New website with spaced repetitions and incremental reading from the Web and pdfs

[Piotr Wasik]

Hi,

I am Piotr, it has been about 20 years since I first encountered Spaced Repetition Software (SRS), first Supermemo and then Mnemosyne and Anki. I just built my own website (http://buboflash.eu) for SRS, because I wanted few features that I couldn't get in any existing software. I am announcing it here so we can work towards content and learning process interchange between Mnemosyne and Buboflash, hopefully also Anki (Supermemo will be harder with its idionsyncracies). The overview of Buboflash is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc_7oAwmkTA

The features I wanted and I built into Buboflash are:

• Crowd editable material of textbook quality, licenced under Creative Commons wherever possible, like in Wikipedia. "Free" like in "freedom", i.e. you can process and reuse the material, and "free" like in "free beer" - you don't pay for it. We can create annotations (for incremental reading) and flashcards from both internet and uploaded pdfs. The pdfs remain private by default as they may be and usually are copyrighted, but all the annotations and flashcards are shared. 
• Collaboration - yes, I know we can exchange decks of cards in Mnemosyne, Anki and in Supermemo, but it is no more collaboration than say exchanging Word or Excel files between users. In Buboflash you can pick friends who are interested in learning the same things as you are and you can follow them. I added versioning system so we can share but we do not have to agree on specific wording of the flashcard. Wikipedia is also crowdsourced but in Wikipedia it is always the last version that wins, which is unacceptable for learning, people would overwrite each other's versions. In Buboflash each user can bookmark a version he or she likes most. If you like my changes, you accept them, otherwise you ignore them.
• Search - works on the entire database with sensible autocomplete.
• Integration between Mnemosyne, Anki and Buboflash. Content should be easy, for me it is just html. Next, learning process - Supermemo has a lot of "factors" that are proprietory algorithm parameters. Mnemosyne and Anki are open source, so we know what different "factors" mean, but - I really think that SRS programs should only exchange learning histories (events) and recompute whatever internal parameters they want. This way there is no guarantee that say Mnemosyne and BuboFlash would schedule next repetition in the same way, but so what? At least both systems would put their "best effort" to calculate next interval based on objective facts - repetitions. So, I would just export and import learning histories, no proprietory "factors" and "matrices".
• Last but not least, I am in a mood for Christmas promotion. See, I am learning from the following books now: "Mastering Financial Calculations", "Programming in Scala" and "Java 8 for the Impatient" - see my movie about pdfs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W9J8DpPWcU So, back to my Christmas gift: if you have your favourite textbook in paper format, send it to me and I will scan it for you (destructively) and we can experiment with incremental reading. Ping me at piotr.wasik[at]gmail.com Of course - unless you explicitely "show it to a friend" - only you will be able to view and download the pdf from Buboflash. Alternatively just google for "scan my books in MyTown".

What do you think?

Enjoy,

Piotr

[Peter Bienstman]

Hi,

I'm afraid I don't have time to commit code to this myself, but of course you can write Mnemosyne importers and exporters for your project without any problems.

Good luck!

Peter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mnemosyne-
> proj-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Piotr Wasik
> Sent: 20 December 2014 22:08
> To: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [mnemosyne-proj-users] New website with spaced repetitions and
> incremental reading from the Web and pdfs
>
> Hi,
>
>
> I am Piotr, it has been about 20 years since I first encountered Spaced
> Repetition Software (SRS), first Supermemo and then Mnemosyne and Anki.
> I just built my own website (http://buboflash.eu) for SRS, because I wanted
> few features that I couldn't get in any existing software. I am announcing it
> here so we can work towards content and learning process interchange
> between Mnemosyne and Buboflash, hopefully also Anki (Supermemo will
> be harder with its idionsyncracies). The overview of Buboflash is here:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc_7oAwmkTA
>
> The features I wanted and I built into Buboflash are:
>
>

> * Crowd editable material of textbook quality, licenced under Creative

> Commons wherever possible, like in Wikipedia. "Free" like in "freedom", i.e.
> you can process and reuse the material, and "free" like in "free beer" - you
> don't pay for it. We can create annotations (for incremental reading) and
> flashcards from both internet and uploaded pdfs. The pdfs remain private by
> default as they may be and usually are copyrighted, but all the annotations
> and flashcards are shared.

> * Collaboration - yes, I know we can exchange decks of cards in

> Mnemosyne, Anki and in Supermemo, but it is no more collaboration than
> say exchanging Word or Excel files between users. In Buboflash you can pick
> friends who are interested in learning the same things as you are and you can
> follow them. I added versioning system so we can share but we do not have
> to agree on specific wording of the flashcard. Wikipedia is also crowdsourced
> but in Wikipedia it is always the last version that wins, which is unacceptable
> for learning, people would overwrite each other's versions. In Buboflash
> each user can bookmark a version he or she likes most. If you like my
> changes, you accept them, otherwise you ignore them.

> * Search - works on the entire database with sensible autocomplete.
> * Integration between Mnemosyne, Anki and Buboflash. Content

> should be easy, for me it is just html. Next, learning process - Supermemo
> has a lot of "factors" that are proprietory algorithm parameters. Mnemosyne
> and Anki are open source, so we know what different "factors" mean, but - I
> really think that SRS programs should only exchange learning histories
> (events) and recompute whatever internal parameters they want. This way
> there is no guarantee that say Mnemosyne and BuboFlash would schedule
> next repetition in the same way, but so what? At least both systems would
> put their "best effort" to calculate next interval based on objective facts -
> repetitions. So, I would just export and import learning histories, no
> proprietory "factors" and "matrices".

> * Last but not least, I am in a mood for Christmas promotion. See, I am

> learning from the following books now: "Mastering Financial Calculations",
> "Programming in Scala" and "Java 8 for the Impatient" - see my movie about
> pdfs here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W9J8DpPWcU So, back to
> my Christmas gift: if you have your favourite textbook in paper format, send
> it to me and I will scan it for you (destructively) and we can experiment with
> incremental reading. Ping me at piotr.wasik[at]gmail.com Of course - unless
> you explicitely "show it to a friend" - only you will be able to view and
> download the pdf from Buboflash. Alternatively just google for "scan my
> books in MyTown".
>
>
> What do you think?
>
> Enjoy,
> Piotr
>
>

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