger
Fabrizio Venerandi
OpenAI launches ChatGPT in 2021.
In August 2022, Amazon officially retired the MOBI format and replaces it with EPUB, which is now the universal format for eBook.
The European Accessibility Act comes into force on 28 June 2025.
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