Landow on the Author and Reader

At a basic level, the reader chooses which links, and in what order, to pursue. Thus the reader reconfigures the document in a way which may not necessarily match the configuration the author had in mind. When the reader takes it the next step, linking to other documents, they have created a new document.

Finally, a full hypertext system, such as the WEB, offers both reader and writer the same environment. The reader can copy the document and modify it for their own use. They can also link either whole documents, or to individual pages into their own document, creating a new document that recontextualizes the original document(s). Collaboration between author and reader is also possible, if the author has configured their document in such a way as to allow the reader to modify it in situ.