#atom

Cultivated collections of interconnected notes shared as evolving public knowledge bases

Core Idea: Digital gardens are personal knowledge bases that are cultivated in public, emphasizing ongoing growth, non-linear exploration, and interconnected ideas rather than chronological or finalized content.

Key Elements

Defining Characteristics

• Emphasizes knowledge work in progress rather than polished publications
• Non-linear organization using associative linking rather than chronological ordering
• Combines personal notes, insights, and resources on various topics
• Deliberately curated and tended over time, like a real garden
• Public-facing with an expectation of continual evolution and improvement
• Topographical rather than chronological structure (spatial over temporal)

Historical Development

• Term "digital garden" first appeared in the 1990s during early web development
• Resurgence around 2018-2020 as a reaction against stream-based social media
• Evolved from earlier concepts like wikis and personal websites
• Influenced by knowledge management systems like Zettelkasten
• Modern implementation accelerated by tools like Roam Research, Obsidian, and Notion

Implementation Approaches

1. Garden Structure:

   • Topic-based clusters or "neighborhoods" of related content
   • Explicit entry points and navigation aids for visitors
   • Visual indicators of note maturity/development status
   • Balance between exploration and navigability

2. Growth Patterns:

   • Seeds: Initial ideas and brief notes
   • Seedlings: Developing thoughts with some structure
   • Evergreen: Well-developed, mature content
   • Dead plants: Outdated or abandoned ideas (sometimes pruned)

3. Technological Implementation:

   • Static site generators (Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby)
   • Specialized tools (Obsidian Publish, Roam Garden)
   • Custom solutions using bidirectional linking
   • Public wikis with personal cultivation

Publishing Process

• Low friction publishing through one-click workflows
• Obsidian plugins that enable direct publishing to the web
• GitHub repositories to store notes with automatic deployment
• Hosting options like Netlify or Vercel pointing to custom domains
• Balance between sharing works-in-progress and maintaining quality

Philosophy and Benefits

• Rejects the "publish or perish" finality of traditional blogging
• Embraces the messiness and interconnectedness of genuine learning
• Values contextual relationships over hierarchical categorization
• Encourages incremental, iterative improvement over perfection
• Combines private knowledge work with public sharing and feedback
• Supports Learning in Public as an educational practice

Additional Connections

• Broader Context: NotebookLM Mind Mapping Feature (visualization tool)
• Applications: Obsidian Integration with NotebookLM (technical workflow)
• See Also: Second Brain Concept (private counterpart)

References

1. Appleton, M. (2020). A Brief History & Ethos of the Digital Garden. Retrieved from https://maggieappleton.com/garden-history
2. Basu, T. (2020). Digital gardens let you cultivate your own little bit of the internet. MIT Technology Review.
3. Ness Labs community discussions and implementations of digital gardening principles.

#digital-gardens #personal-websites #pkm #knowledge-sharing #non-linear-publishing

Sources:

• From: Wanderloots - How I Use NotebookLM With Obsidian 📝 Practical Note-Taking + AI 🤖