EDIT: Product Hunt asked us to speak on Clubhouse for their TGIF Round-Up! https://twitter.com/tangjeff0/st...
Hey ProductHunt!
I started Athens after interviewing at Roam Research in March of last year.
While I believed in the vision of networked thought and bidirectional links (I can't be the only one seeing as Roam was a runner up for Product Hunt's 2020 product of the year), I also immediately recognized a demand for open-source, when I tweeted out the initial proof of concept for Athens: https://twitter.com/tangjeff0/st....
Out of the box, open-source provides transparency. This leads to better security, privacy, extensibility, longevity, and more, all of which are critical for a knowledge tool.
Perhaps even more importantly, I think open-source as a process can create the best products. Not only do the best ideas rise to the top, they can be implemented directly into the source code, improving the experience of all users.
Look no further than our public project boards on GitHub, our weekly community calls, and our Discord with over 1700 people now. Users and makers work directly together in the same communication channels.
Everyone talks about building in public these days (for good reason), and I believe open-source is the pinnacle of this.
But I'll let you be the judge!
Try the web version (no changes are saved) at https://athensresearch.github.io... and download our desktop app on our GitHub: https://github.com/athensresearc...
Feel free to swing by our community as well. We're super open to newcomers, whether it be aspiring (Clojure) developers or people just tired of losing their notes!
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/AthensResearch
* Discord: https://discord.gg/2QGBxtp
Hi, @jeff_tang please edit the URLs in comments and 'Get it' section. We don't allow tiny URLs or direct downloads. The Get-it button goes directly to the product website, app-store, chrome-store. Thank you :)
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There is no question that this brilliant execution and a sleek UI. Having an open source alternative is great. However i'm puzzled by what could be the future of a clone at a given time. What will you do next? What if the original introduces major changes you can't duplicate. What are the goals after parity of features is reached?
The UI is so much better than Roam! Also being local first is such a smart idea, all note taking apps are so painfully slow
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THANK you. Haven't been using Roam Research specifically because of the lack of privacy and required reliance on the company behind it. Great product, especially the open-source part.
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I now use Athens daily. Bi-directional linking connections between concepts and key words in the corpus of tech we continuously create promises the opportunity to completely transform how knowledge graphs amplify human potential. Being open source at this layer is also critically fundamental.
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I use Athens to on-ramp at my new job (can’t use Roam due to privacy) and bi-directional links have been so helpful to my learning. Athens to the moon!
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Athens gave me a full experience: I'm using the software, got to know new awesome people, and was inspired to learn Clojure and contribute the little bit I could.
Athens Research
Product Hunt
June