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i've been gesturing at bees and potatoes and collaborative writing. here is a practical example of what I mean and it's not a co-authored paper.
I created a shared archive together with some good friends (who can out themselves if they want to be represented) as a response to our conference panel being cancelled last spring.
We were talking about how what we missed the most from this panel wasn't an addition to our cv's but the chance to collaborate on an issue that we had a lot of questions about.
the motivation to make this shared archive (a folder a la the zettelkasten method) was in response to this thread and a recent reading of Sonke Ahrens How to Take Smart Notes: https://twitter.com/AGWilsonn/status/1190033170189737986?s=20
Why? The effect would be like having an extended conversation with particular people who have particular relationships to an area in terms of private contextual friendship and peer groups.
What about email? or Twitter? In one way, sure. But the beauty of this approach is in its indirectness. Email threads and twitter streams demand your attention to keep up (anxiety increases)
or else you will lose track and the info will be gone. Twitter, email, chat groups, they all privilege recency. This folder approach doesn't. It's focus is indirect, incremental discussion and development through search and connection.
So I've created an initial note with some starting points for the shared topics that brought us together. From there we can put in anything relevant (or not) that we feel like sharing, as long as each note directly connects to one note in this folder.
Links between notes can be visualized as webs in obsidian (free) @obsdmd. The approach is software agnostic. I just like obsidian.
You could just use notepad or textedit and built-in file browser... you could just use index cards and a camera.
Each digital note is like an index card in a drawer. https://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes
Each digital note is like an index card in a drawer. https://luhmann.surge.sh/communicating-with-slip-boxes
There's a lot I need to think through and externalize here about this process so I need a handy way to refer to it that is non-technical and flexible.
Zettelkasten (too jargony). I'm partial to "folder." That's what it is. Fold(er) Writing. Hmm not jargony (good) but no cache either (meh).
I think Graph Writing hits the spot. It appeals to the visualization web, but also to this idea that what matters is the relationships between notes and that paths we make across these webs of relationships.
Graph Writing is less object oriented. The focus is on charting relationships.
Save Point @knovigator. https://knovigator.com:443/quest/ve-gesturing-bees-potatoes-collaborative-writing-practical-example-3gv6ej0mknovigator.com/quest/ve-gestu
Do what comes easy.
Research/learn about what you want when you want and at your own speed... but not alone.
I don't think I need to defend the value of collaboration or the fun of a seminar or reading group. But we make it too hard on ourselves. Academic collaboration is already pretty disincentivized professionally.
We make it too hard on ourselves by tying it to a project...
these streams also "push" forcing you to respond or react to what you are presented with in the stream. they don't privilege search. in this context, only the relevant material is "pulled" by you into your current reading/writing/research context.
with granular feedback that they offer note even altruistically but as a part of their own specific research and writing.
These groupings can be rhizomatic and emergent. They don’t have to be tie to a project or even a filed, geography, or time zone. These are not short–term trends, they are long term investments.
they are sustained by the serendipity of sharing insight together. Twitter without the timeline, popularity contest, or doomscrolling.
This would add a permeable layer to your notes where you can decide to share to pre-arranged groups of friends and peers.
It is like participating in an extended seminar or reading group,
if the group had no end, no specific time constraints, and was specifically tailored to your focus - ie - no fear of “derailing the class.”
if the group had no end, no specific time constraints, and was specifically tailored to your focus - ie - no fear of “derailing the class.”
derailing is the modus operandi, but it’s called “branching.”
But who wants to read your marginalia? zettelkasten notes are lss marginal than simple book notes. Notes on a book are re-articulated as idas or arguments (with citation) and then connected to a network of other realted notes - the sum is greater than its individual parts.
Why not just blog? Blogs too clearly resemble something published. A blog is often a synthetic collection of zettelkasten-like notes.
Notes retain a sense of “in progress” - note-doneness - and collaboration. It is hard to collaborate with a published blog post - demands a developed response.
This effort is not bad —> hyperconversation blogs —> but I find that the friction discourages collaboration and distracts from other writing projects. The idea is to incentivize collaboration by making it easier to do and more fun
feedback loop
feedback loop
what about comprehensive exam note collaboration? just pitching possibilities.
Save Point @knovigator. https://knovigator.com:443/quest/comments-dojl2elgknovigator.com/quest/comments
I take inspiration from @kcorazo and his @roamfu with the Fabricating Serendipity project. https://twitter.com/kcorazo/status/1293755681464627200?s=20
how does it work?
you will mark notes that are candidates for sharing or feedback with a tag of text
like #share
you can even indicate which audience to share to with this tag.
Then comes the magic of how you want to set it up
manual or automatic.
you will mark notes that are candidates for sharing or feedback with a tag of text
like #share
you can even indicate which audience to share to with this tag.
Then comes the magic of how you want to set it up
manual or automatic.
I use combos of Hazel ($) and IFTTT (free) to move things around automatically.
I will link to those workflows as I build them. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hazel+app
I will link to those workflows as I build them. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hazel+app
Alt
you can just manually copy a file or a bunch of files into a folder when you want.
you can just manually copy a file or a bunch of files into a folder when you want.
If going manual, it is important to have a way of notifying yourself when a friend adds or edits a note. It would be annoying to have to manually check this all the time.
Here is when something like IFTTT or hazel comes in handy
Here is when something like IFTTT or hazel comes in handy
or just have a reminder each week or month to sort by most recently updated in the folder to see what has changed.
you could also just not worry about new notes and just review them as you come to them in in your own searching through the folder.
you could also just not worry about new notes and just review them as you come to them in in your own searching through the folder.
but i like the idea of working out of my private folder, pushing some changes out to my friends, and pulling their feedback in and incorporating it in my own private notes. https://twitter.com/AGWilsonn/status/1274365697175453698?s=20
The process would work a lot like Git.
I like Github but once a gain I want to keep things as simple and easy as possible. https://twitter.com/AGWilsonn/status/1259921954590601216?s=20
I like Github but once a gain I want to keep things as simple and easy as possible. https://twitter.com/AGWilsonn/status/1259921954590601216?s=20
It would be a good habit to review notes before adding edited notes so as not to overwrite changes that your peers have made. Though if every one is keeping a private version of their folder, even if this happened, it would be easy to fix.
This is not about any outcome or product but the process of relating notes together and to each other.
This kind of thing is already happening in pockets of twitter, but we have now way to work in progress and we have no way of visualizing local relationships of ideas
We have only begun the work of imagining hyperconversations. https://twitter.com/AGWilsonn/status/1293001141438095360?s=20
notes are like index cards
Save Point @knovigator. https://knovigator.com:443/quest/comments-3gzwl2pgknovigator.com/quest/comments
Related thread: https://twitter.com/joelchan86/status/1309521782806847490
