Launch HN: Athens Research (YC W21) – Open-Source Roam Research
152 comments
A few alternatives in this space:
org-roam https://www.orgroam.com/
tiddlyroam https://tiddlyroam.org/
Dendron https://dendron.so/
Foam https://foambubble.github.io/foam/
Remnote https://www.remnote.io/
Obsidian https://obsidian.md/
logseq https://logseq.com/
Not an expert with them at all. I've never had a desire to dig into all their complexity, but some are pretty passionate about it.
org-roam https://www.orgroam.com/
tiddlyroam https://tiddlyroam.org/
Dendron https://dendron.so/
Foam https://foambubble.github.io/foam/
Remnote https://www.remnote.io/
Obsidian https://obsidian.md/
logseq https://logseq.com/
Not an expert with them at all. I've never had a desire to dig into all their complexity, but some are pretty passionate about it.
My dream would be seamless interoperation between all these tools. Would also mean better 'competition', easier to convince people to try them, avoiding lock-in in one tool, etc etc.
For some tools it's already possible to interoperate -- for them would be nice to have summaries on what are the caveats (e.g. would the tool format my whole note base? would it break any special syntax imposed by the other tool? etc etc)
For some tools it's already possible to interoperate -- for them would be nice to have summaries on what are the caveats (e.g. would the tool format my whole note base? would it break any special syntax imposed by the other tool? etc etc)
I've been thinking of a tool to generate a kind of schema for a website, similar to RDF[0] or JSON-LD[1]. The end goal of this would be interoperability between tools - ideally I could browse HN and other related sites or forums in my RSS reader with a unified interface, or translate the Roam note format into the Athens equivalent to use with either.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework
[1] https://json-ld.org/
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework
[1] https://json-ld.org/
To me RSS is exactly that. I don't see the advantage of converting an HTML to RDF because it would cover the entire spectrum. All the semantics might be lost. RSS is the smallest common denominator. If you agree somehow, you might be interested in that tool [0], it converts HTML to RSS using pattern matching.
[0] https://github.com/damoeb/rss-proxy
[0] https://github.com/damoeb/rss-proxy
Sorry, RSS was probably a bad example. I meant that I could have One Interface to Rule Them All, seamless collaboration between similar tools (e.g. viewing repositories on Github and Gitlab in a single application, or ordering a few items from a few different sites in a single place). I think the problem today is that data between websites is disjointed and not interoperable with other sites; my solution would be to build a tool that generates a kind of formula for conversion from multiple sites, such as Github and Gitlab, to a standard format, which can then be consumed by an application. Data and features wouldn't be mapped one-to-one, which is probably one of the larger problems.
The tool looks fantastic though, thanks for sharing.
The tool looks fantastic though, thanks for sharing.
Similar tool for "RSS from any page": https://github.com/taroved/pol#readme
Not sure what are the differences though
Not sure what are the differences though
I did not know this one. The difference is that the first one extracts the feeds automatically, the second one not. Here the user has to define everything.
As it turns out there is already a tool [0] for my original idea which I just discovered today [1].
[0] https://github.com/inkandswitch/cambria [1] https://www.inkandswitch.com/cambria.html
[0] https://github.com/inkandswitch/cambria [1] https://www.inkandswitch.com/cambria.html
That setup would also be a defense against potential bad actors acquiring one of the tools and somehow adding malicious code to it, so then people are quickly mobile to move to a comparable; like with the recent situation with The Great Suspender extension.
logseq seems to support markdown and org-mode :)
Sadly the transclusions ("Block embed") are not supported by any non-roam tools.
Sadly the transclusions ("Block embed") are not supported by any non-roam tools.
RemNote looks good. From the FAQ
Data Ownership: You own your data - always. You'll be able to export all data in its raw state and import it to another tool.
Free Access Guarantee: We'll always provide a feature-rich, free-for-life version of RemNote. Current users will never be asked to pay for any feature they're already using, in the feature's current state.
Guaranteed Access Clause: In the extremely unlikely event that RemNote ever winds down (don't worry - we are 100% committed and fully expect and plan to be here for the long-haul), we will release all code into an open source project. You could run RemNote as a local desktop app (RemNote already works fully offline) and/or the open source community could host RemNote independently.
Data Ownership: You own your data - always. You'll be able to export all data in its raw state and import it to another tool.
Free Access Guarantee: We'll always provide a feature-rich, free-for-life version of RemNote. Current users will never be asked to pay for any feature they're already using, in the feature's current state.
Guaranteed Access Clause: In the extremely unlikely event that RemNote ever winds down (don't worry - we are 100% committed and fully expect and plan to be here for the long-haul), we will release all code into an open source project. You could run RemNote as a local desktop app (RemNote already works fully offline) and/or the open source community could host RemNote independently.
The most interesting thing about this for me (as somebody who already uses TiddlyWiki and is just curious about features) is the ability to easily make flashcards from components of your zettelkasten.
I already use Anki heavily for studies that require it but integration would be even more powerful - copying text snippets from a zettelkasten to Anki is unsolving the problem that knowledge-map systems are trying to solve. I’m surprised I haven’t seen a feature or plugin like this for Roam/Obsidian/TW.
I already use Anki heavily for studies that require it but integration would be even more powerful - copying text snippets from a zettelkasten to Anki is unsolving the problem that knowledge-map systems are trying to solve. I’m surprised I haven’t seen a feature or plugin like this for Roam/Obsidian/TW.
If you already use both TiddlyWiki and Anki, check out my TiddlyRemember plugin: https://sobjornstad.github.io/TiddlyRemember/
And a "few" more here https://www.notion.so/Artificial-Brain-Networked-with-linear... ;)
Wow, I was a little thrown by the wink and the introduction to this notepage but after briefly scrolling I have to say this is quite inspired, thank you for sharing this research
+1 for Logseq. Data lives locally (either Markdown or Org-mode), it's open source and moving very fast
+1 for Obsidian. Have been using it for a few months now. Can vouch of it!
I've been loving Foam as it lives inside VSCode, where I spend most of my days anyway. Obsidian was nice too, but I ended up moving back to Foam. The only feature I wish Foam had is to apply force directed layouts to only selected nodes at a time.
This is amazing. I like Roam Research but I refuse to give full control of something so important to any third party. At this point we have all experienced what it is like to give the control over your digital life to FAANG-like entities with priorities other than their own users well-being. We can and should ask for better.
If it will be my second brain (please note how important this sounds), what I want is to be able to be in full control of the data I generated with it.
I'd happily pay for an Open Source SaaS service from which I can download my data and use it in my own computer/server if I wish to do so, much like Sentry or Strapi.
Edit: Clarity, grammar and spelling
If it will be my second brain (please note how important this sounds), what I want is to be able to be in full control of the data I generated with it.
I'd happily pay for an Open Source SaaS service from which I can download my data and use it in my own computer/server if I wish to do so, much like Sentry or Strapi.
Edit: Clarity, grammar and spelling
You can export everything from roam in json or markup... does that basically not suffice?
Have you actually looked at what's exported? You need to do a lot of parsing, and modifying before that content is usable...
Someone could write a viewer, or converter for this format? Should be simpler than writing a new creation app.
You could, but why? I wrote a small package to automate my backups, and transform the content into something readable for myself. It's far from feature complete, even for my simple personal use.
But if you're doing a complete read-only copy of roam, why not go all the way and make it editable, and compete with them instead?
But if you're doing a complete read-only copy of roam, why not go all the way and make it editable, and compete with them instead?
If, like OP, you are concerned about the closed nature of Roam, you could make that converter instead of a replacement for Roam.
You could say openness is “a feature, not a product”, and it’s a feature that could be retrofitted.
You could say openness is “a feature, not a product”, and it’s a feature that could be retrofitted.
You could, yeah.
You could put in a lot of work, just for read-only feature parity.
Or you could work some more, and have a competing product.
You seem adamant, that the former is a better path, but I don't quite see why would you do all that work for naught.
(Roam already broke my backup script 2 times, and there are better uses of my time than interfacing with a proprietary product, if there are better alternatives.)
You could put in a lot of work, just for read-only feature parity.
Or you could work some more, and have a competing product.
You seem adamant, that the former is a better path, but I don't quite see why would you do all that work for naught.
(Roam already broke my backup script 2 times, and there are better uses of my time than interfacing with a proprietary product, if there are better alternatives.)
I'd say a parser is an order of magnitude less work, but if someone wants to make a full product I'm not going to try to stop them.
That's fine. I'm quite happy with roam, I have the exports if I ever need them.
> I have the exports if I ever need them.
Do yourself a favor and check if the exports actually have what you need, before blindly trusting it.
Do yourself a favor and check if the exports actually have what you need, before blindly trusting it.
That's as useful as exporting your excel sheets into CSV or exporting your Google takeout backup. Yes you have your data, but can you do anything useful and continue working with it without a big deal of effort? I'd also like to continue working in the same learned workflow/method after I take my data.
I don't particularly want to spend ages trying to find "perfect" when roam is "good" enough. The chances of roam disappearing over night are pretty slim and I take weekly backups of my data from them. Worst comes to the worst I'll dump it into a directory and grep for what I'm looking for.
One more point: the exported data in markdown (and maybe in json too) is lossy. It's not just that the you can't use it out of the box, but that significant parts of it are missing as well.
Roam has plans for offline-only storage.
Is that out of beta and working now? Also is it still only available in the $500 (?) dollar plan or what ever it was?
Nope and yes!
I am just pointing out that closed source doesn't necessarily mean 'not in control of your data'.
I am just pointing out that closed source doesn't necessarily mean 'not in control of your data'.
True. And too bad, would give it a try again otherwise.
Jeff (@tangjeff), Im sure you're already familiar with Tiddlywiki[1]. How does this compare/draw from/improve/etc on that?
For those who arent familiar with TW, I encourage you to check it out. Its one of the original bi-directional linked, open-sourced, graph-based (as revealed with TiddlyMap plugin, though not using a graph database) note-taking apps that is completely customizable.
It was recently posted and discussed on HN as well [2][3].
[1] https://tiddlywiki.com/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25527581 [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?q=tiddlywiki
For those who arent familiar with TW, I encourage you to check it out. Its one of the original bi-directional linked, open-sourced, graph-based (as revealed with TiddlyMap plugin, though not using a graph database) note-taking apps that is completely customizable.
It was recently posted and discussed on HN as well [2][3].
[1] https://tiddlywiki.com/ [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25527581 [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?q=tiddlywiki
Not him, but I used TW extensively. The problem was the entire wiki is in one HTML file (which is impressive), but it did not scale with additional image tiddlers. At some point it would just not load. There is a separate NodeJS hosted version which I ran for a year, but it had memory issues. (Again, probably tied to the number of images). I totally get it's mainly for notes, but I'm lazy and sometimes I paste snippets from papers rather than rewrite them, so it balloons easily.
It's fantastic software, though!
It's fantastic software, though!
I solve that issue by putting all my images in a folder and referencing them with a filepath. Not quite as portable as a single html file containing images but as somebody not planning to regularly send it to friends it gives a lot of flexibility to alter and change images easily, just add to the folder and reference.
I've tried to use TiddleWiki, and while it's an impressive piece of software, it suffers from the same issue many other community-run open source software does: it's ugly, and hard to use.
Yeah, I get it, there are themes and plugins, but still, all of them are ugly.
And that's just the surface, I've had a few deeper complaints too.
Yeah, I get it, there are themes and plugins, but still, all of them are ugly.
And that's just the surface, I've had a few deeper complaints too.
The first time I used Tiddly years ago, the UX never resonated with me so I wasn't able to get over the learning curve.
More recently, one of our users gave me a pretty detailed tour of their Tiddly, which shares sentiments of the other commenters. Single file is great until it's not. Lots of plugins but requires manual config. Needing to startup a server to collaborate wasn't great.
What "killer features" do you think Tiddly has?
More recently, one of our users gave me a pretty detailed tour of their Tiddly, which shares sentiments of the other commenters. Single file is great until it's not. Lots of plugins but requires manual config. Needing to startup a server to collaborate wasn't great.
What "killer features" do you think Tiddly has?
I use Roam, and I've had my eye on your project for many months now, so I'm super excited to see you come so far. I'm also passionate about privacy and having control over my data - IIRC the way Roam handles image uploads is by uploading the image to firebase and giving you a link that anyone can use to view your image, with no way to delete that image, so you just have to trust in the 'unlisted' nature of the link. Not a big fan of this.
One thing I think was missing when I last looked at Athens was a working high-fidelity import of a Roam EDN export - without this I can't see an easy way to migrate, and I'm guessing there are other Roam users in the same boat? I'm sure it'll come along, until then I'll sit tight in anticipation :)
One thing I think was missing when I last looked at Athens was a working high-fidelity import of a Roam EDN export - without this I can't see an easy way to migrate, and I'm guessing there are other Roam users in the same boat? I'm sure it'll come along, until then I'll sit tight in anticipation :)
EDN import is done, just want to improve performance in Athens as most Roam dbs are bigger. I know Roam users will have higher expectations :)
https://github.com/athensresearch/athens/pull/561
https://github.com/athensresearch/athens/pull/561
!! the day has come :)
This is amazing. Until very recently the only tree structure "outliners" I found somewhat viable were Workflowy, Dynalist, Roam and Transno, all of which are proprietary.
Logseq eventually added an open source option, but that it fails to keep sub trees collapsed pretty much kills it.
My current favorite note applications are Dynalist and Workflowy, but during my use I have always had a bad stomach feeling about privacy, inability to use it for work related stuff and always thought "this needs some features breaking out of the tree structure".
I'm not entirely sure Athens is trying to be exactly what I'm thinking of here, but getting competition in the space is great.
Logseq eventually added an open source option, but that it fails to keep sub trees collapsed pretty much kills it.
My current favorite note applications are Dynalist and Workflowy, but during my use I have always had a bad stomach feeling about privacy, inability to use it for work related stuff and always thought "this needs some features breaking out of the tree structure".
I'm not entirely sure Athens is trying to be exactly what I'm thinking of here, but getting competition in the space is great.
I'm wondering how much of this can be implemented as a simple CLI tool that rebuilds a document graph by looking into a directory full of Markdown or Org notes. Ripgrep is certainly fast enough to perform search like that, without any index. That's how some Zettelkasten-like addons perform search on top of an Org directory.
Having passed on backing Roam Research multiple times[1], which proved to be a mistake[2], YC now funds a competitor that is quite explicitly a clone.
That said, all the best to the Athens Research team.
[1] https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1229978388787384320?s=20 [2] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/a-200-million-seed-v...
That said, all the best to the Athens Research team.
[1] https://twitter.com/Conaw/status/1229978388787384320?s=20 [2] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/a-200-million-seed-v...
Athens has been incredible for me over the past week, as someone that has bounced around using Workflowy, Dynalist, and Obsidian.
The great outliner features of the first two, and the backlinking and graphing of Obsidian. My only real reservation is that files are not in Markdown. Is there a plan to address that, or is a DB central to the architecture? Currently using LogSeq because of this but eager to switch.
The great outliner features of the first two, and the backlinking and graphing of Obsidian. My only real reservation is that files are not in Markdown. Is there a plan to address that, or is a DB central to the architecture? Currently using LogSeq because of this but eager to switch.
Yes! Good import/export functionality is important. Ultimately, it would be awesome if there was direct serialization between our database and markdown. This would allow seamless "import", the same way Obsidian/Foam/Zettlr are directly interchangeable.
What do you see as the advantages vs. Zettlr? I haven't got to a point where perf seems to be an issue that would require a real graph database and having your knowledgebase just be a collection of markdown files is the ultimate in local first no lock-in portability.
The current major difference between markdown-based and db-based apps is block references. Over time, the difference will become significant as knowledge bases grow in size.
CSV -> Excel -> SQL -> Distributed Cloud DBs
Furthermore, our database supports data types, including numbers, dates, etc. I don't think any networked notetaking app has executed well on tables and non-string types. UX for tables is generally not great for markdown.
CSV -> Excel -> SQL -> Distributed Cloud DBs
Furthermore, our database supports data types, including numbers, dates, etc. I don't think any networked notetaking app has executed well on tables and non-string types. UX for tables is generally not great for markdown.
> The current major difference between markdown-based and db-based apps is block references. Over time, the difference will become significant as knowledge bases grow in size.
That should be true, but so far it is Roam with the biggest problems with performance, from 30+ seconds of loading each time you load/refresh tab to constant lags in normal usage for some users :)
I personally like the most this mixed approach of Logseq - app internally uses DataScript, but data is ultimately stored in plain files.
That should be true, but so far it is Roam with the biggest problems with performance, from 30+ seconds of loading each time you load/refresh tab to constant lags in normal usage for some users :)
I personally like the most this mixed approach of Logseq - app internally uses DataScript, but data is ultimately stored in plain files.
It's not either or as you mentioned! Plan to have user data stored in plain files as well.
Roam's performance suffers mainly on first-load because they are server-first, and they load the entire db into memory at the beginning (such that it's quite fast thereafter).
Once we have true local-first data structures with something like https://github.com/replikativ/datahike, we could still have fast in-memory, but also fast initial load.
Roam's performance suffers mainly on first-load because they are server-first, and they load the entire db into memory at the beginning (such that it's quite fast thereafter).
Once we have true local-first data structures with something like https://github.com/replikativ/datahike, we could still have fast in-memory, but also fast initial load.
> Plan to have user data stored in plain files as well.
That would be cool :)
> such that it's quite fast thereafter
Not always :) I saw that myself and I also see complaints on Roam Slack. In my experience it mostly depends on how many queries you have on given page, but sometimes it lags (long waiting time when switching between pages or opening note in sidebar) also with simple, "atomic" notes. But they overall struggle with polishing existing parts before adding new features, so maybe performance is still on its early days in Roam.
Anyway, I wish you good luck with your project :)
That would be cool :)
> such that it's quite fast thereafter
Not always :) I saw that myself and I also see complaints on Roam Slack. In my experience it mostly depends on how many queries you have on given page, but sometimes it lags (long waiting time when switching between pages or opening note in sidebar) also with simple, "atomic" notes. But they overall struggle with polishing existing parts before adding new features, so maybe performance is still on its early days in Roam.
Anyway, I wish you good luck with your project :)
Ah, very good to know. Don't use Roam too much these days ;) Sometimes it's hard to know if their performance issues stem from networking (they use Firebase) or just client stuff (i.e. datascript and Reagent, Clojurescript's React wrapper).
Not markdown, but asciidoc has first class support for blocks and references/attributes.
- https://docs.asciidoctor.org/asciidoc/latest/macros/inter-do...
- https://asciidoc.org/userguide.html#X60
- https://asciidoc.org/userguide.html#X73
- https://docs.asciidoctor.org/asciidoc/latest/macros/inter-do...
- https://asciidoc.org/userguide.html#X60
- https://asciidoc.org/userguide.html#X73
I'm not really familiar with Roam as I'm not interested in a non open source tool for this type of app (why I am more interested in what you're doing). What are block references?
I guess I can see perf becoming an issue for a company wide knowledge base or a wikipedia type of thing but for a personal knowledge base which is my main use case currently I'm not clear it's necessary to have a real database and the benefits of just a bunch of markdown files are more compelling to me right now. Maybe that would change if my knowledge base got big enough or my needs more complex regarding links and references.
I guess I can see perf becoming an issue for a company wide knowledge base or a wikipedia type of thing but for a personal knowledge base which is my main use case currently I'm not clear it's necessary to have a real database and the benefits of just a bunch of markdown files are more compelling to me right now. Maybe that would change if my knowledge base got big enough or my needs more complex regarding links and references.
The simplest way I can explain block references is the ability to link any line in any file to any other line in that file or any other.
Did not expect Zettlr to be mentioned here. Currently my go to note taking app.
Wow! I'm glad that more people are in my exact predicament.
I am currently using Obsidian, but would love a markdown-backed Workflowy interface that I could switch to if possible.
Perhaps logseq is that app?
I am currently using Obsidian, but would love a markdown-backed Workflowy interface that I could switch to if possible.
Perhaps logseq is that app?
"The problem with notetaking is that we don’t look back at 99% of our notes."
Can you answer why this is the case? Is there a disconnect between what we initially capture (thinking it's valuable) vs what ends up being valuable? Is it too hard to find stuff?
I've tried the graph-based note taking apps like Roam, and while clever, it just didn't click for me, I felt like I would get lost navigating around. Also, Roam is adding so many features that it feels like a messy toolbox rather than a cohesive product, I can't spend the time learning all the doo-dads, I need to do my work.
The ideal notetaking solution for me would be one where I can search and filter it however I want (with saved filters), and easily switch between typed notes and handwritten notes from my ipad (with a means to convert handwritten to typed for searchability and sharing).
Can you answer why this is the case? Is there a disconnect between what we initially capture (thinking it's valuable) vs what ends up being valuable? Is it too hard to find stuff?
I've tried the graph-based note taking apps like Roam, and while clever, it just didn't click for me, I felt like I would get lost navigating around. Also, Roam is adding so many features that it feels like a messy toolbox rather than a cohesive product, I can't spend the time learning all the doo-dads, I need to do my work.
The ideal notetaking solution for me would be one where I can search and filter it however I want (with saved filters), and easily switch between typed notes and handwritten notes from my ipad (with a means to convert handwritten to typed for searchability and sharing).
> it just didn't click for me
ISBN-13: 978-1542866507 ISBN-10: 1542866502
https://www.amazon.com/How-Take-Smart-Notes-Nonfiction/dp/15...
Read that book. Or at least skim through it. I tried learning Org-Roam and started making notes while reading it. Even before I reached the end of it, I was sold on Zettelkasten. Even if I end-up using some other tool (I hope I wouldn't have to), my life will never be the same as before.
ISBN-13: 978-1542866507 ISBN-10: 1542866502
https://www.amazon.com/How-Take-Smart-Notes-Nonfiction/dp/15...
Read that book. Or at least skim through it. I tried learning Org-Roam and started making notes while reading it. Even before I reached the end of it, I was sold on Zettelkasten. Even if I end-up using some other tool (I hope I wouldn't have to), my life will never be the same as before.
Me and some friends have played around with Roam a bit and we are baffled by the app. It just does not work well. It is a badly-designed, lower performance, glitchy note-taking app. You end up staring at its gaudy giant astrolabe loading spinner more often than not. We look at it and end up baffled why anyone would pay a monthly subscription for it!
I agree- A notetaking app has to be speedy and 100% glitch free, this is way way more important than "bidirectional links" or any other such niceties.
Like everyone else, I'm building my own clone just to address this fact (mine is fully unix cli to maximize performance and reliability)
Like everyone else, I'm building my own clone just to address this fact (mine is fully unix cli to maximize performance and reliability)
This has not been my experience. I use it daily and after the initial load screen my graph is very responsive. They’ve fixed a lot of bugs since last year as well.
Hi Jeff! Great to see a Roam alternative backed by YC! Congrats on the launch!
What are you thoughts on the other Roam alternative, Logseq[1]? It seems to be doing really well and has a lot of features, from github sync and encrypted data to custom themes and publishing, it looks like privacy is their main goal, while being local-first and opensource, do you think that such features will be implemented in the near future and will those features become somewhat a standard across PKM's?
Good luck with the launch!
[1] https://logseq.com
What are you thoughts on the other Roam alternative, Logseq[1]? It seems to be doing really well and has a lot of features, from github sync and encrypted data to custom themes and publishing, it looks like privacy is their main goal, while being local-first and opensource, do you think that such features will be implemented in the near future and will those features become somewhat a standard across PKM's?
Good luck with the launch!
[1] https://logseq.com
E: I somehow replied to the wrong post. Sorry about that.
From all the Note-taking tools, I liked TW best, as the "story river" is a genious visualization, but I found the text editor very cumbersome and annoying. It just did not feel good to write my notes.
The "tag-interface" always popped up and could only be closed with the mouse, there were some issues with tab, ...
---
I then moved to Dendron and finally to org-roam. I think markdown notes are superior to org-files*, but I also wanted VIM keys, as being able to write without hassle is the single most important thing when taking notes. VSC of course has a VIM extension, but it is very much a second-class citizen. There is also the option to emulate and use nvim, but then I would have to set-up and customize nvim. Why not move directly to Emacs, where Evil reigns superior?
*org-files are very parasitic. I only consider them plain-text in the sense that they can be opened and edited with any text editor, similar to SVG, JSON and XML. But they are not exactly plain, and pretty much unusable outside of emacs/org-mode.
From all the Note-taking tools, I liked TW best, as the "story river" is a genious visualization, but I found the text editor very cumbersome and annoying. It just did not feel good to write my notes.
The "tag-interface" always popped up and could only be closed with the mouse, there were some issues with tab, ...
---
I then moved to Dendron and finally to org-roam. I think markdown notes are superior to org-files*, but I also wanted VIM keys, as being able to write without hassle is the single most important thing when taking notes. VSC of course has a VIM extension, but it is very much a second-class citizen. There is also the option to emulate and use nvim, but then I would have to set-up and customize nvim. Why not move directly to Emacs, where Evil reigns superior?
*org-files are very parasitic. I only consider them plain-text in the sense that they can be opened and edited with any text editor, similar to SVG, JSON and XML. But they are not exactly plain, and pretty much unusable outside of emacs/org-mode.
LogSeq is great, tried collaborating with them a while ago, starting with a shared spec, but it didn't work out. How much of this is standard is up to the tool makers!
All features are possible, especially given similar technologies. The question is about design/product - whether we need to have all these features. Most notetaking apps are too bloated IMO.
All features are possible, especially given similar technologies. The question is about design/product - whether we need to have all these features. Most notetaking apps are too bloated IMO.
I really am looking forward to Logseq maturing since it offers `org-mode` markup support and can potentially inter-operate with `org-roam`. :)
I don't want to sound too harsh here but I had a loading screen come up to show me a page of text. I know it's not plain text and probably has some giant javascript framework behind it but still a loading screen for that page?
This is not a webpage, but fully functional web app (you can edit that text). That text is stored as plain text, then parsed and moved to DataScript (in-memory clojurescript database). That's why you see loading screen. This happens only when you reload tab, otherwise there are no loading screens when one is working within this app (it also has a desktop app [electron]).
I wonder if the quite extremely early/intense competition that Roam faced as soon as it was shared publicly will result in none of the competitors succeeding (at the very least as a viable for-profit company).
It's possible that sometimes we have to let early ideas fully succeed to see how the market actually performs. Else one can end up in an arms-race situation that ultimately only leads to a tiny user base for each company.
It's possible that sometimes we have to let early ideas fully succeed to see how the market actually performs. Else one can end up in an arms-race situation that ultimately only leads to a tiny user base for each company.
Things like Roam represent a very tiny fragment of a much larger puzzle that's existed for years prior to their existence. From a theoretical perspective, they are only novel insofar as they exist as concrete products today.
Sometimes it's healthy when spaces heavily fragment due to hypercompetiton. It allows products with strong technical and theoretical groundwork to show up later and render the entire space effectively obsolete.
Sometimes it's healthy when spaces heavily fragment due to hypercompetiton. It allows products with strong technical and theoretical groundwork to show up later and render the entire space effectively obsolete.
I suppose that's a function of how large the market can be, and how badly it wants to consolidate.
1. Market: If the pie doesn't grow, you may be right. If, however, these become new platforms, with the majority of use cases and user value occurring in the future, then there's certainly room for many existing players to succeed, and for brand new players to. Most people don't even take notes. What if knowledge management looks different in 10 years?
2. Consolidation: Notetaking is pretty singleplayer and subjective right now. Until there are "network effects", reasons why people would want to purposefully join the same network, a lot of it will simply come down to taste. Note: network effects does not simply mean real-time collaboration.
1. Market: If the pie doesn't grow, you may be right. If, however, these become new platforms, with the majority of use cases and user value occurring in the future, then there's certainly room for many existing players to succeed, and for brand new players to. Most people don't even take notes. What if knowledge management looks different in 10 years?
2. Consolidation: Notetaking is pretty singleplayer and subjective right now. Until there are "network effects", reasons why people would want to purposefully join the same network, a lot of it will simply come down to taste. Note: network effects does not simply mean real-time collaboration.
You're right on here, but don't underestimate the network effect of Extensions for Roam.
True. Roam Extensions have been poorly managed so far, making it extremely difficult for extension developers to develop and maintain. Maybe that'll change, but an open platform is generally better for innovation.
Another use case that goes beyond individual notetaking is collaborative knowledge management for organizations. So far Roam's collaborative features have been lacking to say the least.
So basically a Github vs Gitlab scenario. Both are extremely valuable companies. One is more for individuals, the other for enterprises. Knowledge management can go broad and deep, and we're only processing and collecting more information. Never underestimate a growing problem/market.
Another use case that goes beyond individual notetaking is collaborative knowledge management for organizations. So far Roam's collaborative features have been lacking to say the least.
So basically a Github vs Gitlab scenario. Both are extremely valuable companies. One is more for individuals, the other for enterprises. Knowledge management can go broad and deep, and we're only processing and collecting more information. Never underestimate a growing problem/market.
Yeah I tend to favor the original unless the clones offer something with real differentiation. "Use this because its free and open source, but it's pretty much the exact same thing" isn't compelling to me. I'm not saying Athens is doing this, or that it won't succeed. It's just not a very compelling story imo.
I have been using vimwiki for around a year now, using pandoc to convert into html with a simple custom template, stork-search to search the files and syncing the collection weekly over to my other computer, phone.
I love this setup as there is no internet needed, full text search on all the documents and very less friction while starting to write something. I have tried other apps like obsidian, roam etc but keep coming back to this one due to its simplicity.
I love this setup as there is no internet needed, full text search on all the documents and very less friction while starting to write something. I have tried other apps like obsidian, roam etc but keep coming back to this one due to its simplicity.
Simplicity wins. Pencil and paper FTW
Searchability really suffers in paper systems.
The search ability is one thing you will definitely want as your collection gets big. I got to know about stork-search from a post in hn and it worked very well for me, https://stork-search.net/
Yes. Orgmode mostly scratches this itch for me and has graph-of-notes rather than tree-of-notes already, and is reasonably futureproof.
Paper systems don't have to be "100% paper". All you need is the metadata from your notes. You can give each note a number and then add that number plus a couple tags and a short description to a spreadsheet. Alternatively, you can take a picture of the note and add that to your digital system. It's not how I currently do things, but it's infinitely better than a primitive digital system where you take notes and never touch them again.
Bullet Journals are perfect for that ( https://bulletjournal.com/pages/book ), I'm still using them for managing my personal life (ideas, goals, progress on stuff, daily journals, etc). Having knowledge base in digital format is better in many ways, but IMO nothing beats notebooks when it comes to solving problems and thinking.
Paper systems also suffer from "never touch them again", and adding a digital index only provides superficial search ability.
I'm not saying paper systems don't have a place - people have put them to use for centuries after all. They do have very real limitations though, and to be really useful require more ongoing work than many people are willing to put in, especially if they grow to an appreciable size.
I'm not saying paper systems don't have a place - people have put them to use for centuries after all. They do have very real limitations though, and to be really useful require more ongoing work than many people are willing to put in, especially if they grow to an appreciable size.
This is amazing, the thing that scares me the most about Roam is that I wouldn't be able to export data. Also like Notion it gets extremely slow very quickly.
Hope that this local first solution will make you avoid the performance problems those apps have
Hope that this local first solution will make you avoid the performance problems those apps have
You can definitely export your data from Roam. Maybe not some types of data, such as images, but you can scrape that if you needed to. I can say this for certain as someone who's worked on open source import, export, and backup tools for roam. [1, 2]
[1] https://github.com/MatthieuBizien/roam-to-git
[2] https://github.com/adithyabsk/keep2roam
[1] https://github.com/MatthieuBizien/roam-to-git
[2] https://github.com/adithyabsk/keep2roam
> For maximum power, you want a true graph database.
Do you have empirical validation of this claim? Anecdotally, Postgres has a pretty rich set of graph modeling features these days, and keeps getting more of them, and SQL databases are often operationally simpler than graph databases. Maybe this matters less in a client side app?
Do you have empirical validation of this claim? Anecdotally, Postgres has a pretty rich set of graph modeling features these days, and keeps getting more of them, and SQL databases are often operationally simpler than graph databases. Maybe this matters less in a client side app?
It's possible to model graphs in Postgres, but it's a lot more complex. This video compares two queries, one in SQL, and one in Datalog (the query language DataScript uses)[0]. We should probably model a knowledge graph with a graph database!
SQL databases are indeed operationally simpler but that's because they have been around for much longer and are more battle-tested.
[0]: https://youtu.be/tV4pHW_WOrY?t=1772
SQL databases are indeed operationally simpler but that's because they have been around for much longer and are more battle-tested.
[0]: https://youtu.be/tV4pHW_WOrY?t=1772
> We should probably model a knowledge graph with a graph database!
I realize this seems intuitive, but the relational model has proven itself to be surprisingly flexible in its ability to store multiple different data models efficiently. Similar arguments were made about the suitability of document stores to social networking websites ten years ago, and I think we know how that panned out.
> SQL databases are indeed operationally simpler but that's because they have been around for much longer and are more battle-tested.
I wouldn't discount the age and battle-testing, though. They're the first choice for data storage for many good reasons. Not least of which is the flexibility and power of the relational model.
It's clear that graph query languages are more expressive for graph databases. What's not clear to me is whether there's anything fundamental about that expressiveness, or whether it will eventually be replicated in SQL. Have you tried using recursive CTEs before?
I realize this seems intuitive, but the relational model has proven itself to be surprisingly flexible in its ability to store multiple different data models efficiently. Similar arguments were made about the suitability of document stores to social networking websites ten years ago, and I think we know how that panned out.
> SQL databases are indeed operationally simpler but that's because they have been around for much longer and are more battle-tested.
I wouldn't discount the age and battle-testing, though. They're the first choice for data storage for many good reasons. Not least of which is the flexibility and power of the relational model.
It's clear that graph query languages are more expressive for graph databases. What's not clear to me is whether there's anything fundamental about that expressiveness, or whether it will eventually be replicated in SQL. Have you tried using recursive CTEs before?
Well the other aspect of it is that DataScript is client-side. That said, we could use sqlite in browser or even IndexedDB at this point. Yes, a pure JS/TS alternative without a graph db implementation is possible. But when I started, I chose the same language and db to ensure parity would always be much more possible.
Haven't tried recursive CTEs before, maybe I should dig into it more!
Haven't tried recursive CTEs before, maybe I should dig into it more!
> Yes, a pure JS/TS alternative without a graph db implementation is possible. But when I started, I chose the same language and db to ensure parity would always be much more possible.
To be clear, I think Datalog and Clojure are both actually really cool, I'm just a huge SQL fan too. I think the architectural decisions you made in this case make perfect sense :)
To be clear, I think Datalog and Clojure are both actually really cool, I'm just a huge SQL fan too. I think the architectural decisions you made in this case make perfect sense :)
Hey! This looks super cool. The desktop app seems fairly explicitly single-user (looks like 1 big transit file). Do you have any opinions on using these tools in general and Athens in specific to do knowledge sharing among teams? (I would imagine that needs some kind of transaction log, mostly hoping transactions commute and maybe stacking the deck with something like Pijul.)
Is the answer "host it as a web service" (and corollary "let us do it for you")?
Is the answer "host it as a web service" (and corollary "let us do it for you")?
Using a filesync service such as Dropbox, you can sync state across multiple clients. We have a commercial user doing this. The single transit file won't scale however, so we've started working on a transaction log just as you said. Want to make sure it's pretty robust before deploying, however, as no data loss is the first priority! https://github.com/athensresearch/athens/pull/624
To your second answer, yes and yes. I write in the post:
> As for how we will make money, most users, even technical ones who could self-host, don’t want to self-host (but they value that optionality and insurance against lock-in). They want a subscription SaaS, which will make features like backups, integrations, and collaboration much easier.
To your second answer, yes and yes. I write in the post:
> As for how we will make money, most users, even technical ones who could self-host, don’t want to self-host (but they value that optionality and insurance against lock-in). They want a subscription SaaS, which will make features like backups, integrations, and collaboration much easier.
> The single transit file won't scale however, so we've started working on a transaction log just as you said.
Would it be possible to deploy a web-based instance with the server handling storage and collaboration? If so, I might try my hand at packaging it for Sandstorm once that's available. Would make self-hosting Athens super easy for Sandstorm users.
Would it be possible to deploy a web-based instance with the server handling storage and collaboration? If so, I might try my hand at packaging it for Sandstorm once that's available. Would make self-hosting Athens super easy for Sandstorm users.
This is my first time hearing of Sandstorm!
Their page https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works writes:
> For example, when using Etherpad – a document editor app – on Sandstorm, every document lives in a separate container, isolated from the others. The front-end and database for that document live in the container. The container has a private filesystem for storage. JavaScript running in the user’s browser can talk only to the document container for which it was loaded, no others. All of this makes up a single “grain”.
Right now Athens works directly with the filesystem (and therefore filesync services), not a REST-ful/HTTP server. I'm not sure how Sandstorm apps "talk to the document container." If they allow read/write access to the filesystem from the web app, it could work, but I'm not sure how Sandstorm works.
Their page https://sandstorm.io/how-it-works writes:
> For example, when using Etherpad – a document editor app – on Sandstorm, every document lives in a separate container, isolated from the others. The front-end and database for that document live in the container. The container has a private filesystem for storage. JavaScript running in the user’s browser can talk only to the document container for which it was loaded, no others. All of this makes up a single “grain”.
Right now Athens works directly with the filesystem (and therefore filesync services), not a REST-ful/HTTP server. I'm not sure how Sandstorm apps "talk to the document container." If they allow read/write access to the filesystem from the web app, it could work, but I'm not sure how Sandstorm works.
Ah, yeah, it would need to work with an HTTP server for this to work well. Sandstorm has persistent storage on the server side - think server-side code running in a Docker container with client-side JS restricted to communicating with that container on the server. Client-side JS can't interact with the filesystem.
I guess I was assuming that real-time collaboration would eventually involve some sort of synchronization server as a rendezvous point, in which case that would be the natural thing to run on the server side in Sandstorm. That may not be the route you're taking though!
I guess I was assuming that real-time collaboration would eventually involve some sort of synchronization server as a rendezvous point, in which case that would be the natural thing to run on the server side in Sandstorm. That may not be the route you're taking though!
Very interesting! Good luck!
1- Why did you choose Clojure?
2- Last I checked, Roam founder here on HN said something along the lines that "the self-host functionality is on their minds"...this was around late 2019 I think. Wonder what's the update on that...
3- Actually, personally if I want to use this approach, I definitely want to self-host. Wonder what would happen to the data if this tool gets updated. Is it just markdown + some syntax for bidi links?
1- Why did you choose Clojure?
2- Last I checked, Roam founder here on HN said something along the lines that "the self-host functionality is on their minds"...this was around late 2019 I think. Wonder what's the update on that...
3- Actually, personally if I want to use this approach, I definitely want to self-host. Wonder what would happen to the data if this tool gets updated. Is it just markdown + some syntax for bidi links?
1- I cover this in the post:
> Something else that's interesting about the most powerful networked tools like Roam and Athens is that you can't really make these apps with JavaScript or plaintext/markdown. For maximum power, you want a true graph database. Both Roam and Athens leverage a front-end graph database called DataScript, which is written in Clojure(Script). JavaScript doesn't have a native analog, and Neo4j is only server-side.
3-Yes, we've already updated the database before within the application. DataScript makes it quite easy to update the schema.
> Something else that's interesting about the most powerful networked tools like Roam and Athens is that you can't really make these apps with JavaScript or plaintext/markdown. For maximum power, you want a true graph database. Both Roam and Athens leverage a front-end graph database called DataScript, which is written in Clojure(Script). JavaScript doesn't have a native analog, and Neo4j is only server-side.
3-Yes, we've already updated the database before within the application. DataScript makes it quite easy to update the schema.
Have you benchmarked this? I don't think a lifetimes worth of notes (maybe 10,000+ documents?) will slow down sqlite, even with many interconnecting nodes.
I haven't yet! I'm sure some Roam DB's are over 10k documents. If Datascript-based applications can get past the initial load time with better client-side caching, performance will always be better. "Local-first" apps could become their own new category. I recommend reading https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first.html
So, after diving a bit deeper into this field I still do not understand why the underlying tech is important for bidirectional linking?
I understand that a graph database like neo4j can be amazing once you need more than just binary relationships (any kind of relationship in any level can be expressed) and once you start to query the database. Latter is so powerful and crucial from a data scientist perspective.
But why are these graph db features important for notes? And what are the drawbacks if you just do this with normal text or md files with links and a normal file system? Assuming that the actual link setting UI is convenient and takes care of most there shouldn't ne any disadvantage when writing and querying them. If things get slow you could still use an index but yeah.
One advantage with normal files is that you will still be able to read them in 50 years without any special app created 50 years ago.
I understand that a graph database like neo4j can be amazing once you need more than just binary relationships (any kind of relationship in any level can be expressed) and once you start to query the database. Latter is so powerful and crucial from a data scientist perspective.
But why are these graph db features important for notes? And what are the drawbacks if you just do this with normal text or md files with links and a normal file system? Assuming that the actual link setting UI is convenient and takes care of most there shouldn't ne any disadvantage when writing and querying them. If things get slow you could still use an index but yeah.
One advantage with normal files is that you will still be able to read them in 50 years without any special app created 50 years ago.
You can have both, actually. Having a datalog engine allows things like this, which is pretty cool: https://www.loom.com/share/d007932e94db4b4981cca606bebdb54a
Thanks for the video. Still I am not sure why you need a graph database here, everything can be done with hyper-linked md-files, optionally enriched with metadata (front matter). I am aware that a graph database is more elegant but again, does it justify its costs?
This is great stuff, Jeff. I sponsored athens for a while—stopped after you got funded by YC—but I'm still glad things are going well.
Now that there are a couple of apps that are doing this kind of thing, I think it might be time to start looking at whether bi-directional links could be a W3 standard in some way (i.e. a standard bidirectional link metadata endpoint). It'd be awesome to bi-directionally link across from athens/roam to github to matrix.
Perhaps the concepts need a few more years to bubble and mix a little, but start thinking about how this could work.
Now that there are a couple of apps that are doing this kind of thing, I think it might be time to start looking at whether bi-directional links could be a W3 standard in some way (i.e. a standard bidirectional link metadata endpoint). It'd be awesome to bi-directionally link across from athens/roam to github to matrix.
Perhaps the concepts need a few more years to bubble and mix a little, but start thinking about how this could work.
https://twitter.com/flancian is working on a generic tech that would bridge notetaking apps together. The important syntax we all agree on is [[wikilinks]] and some subset of markdown, but anything beyond that would require pretty close coordination.
I do wonder if additional features are added, especially those that are not plain-text, how they would be supported. Even markdown-based notetakings struggle with block refs.
I do wonder if additional features are added, especially those that are not plain-text, how they would be supported. Even markdown-based notetakings struggle with block refs.
Nice! I’m also developing a clone at https://github.com/cofinley/free-roam.
Done mainly to learn latest React/Redux. It’s coming along nicely. Also hosted on GitHub pages as a type of progressive web app (https://cofinley.github.io/free-roam). I love the idea of offline apps where you bring your own data. Kind of like the Beaker Browser.
Done mainly to learn latest React/Redux. It’s coming along nicely. Also hosted on GitHub pages as a type of progressive web app (https://cofinley.github.io/free-roam). I love the idea of offline apps where you bring your own data. Kind of like the Beaker Browser.
Is it something like Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/) but with more than just markdown files?
It's closer to Roam Research, the project that inspired and catalyzed Obsidian.md
There are a few major differences, but otherwise, the functionality is mostly similar.
There are a few major differences, but otherwise, the functionality is mostly similar.
How do you feel about Workflowy (another YC company) suddenly starting to add new features like bidirectional linking, transclusion and file embedding functionality?
Similar to my belief that a db will win over markdown long-term. The features you mention are all easy to reproduce, (especially with more open-source examples).
Long-term, open-source is great at building communities around a product/project, which is important for this space.
Long-term, open-source is great at building communities around a product/project, which is important for this space.
I use obsidian right now. I do enjoy the convenience of markdown files, do you have any specific use case where the graph DB would be superior to them? Would it stop scaling at very large notes? Furthermore, the biggest painpoint for me is sync and cross-platform support. I have to use dayone, a journal app on iOS, because the experience (of actually writing thoughts) of any other app is just too inconvenient for rigorous daily usage.
> do you have any specific use case where the graph DB would be superior to them?
Outlining. Treating each bullet as its own document. Granular embedding.
I've been using Obsidian to gather research and plan requirements for a software project. It's worked well, but feels like using a wiki with a few extra features.
I wanted to use Roam but the privacy policy wasn't suitable. I think with Roam I'd have ended up with less duplication as I could transclude more.
Also, miss a visual editor. If Obsidian and Typora had a child, would be amazing
Outlining. Treating each bullet as its own document. Granular embedding.
I've been using Obsidian to gather research and plan requirements for a software project. It's worked well, but feels like using a wiki with a few extra features.
I wanted to use Roam but the privacy policy wasn't suitable. I think with Roam I'd have ended up with less duplication as I could transclude more.
Also, miss a visual editor. If Obsidian and Typora had a child, would be amazing
Have you tried using SimpleNote on mobile? The sync to other devices is great and it works on more platforms.
Y'all both are making great tools but consider giving a read-only view of the page when javascript is disabled. After disabling JS this gives me a blank white screen: https://athensresearch.github.io/athens/ Same thing when i tried it with roam.
Considering the page you linked is a javascript application, why would anyone expect to be able to use a Javascript application without Javascript?
Is it a "javascript application" or a "page with text that uses javascript for dynamic features"...
It’s the entire product.
This is pretty cool! I do urge you to take your domain name versus https://athensresearch.github.io/athens/
Could you talk about the clojure part of it? how instrumental was it to build Athens Research. could you have built it on Electron + Typescript for example
Could you talk about the clojure part of it? how instrumental was it to build Athens Research. could you have built it on Electron + Typescript for example
We have athensresearch.org and athens-research.com, neither of which I love.
We actually do use Electron! ClojureScript compiles to JS at the end of the day.
Ultimately Clojure is pretty necessary to use our database, Datascript, a graph db with its own data query language, Datalog. Datalog is a descendant of prolog, and makes recursive/reverse queries trivially easy.
We actually do use Electron! ClojureScript compiles to JS at the end of the day.
Ultimately Clojure is pretty necessary to use our database, Datascript, a graph db with its own data query language, Datalog. Datalog is a descendant of prolog, and makes recursive/reverse queries trivially easy.
athens.dev is available! (.dev and .app tld are run by Google)
> Something else that's interesting about the most powerful networked tools like Roam and Athens is that you can't really make these apps with JavaScript
How come? There's no single feature that you can implement in any other programming language that you can't also implement with JavaScript, right?
How come? There's no single feature that you can implement in any other programming language that you can't also implement with JavaScript, right?
> you can't also implement with JavaScript, right?
I don't want to sound like a condescending snob, but I honestly wish someone tried to convince me years ago. I myself have spent over a decade dealing with JavaScript (and many other languages as well). Multiple times I had a chance to learn Clojure, but I dismissed every opportunity. I didn't like it. It seemed to me there was nothing "sexy" about it. And one day, I just decided to give it a try (it appeared that I tried many things, and finally I had to try this). The basics I learned pretty quickly. But the more profound philosophy of the language and its ecosystem took me quite some time.
It is incredibly challenging to attempt to explain in a single comment what makes Clojure so much nicer than everything else I have tried before. And I promise you, I did try using lots of different things before that. But please, I urge you to explore it wholeheartedly, and I promise, you will be rewarded. Accept it with all its intrinsic beauty and unavoidable flaws. I guarantee it - you will never regret that.
I don't want to sound like a condescending snob, but I honestly wish someone tried to convince me years ago. I myself have spent over a decade dealing with JavaScript (and many other languages as well). Multiple times I had a chance to learn Clojure, but I dismissed every opportunity. I didn't like it. It seemed to me there was nothing "sexy" about it. And one day, I just decided to give it a try (it appeared that I tried many things, and finally I had to try this). The basics I learned pretty quickly. But the more profound philosophy of the language and its ecosystem took me quite some time.
It is incredibly challenging to attempt to explain in a single comment what makes Clojure so much nicer than everything else I have tried before. And I promise you, I did try using lots of different things before that. But please, I urge you to explore it wholeheartedly, and I promise, you will be rewarded. Accept it with all its intrinsic beauty and unavoidable flaws. I guarantee it - you will never regret that.
Have you read PG's essay on Lisp? (Clojure is a dialog of Lisp) http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html
Main reason is access to datascript, one of the only client-side graph databases, which doesn't work the same with JavaScript.
Main reason is access to datascript, one of the only client-side graph databases, which doesn't work the same with JavaScript.
I've read it now. I still think it's obviously wrong to say that JavaScript can't be used for this. It's not like we are comparing Closure with Cobol here.
I highly doubt using datascript will give you a significant advantage over competitors in the long term, and I say this as somebody building pretty much a competitor app with Electron, but that's more a matter of personal opinion so I can only wish you good luck about that.
I highly doubt using datascript will give you a significant advantage over competitors in the long term, and I say this as somebody building pretty much a competitor app with Electron, but that's more a matter of personal opinion so I can only wish you good luck about that.
Having tried running the whole stack on my local a few times in the past -- which didn't work well at that time -- I'm excited to use it now.
One question I have is: how much compatible will it be eventually with other tools like Roam/Obsidian/Logseq (when we want to import the graphs)?
One question I have is: how much compatible will it be eventually with other tools like Roam/Obsidian/Logseq (when we want to import the graphs)?
I used to use Roam before the $15/mo pricing (might be more than any subscription I have today). I've tried using a bunch of different notetaking apps: notion, obsidian...but I keep returning to my Apple notes. Looking forward to trying this out. Thank you!!
Congrats on the launch!
Are there any good resources for using Athens as a Zettelkasten in the lines of [0] or [1]?
[0] - https://www.roambrain.com/implementing-zettelkasten-in-roam/
[1] - https://medium.com/@anthonyclemons1/roam-research-the-digita...
[0] - https://www.roambrain.com/implementing-zettelkasten-in-roam/
[1] - https://medium.com/@anthonyclemons1/roam-research-the-digita...
Would be great to have a canonical resource like that. For now, I'd just read the Roam resources that use block refs and bidirectional links apply or ask in our Discord!
We actually have people doing a live workshop right now on workflows for Athens in our Discord!
We actually have people doing a live workshop right now on workflows for Athens in our Discord!
Great job so far. I greatly appreciate that Athens is open source, and it seems that you value potential interoperability and data ownership.
I'm curious about some aspects of the privacy of Athens. Would someone with disk access be able to read my notes? Would you store your banking or personal medical information in there? Standard Notes and others make claims like this (though their featuresets vary).
I'm also hopeful about mobile clients. If this is my second brain, I wouldn't want to leave it at home.
I'm curious about some aspects of the privacy of Athens. Would someone with disk access be able to read my notes? Would you store your banking or personal medical information in there? Standard Notes and others make claims like this (though their featuresets vary).
I'm also hopeful about mobile clients. If this is my second brain, I wouldn't want to leave it at home.
I don't understand why you call it `Research` as well.
I must somehow have missed the trend around networked tools such as Roams (and Notion?). Would someone be so kind and educate me why this got a trend and that it's not a fad.
I wonder if this link-setting which is still a manual task would not get tedious over time. Then, I could imagine that finding content is still faster with a full-text search or question-answering DL models than clicking through all your links.
I wonder if this link-setting which is still a manual task would not get tedious over time. Then, I could imagine that finding content is still faster with a full-text search or question-answering DL models than clicking through all your links.
While i was researching on the possibility of using wiki software for ontology management back then on 2018, i just realized that "wiki is probably good for personal note taking". From there, at first, i forked pmwiki and modify its UI and UX, focusing it more for personal notetaking than a community wiki. Later, i completely rewrite everything from scratch, aiming for performance reasons (https://github.com/altilunium/rtnF). Now, i use it everyday for my personal use. In fact, this comment is drafted on rtnF first. HackerNews' textarea is too small for me to compose a long text.
Then, out there, coincidentally "networked note" application is booming. Roam Research, Obsidian, and even more : https://www.notion.so/Artificial-Brain-Networked-with-linear... . I dont know who is the actual first inventor. I think Roam popularized it first on the public.
Later, people start asking frequently "which notetaking app do you use?". The realization that people do need a notetaking app. Text editor and word processing software are not enough for notetaking. Because the former is intended just for editing a file and the latter is intended for producing printed document. Notetaking is different usecase. Well, even though the frequent answer like "i use pen and paper" "i use my own brain" is rampant on this kind of thread.
Whether on this is a fad or not, i think some people actually need this kind of app. But i doubt whether everyone need it or not. For me who usually research things, collect data from experiments, write down important texts from papers and articles, write down important information while attending online meetings. All of those can be stored and managed on this kind of app. Using text editor and word processing software for this kind of usecase will make your folder cluttered with files, it's hard to manage it.
>I wonder if this link-setting which is still a manual task would not get tedious over time. Then, I could imagine that finding content is still faster with a full-text search or question-answering DL models than clicking through all your links.
Link forces you to organize your notes, i think. Even though i agree that it get tedious over time.
Then, out there, coincidentally "networked note" application is booming. Roam Research, Obsidian, and even more : https://www.notion.so/Artificial-Brain-Networked-with-linear... . I dont know who is the actual first inventor. I think Roam popularized it first on the public.
Later, people start asking frequently "which notetaking app do you use?". The realization that people do need a notetaking app. Text editor and word processing software are not enough for notetaking. Because the former is intended just for editing a file and the latter is intended for producing printed document. Notetaking is different usecase. Well, even though the frequent answer like "i use pen and paper" "i use my own brain" is rampant on this kind of thread.
Whether on this is a fad or not, i think some people actually need this kind of app. But i doubt whether everyone need it or not. For me who usually research things, collect data from experiments, write down important texts from papers and articles, write down important information while attending online meetings. All of those can be stored and managed on this kind of app. Using text editor and word processing software for this kind of usecase will make your folder cluttered with files, it's hard to manage it.
>I wonder if this link-setting which is still a manual task would not get tedious over time. Then, I could imagine that finding content is still faster with a full-text search or question-answering DL models than clicking through all your links.
Link forces you to organize your notes, i think. Even though i agree that it get tedious over time.
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Interesting way to monetize, not sure how I feel about that, but it would be nice if you'd at least list what data you are collecting (or link to your privacy policy/faq/what ever.)
Interesting way to monetize, not sure how I feel about that, but it would be nice if you'd at least list what data you are collecting (or link to your privacy policy/faq/what ever.)
Yup, still thinking about pricing and features. Working on the privacy policy and ToS this week.
Isn't there this saying that goes like: "If you invent something you basically have a 2-year headstart? Don't worry about getting copied because you will"
Good luck... looking forward to using Athens as a paying Roam user.
Good luck... looking forward to using Athens as a paying Roam user.
Could you please share some of your experience/plans regarding implementing cross-device sync?
eg:
* Which db is the source of truth?
* How will conflicts from offline editing be handled?
* Will you be able to see edits made in realtime across the devices?
eg:
* Which db is the source of truth?
* How will conflicts from offline editing be handled?
* Will you be able to see edits made in realtime across the devices?
* Currently `index.transit` is the source of truth. When a user sees new changes, their current db is saved, and they have the option of opening the new one or continuing to edit the current version. The entire history of the db is saved right now (`{timestamp}-username.index.transit.bkp`) while we work on better conflict resolution and merging.
* Don't have conflict resolution yet for offline editing.
* We plan to make a websocket server for some the real-time UX.
This is great, congrats. While I was waiting for this though, I ended up learning emacs, org-mode, and org-roam. Not sure if I wanna change now. Emacs can do all of this already, right?
Emacs/org-mode is pretty optimized for singleplayer, technical users, and plain-text. Further down the road, we hope to support APIs/integrations, collaboration, and rich media, and service the less technical user!
I'm currently using NotePlan because I haven't been able to find a good Roam-like iOS app. Is this on your radar?
We mention mobile on our OpenCollective in our OSS Sponsor plan. Plan to have a great mobile experience, which most notetaking apps are not great at. https://opencollective.com/athens/contribute/open-source-spo...
Hopefully will have a great roadmap too like Gitlab's: https://about.gitlab.com/direction/maturity/
Hopefully will have a great roadmap too like Gitlab's: https://about.gitlab.com/direction/maturity/
I would love to be able to search math and scientific literature. Do you all support LaTex?
LaTex coming soon! https://github.com/athensresearch/athens/issues/575
Awesome!
Have you done research into WinFS?
So all I can do in that graph view, is moving nodes around? Am I missing something? Like, is there any way to jump to the actual note from there?
More improvements coming soon. Checkout a demo of one our contributors work in progress enhancement: https://www.loom.com/share/6ea7c016d535469fbc036218d54e4538
The problem with notetaking is that we don’t look back at 99% of our notes. Organization systems like PARA, BASB, and GTD can extend the shelf-life of information, but they’re mechanical and tedious to maintain. On the other hand, without a system, we just hope that search will one day have the answers. What comes after search, tags, and folders?
With bidirectional links, you never have to worry about where you write a note. Bidirectional links allow you to connect any two notes together, creating a knowledge graph. Structure emerges organically, bottom-up. This way of joining any arbitrary entities together is a paradigm shift (sorry to be cliché). The graph-based approach subverts the tree-based hierarchy most notetaking apps (and most applications/OSes/computer systems) have used until now. This is fundamental because hyperlinks are primitives, used by every single internet user. Just imagine using computers and phones without links! This is why Athens is about more than just notetaking. I believe networked applications with bidirectional links and data could become a new category itself.
Of course, this bidirectional idea isn't new. In fact, it goes as far back as the origin of the Web. It's the original concept of hypertext and Xanadu, which Ted Nelson has been advocating for decades. More recently, aspects of it were attempted by the Semantic Web. Yet the adoption never really caught on, until perhaps now.
Something else that's interesting about the most powerful networked tools like Roam and Athens is that you can't really make these apps with JavaScript or plaintext/markdown. For maximum power, you want a true graph database. Both Roam and Athens leverage a front-end graph database called DataScript, which is written in Clojure(Script). JavaScript doesn't have a native analog, and Neo4j is only server-side. This matters because I believe this is the first consumer use case for graph databases. I believe both Roam and Athens are general-purpose platforms where individuals and organizations can centralize all of their knowledge and tasks. I believe the graph is the right data structure to do this with.
More broadly, I believe networked applications beyond just notetaking can emerge. These networked applications can develop unique interactions and patterns in-app. They will even be able to share data between one another—Datascript has a native interface for querying multiple databases at once—unlocking new ways for users to synthesize, analyze, and transform their data at scale.
I started working on Athens in March of 2020 after interviewing at Roam Research. At the time, I was certain Roam was going to change the world with their vision of networked thought. Pre-Roam, I was a power user of Notion, even giving a Notion productivity workshop to my friends (where I actually mention Roam https://youtu.be/4HXHk5C3bSc?t=5820). But it was clear to me that Roam was doing something different from Notion altogether, on the graph. It was clear to me that this was about more than just another productivity app.
Unfortunately, I had a glaring lack of Clojure experience. It didn't seem like I was going to get a call back from Roam, so I saw two options going forward. Option one was to find other applications of graphs and bidirectionality. I saw an opportunity in messaging to develop a "Slack Killer." Chat is another place where information was constantly getting lost in streams and siloed channels. Option two was to develop an open-source version of Roam. I wanted to prove I could learn Clojure fast (and hopefully get a return call from Roam). After prototyping these two options for about a week, I tweeted them to the #roamcult: https://twitter.com/tangjeff0/status/1248060649344831488. People started contributing and a community started forming. Designers, PMs, and even veteran Clojurians began contributing.
Assuming the graph database and bidirectional links are important to the future of computing, then why take an open-source approach? The primary answer is about privacy, longevity, and ownership. Users should have local-first control over their thoughts and their "second brains." Right now, if AWS's servers go down, Notion goes down, which has happened multiple times this year. Roam has notably suffered from downtime and data loss. Local-first and open-source, any version of Athens will always be locally usable, buildable, and modifiable for the rest of time, regardless if Athens the company goes under. User data will first and foremost always be owned by users.
Another reason is that open-source is an effective development process, at least in our case. In less than a year of development, with essentially zero spending, Athens has created a “good enough” alternative to a closed-source product that took 3+ years to make. It’s not because I’m a “10x engineer.” It’s exactly the opposite! Athens was built by dozens of engineers and designers who built and designed things in a way I never could (largely in their free time). We’ve had feedback and input from users from day one, directly in the channels we do work in. Not only do the best ideas rise to the top, they can be directly integrated into the source code, improving the experience of all users.
As for how we will make money, most users, even technical ones who could self-host, don’t want to self-host (but they value that optionality and insurance against lock-in). They want a subscription SaaS, which will make features like backups, integrations, and collaboration much easier. For enterprises that do want to self-host on-premises, we can provide additional support and security features, similar to Mattermost or GitLab. You can sign-up for our SaaS or enterprise packages through our Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/athens.
What are your thoughts? If you’re optimistic and you use Roam, Athens or another networked notetaking app, what are you most excited about for 10-20 years in the future? Or maybe you’re skeptical and you think networked apps and bidirectionality will flame out like Xanadu and the Semantic Web. I'm guessing there will be questions about open-source too, particularly around paying contributors for their work. I'm all ears!