Bibliographies and Mind Maps
I am indebted to Joseph Reagle (a fellow Wiki[m/p]edia researcher) for many things, one of which is his work on bibliographies. Recently, he posted in his blog a note from his dissertation about referencing, particularly from online sources, and in which he mentions his method for dealing with same-year references. For this, instead of using (Author, 2006a), (Author, 2006b) etc., he distinguishes between references by using a composite of letters from substantive words of the title, for example Wikipedia’s article on Neutral point of View becomes (Wikipedia, 2006npv) - a system I have used myself for Wikipedia since I first started writing about it.
His system is based on linking bibliographies and Mind Maps - a system which seems very interesting - though, which I don’t claim to fully understand, couched as it is in technical talk of Python - eek. The mindmapping software he uses is FreeMind, which I have, so it would be nice to find out more about it. Particularly since I really need to develop a system - soon - for tracking my work, what I’m reading/thinking etc., and to be able to integrate this into my own ongoing dissertation creation.
Joseph’s work and notes are intriguing; however, what he has spelled out is still not enough for a technical ignoramus like me to feel competent - so I’m going to get in touch with him in the hopes of both developing and strengthening my own system, and also helping others who may be in a similar position to me. I’ll keep this blog and other relevant places posted - perhaps creating learning resources or a community about referencing on Wikiversity…