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diff --git a/2024/talks/links.md b/2024/talks/links.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..6cf24d63 --- /dev/null +++ b/2024/talks/links.md @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ +[[!meta title="Unlocking linked data: replacing specialized apps with an Org-based semantic wiki"]] +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2024 Abhinav Tushar"]] +[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/links-nav)" raw="yes"]] + +<!-- Initially generated with emacsconf-publish-talk-page and then left alone for manual editing --> +<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. ---> + + +# Unlocking linked data: replacing specialized apps with an Org-based semantic wiki +Abhinav Tushar (he/him) - abhinav@lepisma.xyz, https://lepisma.xyz, @lepisma@mathstodon.xyz + +[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/links-before)" raw="yes"]] + +I try to maintain a lot of personal information, annotations, etc. in Org files +but have historically switched back to purpose built apps for different kinds of +data. There are recipe managers for recipes, personal CRM tools for people +related notes, bookmark managers for managing web links, etc. While these apps +do good with the kind of data they work on, they don't operate well together in +the sense that they don't treat *links* between entities as first class citizen. I +believe this gap is where a lot of *personal information* live. As an example, +consider the chain of links that tells 'person a' gave me 'this recipe' on 'my +anniversary'. + +After using zettlekasten via Org-roam for some time, I came to realize the power +of links that we (can) form between data of different kinds. For me, these links +offset the loss that comes with leaving specialized apps. With this, I have +again gone back to Org files, but this time deriving good value from links +between notes. Of course there are tons of other benefits of using Org files +like better longevity, portability, versioning, and developer accessibility. + +In this talk, I will cover my workflow of creating and managing different kinds +of notes in Org mode based Semantic Wiki and the link types they tend to have. I +will also show my workflow outside of Emacs, where I use small tools that sit on +top of Org files to deliver missing features of niche apps (like availability on +mobile devices, smart cross data-type queries, etc.). + +About the speaker: + +I am a Programmer and Machine Learning Engineer, and I love working with +computers primary because of the early experiences of infinite extensibility +that Emacs gave me. For this talk I will cover my journey of using Org files +for notes, then leaving for specialized applications, and finally coming back to +Org to unlock the benefits of linked data. + +--- +Another talk by this speaker: + +- [EmacsConf - 2023 - talks - MatplotLLM, iterative natural language data visualization in org-babel](https://emacsconf.org/2023/talks/matplotllm/) +# Discussion + +## Questions and answers + +- Q: Have you thought about doing the cosine similarity and sentence + transformer calculations in Elisp so you don't need a separate + Python process? In my experience having to set up and manage + additional state throws people off track. + - A: I do want to try removing the dependency. But I haven't yet + done any work in that direction. Mostly the problem is that + model (for transformers) runtimes are much easier available in + other languages. But if there is an ONNX runtime (or dynamic + module) for Elisp, we should be able to do this. + - Thanks, I can try writing an ONNX runtime module, this can be + useful for several Emacs tasks besides semantic linking. +- Q: So far I have not used packages such as org-roam because I do not + like the idea that it might become unmaintained some day. So I keep + to the basic features in org for my workflow. Did you consider this + aspect? + - A: I thought about this too. But I have found the internals of + org-roam simple enough that I don't think maintaining a fork is + any hassle. Anyway it uses features already available in + org-mode. The only development addition it does is, IMO, to + maintain an SQLite index. + - Thank you for your advice. I'll take another look at + org-roam. And thank you for your talk. It was quite + inspiring to me. +- Q: this is very cool and seems a bit influenced by logseq, which i + am trying to transition away from and on to org roam. have you + looked into somehow embedding the contents of a \"linked\" node into + the parent itself? this is something that i miss quite a lot from + logseq, where the contents were/could be transparently embedded and + made for a nicer review experience + - A: I haven't used logseq. When you say embedding, do you mean + like document transclusion? Or something else? + - yes, something like transclusion. quite useful for example in + daily journalling where one can just dump the notes instead of + figuring out a location. and then link them afterwards in the + right file/node. + - In some way, the org-roam buffer I showed shows linked nodes + with nearby content. But I haven't done any work on + transclusion till now. + - This may be relevant to your question + [https://github.com/Vidianos-Giannitsis/Dotfiles/blob/master/emacs/.emacs.d/libs/zettelkasten.org#logseq-like-tagging-functionality](https://github.com/Vidianos-Giannitsis/Dotfiles/blob/master/emacs/.emacs.d/libs/zettelkasten.org#logseq-like-tagging-functionality). + I don't remember exactly what it does because I don't use it + myself, but I was curious to try and hack it after a discussion + and it was relevant to how Logseq does transclusion in linked + documents. + - ooh, thanks for the link. this looks rather interesting :) +- Q: How did you do the similarity search? + - A: Similarity, as of now, is just using embedding vectors from a + locally running transformer model and then matching using cosine + scores. Code is here + [https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts/tree/master/org-roam-sem](https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts/tree/master/org-roam-sem) +- Q: Is your ml model for topics like \"family members\" available + somewhere? + - A: + [https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts/tree/master/org-roam-sem](https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts/tree/master/org-roam-sem) + the model I am using is a simple lightweight embedding + transforme model. See this line + [https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts/blob/a71f2ec3bb6bd9d2b21ab5fd70ec45fa18128896/org-roam-sem/src/org_roam_sem/featurize.py#L17C7-L17C77](https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts/blob/a71f2ec3bb6bd9d2b21ab5fd70ec45fa18128896/org-roam-sem/src/org_roam_sem/featurize.py#L17C7-L17C77) +- Q: is your org-roam config public? (init.el stuff) I've found + vanilla org-mode not the most ergonomic. Thanks! + - A: Do you mean + [https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts](https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts) + - Also some of my writing config is here -\> + [https://github.com/lepisma/rogue/blob/master/lisp/r-writing.el](https://github.com/lepisma/rogue/blob/master/lisp/r-writing.el) + +## Notes + +- This looks very useful, thanks for your work +- Looks really handy! One of the biggest inhibitors to my usage has + been figuring out how to collect things on mobile without friction. + Will check it out!+1 +- Thank you all! +- A few project links from the talk: + - [https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts](https://github.com/lepisma/org-roam-exts) + - [https://github.com/lepisma/pile-android](https://github.com/lepisma/pile-android) +- Very interesting talk +- This is super cool 🙂 + +[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/links-after)" raw="yes"]] + +[[!inline pages="internal(2024/info/links-nav)" raw="yes"]] + + |