The Sad State of Personal Knowledgebases

115 点作者 zzzmarcus超过 9 年前

41 条评论

biztos超过 9 年前

I think vendor lock-in is at least as big a problem as searching and scaling. Arguably bigger for this audience: if I have easy unfettered access to the data itself I can always try something else for search/scale.I've tried a few and at least twice tried to write my own (and gave up due to scope creep). Right now I just have a bunch of Markdown files and a giant messy DropBox folder and an almost-as-messy set of private GitHub repos. And photos. And videos. And e-mail. And backups. (What does one do with a Zip disk these days?)I bet a lot of people my age (mid-40's) or older have the same problem: choosing or building a system we think would work long-term, and then gathering and organizing all the "legacy" stuff (which you definitely want!) is already an enormous undertaking, and so instead we live with a bunch of ad-hoc systems that aren't in any way cross-referenced.Nobody wants to be the sysadmin of their own junk drawer, but I for one don't want years' worth of my stuff locked into somebody's Cloud du Jour.(Then again, I have this same problem with actual paper documents, so maybe it's just me.)

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karmacondon超过 9 年前

I've been working with own "PK" for about a year now. It's been an interesting experiment so far. My concept is based around random re-exposure to information. For whatever reason, the thought of "Let me look through my old bookmarks" never occurred to me and wasn't part of my daily workflow. So one aspect of my system is that it randomly selects bookmarks from different categories every day and shows them to me. It also has spaced repetition for facts and miscellany, or things I'm trying to learn about (like the US Presidents or Shakespeares plays), vocabulary, etc.There were a few interesting things I've noticed by randomly viewing old bookmarks. The first is that linkrot is a very real thing and the web is decaying at a measurable rate. Second, it's amazing how limited my memory is. Half the time I don't remember something I bookmarked from years or even months ago at all. It's new to me, all over again. I'm going to bookmark this discussion and then completely forget it existed within a few months at most. Regularly reviewing old web pages and notes makes me feel like my mind is a sieve, as well as highlighting how my interest and thought processes have changed over the years.I'm really interested in this topic, feel free to contact me to discuss.

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gkya超过 9 年前

Org-mode. A benevolent beast. Once one gets to learn it, it can be made to do anything. Also having a programming language shared with the runtime and other programmes for that runtime (Elisp and Emacs) is just priceless, it just lends itself to be customized in whichever way one would like. A major con for me, though, is the lack of decent iOS-Android integration.

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bachmeier超过 9 年前

In my opinion, this is not a "problem" that can be solved. What makes something good varies a lot from one person to the next. In my case, I'd need a way to hold equations, computer code, PDF versions of papers, handwritten notes that someone else has given me, and a lot of other things. I want it stored in a Git repo. I want to view it in a browser. I want it to be convenient and I want it automated. The "answer" is a feature-filled scripting language that allows you to build a customized solution.

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oxplot超过 9 年前

How about Camlistore by Brad Fitzpatrick [1]:"Camlistore is a set of open source formats, protocols, and software for modeling, storing, searching, sharing and synchronizing data in the post-PC era. Data may be files or objects, tweets or 5TB videos, and you can access it via a phone, browser or FUSE filesystem."[1]: <a href="http://camlistore.org/" rel="nofollow">http://camlistore.org/</a>

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herge超过 9 年前

My saving grace at work has been the tidily wiki (<a href="http://www.tiddlywiki.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.tiddlywiki.com</a>). It's the easiest place to put one-off shell command line snippets, or instructions or whatever. It's search is fast, and the formatting is nice. The only downside is I have to remember to save and copy the downloaded file to google drive every time I edit anything.

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zwischenzug超过 9 年前

I have a git repo with notes on all the things I'm interested in, a few larger files (some books I always reference, some images etc.).Over time I've built up some scripts to help with general tasks, eg list TODOs etc.. It's perfectly moulded to my needs. For example, when I find a new utility I run mk_notes.sh [thing], which sets up three files:<pre><code> - links (for relevant web links) - thing.txt (which has basic info about it) - cheat_sheet.txt (which has quick useful things I want to keep) </code></pre> These files suffice for the majority of cases. I used to have more, but found that was over-engineered.I'm not sure I could buy such a thing, and if I did, I'd get irritated with some aspect of it sooner or later.Search is easy (grep et al), git means it's available everywhere (for me).It's literally changed my life, since I now don't 'lose' any research, and can pick up threads later and build.

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mapgrep超过 9 年前

I don't think he's talking about a personal knowledgebase, I think he's talking about something else we are very familiar with. Think about it, he says a PK is "any system that you use to store and retrieve general information Unlimited size... just about everything you want to save for your whole life."That's a computer, full stop. Or, in software terms, an operating system. In storage terms, a filesystem. These high level tools are designed precisely for the tasks he outlined: Handle data of ever increasing size reliably; make it easy to navigate and search; be simple to use, convenient and fast, and structured.Where operating systems and filesystems fall down is in searching heterogenous data in a powerful way, and that's where people turn to PKs. Evernote is/was good at searching text and even pictures of text and for tagging; "the Brain" is apparently good at cataloging structured to-do and project type data; Kumu seems to do social graphs; inforapid seems to specialize in process descriptions.There is no reason operating systems can't get better at processing this data natively. Apple has slouched in that direction in fits and starts with projects like Spotlight and Quick Look. Microsoft once fantasized about building a filesystem from a relational database and has developed an interesting system of "search contracts" for Windows.

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nwatson超过 9 年前

I like Evernote for a lot of personal stuff, though that's one of the "worser" systems OP lists. Atlassian's Confluence does very well at being a wiki and though you're hostage perhaps to your original layout / organization, at $10/year for self-hosted it's a very good deal. It can store and index PDF, Word, Excel, etc., documents very well. I don't think it does handwriting recognition.If I were to evolve the product category I'd use Confluence as a basis.In fact I'd want to toy with using Confluence (+ Postgres backend) as the basis for any I.T.-related product -- write plugins for user input, generate all reports to Confluence. I'm not sure what licensing restrictions might be but Confluence provides a lot of useful UI for $10/year (structured + unstructured) for any customer, and building on top of that seems like a no-brainer. Perhaps this is what others do with Drupal and other CMS products, though ... I'm not familiar with that model.

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irln超过 9 年前

I've found that using google docs works well if you frame the document title in the form of a question or statement: - What is a JavaScript constructor? - making rvm permanent in rvspec - postgresql listing, creating and dropping a dbSome of the "answers" are just a single line. Then all I have to remember is either something in the title or the gist of the thing I need to know and google docs search provides me with a list of related stuff.

Alex3917超过 9 年前

In my opinion, FreeMind is the best solution currently out there because of forces mindmapping conventions and places a strong emphasis on folding. A lot of other solutions I've seen are more like concept maps, which are great for project management, but not great for knowledge bases.<a href="http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page</a>(The one thing of note is that there is a bug in the default version of OS X Java, so it frequently crashes unless you update to Java 8 and edit the config to use that version of Java.)

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massysett超过 9 年前

I'm surprised he does not mention email. This is my personal knowledgebase. It keeps boatloads of receipts and travel reservations from years ago. It is available on all my computing devices. It's Gmail so it's easy to search and I don't have to spend time sorting it. I write notes and send them to myself just so I will have them in the email. Other people are also obsessive about keeping their old email so I can't possibly be alone in this regard.Gmail nails most of the features on his list.

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alistproducer2超过 9 年前

I was once a warrior on the PK front. I built a PK Chrome extension called Deeper History <a href="http://lifehacker.com/deeper-history-searches-the-contents-of-visited-pages-1502340820" rel="nofollow">http://lifehacker.com/deeper-history-searches-the-contents-o...</a>. It compressed and stored pages you visted in IndexDB. You could then search your history by keyword form your url bar. An example use case was trying to recall a comment of an article you liked. If you could remember a few of the words DH would pull it back up.I stopped developing it once I realized it was a security nightmare. I built a version that encrypted the data before storing it but that ballooned the DB size and I also didn't have a user-friendly way for users to obtain a key set.

ianstormtaylor超过 9 年前

This is the problem that Dropbox Paper is solving—both for teams and for personal use. I use it now to write all of my blog posts, store research about everyday life things, and keep track of things like doctors, lawyers, etc. I think it solves the problem very well.Early on they hadn't quite nailed "findability", but with the new (more generic) folders ported from the desktop metaphor and "starred" items this is largely solved. And the search is very fast.Not only that, but it makes it incredibly easy to share with friends and even have them comment or contribute to individual files, without having to expose everything you write. Learning curve is near-zero.All in all, super impressed.

pullo超过 9 年前

Evernote. Free and accessible across many devices. For me it has been best of the worst. It has been my one place to store all information. Evernote serves well as a general knowledge base, but fails for storing programming snippets and ideas.

siavosh超过 9 年前

Co-founder of Faqt, mentioned in the blog post. The lack of good options is what drove us to create our own solution, with our primary/religious focus being on simplicity. At the risk of self-promotion, we have been quietly beta testing with several organizations a collaborative/team version. If you'd like to try it, there's a free signup at <a href="https://app.faqt.co/team/signup" rel="nofollow">https://app.faqt.co/team/signup</a>Let me know if anyone has any question: hello@faqt.co

cdumler超过 9 年前

I commented on Discus the site, as well. I've been a long time user of DEVONthink. It can be used for many purposes, including document organizer, email, GTD, tagging, etc. My favorite feature has always been the Magic Hat, which will suggest under what folders a document should be filed. I clip most interesting web pages, and it is surprisingly accurate once you have established a few documents.<a href="http://www.devontechnologies.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.devontechnologies.com</a>

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msluyter超过 9 年前

I've been using nvAlt for a while. Very fast search and ease of use. Not sure how well it scales in the long run but thus far I've had no problems.Edit to add: Some other interesting features. You can sync to Simplenote automatically, and notes can be saved as text files for easy import/export. There is some markdown support (though I see a number of bugs in the preview). The main downsides appear to be: limited color schemes, no syntax highlighting for markdown, development appears to have stalled.

Razengan超过 9 年前

I use Markdown notepads like Quiver [1] and Ulysses [2] to get a "pretty view" on my existing plaintext hoard and directory structure.This lets my data remain portable and still gives me (almost) all the niceties of proprietary formats/editors.[1]: <a href="http://happenapps.com/#quiver" rel="nofollow">http://happenapps.com/#quiver</a>[2]: <a href="http://ulyssesapp.com/mac/" rel="nofollow">http://ulyssesapp.com/mac/</a>

lewisl9029超过 9 年前

I just came across this a few days ago on HN:<a href="https://youtu.be/VZQoAKJPbh8?t=2818" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/VZQoAKJPbh8?t=2818</a><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10726536" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10726536</a>Eve, the new "programming" tool developed by Chris Granger of Light Table fame, looks absolutely amazing for this use case. I personally can't wait to try it out.

eponeponepon超过 9 年前

I'm inclined not to see this as surprising. There are as many ways in which people conceptualise their 'offline' knowledge as there are people, and there is never going to be one size to fit all.Org-mode is probably the closest contender, if only for its sheer flexibility - but the fact that it's wed to something (i.e. emacs) that the gen-pop would immediately recoil from is only ever going to limit its adoption to a tiny subset.

anotheryou超过 9 年前

I'm using:- markdown- + folders (synced to my mobile)- + a flat-file cms to wrap it up in the browser (in my case: yellow cms, but there are a few based on markdown and I could switch any time)Still problematic:- fast and easy linking- suggested tags (no body likes tagging manually)- rich media (especially as you'd ideally want a local mirror, like some research tools do it)and the general problem:- text is linear- folders mostly hierarchic- information is ribosomal- ribosomal connections are rather associative and therefore manifold- manifold structures are a pain in the ass to do manually by linking and taggingAn even better google would be the solution:- you just dump information (+ meta data to give some more context and spare you explaining the current event surrounding the note)- and it will be found on demand by AImaybe in a few years I can feed something my wiki and it will make sense of it

stealthascope超过 9 年前

A couple years ago, I decided to setup a MediaWiki installation, and found it works well enough for storing thoughts/ideas/things. I added another sort of 'navigation' layer that makes sense in my head, and wrote a desktop app in python to use my navigation layer instead of the links. Eventually I would like to set it up to scan for links in the various pages, download the content then add it to a job queue to be parsed into a more concise format for the wiki itself.I don't use it nearly as much as I should... it's one of those things that's 90% what I want, and just missing the last 10%.

howeyc超过 9 年前

Any reason a bunch of text files in directories wont work?Any "advanced" text editor that can search directories should work: Notepad++,Vim,grep,... anything really.I've been using a bunch of synced markdown files. Works for me, I just have a Markdown editor and a "grep-like" app for android. I'm not sure what you can do for iPhone though. When I've talked to people they couldn't seem to "browse for files/folders" which I thought was strange.The one thing I'm missing is I'd like to "tag" my notes. I haven't decided how/if I'm going to do that yet.

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ckluis超过 9 年前

Amen. I currently use txt files & Tree 2 (mac app).I’ve tried Quiver, Quip, & Workflowy and cannot find the perfect app to suit this space for my usage patterns. I’m almost 100% back to text files & sublime text.

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limeyy超过 9 年前

Anyone Remember Neonem on Windows? Well, that was really good for organising personal info in a structured way. Discussion here seems too broad: comparing Evernote (which is basically losely structured), wiki's etc to real classic outliners that once were thriving on Windows in he old days but kind of have of have been forgotten the past years. If you search for "outliner" you'll find some good all abandoned Windows projects.

eeZi超过 9 年前

I, too, am an org-mode fan, but there are a few good ones missing:- Zim (<a href="http://zim-wiki.org/" rel="nofollow">http://zim-wiki.org/</a>, Open Source)- WikidPad (<a href="http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/</a>, Open Source)- ConnectedText (<a href="http://www.connectedtext.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.connectedtext.com/</a>, Windows-only, $$$)

xenihn超过 9 年前

Quiver in my iCloud is the best thing that I've found so far. One of the biggest things for me is support for code snippets /highlighting, without having to use something to convert to RTF in-between copy and paste. Sadly, I stopped using it since I now have to log in to my company iCloud and Apple accounts at work, and it's just too much of a hassle to switch back and forth. I mainly use OSX notes and Textmate now.

dangoor超过 9 年前

Chris Granger's latest experiments with Eve (github.com/witheve) look surprisingly like a semi-structured personal knowledge system.Take a look at the last 15 minutes or so of this video for a demo:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZQoAKJPbh8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZQoAKJPbh8</a>(the whole video is interesting for the evolution of it)

arvind_devaraj超过 9 年前

An automated tool for capturing and sharing knowledge will truly make the world a better place. Learning can be faster , reducing the cost of education. People across the globe can connect based on topics of interest and knowledge, yielding more economic and job opportunities.A personal knowledge base is far more valuable than what it might seem at first glance. Very happy to see you have articulated clearly and made people realize it. A PKB has great potential for knowledge transfer within organization or even at research labs for new people to familiarize with literature. Many people want to capture their thoughts for writing a book someday, but current tools aren't good enough for this. Sadly, a person's social graph is well captured today rather than their knowledge graph.With these thoughts, I started implementing Hyperbook - www.getbook.co few months back. Currently it is in beta and really working hard to improve it every day. We got good feedback and reviews from thought leaders in content curation and knowledge management industry. Thanks for bringing the problem for discussion. It gives me motivation that is very much a worthy problem to solve.

zeveb超过 9 年前

I've gotta say that org-mode and a git repo do pretty well by me for this kind of thing.

PaulHoule超过 9 年前

I use Microsoft's OneNote for this. The search works amazingly well and is fast.

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space_ghost超过 9 年前

I've been using Zim (<a href="http://zim-wiki.org" rel="nofollow">http://zim-wiki.org</a>) for several years, backed up to Dropbox. It's a significant improvement over plain text files.

pfista超过 9 年前

Does anyone have a system for managing their relationships? Kind of like CRM but on a personal level. Keeping track of people's details - like their family, their passions, their history etc.

Treycent超过 9 年前

Knowledge can be captured in wikis, notes, documents, videos, audio, and even photos. Our smartphone/smartwatch/web apps allow you to access any of the knowledge using a single, easy to use interface - voice. Basically, you tag content with a voice command (e.g. "to do list" or "show me the video on how to do xyz") then, whenever you need to retrieve the knowledge, just speak the command. Voice commands can be shared and the apps are all free.<a href="https://youtube.com/treycent/search?query=notes" rel="nofollow">https://youtube.com/treycent/search?query=notes</a>

newman314超过 9 年前

I used to use Delicious but that didn't solve the "search the content of my bookmarks" problem for me.I've been using Pocket for now and it seems to work fine.

hackercomplex超过 9 年前

imho the best one ever made is called getguru.com. It's brilliant actually but the team there has priced themselves out of the market charging $7/head as a b2b app because they're from and enterprise sales background and therefor don't realize guru's monster potential in consumer-web. They're happy taking the low hanging fruit $$ from call-centers.sigh

dalacv超过 9 年前

I like trunknotes (<a href="http://www.trunknotes.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.trunknotes.com/</a>)

cypherg超过 9 年前

Confluence for the simple win

pjc50超过 9 年前

OneNote?

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utopiah超过 9 年前

several instances of PmWiki + Vimperator, being using that for nearly 10 years and thousands of edits so far