The Best Things In Life Are Free -- and so it is with ComSwiki.

A decade ago I wouldn't have imagined sitting at a desk with a Mac Mini tucked away underneath, wired to the internet all the time. Yet today it's as if it has always been this way! If you'd ask me which tool I can't do without anymore, there's no doubt in my mind: you'd hear "Comswiki!" as my answer straight away. In this review I'll tell you how I got addicted...

Introduction

Before we go much further: What is a wiki?
A wiki is a website that allows users to easily create web pages and edit pages others have created. 

Wiki’s are based on the use of software that makes it very simple to create such web pages.

Furthermore, the software has features that makes it excellent for collaboration, so anybody can contribute to web pages. It is not necessary that they are members of any particular group - they can contribute without any formalities. 

Comanche is an open-source web server for Squeak. Comanche contains the server framework, which makes it possible to develop web applications entirely in Squeak, without the need to run an external web server. Swiki is a quite popular implementation of Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb (Squeak + Wiki = Swiki) that runs under Comanche. Swiki is often also called CoWeb, short for Collaborative Web-site. Both Comanche and Swiki are implemented by Mark Guzdial's Collaborative Software Laboratory at Georgia Tech.

ComSwiki is shorthand for Comanche-based Swiki.

Enough definitions... except for this last one: wiki is Hawaiian and means fast...

 
If you think this is one of those Mac-only applications... don't zap away just yet. Whether you run MacOS, Windows, or Linux - you're in business. Above all: the best things in life are free, aren't they?!  It is made available as FOSS: free and open source software.

The people at this university did some clear thinking, and we mere mortals can reap the benefits... all free of charge, no strings attached. Now that's something a Dutchman like me could get hooked on ;-) So it must be about three years ago now, that I downloaded Comswiki for the first time to give it a try. Since then a lot has changed in the way I work with information, and I must say that managing the information overload has become a bit easier.

So why don't you join me on a tour, and give it a try yourself after that? What have you got to lose, except a few hours of fun?!
Where does it come from?
When it comes to installing software, I don't like to rush things. Of course sometimes I can't resist the urge to click the download button, and start right away. But I've had to pay with hours of repair in the past - and the underlying operating system didn't make any difference - sometimes applications can be very unforgiving ;).

So let's take this tour step by step, and first answer the questions: where does this Comswiki come from, and do I expect it to be an application of good quality? I try to find out about the background of the authors, and look around to see who is using the application already. That often gives me a good idea what I may expect.

In the case of Comswiki: it was developed at an institution that does have a reputation to hold up. Georgia Institute of Technology is ranked with the top ten universities in the USA by US News & World Report. They are especially known for their engineering, computing and science degrees.

Comswiki is based on Squeak, which has a long history in academic circles (it is still being developed, away from the commercial pressures of getting things to the market fast). Comswiki is now hosted by this community: http://wiki.squeak.org/swiki

Testdrive
Now let's take this Comswiki for a test drive. For this occasion I've installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu on our old faithful intel-machine. If the screenshots that follow look somewhat unfamiliar, just imagine your favorite theme on your OS of choice: as I said the creature is cross-platform!
Download and start server

    * Point your browser to: http://wiki.squeak.org/swiki/15
, and download for your platform.     * Extract the files.
    * You'll find a folder called "Comswiki". Open it.
    * Start the server by double-clicking on the "Squeak" application icon.
    * The default port is 80,
          o we dont want to interfere with the standard web server
          o so change it to 8000 by clicking on this button
    * Click on save & exit
    * Start server again, and wait until the green button turns red.
    * Your Comswiki server is ready for use!
    * Simple isn't it? Even I could do it ;-)

Test in your browser
We can now test if it's really true this Comswiki has come to life:

    * Open your web browser and point it to http://localhost:8000
    * Is all well? You should see "Swikis on this site" and one swiki with name "refs" with 12 pages.


Have you read what it says about setting up your site, under point 4 (Getting Started)? I've mentioned it before:
even if you use Comswiki on one computer, it's a good idea to change your username and password straight away!

Change your username and password

    * Point your browser to http://localhost:8000/admin/help#getStarted
    * Fill in admin / password
    * After clicking on the ok button, you should see "How do I get started?"
    * It's a good idea to read through the text
    * and when you're done
          o go to the top of the page
          o click on the button "Top"
          o click on the button "Security"
    * You'll see the combination admin:password
    * Change it to your combination; in my case I chose Csw:L9(g5%aT! (Let's give it a try...)
    * When you click on "update security",
          o you'll be asked to first give the old combination admin:password
          o the second time type in the new combination
          o your admin tool is now protected by the new combination
    * You're ready to change some initial settings, and create your first swiki!



Change initial settings
Before you start on your first swiki, it's a good idea to change some intial settings. Of course situations and tastes differ, so I'm only giving you an example of what you could do:

    * General settings
          o click on Settings
          o fill in the name you would like, for example demosite
          o change allowRobots to false, so the site won't be indexed by the "Googles" out there (if they are polite enough....)
          o change searchable to true, so you can search all or parts of your site (very handy!)
          o click on update settings
    * Settings refs swiki
          o click on refs
          o click on settings
          o you could change the colourScheme from poor to simple
          o under Local Administration change the user:password combination to Csw:L9(g5%aT!
          o click on update settings

Your first swiki
All things take time to learn, and getting used to swikis is no exception. So let's create a swiki where you can take your first steps, and later on have a place to experiment with new things as you go along.

    * click on create
    * name the swiki SandBox
    * change the parent to refs
    * if you want owner to work, take things a step furthere and install an email server (nice subject for another review?)
    * in setup change logging to site
    * click on go there
    * if you have a browser with full screen (like Opera) you'll see something like this:
          o nothing on the screen to distract you from your task at hand ;-)
          o congratulations on your first swiki; life will never be the same!

Start Editing
Make it work for you:

    * click on edit
    * select "Congratulations! This is a new Swiki.", and delete it
    * type your text, for example:

!<center>dawn has become day
!<center>the sky is blue
!<center>the clouds are grey

    * you are well on your way to become an experienced swikian, and a poet ;-)
    * the result will look something like this:

Final Words
This brings us to the end of the show. I'm sure you can take it from here, and have as much fun as I had when I started to discover how powerful this tool is for digital communication. And by the way, you don't have to be a poet to put it to good use ;-) What do I use it for? Almost all things digital go into my swikis, or at least have a starting point there. Just a few of the many examples:
I have prepared this review with it:

...use it as a directory, here's one page:

...log my activities:

... and with a few thousand pages, search with a click on the button: