Better browsing with knowls
The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) is pleased to introduce a new tool to the world of web pages—the knowl. Like the familiar hyperlink, knowls can be used to provide relevant, supplementary information and are referenced from within the body of a web page. But unlike the hyperlink, which simply takes you to a new web page, the knowl conveniently serves up the information at your original location with the click of a mouse button. With a similar click, the knowl then disappears.
"The self-contained nature of knowls makes them useful in many different settings. They can be thought of as 'building blocks' that can be called upon when needed. I envision a time when the Internet has a repository of such knowls, reliable and ready to be referenced anywhere." says David Farmer, Director of Programs at AIM.
Knowls were developed to support research projects in advanced mathematics, but they can be easily incorporated to enhance any website. Knowls creator Harald Schilly noted, "The technology for knowls is at least 10 years old, and the theoretical basis, known as transclusion, is more than 50 years old. Our contribution is to provide an interface that fits the way people browse the Web today."
In addition to the examples in the paragraphs above, knowls are used extensively in Rob Beezer's free textbook on Linear Algebra.
The mathematics research projects which led to the development of knowls were funded by the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation.
How to put knowls on your own website
The process is very similar to the way people currently make web pages and hyperlinks between them.
Step 1: Add the following three lines between the <head> and </head> tags at the top of your webpage.
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script> <link href="https://aimath.org/knowlstyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://aimath.org/knowl.js"></script>
Step 2: When you want to insert a knowl into the page, it works just like inserting a link, except that you write knowl= instead of href=.
For example, the above knowl on "transclusion" was inserted with:
...known as <a knowl="transclusion.html">transclusion</a>, is more than 50 years old.
Step 3: The file containing the knowl is just an ordinary html file, except that you can leave out the <head> of the page and just include the contents. The file transclusion.html contains only the following:
<p> Transclusion is the inclusion of a document or part of a document into another document by reference. </p>
<p> The term "transclusion" was coined by hypertext pioneer <a knowl="bio.ted_nelson">Ted Nelson</a> in 1982. </p>
<p> The fundamental principle of transclusion is <em>context independence </em>, also called  <em>context neutrality </em>. This means that the text is self-contained and does not have to appear in any particular context in order to make sense. </p>
Note that all the paragraphs are marked with opening and closing tags. If you don't properly enclose your paragraphs in <p> </p> or <div> </div> tags, then your knowls may not appear in the correct location.
If your knowls don't appear properly in Internet Explorer, make sure that the first two lines of your file are:
Questions or comments to knowls@aimath.org
Georgia Benkart: 1947-2022
Georgia Benkart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at UW-Madison and a member of the AIM Scientific Research Board, died unexpectedly on April 29, 2022, in Madison, Wisconsin. She will be missed by her colleagues and students and left a lasting legacy of research accomplishments. In 1974 she began her career at UW-Madison after receiving her PhD from Yale. She served the mathematical community in many roles–among them as President of the Association of Women in Mathematics (2009-2011), Associate Secretary of the AMS (2010-2022), and as a member of the AIM Scientific Research Board (2016-2022). For a more detailed account of her life and mathematics see the memorial tribute and remembrances from the UW-Madison math department.
AIM Becomes a Partner in the Joint Mathematics Meetings
Along with 13 other mathematics organizations AIM has become a partner in the Joint Mathematics Meetings beginning with the recent JMM in Boston, January 4-7, 2023.
AIM's partnership with the JMM will primarily highlight three initiatives: the Alexanderson Award and Lecture, the Math Circle Network, and the Open Textbook Initiative.
More detail is available in the AMS News.
AIM Newsletters
Perspectives on the Riemann Hypothesis
Held at the Heilbronn Institute, University of Bristol, in the summer of 2018, this was the fourth in a series of meetings devoted to progress on the Riemann Hypothesis. Read more…
A Brief History of AIM
Established in 1994 by businessman and math enthusiast John Fry, the American Institute of Mathematics is now located in San Jose, California, after moving from its original Palo Alto location in 2015.
AIM's mission is to advance mathematical knowledge through collaboration, to broaden participation in the mathematical endeavor, and to increase awareness of the contributions of the mathematical sciences to society.
Since 2002 AIM has been part of the Mathematical Sciences Institutes program in the Division of Mathematical Sciences of the National Science Foundation.