Universal Book Link/Map

xbais commented 4 years ago

Project description

BACKGROUND: The rate at which humanity progresses depends very much upon how efficiently the next generation adopts the knowledge and ideas of their ancestors. But with new knowledge being generated each day, and new books of varying qualities, writing styles and languages being written everyday, it is very important to organize all that knowledge in a systematic way, so that the ever increasing number of books on every single topic helps the society rather than creating confusion, misunderstanding and a mess in general.
AIM: A 'system' wherein a person A can link topics in two different books as same (meaning they describe the same thing). So, when a person B is reading one of the two books and is unable to understand the same topic, he/she will automatically be guided to the other book. If they can then access the book and read that particular chapter/topic/page, and it helps clear their doubt, they'll surely be grateful!

No copyright violation: The system can legally acquire digitally processable copies of the books in question from the publishers or the authors to be used internally for the process of linking only. The 'system' acquired copies will NOT be shown to the general public, and hence will not lead to any copyright violation or royalty issues.

How will general public participate: Suppose I want to link two paragraphs of two books I have in print/soft copy, I can simply click a photograph/screenshot of the two pages and upload them to the 'system' after which I'll mark the exact paragraphs/texts from the two pages to be linked. The 'system' will read the entire page using a technology similar to OCR, compare the data from the OCR with the copy of the books it has acquired directly from the publishers/authors, and internally link the two texts and show the link in its 'book-map'.

The 'book-map' will be publicly visible, and can be utilized by interested people FREE OF COST.

So, for example, next time I don't understand a math topic in a book, I simply search for similar linked texts, the 'system' will show me a list of books and the location of the topics in terms of position within the chapter, and I'll simply buy the other book/acquire a copy and read it.

Maps will be publicly editable like Wikipedia, and their validity will be calculated using public voting: so, if I feel two particular pieces of text have been wrongly linked, I can down-vote the link, and mark it for review, whence it can be reviewed by other interested people.

Complexity and required time

Complexity

[ ] Beginner - This project requires no or little prior knowledge of the technolog(y|ies) specified to contribute to the project
[x] Intermediate - The user should have some prior knowledge of the technolog(y|ies) to the point where they know how to use it, but not necessarily all the nooks and crannies of the technology
[ ] Advanced - The project requires the user to have a good understanding of all components of the project to contribute

Required time (ETA)

[ ] Little work - A couple of days
[x] Medium work - A week or two
[ ] Much work - The project will take more than a couple of weeks and serious planning is required

open-source-ideas / ideas