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Apply HN: “atomic knowledge”: a new way to manage notes on everything
5 points by lcall on April 22, 2016 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments
1) Theory: We have many systems (wikis, evernote, cyc, etc), but all are crippled by relying on human language as a fundamental layer. To more powerfully manage knowledge, we can approach it more like an object model created on the fly by just using the system: what you know about a pen, say, is best expressed as numbers, relationships, and code (mass, owner, behavior ...); the human language words can change when the knowledge doesn't.

2) Vision: Be effective on an individual level, then link OneModel instances (find others' data, subscribe to changes, copy, link, etc), to build large and comprehensive systems in wiki-like ways (with the power of the network effect), but without the crippling human-language limitations. Think wikipedia but all the data is effectively computable, and locally controllable.

3) Today: The AGPL prototype is like emacs org-mode in being keyboard- and desktop-oriented, and feeling like nested lists galore, but uses postgresql, allows having the same data linked into multiple places, is much easier to learn & use than emacs, and has a bigger long-term vision. It's (for me) the best personal organizer ever: very fast to navigate, and very flexible. The web site is generated from its data.

4) Next steps: Community-building and funding. I could really use feedback. The current target audience might be note-takers who touch type, like speed (and don't need mobile--cough), and need to be able to put the same information in more than one place in their notes. And anyone who wants to help move the big picture forward. Like, I hope to add anki-like features, and ways to attach code to classes of objects that were "modeled" on the fly as a side-effect of using the system (eg, so you can change the date on to-dos, in ways you specify, with simple code, or eventually run simulations, etc).

Much more info AND A WORKING DEMO or downloads to try, are at: http://onemodel.org



Are there plans for a RESTful API so that it could serve as a backend for a variety of clients?


There is some discussion about this at: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/04/23/0149257




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