Kastalia KMS

"... nichts entzieht sich der Darstellung durch Worte so sehr und nichts ist doch notwe ndiger, den Menschen vor Augen zu stellen, als gewisse Dinge, deren Existenz weder beweisbar noch wahrscheinlich ist, welche aber eben dadurch, daß fromme und gewissenhafte Menschen sie gewissermaßen als seiende Dinge behandeln, dem Sein und der Möglichkeit des Geborenwerdens um einen Schritt näher geführt werden."

In Josef Knechts handschriftlicher Übersetzung / Kastalia Archiv / Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game

Kastalia instances

gardens.digital

fibel.digital

Grunewaldstrasse cafeteria

kastalia.medienhaus.udk-berlin.de

Narrative behind Kastalia KMS

the project of 2nd Archive resp. "2nd Foundation" germinated for many years

ultimate impetus for creation of KMS given by need of VK and KuM study programs for a unified aggregator and generator of Einführungveranstaltung (EV) presentations

first EV in winter semester 2016/2017 at url https://cloud.medienhaus.udk-berlin.de/community

first public demonstration at UdK Zukunfstag 2019

deployment of other instances in 2021

handbook generator (SQL->LaTex->PDF) deployed in Summer Semester 2022

Implementation

Perl Dancer app behind nginx proxy

PostgreSQL database with just three tables: "knots", "bounds" and "zeitgeist"

all knot-related ad hoc information stored in knots.attributes hstore

main predicates: "is_parent", "has_bookmark", "contains" common to all instances, certain predicates "is_uttered_as", "illustrates", "is_symbiont_with" etc. instance-specific)

Philosophy

Kastalia is composed of "knots" which have attributes and relations ("bounds") to other "knots".

Everything (e.g. user, institution, event, presentation slide, fairy tale, musical piece) is a knot.

A knot is a "Ding an sich".

Bounds are predicated. (hello sir Berners-Lee, hello Wikibase, hello "semantic web")

A knot is presented to an observer (e.g. human user) by means of a template.

Combination of a knot, other knots which are bound to it and a template yield "Ding für uns".