I love Wikis - those supremely easy to create web pages that allow anyone to easily create, format, and save information. I use them extensively to document programming projects in a way that is both richly linked and searchable.
Now just imagine what might happen if you combined wikis with the currently hot approach of giving web pages the sort of interactive features one expects from desktop applications, know as AJAX (Asynchronous Java and XML). Well The other day I stumbled across a web page/application created by Jeremy Ruston. Jeremy imagined the combination in a way that I would not have. He created an entire wiki system in a single HTML file! This takes Marshal McLuhan's notion that the media is the message to a whole new plane.
The page/application, TiddlyWiki, is a fully functional full featured wiki that has all of its code, and all of its content in one single HTML file. This means that to have a wiki you do not need any of the accouterments of the traditional systems - No database, No web server. All that you need is one file and a standard web browser. Firefox is preferred but evidently IE also works (Opera is not recommended).
So what could you do with such a system? You could create a traditional wiki web site. While that is neat, any wiki application could do that, TiddlyWiki with its one file approach lends itself to use in places where the more traditional wikis would not fit.
- Create a log of all of the changes on individual computers
- Create a personal "how to" manual on a thumb drive that would be available to you on any computer.
- Keep a personal blog
- Write reviews (e.g., movies, music, TV shows, restaurants)
The cost of entry is so low both in terms of money (free) and effort (use the 'Save Page as' option on your browser to get your own TiddlyWiki page/application), that you can afford to spend a few minutes to give it a try and see how you might use it.
--- UPDATE ---
If, after saving the TiddlyWiki's file (empty.html) on you computer, you find that IE gives you the message that it can not save your changes you will need to open the file in a text editor (e.g., notepad, EditPad) and save it with a new name. Some times, when it is saved on your computer, IE still thinks that it is in the internet zone and will not allow saving. An alternative to this method is also available.