This post goes out to my friends Brian and Jeremy who endured a lengthy discussion with me last night about web-based productivity tools. It’s also a follow up to my earlier post on Web-Based Project Management Tools.
First thanks to Jeremy who told me about Google Notebook, which allows you to copy text and images from any web site to a “note” that lives on Google’s servers and is accessible via your Google login. So far I can see using this like an extension of my backpack account which doesn’t allow me to upload images.
It just so happens that after last night’s discussion, this morning I listened to a Hanselminutes podcast about micro-increases in productivity (like when it takes too long for the start menu to come up) and he mentioned the TiddlyWiki. This has been blowing my mind all day. Essentially it’s a wiki that you can run anywhere (at home, at the office, on your web site if you have one) because it’s just an HTML page with embeded javascript code that does all the work. I’ve been tiddlyWiking all day and comparing it side by side with my backpack pages to see which is better at managing my project data.
Some TiddlyPros:
- WikiText is so much more robust than the textile language
- The interface is as dynamic and intuitive as any Ajax app out there
- I don’t need to worry about storing sensitive client data on someone else’s server
- There are pre-made templates for popular organizational techniques like GTD
- The name is too cool
Some TiddlyCons:
- There’s no database – and you know javascript is going to bail while trying to save a file on your local machine at least once (esp. as those files get large).
- It’s not a great tool for more than one user, or for publishing data publicly.
- It’s best suited for tech savvy folks who can handle any issues that come when, say, you want to upgrade or extend your page and all of your data, business logic, and presentation settings are stored in a single file.
So far, I’m impressed though. The TiddlyWiki is truely a software revolution.