Typology of notes in a Collaborative Research Workspace

Typology of notes in a Collaborative Research Workspace

⇒ (this link is only for use within the ESDiT vault)
Understanding the various ways in which a "CReW" can work, requires getting clear about the distinct functions that notes can serve. This helps to explain, for example, where the overlap is with a "Wiki", and how a CReW can be something more than that.

Table of Contents (with links to headings below)

• For the consortium as a whole, the initial priority for notes in esditCReW are: ontology notes (key concepts), affiliation notes (for finding members and groups), and literature notes (for modular, initial results).

• For creative collaborative work, the

• [[#TRANSIENT NOTES]]

  • [[#brainstorm notes]] #noteType/brainstorm
  • [[#log notes]] #noteType/log

• [[#CONTENT NOTES]]

  • [[#literature notes]] #noteType/literature
  • [[#proper-noun notes]] #noteType/properNoun
  • [[#statement notes]] #noteType/statement
  • [[#question notes]] #noteType/question

• [[#STRUCTURE NOTES]]

  • [[#affiliation notes]] #noteType/affiliation
  • [[#navigation notes]] #noteType/navigation
  • [[#ontology notes]] #noteType/ontology
  • [[#topic notes]] #noteType/topic

• [[#RESOURCES NOTES]]

  • [[#SOP notes Standard Operating Procedures]] #noteType/SOP
  • [[#source notes]] #noteType/source

TRANSIENT NOTES

Writing notes is often part of a process, where the notes are later discarded. The esditCReW can be a context for these (in clearly designated spaces), but the primary aim is the cumulative accomulation and organization of knowledge and insight. This is not what transient notes accomplish. But they can still be important to the process.

• Transient notes are "fleeting", ephemeral, or temporary notes.
• Andy Matuschak distinquishes Evergreen notes from "transient" notes, and they are sometimes refered to as "permanent notes", but talk of notes being permanent or evergreen can be off-putting. Still, the point about focusing on cumulative progress is crucial.

brainstorm notes

many of the notes we write are for the purpose of getting out thoughts clear. As E.M. Forster once wrote, "How do I know what I think until I see what I say?" In a collaborative context, fleeting notes can be useful, but it is important that they are regularly revisited and "mined" for ideas that make it into content notes.

log notes

• Journaling or time-tracking is something that many people find useful, and there may be a way to integrate them into content notes, for example. As with transient notes more generally, the value comes from revising them
• "To do" are a form of log notes, particularly once they are completed. Obsidian allows you to format them as follows, so that the checkbox can be crossed off later (using the plugin "Checklist" or the very sophisticated "Kanban" plugins).

CONTENT NOTES

literature notes:

LitNotes comprise the classic case, based on Luhmann's Zettelkasten approach
- these are NOT clippings are quotes!
- they are interpretive reports and commentaries on sources, attempts to distill ideas, draw implications
- they do contain the necessary bibliographic information

proper-noun notes:

These are notes for people, places, universities, organizations, authors
- Do theoretical approaches or schools of thought belong here? Perhaps.
- Closely related to "ontological" structure notes (see below)

statement notes:

These become the titles of assertoric "statement notes" or assertoric notes;
- they are assertions that serve as the basis for notes in which a specific, relatively "atomic" idea is fleshed out.
- these are sometimes answers to question notes

session notes

During workshops, conferences, or meetings, it might be useful to document what has been accomplished. These are distinguished from log notes by the fact that they are intended as "minutes" or "protocol notes" that document ongoing activities

question notes:

These become the titles of interrogative notes. I like to call these "Zettelfragen" #author/Anderson
- What is the relationship of notes with research questions to notes with the answers?
- My sense is that question notes or "interrogative notes" should link to notes containing the answers, but retain their modularity: there can be multiple answers to the same question, and multiple questions for which a statement note contains answers.

Thoughts on different layers of research questions

One specific set of high-level question notes are research questions. It is useful to distinguish three “layers” of research questions within ESDiT:

• The general, guiding “ESDiT questions” for each track in a research line.
  • Example: ESDiT Research Line - The Human Condition
• “Line/Track questions” for the different aspects each research line or track (say, 5 questions about understanding and assessing F&S SDTs, and 5 for F&S methods, and 5 for F&S concept change)
• More specific research questions are "Project questions", which are related to particular initiatives, including cross-research-line initiatives.

STRUCTURE NOTES

Some of these notes are for organizational purporses, regarding the infrastructure of the esditCReW. Note that tags are different, and function in s approached as: Tags are best used for convocation and function-designation

affiliation notes:

Affliation notes are for identifying and documenting connections between people: research collaborators, personal contacts, organizational units, teams, partner organizations, etc.

• These include "Who's who" notes, and the directory of ESDiT consortium members
• Within the esditCReW, they include the notes for groups or projects

navigation notes:

These become the titles of navigation notes, which serve primarily to help you find your way from one note to another, or to strengthen the bridges between notes, or clusters of notes
- These navigation notes serve as formal indexes
- Folders function in similar ways
- Best practice: navigation notes containing searches (using dyamic queries or plugins such as Text Expander or Dataview)
- The design of navigational notes should take into account what allows the graph function to deliver useful results.
- Like physical landmarks, navigation notes should be prominent in the folder structure and the Obsidian graph

ontology notes:

• These are notes about key concepts and terms; they refer to the "ontologies" or vocabulary that one wants to use regularly.
• These are important for standardizing usage. This is why autocomplete is so important to use heavily in a collaborative research Workspace: If you have a keyword that you think is being used somewhere, start first by typing [[ - and this auto-magically reveals the titles of many links alread in the what Obsidian refers to a the "vault" of notes.

topic notes:

These are placeholder-buckets in which links to notes are brought together, with some commentary.
This can also be used for a domain of inquiry.
These become the titles of topics notes
- Nick Milo (founder of Linking Your Thinking) refers to these as "Maps of Content", which captures the breadth of topic notes.

• These always contain subparts, as well as connections to more specific notes

RESOURCES NOTES

These are not actually notes that express content creation, but serve as references for other work.

SOP notes (Standard Operating Procedures)

These notes should be tagged with #SOP, be put in a separate folder, and should start with "How to …"

• e.g.: How to make a literature note

source notes:

These are not actually notes, because they come from someone else; they are distinct from These don't usually start out within the system of notes; they are clippings that, like files, are points of reference, located elsewhere.