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God this is hard. I've been trying to get at a solution to this exact problem for a very long time as well. It needs to be there when I'm walking down the stree

God this is hard. I've been trying to get at a solution to this exact problem for a very long time as well. It needs to be there when I'm walking down the street, sitting in a busy meeting, or at home in bed. A hybrid of mind-mapping, notes, and a document database. I'd also like to be able to publish and organize documents for others to view. I wish I had a solution.

walterbell 12y ago
What do you use today?
- darkxanthos 12y ago
  I use a hybrid of Omnifocus, mediawiki, and pen and paper.
ckluis 12y ago
FWIW - I’ve always thought these guys were close to something (but not there yet) - https://gingkoapp.com/p/future-of-text https://gingkoapp.com/p/future-of-text - the idea of a quick dive-down/up through knowledge with potentially tagging/linking thrown in would seem pretty stellar from a knowledge management system.
- walterbell 12y ago
  A bit like the visions of Nelson & Engelbart, http://thoughtvectors.net/ http://thoughtvectors.net/ Inkling is working on related challenges with ebook authoring, https://www.inkling.com/blog/2014/06/problem-of-structured-authoring/ https://www.inkling.com/blog/2014/06/problem-of-structured-a... . InfinitePDF on iOS allows non-linear navigation paths to be overlaid on an existing PDF, http://www.148apps.com/reviews/infinite-pdf-review/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/infinite-pdf-review/ The challenge for all of these solutions is migration/import/rewrite of existing content.
- SupremumLimit 12y ago
  Thanks for pointing out Gingko - it looks like it could have the right mix of features that I miss in Workflowy, i.e. going beyond lists/outlines and having richer content in leaf nodes. Excited to try it out!
  - Ramonal 12y ago
    On daily work for outlines, I use Workflowy, which is easy to edit; and on systematize knowledge or stuff, I use Weavi, which is a decent product.
    - SupremumLimit 12y ago
      Thanks for the pointer. Tried it out - it's similar to Gingko but seems much less polished, and I couldn't find the keyboard shortcuts! I guess the advantage is that it's free. I really hope this kind of text manipulation will get developed further.
      - ckluis 12y ago
        Agreed that this form of data capture seems powerful.
- lorddoig 12y ago
  I don't want to say this is a rip-off, but it does share a remarkable resemblance to Ted Nelson's pre-Berners-Lee hypertext Project Xanadu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu). Here's a recent screenshot http://www.open-hypervideo.org/img/xanadu.jpg http://www.open-hypervideo.org/img/xanadu.jpg. That man has been trying to get traction on it since 1960. He's quite remarkable. Actually, reading their blurb is like reading his work from then. If you know the story of Nelson and Xanadu, the lack of credit to him is a little unforgivable.
donw 12y ago
I have one, but it's not public -- at least, not yet. One of the hardest things to get right here is search. It's easy to drop in a full-text search solution, quite another thing to design search that works well. My system is a tiny app that automatically grabs pretty much everything I do on the Internet and indexes it. Github stars, HN posts, Facebook likes, bookmarks, you name it. I can optionally tag or add my own sticky-notes to anything, and there's some other neat tricks that make fuzzy searching a lot easier. Human memories are very story-based, and so if I only remember that I looked at something important about ducks when I was at a Meetup, I can actually search for that. I'm considering productizing this -- email's in the profile if you'd like to chat. :)
- zrail 12y ago
  Sounds like a neat project. I started putting something like that together but it was more text focused. I like the idea of automatically gathering data from other sources. On a side note, I use mizuno for a project[1] and I've never had any problems with it. Thanks! [1]: https://github.com/docverter/docverter https://github.com/docverter/docverter
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- smcnally 12y ago
  I designed historian https://github.com/smcnally/historian https://github.com/smcnally/historian to extend browser history to include annotation and tags. Browser history is majority of what you do online; chrome search is pretty decent.
porter 12y ago
Where does evernote fall short for you?
- walterbell 12y ago
  Doesn't work for confidential data.
- AH4oFVbPT4f8 12y ago
  Working within the editor. As a save and reference Evernote is great but for working within the document its awful. Just try to add/remove columns in a table or rearrange photos within a note.
  - karanbhangui 12y ago
    How about the new OneNote for OSX?
- dmourati 12y ago
  OP said he wanted an open source solution. Other than that, I can find no faults in using Evernote for this purpose. I use it for my personal stuff. Where Evernote falls down, and this is by design according to CEO Phil Libin, is in sharing across many people. Libin says Evernote is not social, it's anti-social. As such, it doesn't work when you need to collaborate on notes. But see Evernote Business which seems to contradict this assertion. OP was talking about a personal solution so the social aspect doesn't apply.
Ixiaus 12y ago
Org-mode is incredible. I use it to capture everything from vocabulary (which is automatically put into org-drill for spaced repetition), to my ideas, todos, shopping lists, EVERYTHING. Capture can happen on phone or laptop and syncs seamlessly. Agenda for captured todos syncs with gcal. Publishing / printing to pdf / web / latex no problem. Index or search? No problem. Inline images and video, figured out. Snippet capture from web browser? Done. Plus the incredible power to modify all this using emacs lisp. It's not python but it's powerful and every other emacs mode uses it. There zillions of modes and tweaks to the emacs environment that add to this. Org-mode and emacs are the single most powerful organizational tools I've ever encountered.
- walterbell 12y ago
  What transport is used for mobile sync? Is a browser plugin used for snippet capture?
  - AceJohnny2 12y ago
    I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic to make a point or actually ignorant :) org-mode, while amazing, is emacs-only. There is no browser interface, no cloud (unless you store the files on Dropbox or GDrive or whatever) and no mobile app. And that's its greatest failing in today's mobile/cloud world. Gee, it's almost like there's an opportunity here... ;)
    - sondr3 12y ago
      Not entirely true about no mobile app, there is always https://github.com/MobileOrg/mobileorg https://github.com/MobileOrg/mobileorg but it hasn't been updated since Febuary and there doesn't seem to be anyone actively involved with the project anymore.
    - walterbell 12y ago
      Semi-ignorant :) I knew of org-mode as emacs only, but the grandparent post mentioned mobile & browser snippets. Just found two apps which edit & sync org-mode files, and templates for bookmarks. Android app uses ssh, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matburt.mobileorg&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matburt.mo... iOS app uses dropbox, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobileorg/id634225528?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobileorg/id634225528?mt=8 Blog post on replacing other svcs/apps with org-mode, http://www.swaroopch.com/2013/01/16/orgmode/ http://www.swaroopch.com/2013/01/16/orgmode/ Web bookmark sync on mobile, http://karl-voit.at/2014/08/10/bookmarks-with-orgmode/ http://karl-voit.at/2014/08/10/bookmarks-with-orgmode/

walterbell 12y ago

What do you use today?

darkxanthos 12y ago
I use a hybrid of Omnifocus, mediawiki, and pen and paper.

ckluis 12y ago

FWIW - I’ve always thought these guys were close to something (but not there yet) - https://gingkoapp.com/p/future-of-text https://gingkoapp.com/p/future-of-text - the idea of a quick dive-down/up through knowledge with potentially tagging/linking thrown in would seem pretty stellar from a knowledge management system.

walterbell 12y ago
A bit like the visions of Nelson & Engelbart, http://thoughtvectors.net/ http://thoughtvectors.net/ Inkling is working on related challenges with ebook authoring, https://www.inkling.com/blog/2014/06/problem-of-structured-authoring/ https://www.inkling.com/blog/2014/06/problem-of-structured-a... . InfinitePDF on iOS allows non-linear navigation paths to be overlaid on an existing PDF, http://www.148apps.com/reviews/infinite-pdf-review/ http://www.148apps.com/reviews/infinite-pdf-review/ The challenge for all of these solutions is migration/import/rewrite of existing content.
SupremumLimit 12y ago
Thanks for pointing out Gingko - it looks like it could have the right mix of features that I miss in Workflowy, i.e. going beyond lists/outlines and having richer content in leaf nodes. Excited to try it out!
- Ramonal 12y ago
  On daily work for outlines, I use Workflowy, which is easy to edit; and on systematize knowledge or stuff, I use Weavi, which is a decent product.
  - SupremumLimit 12y ago
    Thanks for the pointer. Tried it out - it's similar to Gingko but seems much less polished, and I couldn't find the keyboard shortcuts! I guess the advantage is that it's free. I really hope this kind of text manipulation will get developed further.
    - ckluis 12y ago
      Agreed that this form of data capture seems powerful.
lorddoig 12y ago
I don't want to say this is a rip-off, but it does share a remarkable resemblance to Ted Nelson's pre-Berners-Lee hypertext Project Xanadu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu). Here's a recent screenshot http://www.open-hypervideo.org/img/xanadu.jpg http://www.open-hypervideo.org/img/xanadu.jpg. That man has been trying to get traction on it since 1960. He's quite remarkable. Actually, reading their blurb is like reading his work from then. If you know the story of Nelson and Xanadu, the lack of credit to him is a little unforgivable.

donw 12y ago

I have one, but it's not public -- at least, not yet. One of the hardest things to get right here is search. It's easy to drop in a full-text search solution, quite another thing to design search that works well. My system is a tiny app that automatically grabs pretty much everything I do on the Internet and indexes it. Github stars, HN posts, Facebook likes, bookmarks, you name it. I can optionally tag or add my own sticky-notes to anything, and there's some other neat tricks that make fuzzy searching a lot easier. Human memories are very story-based, and so if I only remember that I looked at something important about ducks when I was at a Meetup, I can actually search for that. I'm considering productizing this -- email's in the profile if you'd like to chat. :)

zrail 12y ago
Sounds like a neat project. I started putting something like that together but it was more text focused. I like the idea of automatically gathering data from other sources. On a side note, I use mizuno for a project[1] and I've never had any problems with it. Thanks! [1]: https://github.com/docverter/docverter https://github.com/docverter/docverter
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
smcnally 12y ago
I designed historian https://github.com/smcnally/historian https://github.com/smcnally/historian to extend browser history to include annotation and tags. Browser history is majority of what you do online; chrome search is pretty decent.

porter 12y ago

Where does evernote fall short for you?

walterbell 12y ago
Doesn't work for confidential data.
AH4oFVbPT4f8 12y ago
Working within the editor. As a save and reference Evernote is great but for working within the document its awful. Just try to add/remove columns in a table or rearrange photos within a note.
- karanbhangui 12y ago
  How about the new OneNote for OSX?
dmourati 12y ago
OP said he wanted an open source solution. Other than that, I can find no faults in using Evernote for this purpose. I use it for my personal stuff. Where Evernote falls down, and this is by design according to CEO Phil Libin, is in sharing across many people. Libin says Evernote is not social, it's anti-social. As such, it doesn't work when you need to collaborate on notes. But see Evernote Business which seems to contradict this assertion. OP was talking about a personal solution so the social aspect doesn't apply.

Ixiaus 12y ago

Org-mode is incredible. I use it to capture everything from vocabulary (which is automatically put into org-drill for spaced repetition), to my ideas, todos, shopping lists, EVERYTHING. Capture can happen on phone or laptop and syncs seamlessly. Agenda for captured todos syncs with gcal. Publishing / printing to pdf / web / latex no problem. Index or search? No problem. Inline images and video, figured out. Snippet capture from web browser? Done. Plus the incredible power to modify all this using emacs lisp. It's not python but it's powerful and every other emacs mode uses it. There zillions of modes and tweaks to the emacs environment that add to this. Org-mode and emacs are the single most powerful organizational tools I've ever encountered.

walterbell 12y ago
What transport is used for mobile sync? Is a browser plugin used for snippet capture?
- AceJohnny2 12y ago
  I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic to make a point or actually ignorant :) org-mode, while amazing, is emacs-only. There is no browser interface, no cloud (unless you store the files on Dropbox or GDrive or whatever) and no mobile app. And that's its greatest failing in today's mobile/cloud world. Gee, it's almost like there's an opportunity here... ;)
  - sondr3 12y ago
    Not entirely true about no mobile app, there is always https://github.com/MobileOrg/mobileorg https://github.com/MobileOrg/mobileorg but it hasn't been updated since Febuary and there doesn't seem to be anyone actively involved with the project anymore.
  - walterbell 12y ago
    Semi-ignorant :) I knew of org-mode as emacs only, but the grandparent post mentioned mobile & browser snippets. Just found two apps which edit & sync org-mode files, and templates for bookmarks. Android app uses ssh, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matburt.mobileorg&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matburt.mo... iOS app uses dropbox, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobileorg/id634225528?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobileorg/id634225528?mt=8 Blog post on replacing other svcs/apps with org-mode, http://www.swaroopch.com/2013/01/16/orgmode/ http://www.swaroopch.com/2013/01/16/orgmode/ Web bookmark sync on mobile, http://karl-voit.at/2014/08/10/bookmarks-with-orgmode/ http://karl-voit.at/2014/08/10/bookmarks-with-orgmode/