If your net-connected phone or PDA lacks an easy-to-sync note-taking application, or you just prefer the open-ended nature of wikis, PikoWiki is one of the better mobile-friendly wikis out there. A super-slim interface gives you all the tools you’ll need to make and edit notes and lists, and search or browse your pages. Those with basic HTML knowledge don’t have to learn a single bit of wiki style, and anyone can try it out on the demo pages provided. The real benefit, of course, is getting at those same notes from any other browser you find yourself at. PikoWiki is free to sign up for and use. PikoWiki [via MakeUseOf.com]
Windows/Mac/Linux (OpenOffice): The Sun Wiki Publisher, a free extension for the OpenOffice.org office suite, lets you edit and contribute to any MediaWiki-based page on the web, assuming it accepts anonymous editing or you have credentials. The real benefit lies in being able to use OpenOffice’s styling tools—bolding, lists, tables, and the like—instead of having to remember the MediaWiki markup style. Creating a new page is relatively simple, but editing an existing page requires, at least with this version, copying and pasting an article in Writer, then sending it to the wiki for updating. For those rocking their own wiki web pages (or thumb drives), this extension might make a nice go-between. The Sun Wiki Publisher is a free download, works wherever OpenOffice.org does.
Sun Wiki Publisher [via Linux.com]Google Documents rolls out two features that make collaboration easy, even amongst friends and co-workers that don’t have Google accounts. Spreadsheets now have an “Anyone can edit this document without logging in” option in their share tab, turning your document into a wiki that tracks changes in real time and can email you a summary. Also, those who dig the custom input forms can now embed them on any web page, and users who don’t like your choices can submit their own answers with a new option. Great tools for those who want to collect opinions and data, but don’t want to spend a lot of time setting up the web pages to do so.
Embed Your Forms [via Google Operating System]Most home movies are jammed-together affairs, but anyone can make their videos better with a little schooling in the basics of story-telling. The Wikiversity has a free multi-part “Film School” that focuses on the kinds of tips just as helpful to unofficial wedding videographers as aspiring auteurs. Learn the basics of framing, editing in “L cuts,” and when and where to cut a scene. Some of it does get a bit technical for DIY directors, but you’ll pick up enough to have real pride in the next set of home-burned DVDs you send out. WikiU Film School [via gHacks]
Setting up a personal wiki is a great way to set up a digital notebook for your thoughts and tasks, but it also requires getting familiar with the Wikipedia editing system—asterisks, brackets, and all. Luminotes has you simply start typing, using familiar rich text buttons to add bullets and other styling, and a simple linking and tagging system for your notes. There’s options to share and collaborate with others, as well as easy exporting and printing. Luminotes is available both as a package for hosted web space and as a somewhat-limited free account at Luminotes’ servers.
Lifehacker reader and TiddlyWiki enthusiast Fraser has written up a guide that takes the idea of cut-and-paste Outlook Today customising to the next logical (or at least Lifehacker-friendly) conclusion—integrating a TiddlyWiki to-do list and notebook into Outlook. Combine the easy-to-edit power of a personal wiki with the at-a-glance inbox and task information from Outlook, and you’ve got a powerful start page indeed. For a primer on getting things done with a TiddlyWiki, check out guest-poster Jason Thomas’ GTDTiddlyWiki walkthrough. (Original Outlook Today post).
Google has unveiled the results of their purchase of JotSpot—the free collaboration tool you could once use to make wiki-like collaboration pages and organize your family—and while the offerings are somewhat slim at this point, it’s looking like a promising addition to the Google Apps suite (both free and premium). You can set up Sites to create pages that only users with email addresses on a certain domain can use, or have your page open to edits or viewing by anyone. Each Sites account gets 10 GB of storage, and importing data and tools from other Google services, like group calendars, spreadsheets, Picasa slideshows, and the like, is pretty streamlined. Google Sites is free to use, and requires a sign-up with a non-Gmail email address. Google Sites [via Google Operating System]
One of the best features of keeping a TiddlyWiki with you on any system—such as a GTD TiddlyWiki—is the ability to throw into it anything you come across, whether it’s a task to do or a note about dinner. Now you can add organised, easily-imported contacts to that list through twab, a macro that plugs into any Tiddly-type page and can take in contacts from Google, Yahoo, Outlook, and MSN, as well as any others that export into Comma-Separated Value (CSV) format. The tabbed address book comes in a plain gray/dark-gray scheme, but changing those colours—and many more things about twab—is explained at the link below. twab – the tiddly wiki address book
Organise and share your checklists online with “the wiki of checklists,” sharing and collaboration webapp Checkser. Current available checklists cover self management projects, how to prepare for a vacation, required steps to close your Facebook account, what you should teach your child (and by what age), and more. Contribute to the ever-growing checklist database by starting your own list. Like nearly Wiki, a history of edits is provided as additional people help collaborate on each forever-changing project. Checkser.com
You don’t have to lease server space or keep your home computer always on to access a personal web server—you can run a web, FTP, and database server straight from a USB drive. A slim web server package called XAMPP fits on a USB stick and can run database-driven webapps like the software that powers Wikipedia, MediaWiki. Almost two years ago you learned how to set up your “personal Wikipedia” on your home web server to capture ideas and track document revisions in a central knowledge repository. Today we’ll set up MediaWiki on your flash drive for access on any Windows PC on the go.
