Site utility

The software LinkNotions allows to represent clearly fields of knowledge composed of many notions and multiple links between them.

Examples of fields of knowledge where LinkNotions might be helpful:

economy; ecology; meteorology; criminology; medicine; history; sociograms; decision flow; etc.

Linknotions will propose several diagrams that visitors will see and modify.

Each diagram shows its notions and the links between them.

Consider the world of the global economy.

The world contains some 400 economic notions and shows what their influences are upon each other.

All notions and links are explained.

The idea of Linknotions is to allow to analyze the clearest possible the interrelations in order to better understand the mechanisms of different worlds.

All visitors are invited to help complete and correct worlds. Why not aim the finest possible worlds? By this software we tried to find the most effective way for viewing influences in different fields of knowledge. It will allow to discuss the links (with this website) and bring some consensus (and also reveal differences in point of view) for the design of these links.

LinkNotions wants to promote reflection and research in various disciplines.

We have focused on a definate order of disposal of notions. This order will be crucial to the website. Indeed, as the contents are intended to be discussed in public, we need the public to find easily notions arranged in a certain order. Notions will be added and displaced over time as needed by improvements, but the notions remain fundamentally at nearby locations.

This is the first time the public can see (and help edit) a scheme that tries to bring all the influences in the fields of knowledge offered.

Our worlds are not perfect from the start, but they will be quickly improved. We think this is a great tool to promote discussion of complex phenomena.

The webite also allows visitors to build their own worlds and even publish them on the site.

“All the better to see it with”

Why a diagram?

As a student one studies the phenomena of each science more or less separately.

Take, for example, the phenomenon of wage increases in economics. The causes of an increase in wages (inflation, wage demands, ..) and its consequences (higher production costs, increasing consumption …) are analyzed. But rarely influences on other economic fields, such as the exchange rate are dealt with.

Could you spontaneously describe the influence of wage increase on the exchange rate of national currency?

Here are some possible reasonings:

If wages rise, production costs increase.

If production costs rise, prices rise.

If prices rise, exports drop and imports rise.

The decrease in exports reduces the demand for national currency and the value of money decreases.

The rise in imports leads to an increase in the supply of domestic currency and also lowers its value.

There are, of course, many other links and influences. However, a text to describe them would be very long and the reader would soon lose the overview.

Hence the idea of ​​presenting the links and influences in a schematic diagram containing “all” economic concepts and showing their influences on each other.

The initial idea was to represent those links in a three-dimensional space, but after a few months of work, it turned out that two dimensions were sufficient, especially as this made reading the representation much easier.