This link has been bookmarked by 193 people . It was first bookmarked on 07 Jun 2006, by Erik Stattin.
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20 Mar 15
rhm2ktmiThis week's edition of the Times Book Review features an essay that I wrote about the research system I've used for the past few years: a tool for exploring the couple thousand notes and quotations that I've assembled over the past decade -- along w…
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This is the window that shows me an overview of part of my "research library" in DevonThink
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These are all books that I have transcribed digital passages from over the past 10 years or so
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something close to those little quotes that I've assembled in DevonThink.
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roland legrandDEVONthink seems to be a database structuring all your notes and imported stuff, even providing semantic analysis.
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I talked in the Times essay about using the tool as a springboard for new ideas and inspiration. Here's what that process looks like in practice. This is the window that shows me an overview of part of my "research library" in DevonThink:
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These are all books that I have transcribed digital passages from over the past 10 years or so -- you can see how many quotes for each book in the little number in parentheses after each title. Oftentimes I'll start the exploration with a straightforward keyword search, in this case: "urban ecosystem." I plug that in, and get back one result, a short quote from Manuel DeLanda's excellent 10,000 Years Of Non-Linear History.
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This is where it gets interesting. I take that quote, and click on the "see also" button, which generates an instant list of other documents or quotes that have some semantic connection to the original one. I can see a few words from the entry, along with the author and book title.
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Over the past few years of working with this approach, I've learned a few key principles. The system works for three reasons:
1) The DevonThink software does a great job at making semantic connections between documents based on word frequency.
2) I have pre-filtered the results by selecting quotes that interest me, and by archiving my own prose. The signal-to-noise ratio is so high because I've eliminated 99% of the noise on my own.
3) Most of the entries are in a sweet spot where length is concerned: between 50 and 500 words. If I had whole eBooks in there, instead of little clips of text, the tool would be useless.
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I think #3 is the point that needs to be drilled home to people working on desktop search. It's been hidden from us largely because the web itself is broken up into pages that are often in that 500 word sweet spot. Think about the difference between Google and Google Desktop: Google gives you URLs in return for your search request; Google Desktop gives you files (and email messages or web pages where appropriate.) On the web, a URL is an appropriate search result because it's generally the right scale: a single web page generally doesn't include that much information (and of course a blog post even less.) So the page Google serves up is often very tightly focused on the information you're looking for.
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So the proper unit for this kind of exploratory, semantic search is not the file, but rather something else, something I don't quite have a word for: a chunk or cluster of text, something close to those little quotes that I've assembled in DevonThink. If I have an eBook of Manual DeLanda's on my hard drive, and I search for "urban ecosystem" I don't want the software to tell me that an entire book is related to my query. I want the software to tell me that these five separate paragraphs from this book are relevant. Until the tools can break out those smaller units on their own, I'll still be assembling my research library by hand in DevonThink.
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I wond
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Pamela HoodThe software I use now is called DevonThink, and I'm sorry to report that it is only available for Mac OS X. (I know there are a number of advanced search tools available for Windows, so I'm sure most of what I describe here could be reproduced -- I just don't know enough about the search tools on that platform to recommend anything.)
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Joseph CaplanThe software I use now is called DevonThink, and I'm sorry to report that it is only available for Mac OS X. (I know there are a number of advanced search tools available for Windows, so I'm sure most of what I describe here could be reproduced -- I just don't know enough about the search tools on that platform to recommend anything.)
I talked in the Times essay about using the tool as a springboard for new ideas and inspiration. Here's what that process looks like in practice. This is the window that shows me an overview of part of my "research library" in DevonThink: -
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If I have an eBook of Manual DeLanda's on my hard drive, and I search for "urban ecosystem" I don't want the software to tell me that an entire book is related to my query. I want the software to tell me that these five separate paragraphs from this book are relevant. Until the tools can break out those smaller units on their own, I'll still be assembling my research library by hand in DevonThink.
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19 Oct 10
Sara Thompson"This week's edition of the Times Book Review features an essay that I wrote about the research system I've used for the past few years: a tool for exploring the couple thousand notes and quotations that I've assembled over the past decade -- along with t
research organization productivity reading books notebook software ideasfile
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Ken Homer1) The DevonThink software does a great job at making semantic connections between documents based on word frequency.
2) I have pre-filtered the results by selecting quotes that interest me, and by archiving my own prose. The signal-to-noise ratio is sodevonthink software research writing tools thinking howto productivity
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Graham Creasey"signal-to-noise ratio is so high"
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Joseph Mornina tool for exploring the couple thousand notes and quotations that I've assembled over the past decade -
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The system works for three reasons:
1) The DevonThink software does a great job at making semantic connections between documents based on word frequency.
2) I have pre-filtered the results by selecting quotes that interest me, and by archiving my own prose. The signal-to-noise ratio is so high because I've eliminated 99% of the noise on my own.
3) Most of the entries are in a sweet spot where length is concerned: between 50 and 500 words. If I had whole eBooks in there, instead of little clips of text, the tool would be useless.
I think #3 is the point that needs to be drilled home to people working on desktop search. It's been hidden from us largely because the web itself is broken up into pages that are often in that 500 word sweet spot.
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So the proper unit for this kind of exploratory, semantic search is not the file, but rather something else, something I don't quite have a word for: a chunk or cluster of text, something close to those little quotes that I've assembled in DevonThink. If I have an eBook of Manual DeLanda's on my hard drive, and I search for "urban ecosystem" I don't want the software to tell me that an entire book is related to my query. I want the software to tell me that these five separate paragraphs from this book are relevant. Until the tools can break out those smaller units on their own, I'll still be assembling my research library by hand in DevonThink.
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Geoff EdwardsAnother post on DEVONthink by Johnson that I could have sworn I'd already saved.
devonthink steven.berlin.johnson writing research tools osx mac productivity
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Seanrelated to tools for thought NYT article - very useful.
technology thinking tool writing productivity reference research devonthink
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George WilliamsIn a companion piece to his -New York Times- essay of the same title (30 Jan. 2005), Johnson explains his use of the software DevonThink, which (in that -NYT- essay) he argues is an example of software that fundamentally changes the way we thinks, not jus
segl102 digital-culture composition cognition apple-computers gtd software devonthink research-methods
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Katie Day"There's a longstanding assumption that the modern, web-enabled PC is the realization of the Memex, but if you go back and look at Bush's essay, he was describing something more specific -- a personal research tool that would learn as you interacted with
notetaking information_literacy information learning research imported_from_delicious
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Questia (online library of ebooks) can make semantic searches except it can handicapped by the fact that you're searching through whole e-books even though it lets you search inside the book.
(www.questia.com)
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Steven,
I've spent the last three years doing doctoral research and development in this space. I was reading over your blog entries and thinking how closely what you've written here matches a lot of what I find in my own notes (I also like De Landa's work, BTW).
I think Topic Maps are the technology you're looking for to enable sharing "personal libraries to the world." The phrase that Steven Newcomb (one of its inventors) uses is "global knowledge interchange." The ISO Topic Map standard is ideally suited for creating a graph-structured, subject-based index of a set of information resources. These Topic Map documents can be merged or federated with others in controlled ways, even maintaining the contexts between who said what.
My own project is called Ceryle, uses a graph visualization of Topic Maps as the primary organizational metaphor, heavily uses Dublin Core metadata, works cross-platform, and I've recently been filling in some of the bibliographic support features as I'm using it to organize my own dissertation. The software is currently in evaluation and will eventually be released into open source. I'd be happy to discuss the project in greater detail if you wish.
Thanks very much for your informative article -- Murray
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Trebor Scholza tool for exploring the couple thousand notes and quotations that I've assembled over the past decade -
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Amy GahranOne cool tool for serendipity and research... I'll check it out!
tools overload metadata writing knowledge+management arranging+ideas problem+solving
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don dekaGreat! essay why DevonThinkPro is so cool!
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Hagure MetaruArticle about using DevonThink and the like
devonthink osx productivity howto .software organization del.icio.us mac
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Howard Rheingolda tool for exploring the couple thousand notes and quotations that I've assembled over the past decade -
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Gordon Rossnifty devonthink app for managing stuff you've read in books. neato. only available for mac osx (no kidding)
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