My friend Kevin Dietz has created a note-taking system: LotsOfJots.com. “Jots” are notes of any length. They live on “Pages.” There are “Topic Pages” and “Journal Pages.” It is a simple and wonderful way to keep track of anything at all.

The pre-release version is ready to be tried out. It’s bare-bones, in a sense, but already supports text notes and drawing notes, as well as attachments. Soon will come bit-map graphics, audio, and video.

English: Wooden File Cabinet with drawer open. Taken by me. (Photo credit: Wikipedia 

Here’s an intro and an invitation code:

What Is LotsOfJots?

LotsOfJots is a cloud-based information organizing, note-taking, and journaling system created by Kevin Dietz.

Signing Up For LotsOfJots

LotsOfJots is currently in private beta.  To register, visit:

http://lotsofjots.com/Account/Register

Invitation Code: dietz-8465-jun2012

IMPORTANT: Please be sure to write down and remember your user id and password.

Who Uses LotsOfJots?

LotsOfJots is designed for organizing any kind of knowledge work.  The types of users we have in mind are managers, engineers, small business owners, researchers, students, teachers, and consumers.  You can use it as a diary / journaling system, a note-taking system, an online bookmarking system, a to-do list manager, a paperless, electronic filing cabinet for documents, a place for taking notes on any projects you are working on, a home and auto maintenance filing system, and a place to store and organize just about anything you need to remember related to your life, your work, or your family.

Basic Design Philosophy

The system stores information in two types of “pages” – topic pages and journal pages.

Topic pages are shown in the left-hand pane.  By default, you have one topic page, the “Root” topic page.  You can add topic pages as needed, and topic pages can be nested inside of other topic pages.  They can also be cross-referenced, so the same topic page can be contained in any number of other topic pages (multi-parented).

The other type of page is the journal page.  The system automatically creates a journal page for each date as you navigate to them.  The idea is you always have a chronological record of what you were working on.  Entries to topic pages are automatically cross-referenced into the journal.  Switch back and forth between the current topic page and the current journal page using “Show Topic Page” and “Show Journal” in the menu at the top.  Navigate forwards and backwards through your journal using “Previous” and “Next”.

Content is placed onto these pages in the form of posts, which we call “jots.”  As a general guideline, jots should be kept short, about 1 paragraph or so per jot  Generally it’s not a good idea to write many long paragraphs in a single jot.  The more granular the better.  Jots can then be rearranged by dragging and dropping them, as can topic pages.

More Information

Here is a video that briefly describes some of the differences between LotsOfJots and two other note taking systems.

Contact

For more information, contact Kevin Dietz at Kevin@timpanisoftware.com