WSJ article
Jonny
text of Jeremy Wagstaff's article. I'm probably horribly in breach of
various copyright laws ... but hey it's an open-source product ...
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Simple Solutions
To Complex Problems
August 19, 2005
(from http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,loose_wire,00.html)
What I've got to offer this week is a simple piece of software that
does stuff many of you might find useful. The tricky bit is explaining
how it works and why you probably haven't heard of it. Not least the
name of this gem: TiddlyWiki.
First off, I should explain what it does: keeps notes on anything you
want, in a familiar format; can be cross referenced, labeled and easily
searched; can be stored in one place on your computer; can be published
on the Internet or taken with you on a USB key drive; and works on any
kind of operating system. Although all these bits and pieces are
present in other programs, I know of none that does all of this, and
does it for free. Still interested?
OK, the name. Take the Wiki bit first. A Wiki is a document, usually
but not always in the form of a Web page on the Internet, which can be
edited by anyone who wants to, right there and then. Most Web pages you
visit can only be read -- a static page, like a newspaper or a book --
but a Wiki will have an "edit this" button that allows you to change,
remove or add your own words.
Why would someone allow all this to happen, you might ask? Well, loyal
"Loose Wire" readers will be familiar with Wikipedia
(www.wikipedia.org), an online encyclopedia that can be edited by
anyone who chooses to. By allowing -- and trusting -- people to
contribute, Wikipedia has built one of the most formidable reference
sites on the Internet. Sure, there are goofballs who vandalize the
site, but such online graffiti is quickly removed by eager Wikipedians
monitoring any changes.
The Wikipedia is the most shining example of Wikis, but there many
other more modest efforts, from company teams collaborating on projects
to a recent experiment by the Los Angeles Times in an editorial Wiki,
abandoned because of vandalism. The key to Wikis is that they make it
easy for more than one person to create or play with a document. Your
browser is no longer just your passive window on the Web: It's an
online chalkboard too, letting you make your own contribution.
Turning Notes into Web Sites
Wikis have proved a boon. But some started thinking that Wikis needn't
just be about joint documents, and online collaboration. The Wiki is a
powerful editing and Web publishing tool in itself, and could be scaled
down for personal use -- to create your own documents on your own
computer, with or without an Internet connection. This kind of Wiki
would be a smaller-scale affair: just you and your notes, on your own
computer. Hence the term TiddlyWiki.
A TiddlyWiki, simply put, is a collection of individual notes -- called
tiddlers, naturally enough -- that you can create easily, and which can
be viewed together or individually, shuffled in lists alphabetically or
chronologically. You can search inside them.
So far, this might sound familiar. You may already keep jottings,
random notes or To-Do lists via a range of programs. There's no
shortage of offerings for this kind of task and some of them are quite
good. But the TiddlyWiki offers a glimpse of how things are changing in
terms of how people think about software.
First off, a Wiki -- big like Wikipedia or small like a TiddlyWiki --
is using the same code as a Web page, called HTML. HTML is simple, but
not that user-friendly. This is why ordinary folk like us don't do much
Web page building, unless it's via a blogging Web site, which makes it
easy by doing much of the formatting and design work for us. Wikis take
a similar tack as blogs, hiding all the fiddly bits for you.
TiddlyWikis are no different. The beauty of this is, when you've built
your TiddlyWiki, you can do with it whatever you might do with an HTML
Web page. You could publish it on the Net. You could copy it to a USB
key drive and view it on a computer that has a browser. And, if you
have the inclination and skill, you can redesign the layout, colors and
fonts, as you can with any ordinary Web page.
Alan Hecht, an instructional design specialist at Penn State
University, has deployed TiddlyWikis to help his faculty create their
own Web sites without the need for any programming or HTML skills.
"TiddlyWiki is an amazing accomplishment in programming and shows the
power of Wikis to even the most novice of users," Mr. Hecht says.
Tagging Tiddlers
That's not all. A killer feature for me is the ability to tag, or label
tiddlers -- an addition to the TiddlyWiki world from British technology
consultant Jonny LeRoy. If you've ever tried tagging Web sites like
del.icio.us, which lets you label and share your favorite Web pages, or
online photo collections like Flickr.com, you'll know what I'm talking
about. (Think of tagging as another way to search for stuff on the Web,
often more efficient than stumbling around looking via keywords or
boring old top-down, library-like categories.) With TiddlyWiki, it
means you can stick any number of labels you like on each tiddler, or
note, which makes finding or ordering them later much easier -- whether
you're online or offline. Say you're organizing notes on a project.
Each tiddler could be assigned a label for the author, for the
recipient, for the topic, for the side-issues raised, or whatever.
In sum, what I like about these TiddlyWikis is that they represent a
new beginning for simple software. In the same way online Web sites
like Backpackit.com are simplifying online tools, TiddlyWikis don't try
to do too much. But they do open our eyes to what software might be
capable of, and how restricted we presently are in how we handle and
view information. It's early days for the TiddlyWiki pioneers, but I
hope they fulfill their promise of simple, flexible software doing
powerful things for us.
· Send comments to p...@jeremywagstaff.com.
---
Tackling Your Own TiddlyWiki
If you're up to trying out TiddlyWiki, visit the homepage of its
inventor, Jeremy Ruston (www.tiddlywiki.com), and click on the
"DownloadSoftware" link on the left. Because TiddlyWikis are Web pages
rather than programs, you download it as you would a Web page -- by
right clicking on the link provided and saving it to your hard drive.
>From then on it's just a question of feeling your way around: I can't
guarantee a 100% smooth ride right now, but I do guarantee whatever
effort you put into figuring it out will be worth it. For more details
and links, and a couple of interviews with TiddlyWiki developers, visit
my blog, loosewireblog.com.
There are other Wiki approaches to note taking. One is WikidPad
(http://wikidpad.python-hosting.com/), developed by a guy called Jason
Horman who has recently made the source code open source, meaning that
anyone can now improve the software (and it's free). A similar program
is Note Studio ($40 to $50 from www.dogmelon.com.au/ns), a more
polished approach that runs on both Windows and Mac computers and also
synchronizes with handheld phones or devices running Palm software. For
Palm users there is also WikiPad (www.jera.com/wikipad) while Mac users
have the impressive and user-friendly VoodooPad ($25,
http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/). All of these capitalize on the
simple linking feature of Wikis to build databases that cross reference
easily and smoothly. None offer quite the potential of TiddlyWiki, but
they are all great tools and worth spending some time exploring.
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