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About (Colophon)#

Colophon, a fancy term for sharing information about the publication of this "book". A way to track the thinking behind the evolution of this site.

Purpose#

Who really knows, but the originally intent was inspired by Vannevar Bush writing in 1945 about a device he called Memex as

a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory.

This site isn't going to do all of that. But it is an attempt to be more considered about how I seek, make sense of and share knowledge.

Always emerging out of bricolage

This is not a pre-planned site. Instead emerging out of bricolage as I learn and discover new tools.

i.e. it isn't polished and probably helps me more in thinking than any reader.

A 2020 blog post gives some origins for this work. I might think and write more about this and the connection with ideas-events-people

Early and likely never started or finished work on memex-v2

Method#

Version 3 - early 2025#

Blog post with an early description of the rationale and possibilities for version 3.

See version-3-memex-design for on-going planning.

Version 2 - Adding mkdocs - (2nd half 2023)#

Version 2.0 combines Material for MkDocs - to improve the user-interface for navigation/reading - with the Obsidian/Roam/Notion type authoring/curating functionality provided by Foam

Timed with an increased focus on leveraging this site for my personal learning environment

Version 1 - Initial implementation with Foam using PKM (July 2020)#

To do list#

Decades later and there are systems (e.g. Obsidian and Notion) and concepts like personal knowledge management which echo this vision. This is my attempt to build my own Memex using Foam and over time move beyond that.

  • Raw dog the open web

    Jason Velazquez discusses an alternative to the big-tech monoculture where corporate algorithms control what we see online. That alternative being as simple as exploring the open web beyond the algorithm and publicly curating a collection of links. Taking "off the latex wrapped around our digital spaces" - Patterns for Personal websites

    One of the links shared by Jason. Provides a collection of patterns for personal websites grouped by" content, structure, time, navigation, and technology.

  • Smallest Federated Wiki as an alternate version of the web

    Mike Caufield delves into the how the Smallest Federated Wiki (SFW) - aka Federated Wiki - offers to improve the basic web into something a little more informed by insights from Ted Nelson and beyond.

Other examples#

Random examples of what others have achieved using Foam combine with other technologies

History#

Support#

[ideas-events-people]: <../sense/quote collection/ideas-events-people> "Great Minds Discuss Ideas; Average Minds Discuss Events; Small Minds Discuss People"