(2011-01-01) Current Info Mgmt Thoughts

My current tools/habits:

I still have this WikiLog, which is now running on MoinMoin. I'm not a huge fan of this as a platform, because

• it's made so generic (lots of input/markup options, lots of output/format options) that it feels over-complicated to extend
• model of page VCS means that you can't just find a text-file with the Wiki Name, you have to find a directory with the Wiki Name, then find the numbered file.
• free-text searches are hideously slow - not sure if that's because of Blue Host or the VCS model that requires working through all the extra files and then skipping the non-current ones.

I have a Private Wiki on my Lap Top using PikiPiki. I started to migrate to MoinMoin to have it in the cloud (because I can't run a Python-based WikiEngine on my Android). But stopped because having 2 spaces in the same domain was creating ID cookie issues. But, since I rarely edit the WikiLog on the phone, maybe I should move ahead.

As I mentioned, I have an Android Nexus One. So I use Google Calendar, and really appreciate having the auto-synch between my phone and the web. I use GMail for my "public" EMail, and use the GMail web interface for that account, but use ThunderBird for my hosted-elsewhere personal-domain IMAP account.

• I should really get the ThunderBird and GMail Address Book-s synched up. But it doesn't sound like a mature process.

For work (AEP), we use GMail and GoogleDocs.

I use RedMine for our software development management, because of integration between Issue Tracker and Git commits.

But the non-software folks

• prefer BaseCamp for a To-Do List because of nicer sub-task GUI and other pretty bits
• prefer GoogleDocs over TeamWiki pages because of cleaner (in the short-run) separation of comments/annotations from main/current text. My experience says that benefit only applies over a short life-cycle for a small number of documents, and that over time and large numbers of documents the Wiki wins. But it's hard to convince someone of that.

I use a Thinking Space Mind Map on my Android for my personal To-Do List. (Mind MapAsTo-Do List)

I use a FreeMind Mind Map on my Lap Top for my work To-Do List (which includes items from RedMine, items from BaseCamp, and items not in either of those). Bad dog.

I take meeting notes in FreeMind, and then rarely share them. Bad dog.

So that's some detail. The Context I'm thinking about right now includes:

• I'm giving a career talk to some 8th-graders in a couple weeks, and sliding in a Private Wiki pitch. So I'm thinking again about what software a thinking person should run for decades.
• The lockouts of WikiLeaks and impending closure of Del.icio.us remind me that counting on a 3rd party to support your software/data for that long is a fool's bet.
• Update: see 2011-01-13-FutureProofingSocialSoftware