Turning Literature into Knowledge
Oxford, 17 Nov. 2016
Innovating knowledge management
The big vision
Summarized it is the idea to visualize links between scientific literature. In the team's experience, it is hard to get an overview of your reading list and its interdependencies - and to keep this overview updated. It became obvious that knowledge management has not yet reached the 21st century. A demanding goal had to be phrased:
"We aim to build the biggest mind map in the world with 1 million nodes!"
So, how does RefLinx work then? Providing a cloud-based software, users can build "knowledge networks" existing of nodes (documents, papers...) and colored lines (blue lines for supporting arguments, red lines for opposing arguments). It looks like a spider web made of scientific papers and blue and red connections between them. Using such a network, it becomes clear where to look for opposing arguments or where to find gaps in today's research.
Justin Rhodes had the idea to visualize links between scientific literature as he studied water management and worked as a data specialist at Oxford university. Soon he realized that it would be smart to find co-founders in order to bounced ideas of them and gain a broader understanding of all business needs. The Entrepreneurship Summit of Oxford's Said Business School was the right occasion and so he met Tobias Buchwald, who should soon become a co-founder at RefLinx.
Tobias has been an engineer at Volkswagen and does hold an MBA in entrepreneurship. Writing his master's thesis about the Internet of Things and its impact on business models when meeting Justin for the first time, Tobias suddenly understood the possibilities of Justin's proposed knowledge networks. However, they decided they should add another person to the team.
David Pettitt is a medical expert and has experience as an academic director of an education platform. He seemed to be the perfect fit, as he does not only have an insight into education sector but also does he have insights into the medical sector. David called the team's attention to new use cases they have not thought of earlier. So, the perfect team was born.
So, how does RefLinx work then? Providing a cloud-based software, users can build "knowledge networks" existing of nodes (documents, papers...) and colored lines (blue lines for supporting arguments, red lines for opposing arguments). It looks like a spider web made of scientific papers and blue and red connections between them. Using such a network, it becomes clear where to look for opposing arguments or where to find gaps in today's research.
Forming an extraordinary team
Justin Rhodes had the idea to visualize links between scientific literature as he studied water management and worked as a data specialist at Oxford university. Soon he realized that it would be smart to find co-founders in order to bounced ideas of them and gain a broader understanding of all business needs. The Entrepreneurship Summit of Oxford's Said Business School was the right occasion and so he met Tobias Buchwald, who should soon become a co-founder at RefLinx. 
Tobias has been an engineer at Volkswagen and does hold an MBA in entrepreneurship. Writing his master's thesis about the Internet of Things and its impact on business models when meeting Justin for the first time, Tobias suddenly understood the possibilities of Justin's proposed knowledge networks. However, they decided they should add another person to the team.
David Pettitt is a medical expert and has experience as an academic director of an education platform. He seemed to be the perfect fit, as he does not only have an insight into education sector but also does he have insights into the medical sector. David called the team's attention to new use cases they have not thought of earlier. So, the perfect team was born.
Building a business
Where to start though?
After the team sat together and brain stormed about the idea, it became clear that they would have to get out of the building and confirm their assumptions. As they went to interview Oxford's students in front of libraries and got very useful and encouraging feedback, they decided to bring the project to a whole new level.Future outlook
The RefLinx team is just finishing their first prototype in order to get even more sophisticated feedback from its users. We are looking forward to accompany this exciting new startup and to see it grow in the future. Stay tune for upcoming posts on RefLinx. And, if you are so kind, please take their survey below. Thank you!
RefLinx.com Survey (please click here)
Help to improve their product
RefLinx invites you to help improve their product using the following survey. It just takes 2 minutes and there are no strings attached. Thank you so much!RefLinx.com Survey (please click here)
__________________
About this Blog
Splendid Startups is a Blog about real-life entrepreneurship. The blog's goal is to learn from startups and their day-to-day experiences: a startup diary so to speak.
No comments:
Post a Comment