Pile of Index Cards System

Pile of Index Cards System (PoIC)

This is a note taking system using index cards.  I’m copying this down because the original website and wiki for the PoIC system are gone and most other sites just refer to it with a now dead link.

How it works
Hawk describes four types of cards in his system:

The Record Card. He describes it as “a diary, note, account, health, weather, cook, any kind of records about us belongs to this class.” I’d say this is the incoming “stuff” of the day: appointments, notes to follow up on, etc.
The Discover Card. Hawk describes the Discover Card as “Things from my brain, mind, spirit, anything emerge from inside me, are classified into this class.” This is the result of a mind dump. Don’t worry about classifying when filling out a Discover Card. Just get whatever is on your mind out and onto paper.
The GTD Card. Here he combines the title of a project and several actions that pertain to it (here’s a look at the template in English). This reminds me of the “Hipstper PDA Template” I used religiously about 10 years ago.
The Cite Card captures other people’s ideas that warrant attention. He says, “Important here is distinguishing ‘your idea (Discovery Card)’ and ‘someone else’s idea (Cite Card).’ Source of the information must be included in the Cite Card. A book, for example, author, year, page(s) are recorded for later use.”

In essence this is a Commonplace book broken up into card sized chunks.

Speculation:  You could probably make a digital version of this system much like Cyberzettel.com using Wordpress.

 

Ideas for using wiki scripts in websites

  1. Wiki’s are often used to build digital gardens or commonplace book.
  2. Wiki’s can be used as a knowledge base or instruction manual.
  3. You could use a wiki to make a directory that is less hierarchical than a traditional directory.
  4. You could use a wiki to make a local guide or a local tourist guide or travel guide or bike/hike trail guide.
  5. Wiki would work for a local restaurant review site.
  6. Recipe site.
  7. Product review site.
  8. Memoir – so many of our memories are incident by incident.  You could use a wiki as sort of a non-linear memoir.  (A zettelkasten would also work.)

Add other ideas.

 

Stand alone wiki scripts:

I only have a little experience with 2:  Doku wiki and Media Wiki.  For a wiki by an individual I think Doku is a better choice, because Doku uses a flat file database which will be way more durable over the long run.

MediaWiki (used by Wikipedia and Indieweb.org)  can scale very large.  Good for a membership editied wiki,  but most individuals do not need that kinda scale.

Plugins for WordPress.

There are many wiki plugins for *Press.  If you are already using Wordpress/ClassicPress (*Press) then adding a  wiki plugin might be the easiest way to establish a wiki as opposed to installing a stand alone script.

Yada Wiki is the plugin that always catches my eye, although I have no experience with it.

Redoing or Rearranging My Blogs

My current blog problem:

  1. I like micro blogging on Micro.blog and I like the community there.  But I don’t like the work flow of writing and posting long form blog posts on Micro.blog.
  2. I hate micro blogging on WordPress.  But I prefer WordPress and it’s full features for long form blog posts.  Plus I like the ready availability of plugins to extend the platform.

My current everything blog is on Micro.blog (long and short form) and I may have to split that, keeping the MB blog for short blogging (and community) and establish a new *Press blog for long form stuff.

Must ponder.

Adding a Chronological Sort order Journal by Category

I found two WordPress plugins that change the sort order of a category (not the whole installation) to a chronological sort order.  These will also work with ClassicPress.

 

It appears these will both do about the same thing.

What I like:

  1. By enabling chronological post order this emulates a paper journal, diary, book, log book (think ship’s log).  This is the reverse of and distinct from a blog.
  2. You can do just a category not the whole CMS installation.  So a blog or a digital zettelkasten  and a journal can exist on the same ClassicPress or WP instance.
  3. One is not limited to a journal.  One could web publish a book.
  4. The thought of doing something fictional comes to mind.  A. a Lovecraftian type journal wherein the narrator starts investigating strange eldrich events and ends up a gibbering madman, or  B.  some sort of serial hard boiled noir story.

I’m thinking about how this would fit in here on the cyberzettel.  A Zettelkasten is non-linear by design but there is also a use for linear note keeping (ie. reacting to news events of the day,  organizing ones short term plans for the next day or something like that.)

It could turn just a zettelkasten into more of a digital garden model.  It certainly adds options.

There is also something to be said for an end of the day personal log which can act as a daily debriefing session.