Quick Start

• This site is based on a simple idea that we can build collaboratively a road map of all knowledge by specifying the prerequisites of concepts and activities.
  
• Look at this concept map to know what kind of map will emerge when we add prerequisites (semantic dependency links) between concepts and activities. Please zoom into places where you would like to view.
• You will agree that such maps will be very useful to teachers and students. Over a period of time, with your collaboration, we can build a complete roadmap of all knowledge.
• Read Help Document to begin contributing.
• To know more about it, please continue reading the following sections.
  

What you can do?

• You can specify the prerequisites for any concept or an activity at this site. Or view the existing prerequisites that are already defined by the community.
  
• We simply add a concept as a node (if it does not exist already) and specify a semantic dependency (meaning dependency) relation between one node and another.
• Ask yourself the following set of questions:
• To understand a concept what do you expect the learner must already know?
• To understand a concept what do you expect the learner must do?
• To impart a skill what what other activities the learner must do?
• To impart a skill what other concepts the learner must already know?

Answers to these questions can be specified in this community portal by establishing links between concepts and activities.

What we will get out of this?

• a globally useful resource for teachers and students to know the learning track (learning path) for any concept or skill.
  
• teachers and authors of textbooks can use these maps to prepare course materials or sequence their curriculum.
• students get to know what they need to know in order to learn something.
• researchers can use the data for analyzing the properties of knowledge structures.
  
• a network of concepts and activities that can be used, modified, published and shared by the entire community.
• a visual map of knowledge and a road map for learning and teaching.
• a knowledge base that can be used to profile different domains of knowledge.
• the resulting map will show us, as it were, the 'cities' (on which we depend on most), 'towns' (on which we depend but not as much as the cities), 'villages' (on which we depend least), continents (domains that contain inter-related cities, towns and villages), etc.
  
• a sequence to automatically guide learners in a machine guided online tutoring system, for example.
• a network analysis linking the number of nodes and links, plots, analyses, statistics, distribution properties etc. (very soon as the data set increases, we will publish the results on this site.)
  
• and we are sure it will have many other uses as well.
  

Yes! You do not have to write essays here.

• We can get all the above mentioned goodies without writing any essays or do so much of research. We do not define concepts either! Just ask yourself the questions mentioned above and provide the answer if you have them. We simply make the dependency relations explicit for all concepts that all of us know. Soon we will be able to do this in all languages of the world (Our software developers are working on this.).

So, how to get it going?

1. Join as a member. Use the "join' link on the right corner of the site.
   
2. Use the 'Login' link if you are already a member.
   
3. Search for a concept or activity using the search form present on the right side of the header or the "view or edit" link. (We started this site recently and data set is very small, so don't be surprised if your favorite concepts and activities are not found here.)
   
4. Add a non-existing node. By default it will be taken as a concept, but if you want it to be an activity, use the check box. If a node already exists, you will see a message: "Object already exists". Then you can visit that node and then decide what more you can do.
   
5. Then add appropriate dependency links. For adding dependency link, click on the "Add" button below the relation names "Depends on" or its inverse name "Required for".
6. If you think that the existing relation is not accurate, you can remove the link using the "Delete" tab. Or discuss in the mailing list on the issue and resolve the conflict.
   
7. Remember! You cannot add a relation unless a concept node already exists. So, if you don't find the node you are looking for, add one and link it.
   
8. Remember, all of us are making only one single map collaboratively. All contributions are recorded against your login name with date and time of contribution.
   
9. Please see below the ownership and license information to know who owns the data made by you.

Spread the word around the world!

• Well! The site is meant for you. We made this simplest web application so that the whole world gets the benefit. The outcome of this simplest exercise will be a very useful semantic dependency map for learning and teaching any topic. The knowledge base built on this site is available for every one. For making the maps in other languages we have to only add translations to each node. We will soon add this function to have the map in all languages. However, if you want to add concepts in your own language, you can build them right away, and may add the translation links latter when the feature is made available.
  

License

The network and the content produced is published under GNU Free Documentation License.

• What does this license imply?
• you have the freedom to use the maps for any purpose.
• you can make modifications to them.
  
• you can distribute or publish or sell them provided you grant the same freedoms to others as well, i.e., release them again under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Soon coming!

After depMap (dependency map) we will soon have other kinds of maps as follows:

• typeMap (what is a type of what, what is a sub-type of what) for taxonomy
  
• partMap (what is a part of what, and what consists of what) for part-whole relation
  
• reactionMap (what is a product of what, and what is a reactant of what) for how matter changes
  
• causeMap (what is a cause of what, and what is an effect of what) for cause-effect map
  
• testsMap (what is a preTest and what is a postTest of each node in the map) for assessment
  
• and so on. If you have another good suggestion tell us, we will try to add that in future.
  

Tell us if you have any feedback!

• We will make improvements to the user interface to make the process easy. If you have good ideas you can tell us, or if you have skills or willing to contribute you can collaborate in building the software of this portal as well.
  
• Use the 'contact' link above to write to us. If you have any feature request, we will try to add the feature.
• Join the mailing list here to be in touch with other contributors where you can
  
• discuss with them pertaining to the activities on this portal
  
• resolve conflicts if any
• schedule periodic online workshops though collaborative online conferences
• share your experiences
  
• and so on.

This site is made and maintained by the gnowledge.org lab of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Educatioin, TIFR.