How a Collaborative Zettelkasten Might Work: A Modest Proposal for a New Kind of Collective Creativity

22 Aug, 2024

This article gives a preliminary framework for people wanting to experiment with a collaborative zettelkasten. Keep in mind, these are mere suggestions, since I've not yet experimented with this type of slip box. As to whether the suggestions are valid, this will be determined by anyone who attempts to put them into practice. Note: While this article was written in the context of a Luhmann-style zettelkasten, people using similar, adjacent models, should feel free to work with what's presented in ways that fit their system.

What's a Collaborative Zettelkasten?

A collaborative zettelkasten is maintained by multiple people, one in which all the participants add main notes, establish connections between ideas, and freely pull from the network of notes for their own projects / projects worked on as a collective. The contents of the zettelkasten may or may not be aligned with a single, agreed upon subject. Participants may or may not have a common output, goal, or project in mind when they start. The only requirements are:

• all participants add to the collection of main notes
• all participants establish connections between ideas
• all participants are free to pull from the zettelkasten for their writing projects

Getting Started

Digital or Paper?

First, you'll need to decide on the form your zettelkasten will take—digital or paper. If distance between participants or accessibility to a central location is a factor, a digital zettelkasten will probably work best. If all participants live within close proximity to one another, a paper-based zettelkasten could be just the thing. Regardless of factors, any approach can be taken, if you have the drive to take it.

Setting Up Your Zettelkasten

A collaborative zettelkasten is set up the same as you would your own. While there are a number of variations, here's a simple way to do it for either a digital or paper-based zettelkasten:

• THE ZETTELKASTEN (the digital folder or physical collection of boxes containing the note-types below)
  • Main notes
  • Reference notes
  • Structure notes
  • Index

Fleeting notes are staged outside the zettelkasten in each participant's personal inbox. Personal writing projects are also stored outside the zettelkasten in whatever place makes sense. Any collaborative writing can be kept in a place accessible by all participants.

For a much more detailed explanation of building and working with a zettelkasten, see A System for Writing.

Areas of a Collaborative Zettelkasten that Can Be Worked on Independently

Not all aspects of a collaborative zettelkasten need or should be worked on simultaneously as a group. In fact, much of the work that goes into building the zettelkasten will be done asymmetrically, each participant working independently. Below are four areas where this might be the case.

Take fleeting notes on your own.

Fleeting notes are used to capture thoughts on the go—things you'd like to remember or develop later. Since each participant has their own brain with its own thoughts, it's fair to say fleeting notes will be an individual affair.

Create your own reference notes for books and other media.

Reference notes can be created independently. After all, a reference note (aka a "literature," "source," or "bibliographic" note) is a staging ground for what you, personally, found interesting in a media source. Even if you and the participants read the same text at the same time (as in a book club), it seems reasonable that each person would create their own reference note for the book.¹

Each person should create and import their own main notes.

Main notes are created from the contents of fleeting and reference notes, which each participant creates independent of the others. Consequently, participants can create and import main notes without collaborating.

Another reason participants should add their own independently created main notes has to do with the nature of the main note itself. As Johannes Schmidt states:

"[Luhmann's] main concern was not to develop an idea to maximum sophistication; rather, he operated on the assumption that a decision on the usefulness of a note could only be made in relating it to the other notes."²

Since the value of an idea is determined by its relationship to others—not according to the idea in isolation—there's no reason to collaborate on making individual main notes in an effort to make them "perfect" or "fully formed," get consensus, or make sure each idea is properly aligned with the overall project. As Luhmann states in his own notes, let the zettelkasten function as a "septic tank."³ Allow the relationships between ideas to determine their value.

Each participant should write in the notes their own connections.

Since connections between ideas are often made when notes are imported into the zettelkasten, participants should feel free to make and show these connections on their own, as they arise. If when importing a new note you'd like to show its connection to another, simply make note of the connection, state why you've done so, and move on to the next note. No consultation between participants is required.

Working with the Collaborative Network of Ideas

Although much of what goes into maintaining a collaborative zettelkasten is done independently, the result of these efforts is a network of ideas available for all participants to use. Below are suggestions on how to use it.

A Collaborative Zettelkasten for Independent Output

For some groups, having access to a common network of ideas is all that's desired. These groups have neither an interest in nor a need to collaborate on what they produce from the zettelkasten. All participants are free to pull what they need from the common pot for their individual projects. In this use case, working with a collaborative zettelkasten mirrors working with a personal one: use the zettelkasten to help you decide what to work on, as well as a resource supporting writing you've already begun.

A Collaborative Zettelkasten for Collaborative Output

If the group decides to collaborate on writing projects,⁴ they'll need a common place to organize their thoughts. A structure note is one such place.⁵

A structure note allows participants to bring ideas into a central location to organize them in a way that best supports the intended goal. It's also a place for the group to "structure" their thinking, add comments, move things around, and figured out what else may be needed. A structure note is a sandbox, a place to work out the relationship between ideas before bringing this material into a writing document.⁶

Once the ideas have been organized in a way that makes sense, the real writing begins. Bring the ideas and any useful comments into a new writing doc. Decide on who will do what, taking into consideration each participant's strength. Writers should write, editors edit, proofreaders proofread. Roles can be decided on by the group, and can also change as needed.

Stay in Communication

Regardless of which approach the group takes—working individually or collaboratively on projects—participants would do well to be in regular contact with one another. This way they can discuss what they've been importing, what connections they've been making, and what they think may be needed to fill out the contents of the zettelkasten. As with most group endeavors, communication is key.

Possible Benefits to a Collaborative Zettelkasten

There are a number of possible benefits associated with working on a zettelkasten collaboratively. Here are five I came up with.

More to pull from

One of the obvious benefits of building a group zettelkasten is scale. Depending on the enthusiasm of the participants, a collaborative zettelkasten could grow rather quickly, reaching "critical mass"⁷ sooner than if built in isolation. For writers who prefer a lot of notes to work from, a collaborative zettelkasten could be a gold mine of ideas.

Engaging with different insights

Because participants will be adding ideas and connections asynchronously, perspectives will vary. This can be a great benefit for writing that takes a comprehensive, multi-sided look at a subject. It can also enhance the perspective of the person coming to the zettelkasten, regardless of what they produce from it. Both are beneficial to anyone involved in creative work.

Checks on confirmation bias

The possibility of multiple perspectives should lead to checks on confirmation bias. Encountering ideas that challenge your thinking is an opportunity to broaden your perspective, reevaluate or even change your thinking.

Reinforces the communal nature of knowledge work

All ideas are in communication with and informed by others, regardless of whether we work in direct collaboration with others. A collaborative zettelkasten not only shows this in real time, but allows participants to actively engage with a collective web of insight.

Fun

Having fun is a perfectly acceptable reason to do something.

Things to Consider

Below are a few considerations to keep in mind when working on a collaborative zettelkasten.

Giving credit to your fellow participants.

Working in the ways described above brings up a question of ownership and citing sources: How and to whom do you give credit when sourcing notes from the collaborative zettelkasten? I can think of two ways to answer this question.

On the one hand, your group may decide that each imported note, along with any subsequent connections made between notes, should be signed by the person who imported the note or made the connection. This way, when a note or relationship between notes is used in a piece of writing, credit can be given. Seems reasonable.

On the other hand, your group may decide that in the spirit of collectivism (or in the spirit of unsigned religious works from years gone by) that the ideas and connections added to the zettelkasten are held in common, and are therefor "anonymous." In these cases, no citation is needed when sourcing ideas from the zettelkasten other than those related to published sources.

Keep an eye out for duplicate notes.

Since each participant will be adding notes on their own, duplicate notes may become an issue, requiring some creative thinking on the part of the participants. A detailed index or import/connection log, a robust search engine (if using digital), and a strong practice of "checking the database before entering a new note" may be necessary to avoid multiple participants importing the same idea.

Freeloading or free-flowing?

Each group will have to determine what level of participation seems fair. Some groups may decide on a "participation quota," a minimum level of engagement needed to be met by each member before they can use the common resource of notes. Other groups may take a more laissez-faire approach to policing participation, feeling that "there's no way to quantify the value of participation, so why bother?"

Collaborative zettelkasten involving a few close friends (say, two to six people) may find that a once-in-a-while check-in is sufficient for gauging who's been participating and who hasn't. (See "communication" above). Larger groups (say, ten to thirty participants) may require more formal checks on participation. Ultimately, these are group decisions, which if given space, could lead to fruitful discussions on things like: the nature of intellectual property, what constitutes "labor," and how both can be quantified. Consider turning the results of these conversations into your first notes.

*If you enjoyed this piece, please pick up a copy of my latest book, A System for Writing: How an Unconventional Approach to Note-Making Can Help You Capture Ideas, Think Wildly, and Write Constantly. You may also sign up for my intermittent newsletter HERE. To read more of my writing, click HERE. To learn more about me, click HERE. For my full website, click HERE.

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