Zettlekasten

There are 24 posts filed in Zettlekasten (this is page 2 of 3).

OPML Zettelkasten Update – Day 6

Still managed to add over 10 links again to my ZK file (open tabs and some old links). As I have been going through my old links, I find that not all of them are worth saving – I guess that is a consequence of review/curation. I was able to get a start on a Hugo-based ZK site (see it in action here). I was able to get the Activism section added, will probably migrate one section a day. I will be creating a document soon on the setup.

A reader has suggested another ZK tool – Zettelstore – I will take a look at that soon.

OPML Zettelkasten Update – Day 5

I was able to add over 10 links again to my ZK file (open tabs and from some searching to answer a question). I created two sub-categories under the Tools category, will see how that goes. I thought some about social bookmarking site Pinboard, and did some searching to see if there were other sites like it (that maybe I could use as a model or example), but this page was typical (Twitter/Pinterest/etc). That was not the thing I had in mind – oh well. I am still planning on duplicating the ZK OPML file using Markdown files and Hugo, will keep you posted

OPML Zettelkasten Update – Day 4

I was able to add over 10 links today to my ZK file (today from my big link list and some open tabs). I created at least two more categories, and I like seeing my ZK growing. If I keep up this pace, I will have over 300 links in a month organized by categories and tags. Still ahead: duplicating the ZK using Markdown files and Hugo, and also playing with XSLT files to transform my OPML ZK into a tag-based ZK. I hope to make some progress on this during the weekend!

Another thought: when I started a work weblog, it was work at first. Once I got into the swing of things (adding more content), it became more and more useful. As I have been blogging more over the past two weeks, I find I am linking back to previous posts where I have “done some digging” in the past. My point is this – what you get out of something depends on what you put into it. Adding 10 links a day to my ZK seems doable, and I am creating a resource for myself (and others) that will be useful in the future. 

OPML Zettelkasten Update – Day 3

I was able to add another 10 links today to my ZK file (mostly taken from yesterday’s posts – it was EASY to copy outline headlines from other OPML files in the Drummer editor). I then had enough subject headings that I decided to re-arrange the order to be alphabetical. Of course, this was EASY in the Drummer outliner, so yay for that too. Just a note to pass on – the little orange XML icon in the upper right corner of the ZK page shows the raw OPML of the file.

I was able to make progress on the Markdown front, in that I FINALLY got the Hugo static site generator to render a site for the theme I wanted to use. Yesterday, I was struggling with configuration files and setup, and then found this page from Bryce Wray acknowledging that the Hugo Quick Start page needs some updates (at least for Windows users like me – YESSSS!). Also, I became aware of the fact that many Hugo themes have an “exampleSite” folder built in the theme directory, and I found a post from Infinite Ink describing how to get that to render in the Hugo development server (another YESSSS! can you tell I was a little frustrated?). My hope is to have a parallel zettelkasten using Markdown files by the weekend.

OPML Zettelkasten Update – Day 2

I was able to add another 10 links to my ZK OPML file (did you like how I shortened that name?), have noticed a few workflow things in these first two days. First, I am assigning links under a category outline heading, but I am also adding link for each item and usually have at least two tags per link. Second, Drummer usually allows me to select text by click/drag when I start editing, but at some point, I have to enter links manually (adding a href tag, etc). This is a drag, but I am pushing on. Third, I started by reviewing feeds in my reading list app, added those first to the ZK file, then added other saved links until I got to my goal of 10 links.

So far, adding 10 links at a time is taking at least 30-45 minutes. I am not sure if I can keep up that pace, but again I am pushing on – time will tell.

I have looked over several themes for the Hugo static site generator as a tool for using Markdown files for a zettelkasten, my initial choice will be the Fluency theme (Github, demo), as it seems to feature the ability to display content by tags.

Some links of note for ZK info that I found during my Hugo search (guess I will have to add these to my ZK file!):

Starting my OPML zettelkasten

As mentioned in my post yesterday about an open zettelkasten, I proposed using OPML and Markdown files to capture info. I am starting with using OPML to create a collections of links and analysis. I am using the Drummer outliner by Dave Winer to create the OPML file, and a Drummer feature to display the file openly on the web (see here to review the outline). In the outline, links are grouped by topic, but I am also using Drummer to edit the attributes of the individual entries to add the attribute “tags” and to set that attribute to one or more tags as appropriate. I hope to develop some XSLT style sheets soon to be able to provide visibility into the entries by tag groupings. My goal is to add 10 links a day (I have thousands!) and see where it takes me. Other thoughts:/ideas: archive the OPML on Github, same for the Markdown files.

Feel free to contact me with ideas/comments/links/whatever!