We are interested in the meta-access problem, which is the problem of rapidly accessing information that is related to one’s current focus. This was first described in Cognitive Productivity with macOS®: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter with Knowledge.

A new CogSci Apps® invention, named Hookmark, designed by Beaudoin, is the first app designed specifically to address the meta-access problem. It is also described in Cognitive Productivity with MacOS®: 7 Principles for Getting Smarter.

At Simon Fraser University, Beaudoin has a research programme that aims to understand the magnitude of the meta-access problem, people’s awareness of the problem, how they address it, and how it can best be solved. Now that Hook is available, it can be used in research on meta-access problem.

Before starting to develop Hook, Beaudoin published a summary of a grant proposal on the meta-access problem. We hope that the federal government will follow through on its pledge to support Canadian productivity, innovation and knowledge work by providing research grants to study cognitive productivity. As it stands, despite Cognitive Productivity, there is still very little awareness, amongst the public and knowledge workers themselves, of the core concepts of cognitive productivity. More on that in Cognitive Productivity books.