TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook
A friend of mine (Bill) sent me a link to a very intriguing little 'program' called TiddlyWiki.
Basically it's an easy to use web site that you can use to gather information quickly and easily. It's standalone using HTML and JavaScript. They called it "a reusable non-linear personal web notebook". I have to say, while it's not a simple plug-n-play application it definitely seems to be something that I'll be happy to add to my resources.
TiddlyWiki is a single html file which has all the characteristics of a wiki - including all of the content, the functionality (including editing, saving, tagging and searching) and the style sheet. Because it's a single file, it's very portable - you can email it, put it on a web server or share it via a USB stick. But it's not just a wiki! It has very powerful plugin capabilities, so it can also be used to build new tools. You have full control over how it looks and behaves. For example,TiddlyWiki is already being used as:
- A personal notebook
- A GTD ("Getting Things Done") productivity tool
- A collaboration tool
- For building websites (this site is a TiddlyWiki file!)
- For rapid prototyping
- ...and much more!
You can import and export data to and from all sorts of places.
I think it's a very useful little application. Go, download it and try it out yourself!
What is a "wiki"? Any collaborative web site that users can easily modify via the web, typically without restriction. A wiki allows anyone, using a web browser, to edit, delete or modify content that has been placed on the site, including the work of other authors. This has been found to work surprisingly well since contributors tend to be more numerous and persistent than vandals and old versions of pages are always available. Text is entered using a simple mark-up language which is then rendered as HTML. A feature common to many of the different implementations is that any word in mixed case LikeThis is automatically turned into a link to a page of that name, which may or may not exist (similar to the linking in this dictionary). In contrast, a web log, typically authored by an individual, does not allow visitors to change the original posted material, only add comments. Wiki wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian. The first wiki was created by Ward Cunningham in 1995.
wiki. Dictionary.com. The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. Denis Howe. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wiki (accessed: January 20, 2009).
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