The real super-power feature missing from Roam Research?

My public Roam Research notebook being able to converse with someone elses’ (or any other page on the internet for that matter). Webmention support might solve this.

(See also related conversation at https://boffosocko.com/2020/12/09/55782252/)

Replied to a tweet (Twitter)
I sort of like the idea of networked thought via digital commonplace books. Being able to carry on longer conversations between notebooks in a sense. It shouldn’t matter how long or short the conversation is.

I attempt to do this with my own website(s) leveraging Webmentions for the back-and-forth portions. Twitter is often just a simple notification mechanism for those who don’t have that support yet.

User Interfaces for Networked Thought

Tantek Çelik (), in IndieWeb Chat
Kevin Marks (), in IndieWeb Chat


These two quotes provide an interesting framing for comparing and contrasting the UI and functionality for the way that feed readers, email, and blogging (or more broadly networked thinking and communication) work.

Modern social readers provide a reply button and functionality along with the broadcast capabilities. Throw in the idea of person-tagging, and one has the ability to generally broadcast a message to anyone who cares to read (either by search or subscription), as well as to send notifications to specific people (or perhaps groups) that might be interested in the specific message.

Four: Networked Thinking

Handwritten commonplaces could be a person’s own version of “networked thinking” and mode of creation. So why not take the additional step further and have a digital online commonplace?

#HeyPresstoConf20


The ability to tag, hyperlink, and search sites adds to their general usability in a way that traditional handwritten commonplace books lacked.