Cubic Mapping of Text

For the past several months, I’ve taken daily notes. Previously, I scribbled and jotted thoughts into several paperback notebooks, but now I type daily into my iOS/OSX Notes application. Each day begins with a new note, date stamped at the top.

Recently, I found a method to export these notes as delectable plain text. I’m thinking of performing serious analysis on them - most importantly topic mapping. I want to create something I can poke at and watch grow.

I was thinking of mapping the extracted topics in relation to one another. I’ve seen mappings of one dimension - a list of the topics. Mapping two dimensions of a topic analysis usually leaves a graph of topic density over time (when was this topic mentioned?). I was thinking a three-dimensional mapping would be interesting.

As I see it, a useful three-dimensional mapping would give me the ability to rotate the graph in space and gain understanding of a range of topics, those dimensions being:

• Time, dates topic was mentioned
• Relation, similar topics lie closer in this dimension
• Specificity, a topic may be mentioned in passing or expounded upon in this dimension

I think a mapping like this would let the author traverse the notes taken and topics mentioned in a way that would show outliers or trends in thought very easily. At least worth a shot.