Idea mining is a process in which we extract out of a text, video, or other piece of media an important or (from our own personal perspective) an interesting concept.
This is not the same as summarising an idea. Rather it is an act of projective imagination, in which we look to find a nugget, or inspirational thought within the text. Something we may "use" later and in some other context.
In "Idea Mining" we ask students to extract generalizable ideas, patterns, or data from research they complete, media they watch, or experiments they perform.
YOUTUBE LEsdw5ldVb4 Mike Caulfield introduces Idea Mining
# Why
Bret Victor complains that we're thinking Paper Thoughts in a digital age, and that this is radically reducing our ability to benefit from information technologies.
We agree. We have history's greatest connection engine at our disposal, and yet we use it to write and think in a way that Voltaire would have found quite natural.
We love reading Voltaire. Perhaps you do too. But consider what Voltaire did of note: he invented forms of writing made possible by the new technologies, processes, and economics of his time.
If we want to really make use of the power of connection on the web, we are going to have to write in a way that values connection over argument, and reuse over rhetoric.
And we're going to do that through a process we call Idea Mining.
What we *don't* do is use that article as a building block on which we can build other more complex ideas. Because we can't -- the article isn't really an idea, it's an article. It's all the ideas sewn up in a way that can't be teased apart.
Longform should be appreciated -- it's behind many of the great achievements of print culture. And frankly, behind most of the achievements of the web as well.