[Home]WikiAsPim

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Other pages about quite similar topics

Wiki:WikiOnPda, WikiAsNotepad, Wiki:PersonalWiki, PhpWiki:WikiAsPim (Now broken: Wiki:WikiOnPalm), WikiWordProcessor

There is also EmacsWiki:PlannerMode for the Emacs users out there, which integrates very nice with EmacsWiki:EmacsWikiMode.

http://www.ourpla.net/john/wikiweblogpim.html


I want to use my wiki as my PersonalInformationManager. Why? Because i want wikiness (eg automatic/accidental linking) in my PIM, and i care more about interoperating everything than widgetry -- wiki's simplicity supports that.

I want to be in control of my information, and i want that for everyone else too, and the fact that so many wikis are GPL, and i expect them to eventually get a common external API (by XmlRpc or whatever), means that whatever work i do, or get done, will be available to all.

FreeSoftware/OpenSource PIMs seem to focus on duplicating proprietary bloatware.

One concrete piece of what i have in mind:

In my wiki, a page with a person's or organization's name is where i put their information. We develop a wiki-like markup to indicate what information is what, and clever regexes to pull it out of information that we 'just pasted in for now'.

Other pages are groups, which just means they list a bunch of other pages.

Just that and the WikiAsPim scripts allow command-line stuff something like this:

email i (LocalPeople, u (WorkFriends, GameFriends, FamiLy))
or
email LocalPeople && (WorkFriends || GameFriends || FamiLy)

...which would find the email addresses of everyone who is on any of the group pages WorkFriends?, GameFriends? or FamiLy? and is on the LocalPeople? page, and send an event to my default email program telling it to open a new message addressed to those people.

Don't worry too much about typing all that, because a high priority is to implement tab completion.

Analogous stuff can be done with, for example, URLs and snailmail addresses to auto-generate lists of relevant links, mailmerge files, etc. For RssFeeds imagine:

rss i (UnreadItems, u (GeneralNews, FamiLy, GeekFun)

There's more i have in mind, but that's enough to get us started (i want to keep this simple enough to implement RealSoonNow? for real). So:

I thought this would exist years ago (things seemed to be moving in this direction in the early 90s). The fact that it doesn't (as far as i know) has led me to start learning to code again, but that's inefficient. Frankly i'd rather design it with others and have others do most of the coding. --JohnAbbe

At [Log Activity]I have a chronological list of Log Pages where any given file has a Log Page Name and is only listed one time and it is stamped for the date and time that it was last edited. Each time a Log Page is edited it will have the top slot on the list regardless of when it is created. This shows that the active Log Pages will be highest on the list and this information together with the Log Page Name - in the form yyyymmdd (or the Log Page Name Extension) will be useful information to look at to see when a page was first created. A popular page that is created some time ago but not renamed (just edited) will keep floating up the list. This brings the most visited pages directly to the top of the list so that if you are picking a page with an old first created Log Page Name that is near the top then it is likely to be an interesting page that has been edited often. Or sometimes the Log Page will be re-issued with an extension to the name like yyyymmddReply# - see my WikiWebLog for examples and give it a try - it will be a blast to get some comments there!

I have never seen the like of this in any Web Log or Live Journal and my implemetation of a WikiWebLog is a full featured Wiki space. It part of my Personal Space and it is linked to the Open Space of the Wiki through a gateway page at our Profiles/UserName WikiGroup?. In a similar approach to the Log, the Profiles/RecentChanges is a channel for "feed" from the Personal Space which I have called "Member Activity". This will often include notices (changes entered at the Profiles/UserName pages) of new Log Page entries.

I think that the use of Recent Changes as a Log index is a simple, no nonsense result that is better (or different) than other calendar indexes that I have seen. I still think that calendars are rather "cute" and not necessarily the best way to organize Log access - although most people are very familiar with intuitive calendar icons. And I do agree that the Log Page Names are naturally suited to organization by date and that would support automation and the use of calendar icons as browsers of Log information. Perhaps we could use a calendar system as an additional, alternate system for exploring the Log. And the interaction of a WikiWebLog with other PIM is really interesting. Any help with these developments will be greatly appreciated - RichardNelson


I am working on a WikiAsPim project with another developer in Seattle. We both like Wikis, but when you use a WikiAsPim, you quickly become frustrated with the browser interface. Our strategy has been to work on top of the editor control that comes with Google:wxPython. The editor itself is actually written in Python, which means we add in features like linking on Wiki names with simple Python code. (The editor runs quite fluidly, even though it's written in Python; of course, there's still a lot of C++ underneath the covers.)

Most of our work so far has been to get the editor cleaned up. The tool has a virtual whiteboard sort of feel---you're always editing text, and once you leave a page, including via a hyperlink, it's automatically saved.

Since we are using an editor control and want a wysiwig interface, we will probably implement only a small subset of Wiki formatting. We will also put in PIM features pretty early, such as automatic emailing and multiple search features.

I really like the idea of automatic mailing lists that John mentions above.

-- SteveHowell

Seems like this also edges into the realm of Wiki:WikiBrowser. Any chance we can see some screenshots? And i'm not clear from what you wrote here, is it modeless (meaning can i type in a WikiName and then just click on it to go there?).

Someone at JspWiki already announced that they're working on a J2ME client to edit a wiki over the XmlRpcToWiki interface. I think an external, non-browser based editor would be extremely kewl and useful too :-). --JanneJalkanen

This sounds a lot like WikidPad (google it). --JoshWand?


I'm very interested in this idea, too but concerned (a) can't synch to PDA (though maybe if I synched to a PDA-based wiki that would be OK?), and (b) no group scheduling capability (since I work in a company)... Are these features not needed by you guys? --BillSeitz

Those features are not high on my list, but I can see the use for them. -- SteveHowell

WikiAsPim might be nice meshed Wiki:PalmWiki. Then I could maybe rescue my Palm from wherever it is in the world today (Japan?) and actually use it. -- SunirShah

Re: synching, DanLyke? (of [Flutterby!]) has written code that, if you're using Wiki:PalmWiki, generates HTML from the file(s?) that pilot-link (Unix Palm-synching software) produces. Some day RealSoonNow? i will get pilot-link going and try it out, maybe even try to modify it to generate plaintext instead of HTML, for easy importing to my personal wiki (PikiePikie). It's not a full sync, but it would be start. I'm having trouble keeping up with all of the developments that bear on my visions, and have been distracted by messing with RadioUserland? recently. --JohnAbbe

Scheduling would benefit from some thought about how to handle TimeInWiki?. In general, i imagine everyone having a personal wiki from which they 'publish' to many different group wikis, so something like that for schedule information would handle group scheduling. --JohnAbbe


I've been using a wiki as a PIM on my PC. I have top level pages for To Do, Today, Diary, Work, Computers, Programming, Home and Projects that I am working on. I used the cal utility in unix to print out a monthly calendar which I put on my Today and Diary pages so I can find dates. It looks like this.

   December 2002
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31 

I have a DatePage for each month and enter information with the current day at the top. This works well. It is great to be able to link various topics (pages) together.

I read that Mitch Kapor's [Chandler PIM] will allow linking of documents together ala wiki. Chandler will have many of Lotus Agenda's features. --DaveRaftery

Maybe you'd like this new [ProWiki calendar feature]. -- HelmutLeitner
Very nice, I like it -- BayleShanks

I use PHPWiki with CalendarPlugin? and CalendarListPlugin? as my personal GTD-enabled PIM/Calendar. I have a big TodoList? set up, which I tag with [NextAction?]s as appropriate. Then I have premade FullTextSearch? links for each NextAction?. Google for PIMWikiLiner? for my WikiAsPim dream app.


[Pepys], a Windows wiki and WikiBrowser that runs locally without a web server. It also eliminates the need to use WikiSyntax as it is a WysiwygWiki.

This has already been done and is available for your PalmOS based PDA. Check out http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=44005


See also WikiWriter, http://hytext.com/ww -- JerryMuelver


FlorianKonnertz coined the terms "personal private wiki" and "personal public wiki". The "personal public wiki" is like a homepage, viewable by all. The "personal private wiki" is like a PIM -- it contains private material not intended for other people.

The key point is that it should be easy to move pages from the private to the public areas and back. Moving them into the public area is "publishing". Whether "moving" means actually moving files or data from one distinct wiki to another, or just enabling and disabling password protection of a page in a single is implementation specific. This can be expanded, however, such that "publishing" effectively goes out and publishes pages on external wikis. The important part is the user-inteface: There should be as little difference between publishing on your own site and publishing on other sites.

Another point is that it should be easy to "import" things (specially pages) of interest from outside into the personal wiki, so that they can be worked upon. This goes beyond mere bookmarking, or RssInclusion. You want to actually copy the external page, work upon it, and then maybe publish it again. "Importing" can also be similar to "subscribing" -- in this case pages from external sources seem to have been copied into your personal wiki, but they will only be copied upon demand. This is a little user-interface tweak that is supposed to support the notion that pages just float in and out of your personal wiki, and the borders between pages on the "outside" and your "personal" pages will seem to disappear.

See XmlRpcToWiki for one piece of the puzzle required to build such a system.


I don't use a pda, but I have a personal wiki that we use to keep track of household 'stuff', the grocery list, todo lists, on going projects, random information. The grocery list part is especially useful. My wife can add items to the list from home or work, and I receive email notification. If I need to stop by the grocery store on the way home, I just print out the list before I leave. I suppose if I had a pda with a browser, I wouldn't even have to do that.


"I've been using MoinMoin as my personal information management platform" -- Ed Taekema -- http://www.pycs.net/users/0000177/2003/10/27.html#P54


I use infocetera 2.0 as my personal PIM. It is years old already but I still have not been able to find something which can replace it. Is is fully self-containing and it using TCL. You can generate databases for addressbook, schedule, agenda, buglists, issuetracking, todo list, ect. and it also includes a wiki. This is for me the only weak point as the functionality of the wiki is limited. (Although one can import any of the other tools mentioned above in a wiki page. This is truly a nice feature).

The http://www.infocetera.com site has been down for some time now so I guess a new version will never happen :-(

Greetings, JeroenRoeterd?


I use [Jreepad] - an open-source PIM. It's very simple and straightforward - just a tree-like structure, for storing plain text. It does have a basic wiki functionality - you can treat WikiWords as links to different nodes.... Dan


Some people might find SdiDesk useful as a Pim with UseMod-like syntax and functionality. -- PhilJones


I was experimenting with a wiki for ProjectManagement on my own little PIM wiki, http://www.maplepark.com/~drf5n/cgi-bin/wiki.cgi?ActionItems , and found the following concepts interesting for developing a wiki Group Information Management system:

Is the use of a Wiki as a Group Information Manager interesting? -- DavidForrest


I wrote WindowsWiki as a personal wiki for persons using Windows operating system computers, using TinyWeb as a http server, and an automatic self installer built with the INNO self installer compiler. As a PIM, it is very useful, but as it is a wiki, can do things more specialized PIM's often cannot do. -KirkBailey


CategoryKnowledgeManagement

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