The Society of Text continues an examination of online Information and networked Systems that I began in Text, ConText, and HyperText (Barrett, 1988). As in my first book, this volume asserts a synthesis of three related areas of activity within the Computer industry: writing, management, and engineering - and this synthesis implies a revisioning of the roles of writer and manager and engineer in Systems development. In addition, The Society of Text also presents for examination an alternative model for thinking about the design and use of hypertext and hypermedia Systems and their role in the creation of "text." In essence, this new model is based on the social constmction of knowledge and rejects traditional cognitive terminology. The contributors to The Society of Text are leading researchers in writing and computing within industry and the academy. Working versions of many of the chapters in this book were first presented at the annual Conference on "Writing for the Computer Industry" which I direct each summer at MIT.

This collection of essays continues Barrett's investigations into implementing networked online systems described in his first book Text, ConText, and HyperText, with a more focused emphasis on specific hypermedia systems. In four parts the 22 essays take up designing hypertext and hypermedia systems for the online user; textual intervention and collaboration; new roles for writers; and sensemaking and learning in the online environment.
In his introduction, Barrett analyzes the design of networked online systems as part of a collaborative process, asserting that the online environment fosters collaboration by using computer technology to support interaction among those who design, use, and write software.
The first five essays present a genealogy of hypertext development, assess various hypertext designs, discuss users' wants and needs, and analyze the "rhetoric" of hypertext applications in light of new models for computer human interaction. Seven essays then take up new, important online systems for information retrieval, document production, and training in the online environment. Included are a first time full scale analysis of the Athena Muse hypermedia system developed at MIT, the hypertext environment Intermedia, developed at Brown, the University of Maryland's Hyperties, and the Educational Online System for document production and training technical writers, now in its second year of use at MIT.
New roles for writers and productivity gains provided by online environments are the subject of the next six essays. The final four essays discuss instructional efficiency and the failures of instructional materials. Novel proposals are described for addressing the needs and strategies of learners, for supporting cooperative work in creating, revising, and testing a software program, for evaluating online help systems, and for eliminating ambiguity in online text.