[Book Review] Personal Knowledge Graphs

An independent review of "Personal Knowledge Graphs: Connected thinking to boost productivity, creativity and discovery"

Source: https://linkeddataorchestration.com

Like consuming any creative work, reading is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, there’s the thrill of discovering something new; on the other hand, there’s a profound disappointment when, after reading a few similar books, you feel like every new oeuvre no longer adds any additional value because it just rephrases everything you’ve already read—the above leads to biased rating attributions on Goodreads. You love the first book you came across, and you hate the last one from the same category.

Since

Ivo Velitchkov

’s and

George Anadiotis

’s collection of PKG-related essays, written by a group of experienced PKG (Personal Knowledge Graph) specialists, is my first read from that category, I’m certainly biased. Nevertheless, I read it with a pen and a notebook by my side and felt I had to highlight the entire book from start to finish.

Perhaps one of the primary reasons this book strikes a chord with me is that, as an engineer working with knowledge graphs and graph databases, I also evolved in a startup environment and built knowledge management tools for scientists. Most of my personal knowledge is structured as an interconnected graph, too.

A publishable part of my PKG is on https://malikalimoekhamedov.com/garden.

All of the subjects listed above are part of the book. You’ll find information on incredibly nerdy deep-level implementation details, including source code and schema definition conventions, metaphysical musings on PKGs and their importance for an average note-taker, and even how much some PKM startups have raised in their latest fundraising rounds.

In my opinion, the abovementioned makes this book a hit or a miss. I’m exactly the right target audience. All of these topics are highly relevant to my work and daily life. But how big is this niche? I know my audience, and I know that recommending this book here is a risky bet. Some of you will love it, but many might find it borderline gibberish.

An example of a PKM software implementation concept demonstrates how technical the book can sometimes get. You might or might not like it. I do.

Therefore, if you still decide to try it, read it like you’d read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince”. Depending on your experience with PKM tools and tech-savyness, your first read could be introductory and superficial. Still, subsequent reads at later stages of life reveal a book within a book.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand certain things yet. If you’re not a developer, skip the source code. Modulate the reading speed. If you're not building a knowledge management business, skip less relevant bits, such as startup fundraising rounds. Slow down when you stumble upon details that solve your current PKM pains. Set the book aside, keep engineering your knowledge and grooming your setup. Let it percolate for a while. Then, open the book again. The second iteration will demystify things that looked like cyphers the first time. Rinse and repeat. This phenomenon is almost guaranteed to occur if you’re diligent with your PKM practice, and it’s the most significant indicator of knowledge engineering maturity.

Though, as mentioned in the beginning, it was tough to be selective with highlights, I managed to control my impulses. Here are a few (non-technical) examples of what’s inside:

Personal knowledge graphs have another special feature. They are generators of surprise. They can deliver serendipity on demand.

…

The mind being extended with objects from the environment, such as pen and paper, a navigation map, or a PKG.

I intend to write about these so-called Complementary Cognitive Artefacts in future issues.

…

In a library, the answer to a query is the end of the journey; in a graph, it’s the beginning.

…

The never-ending growth of data and information is overwhelming the natural capacities of the human brain. This phenomenon is known as the information overload problem.

I wrote about it in one of the early issues:

Shock Your Brain to Escape the Information Echo-Chamber

…

Created by knowledge engineers, ImageSnippets is a web-based linked data annotation and metadata management system. With images as the central subjects of the graph, it also functions as an image-graph based digital asset management system. The system allows nontechnical users to store descriptions of images as structured and semi-structured machine-readable data in Resource Description Framework (RDF). RDF is a standard data model for storing metadata on the web.

…and so much more.

You can review all my highlights and annotations on the dedicated note in my digital garden.

The highlights and annotations of “Personal Knowledge Graphs” are part of my digital garden.

This newsletter issue is an opportunity to touch the tip of my hat to

Gregor B. Rosenauer

,

Ivo Velitchkov

,

George Anadiotis

, Dr. Ashleigh Faith,

Fabrice Gallet

, Martynas Jusevičius, Maribel Acosta, Omes Baltes, Eduardo Ivanec (Flancian),

Margaret Warren

, and all those whose work was mentioned throughout the book or was foundational for co-authors’ projects. They are the giants on whose shoulders the PKM community builds.