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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Qiqqa - Reference Management System - Mini-Review
« Last post by superboyac on September 07, 2013, 04:17 PM »(Possibly semi-OT)This is something I'm really interested in, specifically for my music studies. My teacher has strongly advised that I keep a daily journal of the tidbits I learn and practice. He does it on staff paper, but being a computer geek, I want to see if I can do more. Plus, paper doesn't appeal to me for this sort of thing. I also want to incorporate video, audio clips, etc. all into it. I like the idea of piggydb being able to evolve with the tags and concepts instead of most knowledge databases where it's really difficult to reorganize once a lot of data has been structured.
I've recently started experimenting with PiggyDB. It's not really so much a 'reference management' system as an 'information annealing' type tool.Piggydb is a flexible and scalable knowledge building platform that supports a heuristic or bottom-up approach to discover new concepts or ideas based on your input. You can begin with using it as a flexible outliner, diary or notebook, and as your database grows, Piggydb helps you to shape or elaborate your own knowledge.
Interesting essays about some of the thinking behind it here and here.
A little rough around the edges and limited in certain areas at this point. But it has some promising thinking behind it. Very similar to some of Neil Larson's concepts that drove such (sadly gone IMHO) products of his as: Transtext, Houdini, HyperLAN, HyperBBS, Hyplus, and HyperRez.-40hz (September 07, 2013, 01:41 PM)
I've played around with programs like The Brain, which is similar to concept mapping and piggydb. But it was again difficult to reorganize on the fly, so in the end it wasn't that much more convenient than a normal tree hierarchy, or a simple tag based tool (like evernote).
Then there are practical concerns, like how easy is it to link non-text items to the db. Video clips, audio clips, pdfs, websites. Being able to link is one thing...being able to link easily is another. And then how do those links show up in the database? Having a "chain link icon" is one thing (tells you there's a link there), then accessing it or seeing it in the middle of everything else is another.
Also, being able to print or export the stuff in a useful way is important. Let's say there's a specific topic I want to review, like "major seventh chords". It would be nice to select that topic, then print a pdf with a hodge podge of your notes, knowledge fragments, links to articles, audio, etc. presented in an interesting way, maybe with arrows or onenote-like blocks of stuff around the page.
This would make for a really interesting journal. It can help people like me while learning a complex topic and seeing what road we have travelled.
from me.