This is Zurbu.

A good place to collect, organize, share, and preserve knowledge on things you care about.

Public or private, collaborative or read-onlyā€Šā€”ā€Šyou decide.

One communityā€Šā€”ā€Šmultiple thematic projects.

Take a look at some of them:

1201:future

Riga is not ready (but at least it tries). City development updates and ideas.

1201:past

History of Riga. The project where it all started.

Valmiera

Exploring history of Valmiera, Latvia. Managed by the town's local history museum.

Projects are made of notes.

From one-liners to long reads, here are the latest ones:

Feel free to build notes with

… and make forum-like discussion threads.

And it’s all about organizing your stream of notes.

Not even trying to be humble hereā€Šā€”ā€Šthe tags are powerful.

Create hierarchical tags
  • Imagine having a tag called Notre-Dame de Paris. The tag page will obviously show everything explicitly labeled.
  • Add a polygon-shaped location outlining the contour of the great building to your tag. Then create another one called Spire of Notre-Dame de Paris and mark it on the mapā€Šā€”ā€Šthis surely will be inside that. Thus, everything labeled with this new tag will be shown, too.
  • Create a third tag called Gargoyles of Notre-Dame de Paris, but assign its location as simply Notre-Dame de Paris rather than adding new points on the map. Expect the same effect.
  • And finallyā€Šā€”ā€ŠReconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris. Label it with Notre-Dame de Paris (yes, you can tag tags, too!). See what happened?
Categorize tags
  • Categories are primitive on purposeā€Šā€”ā€Šjust title, no more than one category per tag.
  • Good examples would be People or Places or anything you wish.
  • Tags will be grouped by categories in alphabetical lists.
  • You can configure your favourite categories to list their tags on the main page of your project.
Use boards as to-do lists
  • Add notes and tags to boardsā€Šā€”ā€Škeep track of what should be done.
  • Imagine tags with tasks. And just like with tags, you can add same item to multiple boards.
  • Hide them or show them, grant permissions to configure themā€Šā€”ā€Šor even edit every item added.
  • Boards can be configured to hide added items from people without access to them. Looking for a drafts or trash folder? Look no further!

The tools are abstract and flexible…

… and the rules are yours.

Zurbu is especially useful if your knowledge fits on a map.

But that’s not required.

… and expect more geography to come.

It’s about time to mention time.

Milestones can be added to notes and tags.

Add some history metadataā€Šā€”ā€Še.g. creation time. Mark that old photo properly.

Preserve your knowledge.

Your efforts deserve to be safeguarded.

Every day, well-structured ZIP files with all text data and uploads are generated for each project.

Project owners can make them public or keep to themselves.

Configure your project.

Make it meet your needs.

Choose who can post

Switch anytime

Be the only narrator, select your co-authorsā€Šā€”ā€Šor let the world join the discussion!

Choose your licence

Protect your findings or let the world copy them like Wikipedia articlesā€Šā€”ā€Šthe choice is yours!

Add your own domain

Optionally

Build your brand. Hopefully you choose to stayā€Šā€”ā€Šbut if you don’t, your audience will follow you.

Built with enthusiasm and experience.

Zurbu wasn't built in a day.

2001
A school project on 800th anniversary of Riga evolves into a popular blog on history and sights of the city.
2004
An old-school forum is added to the blog. People start talking.
2009
Zurbu, a moonshot at creating blogs and forums for local history enthusiasts worldwide, is launched. Old blog articles get migrated there.
2024
Finally, the current version of Zurbu appears. Rewritten from scratch, with all the existing data and new content, and an ambitious goal of providing like-minded people a convenient and safe space for the things they care about.

Who’s behind it?