digital-garden(5/0)
Reasons to migrate to a digital garden
In December I will make a change to the structure of my website that will break nearly every existing link. Here’s why. My website has evolved out of my own emerging needs. By now it’s become a small ecosystem of web pages and services, only a portion of which are used by my Internet buddies. It began in 2019 for two purposes: an outlet to continue a writing habit started in my MBA program, and a place to share our family’s experiences for posterity.…
Define fluid and stable content
There are two elemental types of content in any digital garden: fluid and stable. Gardeners will make their own distinctions about the two, but a distinction is necessary because of the differing approaches one might take with entry and upkeep. To merge these types into the same workflow invites confusion. Fluid content is in-progress. It’s unpolished, uncategorized raw material. It might comprise a bookmark to an online article, a wild thought jotted down while walking, a journal entry, or a project status update.…
Gardens as networks of private insight
Andy’s site, referred to as “working notes”, construct a “thinking environment” that Andy uses to generate his own content About these notes. He does encorporate external resources, but these are secondary to his own writing and typically consist of links rather than unique objects. Subjects are explores in sections, marked with a ‘§’. The way Andy organizes these into collections is by section (or MOC). The relationships become a network, not by accidental inclusion into the same tag group, but by deliberate referencing and backreferencing.…
Define fluid and stable content
There are two elemental types of content in any digital garden: fluid and stable. Gardeners will make their own distinctions about the two, but a distinction is necessary because of the differing approaches one might take with entry and upkeep. To merge these types into the same workflow invites confusion. Fluid content is in-progress. It’s unpolished, uncategorized raw material. It might comprise a bookmark to an online article, a wild thought jotted down while walking, a journal entry, or a project status update.…
Gardens As museums of other's content
Nick Trombly organizes his content by tag and author. There are nuances, but a typical page shows all the content he’s collected on the subject, such as anxiety. By contrast, Andy Matuschak organizes his notes by hyperlink reference. The typical page shows a single note, with the option to display references to and references from side-by-side, such as Evergreen notes. Nick’s site, identified as a commonplace book, contains little of his own writing.…