Gathering information from books involves reading content; highlighting the important parts; and making post-its to remember places, thoughts and ideas. But there has to be a better way.
This is the view of Patrick Kayton, one of the founders of Cognician, a software solution that acts as a thought processor. “Cognician provides a different way of interacting with content, allowing us to focus on new ideas and concepts.
“Cogs, or conversational guides, are nuggets of knowledge,” says Kayton. He explains cogs were developed as an alternate form of creating or integrating with content. “It's a way of packaging acumen.
“Cognician helps you focus on one idea at a time, systematically, through a problem; breaking it into more manageable chunks of information.
Knowledge builder
“Cogs can give you guidance to tackle a problem, and helps you think in a different way,” says Kayton.
Cognician can also be viewed as an expert system, he adds, where company protocols can be added to the system for employees to follow.
“It's a cheaper alternative to traditional expert systems, as you are able to update the knowledge base yourself,” he explains. Kayton says the company plans to release a free cog builder that will allow companies and communities to build their own cogs.
It can also be used for building process workflows and documents that are used as a repository of knowledge. “This provides a place where expert knowledge inside an organisation resides, allowing companies to keep their knowledge even if people move on from the company.
“Cognician represents a new form of electronic derivative for your content, as books can be adapted into cogs.”
He adds this market doesn't compete with books, but rather drives the sale of books. “All the information is contained inside the book, a cog is just a complementary element to the book.
“Our cog development team reworks and authors content to adapt it into a cog, which we then sell from our site, and share the revenue with you.”
He says the workspace is free, but certain cogs will be released on a paid-for model.
Tapping into communities
According to Kayton, a strong focus is placed on communities, which will be able to create their own cogs to be added to the cog store. He likens the cog store to the Apple iStore.
“Cognician will also integrate into Twitter, allowing people to place their thoughts online and get feedback from their community of followers.
“Building a community helps to grow the user base for the software, and also allows us to respond to what users are looking for,” he concludes.
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