OStatic

Luminotes is a terrific Web-based personal wiki that helps you collect and organize information. It's great for project planning, book writing, or as an in-basket for random data you want to hang on to. It doesn't require any special markup skills so Luminotes is a great collaboration tool for people with all levels of computer experience. For solo use or for working offline, there's a desktop version that runs on Linux and Windows.

Licensed under the GNU/GPL, Luminotes has always been free as in speech but now it's also free as in beer. Dan Helfman, the project's creator, says dealing with recently implemented U.S. sales tax laws is too much of headache so he's decided to eliminate monthly subscription fees and charges altogether. The desktop version and online service will continue to be supported for the foreseeable future.

If you want a notebooking application that's dead-simple to use, yet more robust than a simple note-taking app, have a look at why Luminotes personal wiki might be just the ticket.

If you're looking for a way to take and organize notes, hardcore Linux users will tell you that Vim or Emacs is the only way to go. While they're both excellent solutions, neither are for the faint of heart. There are plenty of note management options out there -- Tomboy and BasKet, for instance -- but why not ratchet things up a notch and create a digital journal instead.

Penguins are everywhere in the open source community. Linux users display them as avatars, software vendors incorporate them into logos, and live ones even turn up at industry events. Open source collaboration software vendor MindTouch has come up with a way to recognize people's love for the adorable feathered fowl and do something to help protect its population along the way.

Every MindTouch Deki Open Source user that upgrades to either Commercial version (Standard or Enterprise) will have a donation made on their behalf to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to save an endangered emperor penguin.

A few years ago I stumbled upon the efforts of the Victoria Linux Users Group. They are an active, involved group, but not particularly unlike any other LUG. I was pointed in the direction of their Linux in Victoria brochure.

Yes, its date of publication was 1997. What makes this brochure different is that it is open. Perhaps this is less impressive in light of the advent of wikis, but the purpose and intent of the brochure is still remarkable, and well worth expanding upon.

This model could easily extend beyond brochures, and benefit more of the FOSS community than the local LUGs.

Looking to start a wiki? Socialized Software has an interesting discussion of Deki Wiki, reported to be ultra-simple to use.....Attorneys at the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) have published an analysis of Microsoft's Open Specification Promise (see our story below), cautioning that it offers FOSS developers no real protection. See The Inquirer's take on it.....Web Worker Daily has a look at mind-mapping, brainstorming software, including good input from readers, and a look at the open source application FreeMind.