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Michael Adcock. Tracking the TiddlyThesaurus. February 8, 2008. What’s this all about?. Introductions Talkin’ Tiddly Meeting the TiddlyThesaurus. Who am I?. 2 nd year MLIS student Software developer in my previous life Likes cool technology and gadgets
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Michael Adcock Tracking the TiddlyThesaurus February 8, 2008
What’s this all about? • Introductions • Talkin’ Tiddly • Meeting the TiddlyThesaurus
Who am I? • 2nd year MLIS student • Software developer in my previous life • Likes cool technology and gadgets • Took LIS 537 (Construction of Indexing Languages – the thesaurus class!)
Who is TiddlyWiki? • Jeremy Ruston • spent 8 years using and working on Wikis • created TiddlyWiki in late 2004 • founder of Osmosoft • recently hired by British Telecom • Active user/developer community • more about this later…
Tiddly… What? • “In the UK a ‘tiddler’ just means something small. So you talk about a tiddler as, like a tiny fish that isn’t worth keeping and you throw it back.” - Ruston
But what is it? • Concept “I describe it as a notebook, as an outboard brain, as a place you can put the stuff that matters to you and then do things with it.” - Ruston
But what is it?? • Wiki “It’s a Wiki where the individual entries, instead of being pages, are more akin to paragraphs.” - Ruston This makes editing multiple entries easier, and doesn’t require flipping between separate pages.
But what is it??? • Technology • Open source • Single page HTML and JavaScript based tool that works on all major web browsers and platforms • Stores content back to itself • Integrated “plugin” management system • Completely customizable with CSS • Designed to run locally, but there are server-side implementations too
But what is it???? • Community • Very active community of developers and users • Numerous resources on the web: Main: www.tiddlywiki.com Tutorial: www.giffmex.org/twfortherestofus.html TW Help: twhelp.tiddlyspot.com Google Groups: TiddlyWiki, TiddlyWikiDev
But what is it????? • Simplicity and Elegance • Everything is stored as a “tiddler”! • content • code • styling information • even core functionality can be replaced! • Integrated search system • simple Google-esque box • can search all tiddlers, or restricted set
But what is it?????? • Information Management Tool ?!?!? • Bob Boiko’s list: • Hierarchy • Association • Index • Sequence • Trent’s thesaurus characteristics: • Hierarchical • Associative • Equivalence
TiddlyWiki Demo • Let’s take a look at the original TiddlyWiki… • http://www.tiddlywiki.com
TiddlyThesaurus? • LIS 537 group project (Amateur Astronomy Thesaurus) • Michael Adcock • Tim Shockley • Sonja Sutherland • Wanted a tool to help us construct and manage the thesaurus, since Excel and Soergel cards seemed lame and fiddly… • Convinced my group members to use TiddlyWiki, even though I wasn’t 100% sure it could do everything we wanted…
Thesaurus Construction • Harvested terms from many sources • Stored harvested terms and source information in Excel (on Google docs) • Collected over 5,000 terms • Sorted terms according to frequency • Focused on top 600 most frequently used terms • Grouped terms into broad categories to aid in recognizing synonymous and related terms
TiddlyWiki - Editing • Imported terms from Excel to TiddlyWiki • Features • Multi-user support • Term relationships represented as links • Automated cross-reference checks • Tagging (of terms) • identified preferred terms vs. lead-in terms • identified terms for authority list
TiddlyWiki - Editing • Features (continued) • Indicated frequency of use in literature • used for generating term counts • Automated generation of: • alphabetical schedule • classified schedule • notation
TiddlyWiki - Using • Navigation between terms (UF/U/BT/NT/RT) through hyperlinks • Easy full text search • Includes definitions and SN where necessary • Printable schedules • Includes introduction with hyperlinked example terms
Under the Hood… • Modified several core tiddlers: • EditTemplate, ViewTemplate, StyleSheetPrint, SideBarOptions, OptionsPanel, AdvancedOptions, SideBarTabs, DefaultTiddlers, StyleSheet, MainMenu • Created a few custom macros: • notationMacro, listrMacro, changesMacro
Under the Hood… (cont) • Created a few custom code/plugins: • BrokenLinks, Alphabetical Schedule, Classified Schedule, Generate Notation • Imported publicly available code: • BackstagePlugin, Blackicity Theme
TiddlyThesaurus Demo • Let’s take a look at the Amateur Astronomy Thesaurus… • http://students.washington.edu/adcockm/amateurastronomythesaurus
Additional Resources • TW Help http://tiddlyspot.com/twhelp • TiddlyVault http://tiddlyvault.tiddlyspot.com • tiddlyspot http://tiddlyspot.com • BidiXTW http://tiddlywiki.bidix.info • MTS - minitiddlyserver http://www.minitiddlyserver.com
References • Lots of TiddlyWiki resources online… • “Jeremy Ruston sells out” - http://lewcid.org/2007/12/14/jeremy-ruston-sells-out/
Thanks! • ASIS&T • iEdge (look for it in April!) • The support of viewers like you!