From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Carsten Dominik Subject: Re: gnowsys-mode a major mode extending org Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:26:35 +0200 Message-ID: <06933A32-790C-4E25-9744-DA2CB22AA4F2@gmail.com> References: <20090930001940.GA22310@fencepost.gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MstaK-0008G9-14 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:26:48 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MstaF-0008Dq-SX for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:26:47 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=57387 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MstaF-0008Di-Jk for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:26:43 -0400 In-Reply-To: <20090930001940.GA22310@fencepost.gnu.org> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: "Nagarjuna G." Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Hi Nagarjuna, This sound very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing! - Carsten On Sep 30, 2009, at 2:19 AM, Nagarjuna G. wrote: > Dear orgmode developers and users > > This is a note to share with you our adventure with org. > > We, at gnowledge.org, began a project that extends orgmode (without > spoiling or loosing any of the orgmode features) to support > collaborative knowledge organization and networking using the GNOWSYS > storage on the server side. This is work in progress. I am writing > this note to inform you about the on going work, as well as to thank > you all, specially Carsten for creating an app that took Emacs to yet > another level. > > * What we are doing with orgmode: > > 1. We use Emacs as a client to collaboratively create, update > knowledge networks in plain text. The knowledge network is > created by adding nodes (rendered in orgmode as a note item) and > named relations between them (rendered in orgmode in the > properties drawer of the note item). The storage of the network > is compatible to RDF model of storing networks, though we do not > store or process XML either on the server side or on the client > side. Thus, every orgmode item is added in a form that can be > serialized as a RDF triple. Some examples given below. > > 2. We are using xmlrpc (xmlrpc.el), a builtin feature in Emacs, to > connect to GNOWSYS server. GNOWSYS publishes its API as > webservice (which has an API to perform the authentication, > search the knowledge base, return and update the nodes and its > properties.) > > 3. Each node when returned from the GNOWSYS server to the client > opens in a org buffer (temporary) as a note item. Since we > render the linkeddata in a text format orgmode renders everything > nicely. We have defined more types of links, extending the ones > available already, so that the linked nodes' URI is always > available. > > 4. Any text written below the drawers is stored as the value of an > attribute 'content' of the current node on the server side. > > 5. We are adding more and more functions to complete the entire > application, thanks to orgmode and Emacs, where difficult tasks > are tamed to such an extent, we are obviously excited! > > * What missing feature of orgmode will be available in gnowsys-mode > > We can do networking between items making frame based orgmode items > linked with any other items in any which way by explicitly naming > the relations. This feature makes orgmode ready for semantic > web. We plan to use the properties drawer to hold all the metadata > of each node. In-built version control of all notes as well as the > networks (a feature of GNOWSYS). Orgmode with the extensions that > we are applying can demonstrate how complex application data can be > represented and manipulated in plain text including semantic web. > > * What this extension may mean to the users of orgmode and others. > > These are the use cases for extended orgmode/gnowsys-mode: > > 1. Each note item (*) can be published at a remote server as a node, > with its content and properties stored as attributes. Thus all > data gets published on the server, though optionally the user can > save all data as text files on his/her PC. Published nodes > can be read and edited by others, allowing collaborative > authoring. Using this feature, we can use orgmode as a wiki > source file. > > 2. GNOWSYS supports version control of all changes made to the node, > thus changes can be tracked. No additional version control like > cvs, svn, git, bazaar etc. are required. (GNOWSYS should soon > support more functions to improve this.) Nothing is deleted from > the server. Nodes can be delinked or marked deleted, nodes with > deleted mark still exist on the server after making a new > snapshot of the node. > > 3. Ontologies or application schema can be made and published > collaboratively. This is useful as a semantic web > application. All this can be done without using XML on either > server side or client side, though we can import and export data > serialized in RDF format. This makes it a pure text based app > for semantic web. > > 4. Complex documents like courses, manuals, books can be written in > orgmode collaboratively with bibliogrpahy support etc. LaTeX and > DocBook export feature could make use of this to make orgmode as > a desktop publishing system supporting collaborative editing. (We > want to discuss this project with guidance from org team.) > > 5. Considering that a website is nothing but a set of complex > documents with internal as well as external hyperlinks, complete > website can be made, managed and published by orgmode with the > source code of the site completely encoded in text. > > 6. GNOWSYS is made for collaborative creation of semantic networks, > so this use case needs no more elaboration. Concept graphs, > mindmaps included. > > > We realize that much of the above use needs a good and advanced search > facility on the GNOWSYS side. Though crude search is possible now, > and integrated within gnowsys-mode, a lot of improvement is possible > here. > > The bleeding-edge gnowsys-mode can be obtained using "svn co > svn://svn.savannah.gnu.org/gnowsys/gnowsys-mode". > > Divya (a student hacker) did this project as her GSoC 2009 under Rajiv > and me as mentors. She keeps on updating with more and more functions > regularly. We will feel encouraged if some of you could try this and > send us feedback. As first time emacs-lisp hackers our code may not be > written elegantly. If you detect blunders do let us know. We already > learned a lot from the existing examples. > > gnowsys-mode will be demonstrated at ISWC 2009 to be held this October > near Washington for the semantic web community. If any of you are > aruond Washington/Virginia I would be glad to meetup. > > Thanks again for org! > > Nagarjuna > > > _______________________________________________ > Emacs-orgmode mailing list > Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. > Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode