Semioskop
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Publishing platform for those who like to imagine spatially & write non-linearly
The story of Semioskop hasn't been always easy, but these are the branches we took on:
Mind Maps / Graphs
Progressive Disclosure
Storytelling
Writing & Reading
The first inspiration we drew from the structure of graphs. It has been argued that the formation of thoughts in our minds does follow the similar structure.
Just think about the last time you have been on an exam and you were trying to recall an important information. Did you remember whole paragraphs of text or did you rather envision a constantly emerging and transforming structure of ideas, concepts, propositions?
What could possibly happen if we didn't have to constantly decipher long paragraphs of text into these graphs, networks of thoughts each time we read?
What could possibly happen if we could see the knowledge presented to us in these structures already?
Have you used mind mapping before?
If yes, for what?
What did you like and what did you not like about mind maps?
One issue with mind maps is however... they show you everything at once.
Where do I start?
How do I read?
There is this concept in HCI circles called "Progressive Disclosure".
It is about not giving all of the knowledge to the user, to the reader at once.
In this way, we can make reading much more comfortable for you, by giving you back liberty of choosing what do you want to appear on your screen.
Now we make it easier to read or do we?
But what should we actually write about?
Are connections in mind maps important for us?
As you can see, this kind of writing can be quite helpful in scientific topics.
But to make a complex network of connections of what does relate to what does not have to make reading of a complex subject necessarily easier...
A brain researcher Uri Hasson described what is known as "brain-to-brain coupling" in conversation of two people in which speaker spoken its knowledge in the form of a story.
You can see how the same areas of two separate brains activate when listening to someone who tells a story.
A story... a format that everyone understands.
A story... a perfect epistemic object - epistemic because it translates, communicates knowledge.
One thing is to draw connections between various concepts and fragments and nodes, another is to be able to tell a story about them in a human form.
Can you imagine yourself telling the same story over and over?
Which story has it been?
Can you imagine retelling, explaining a complex, professional topic of yours in a form of a story?
Do you remember Human Activity Model?
We did talk about it on Interaction Design.
In this work, we confront two activities
1. Reading
2. Writing
But are these really separate activities?
Imagine yourself writing... aren't you "reading" information from your brain or maybe even external sources which you then synthesize in the process of writing?
And with reading... aren't you taking notes, writing keywords either on paper or within your mind to remember broader fragments of knowledge?
Where is the boundary between reading and writing?
Isn't the choice of what we read, writing?
Aren't we interacting with, writing into a book or a website if we choose what we decide to read?
Well, in Semioskop, we are trying to diminish these boundaries
As you are in the process of editing, you read, but you can also write within the point, page of your reading.
And there is much more here that has been explored...
What would you use this tool for?
What feature do you miss the most?
Go to the right top menu -> stories and try to write something on your own!
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