Index cards in ebooks

Nabokov used them.

Wittgenstein did, too.

But only Niklas Luhmann made the humble index card his magnum opus. The German sociologist, who died 10 years ago, was 28 when he started to organise his first box of cards, or Zettelkasten. Marshall McLuhan declared the medium the message; Luhmann said: "I only think with my index card system." That system began simply enough: rather than being organised by theme, every index card carried a label that started with a number. If an entry got the number 57/12, for example, and took up more space than one card would allow, the second card would be 57/13. But if an observation within that first card led to a separate branch of thought, the index card would get the number 57/12a - which could run on to 57/12b.

Luhmann used the index cards to map out and develop ideas, thoughts and theories. He wound up with labels as long as 21/3d26g53 - the number of a card discussing his academic rival, Jurgen Habermas.The Zettelkasten reflected the structure of society, which, Luhmann argued, consists not of individuals or their actions, but of communication. Nor is modern society hierarchical, but divided into multiple, totally independent subsystems. The Zettelkasten allowed him to think about society in non-linear and non-hierarchical ways."We see ourselves as systems" he wrote - and the "we" referred to himself and his Zettelkasten. For Luhmann, the index card system was not only a work tool, but his "communication partner", as inspiring as any living person could be. It might sound an odd claim, but think of the surprises and delights our good friend Google coughs up every day and you'll realise that Luhmann was, in some ways, ahead of us all.

His disciples recognised this when they compared the Zettelkasten with the hypertext structure of the world wide web. It works more like a network than a book: no single text is more important than another, and the entries refer to each other by links. Easy enough, one would think, to transfer the Zettelkasten to the virtual world. In 1988, an interviewer asked Luhmann if he ever thought about that. "For my 10 metres of densely noted index cards", Luhmann answered, "computers came too late."

definingmoment@ft.com Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts - PHONEREADER Library - - Jean-Philippe Pastor

Hypertext structure history

Nabokov used them. Wittgenstein did, too. But only Niklas Luhmann made the humble index card his magnum opus.

The German sociologist, who died 10 years ago, was 28 when he started to organise his first box of cards, or Zettelkasten. Marshall McLuhan declared the medium the message; Luhmann said: "I only think with my index card system."

That system began simply enough: rather than being organised by theme, every index card carried a label that started with a number. If an entry got the number 57/12, for example, and took up more space than one card would allow, the second card would be 57/13. But if an observation within that first card led to a separate branch of thought, the index card would get the number 57/12a - which could run on to 57/12b.

Luhmann used the index cards to map out and develop ideas, thoughts and theories. He wound up with labels as long as 21/3d26g53 - the number of a card discussing his academic rival, Jurgen Habermas.

The Zettelkasten reflected the structure of society, which, Luhmann argued, consists not of individuals or their actions, but of communication. Nor is modern society hierarchical, but divided into multiple, totally independent subsystems. The Zettelkasten allowed him to think about society in non-linear and non-hierarchical ways.

"We see ourselves as systems," he wrote - and the "we" referred to himself and his Zettelkasten. For Luhmann, the index card system was not only a work tool, but his "communication partner", as inspiring as any living person could be. It might sound an odd claim, but think of the surprises and delights our good friend Google coughs up every day and you'll realise that Luhmann was, in some ways, ahead of us all.

His disciples recognised this when they compared the Zettelkasten with the hypertext structure of the world wide web. It works more like a network than a book: no single text is more important than another, and the entries refer to each other by links.

Easy enough, one would think, to transfer the Zettelkasten to the virtual world. In 1988, an interviewer asked Luhmann if he ever thought about that. "For my 10 metres of densely noted index cards", Luhmann answered, "computers came too late."

definingmoment@ft.com

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts - PHONEREADER Library - - Jean-Philippe Pastor

Linking classics with maps

Gutenkarte is a site that uses Metacarta's geo text mining engine to link classic works from Project Gutenberg to accompanying maps.

How often have you read a book and wondered about where it took place and how long it might have taken to get from here to there? Schuyler's demo, showing Thucydides' classic The History of the Peloponnesian Wars, accompanied by a map showing the locations mentioned in the text, suggests how useful MetaCarta's technology is in automatically adding geo-annotation to texts.

Gutenkarte is build in part with Openlayers.org, Metacarta's open source toolkit for associating a map with any web page.

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts -

PHONEREADER Library - - Jean-Philippe Pastor

Content no more

Is The Web Still The Web?

Linked by David Adams on Sat 5th Jul 2008 04:57 UTC, submitted by snydeq

Neil McAllister raises questions regarding the Web now that it no longer resembles Tim Berners-Lee's early vision: Is the Web still the Web if you can't navigate directly to specific content? If the content can't be indexed and searched? If you can't view source? In other words, McAllister writes, if today's RIAs no longer resemble the 'Web,' then should we be shoehorning them into the Web's infrastructure, or is the problem that the client platforms simply aren't evolving fast enough to meet our needs.

Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/ - See that post with different algorithms in metabole - See the journal French Metablog with today different posts - Jean-Philippe Pastor