argmaps

argmaps is a collaborative research workstation. It ingests web pages and PDFs, letting users grab excerpts from them to compose threads of logical argumentation responding to questions of interest. Learn more at argmaps.com.

Key Features

Incorporate excerpts from web pages and PDFs into your inquiries

Below a user drags an excerpt from a web page as evidence for his response to the main question.

dragging-highlight3

Debate in a structured way

Grey sentences serve as evidence for the thesis above them. Red sentences object to the theses above them. Structuring an inquiry or debate in this way lets readers see exactly what’s being argued, and why, at a glance.

am-outline-debate

Technical Highlights

  • Rails 4
  • Thick client
    • Backbone.js
  • Mustache templates shared between server and client
  • Extensive JSON API
    • JSON serialization courtesy of active-model-serializers
  • File uploading
  • High-fidelity PDF to HTML conversion
  • Bookmarklet for importing web pages
  • Local/offline document library management facilitated by the HTML5 File API
  • Powerful search driven by ElasticSearch
  • Server provisioning via Puppet
  • Deployment via Capistrano