In 2006 I asked my friend Kelly about something I couldn’t describe very well, but it would be some kind of little database to track information and ideas for me.  “That sounds like a wiki,” said Kelly with his gift of occasional prescience.

I noticed my web hosting package included PBworks (PBwiki at the time), so I loaded it up and discovered I could promote collaborative editing.  It wasn’t what I’d been looking for, but it was so fascinating that I forgot about the “idea-trapper” for a while.

When I did think about it again, using PBwiki had little appeal. Why?

• It wasn’t easy or fast enough.  I feel bad saying that, because it was incredibly easy and fast … but I wanted an idea trapper, and PBwiki had too many layers to work through. For starters, I had to log in. Some ideas just don’t have a very long half-life.
• In particular, the collaborative aspect meant I needed to be an Admin. This added some sense of burden and another layer to user interface.
• PBwiki included many intriguing tools for content management, such that I tended to get distracted and overwhelmed.
• PBwiki could enable a polished final result.  I’m not a born perfectionist, but as mentioned elsewhere, if you put an almost-perfect something in front of me I’m going to sit there and putter until it’s right.  Or the next day.  Whichever comes first.

NOTE: Don’t take this as a review of PBworks. It will have changed since my experiments. My memory will be imperfect, as well as my perceptions or understanding at the time I was using it.

I wasn’t practicing mere flattery when I described Kelly as prescient, for more was to come.  This year I rediscovered Vannevar Bush’s seminal 1945 article “As We May Think.”  My ancient craving for an “idea-trapper” found other new inspirations.  A few days ago I started thinking about the tag cloud on my blog (thank you, thank you WordPress), and how it’s kind of like a mindmap.  Ten minutes later with some help from Google, I discovered …

TiddlyWiki

I’ve gotten delight from a lot of computer apps, starting in 1981 when my Dad (thanks, Dad) let me try Electric Pencil.  I recall my biggest “rush” experiences with software  — I mean where the results are fast and exciting, and don’t seem to require much need to stop and learn something (but I’m doing something; pushing a joystick doesn’t count). Without doubt, the most incredible instance was MacPaint in 1984.  TiddlyWiki comes in second, making it the best bang-for-my-buck in a quarter century!

Apparently the Wiki Model Has Two Information Virtues:

1. Collaborative participation
2. Flexible, rapid, intuitive, non-linear structuring

But one must say rather that the wiki model has two potential virtues; in practice, applications differ on which one has the priority. PBwiki was strong on #1. TiddlyWiki is focused wholly on #2.  TiddlyWiki also has important qualities for personal use:

• It’s truly portable.  It lives on my USB flash drive.
• It’s seriously portable.  It’s a single HTML document! This means it’s accessed through any web browser (regardless of operating system). It doesn’t require an Internet connection
• The functionality is very limited.  It’s a Barlow penknife, not a Swiss Army field kit.
• The interface is beautifully developed, with a transparent, intuitive quality. This is a mature application.
• You can dress up text, make tables, etc. The methods are ingeniously simple. You don’t need any web skills. Compared with becoming a power-user in Microsoft Word, this is much easier. You need a bit of a geek streak to get started, just because the documentation is thin and the initial deployment isn’t a scripted experience.
• There’s no password. 

You can see one of my new wiki documents here. This one has about fifty posts that relate to programming: code snippets, tips and reference info. It’s not really for general consumption, but it will let you see the idea (and someone could come away with a VBA tip). Be aware it is read only in this setting, and some links will fail.

And now if I can just work in that dynamic mind map …