Strengthening collective knowledge
We're a new lab dedicated to building connective tissue across the disjointed digital commons. We're just setting up shop, so check back soon. We'll soon have a newsletter, and if you'd like to receive the first post, you can sign our guest book here.
In the meantime, you can learn a bit more about our first project, Tapestries.
Tapestries is a web application that allows you to create multi-linear assemblages of source material from around the web, or from your personal archives.
Think of a design program like Miro or Canva crossed with knowledge-organizing tools like Are.na and Zotero — integrated with the Internet Archive, Wikimedia and the best of the open access ecosystem (scholarly, museum, library etc.). It's a tool for weaving the commons together across its various rickety silos, with tools for saving and preserving what matters.
Tapestries was first conceived by electronic publishing pioneer Bob Stein (inventor of the first commercial CD-ROMs, ebooks and digital film editions) as he was grappling with how to share his archives. It's imbued with decades of deep thinking about multimedia and networked information. It's raw, full of possibilities, not yet deeply honed for specific use cases. We invite you to start playing with it, and to get involved in guiding its future development.