## Welcome to my knowledge garden. I am [Chris Eller](About%20Me.md), and this is my digital garden. This is a working copy of my Zettelkasten. It's not perfect, and it is messy in places. The purpose of this site is to serve as an online archive of my work and research and to [[Learn In Public]]. I started working on this site in mid-2024 as a replacement for a long-maintained, but not often updated "blog." This is not necessarily a blog in the traditional sense, but more of an archive and library of my writing and learning over the last 30-plus years. (Unfortunately, anything prior to 1989 is lost simply because the format I used prior to 1989 was 5.25 inch floppy disks, and those corroded over time. Those were the days!) At this point (in the Fall of 2024), you will find a lot of empty pages on this site as I bring things over from my previous website. Check back often, and you can look at the [[changelog]] to keep up with the additions and changes to the library. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can email me at ellerchristopher [at] gmail.com. As you browse the site, I hope you sense the diversity of my interests and the depth of my professional experience, qualifications, accomplishments, and skills that have developed over time. ### My Areas of Interest Here is a summary of the topics I write about: - [[Adult Learning]] - [[American Church]] - [[Apologetics]] - [[Bible Studies]] - [[Church Administration]] - [[Church Communications]] - [[Church Ministry]] - [[Computers & Applications]] - [[Curriculum Development]] - [[Historical & Worldview Trends]] - [[History]] - [[Knowledge Management]] - [[News & Current Events]] - [[Productivity]] - [[Sermons & Sermon Preparation]] - [[Technology]] - [[Theology]] ### Why Am I Developing This Site? I will record my journey using Obsidian Publish here: [[About This Site]]. Over the years I have published my writing using WordPress. While WordPress is the preferred application for “blogging,” I am moving beyond blogging to pursuing knowledge management. In the last 4-5 years (starting in 2019-2020), tools like Roam Research introduced the concept of connected notes using links and backlinks. While Roam was the first tool to bring a large audience to this concept, it is really applications like Obsidian that have found their place as the tool of choice for connected thinking. If I go back to my university years, I have over 40 years of research and knowledge I have gathered and written about. I want to begin forming this into a connected network of thinking that traces my thought development over time, and I want to do this in public. ### How Am I Developing This Site? I am using Obsidian with the plugin Obsidian Publish. Obsidian facilitates connected thinking easily and Obsidian Publish allows me to send my notes to my website with a single click. While this process is easy, developing this site in Obsidian is new to me and I will likely wander down different rabbit holes as I try and discover what works best and get into a flow. I consider myself an advanced tech user, I am not a programmer or coder, and a lot of Obsidian’s power requires some knowledge of coding. Fortunately, there is a lot of help in the community and online. Another disadvantage I am learning with Obsidian Publish is that many of the plugins that expand Obsidian’s capabilities do not work online. Any Dataview queries, for example, will not work, so this is something to keep in mind while developing the site. Finally, even though my goal is connected notes, starting out with an empty knowledge base will take time to bring information into the vault that can be connected to. So, in this early stage, I’m not connecting a lot of knowledge. This will be something I need to intentionally remember as I develop the site. It takes intentionality to connect thoughts together. ### Recall Summaries In mid-2024, I started using a new service called [Recall](https://www.getrecall.ai/), which uses AI to summarize web content. My primary use is long-form YouTube videos that are rich in content, but I don't have time to view the complete video. Recall summarizes the video into a single note and creates links to other notes in my knowledge base. The process of getting these notes into Obsidian is limited at this point (November 2024). It is easy to export all of your notes to Markdown or individual notes, but there is not an option to bulk export filtered notes between two dates. Still, it has been a great addition to my PKM. 11/29/2024 - I am in the process of connecting notes into my wider PKM system. 11/29/2024 - Added a [[Recall Index]] to show the most recent 100 notes added. ### What's Changed? Check my [[changelog]] for the last 50 notes I have modified.