Why use LM for research ?

- the developer's view


LM is an advanced container for diverse short texts. It has many features that should help the Social Science researcher.

Do you know about "Zettelkasten"? I often get that question from German surfers. True, LM is like Zettelkasten, but it differs from all such programs in its unusual organizational features.

LM organizes data with plain words. This makes the system nearly as unbounded as language itself. The categorization model has many similarities with linguistic analysis. LM comes close to linguistic ontology analysis and analysis of word senses.

The LM database model is an attempt to bridge dialectical phenomena concerning analytical viewpoints vs. a narrative development perspective. In LM, hundreds of loose notations ("item cards") represent your analytical production. The classification is far from hierachical. It forms a web, which is indeed very different from mind-maps.

The final text production (called "streams") realizes the less analytical, descriptive perspective. In LM you order the loose notation cards into final texts Such an atomistic principle will of course not work perfectly in its raw form. However, LM offers you several features that streamline the compilation process.

These basic ideas were part of the program already in the first version 1997 and are fully developed in the free LM2000 version. The LM Professional version adds a great number of service features and extensions, some of them of an experimental nature.

LM Professional is the version that is being updated and it has a personal user support service. LM 2000 is a frozen version from year 2002.
 
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Relevant issues


Question: How do I enter data?

Answer: Basically via the windows clipboard. LM Professional adds a great number of options:

All notations and text snippets that are entered must be classified with at least one keyword. This boils down to a requirement to build a personal dictionary (lexicon). It cannot be evaded by automation in any way, it requires an effort and it is also a vital part of the productive analysis that should be your motivation for using LM.
 

Question: What do I use it for?

Answer: It is your text and idea database and your repository for idea administration. If it suits you, you will keep it for a very long time and include a wide range of  notations in it.

It has a number of brain-storm features, but there is no claim that it replaces your creative thinking.
 

Question: How can I move data while working, or switch to another environment if I change my mind?

Answer:


Question: What is the best argument for LM?

Answer: The database model with networking via keywords in combination with the basic tools for arranging fragments into text and outlines. The rest  is either improved services for this core model or various extra tools that include what other programs also do.
 
Gunnar Sommestad
 
 
 

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