Web Notebook - On my own server?

May 31, 2007 9:00 AM

Does anyone know of similar online solution to Google Notebook that one can host on their own servers? I use Google Notebook every day to archive notes and web clips, but I would like to keep my information secure, private, and under my control.

There are a number of tools out there that make use of a proprietary client, but I would like the flexibility to view/add/edit content from any Internet enabled computer. I would settle for a proprietary client if I could at least view my “Notebook” from any Internet enabled computer. My best idea so far is to setup my own Joomla (insert other open source CMS) portal for my own use but it sure would be great to find something that was designed to capture and organize such content.

posted by DerekTheGeek to computers & internet (9 comments total)

have you considered a wiki? won't look as pretty as something from the Google Overloards, but it should do what you want...
posted by hummercash at 10:13 AM on May 31, 2007

I'm a fan of SoloWiki, a server side storage tiddlywiki.
posted by dmd at 11:16 AM on May 31, 2007

You could use some sort of VNC/RemoteDesktop setup with Microsoft OneNote, or put an OS on a USB/Flash drive and have it all super-dooper secure and accessible from anywhere.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:34 AM on May 31, 2007

I find Google Notebook handy, but it's not really that much different from a blogging system with a browser bookmarklet for posting.
posted by Good Brain at 11:40 AM on May 31, 2007

When making a post to a blog using a "bookmarklet" does the blog save an actuall copy of the page or is it just a link to the page? I have good things about "WordPress", so perhaps it could be used as the back end for such a system. From what I have read it can do a lot more than just be a blog server.
posted by DerekTheGeek at 12:04 PM on May 31, 2007

The Wordpress bookmarklet will grab all the text you've selected along with the page title linked to the page, which, I think, is pretty much the same thing Google Notebook does.

There may be limits on the length of the text, but I haven't run into it. I also notice that the HTML formatting seems to get stripped from the text, though I wonder if their are plugins/hacks to work around this.

You can use categories/tags to organize things.

There may well be other options than a blogging system, but I think wordpress behind a password might do what you need. To experiment you could start by setting up a free blog on Wordpress.com. It won't be as customizable, but it'll give you an idea of what you can do.
posted by Good Brain at 12:20 PM on May 31, 2007

Surfulater
askSam's SurfSaver
posted by yclipse at 3:51 PM on May 31, 2007

Answering my own post because I found a solution that seems to fit what I am looking for. I need to spend some serious time looking at it but thought others might find it interesting.

The company is named WJJSoft and they can be found at http://www.wjjsoft.com. The product is named "myBase".

• It runs in both MS Windows and Linux
• Has an add-on that can publish your database as static HTML, CHM, or a dynamic web app (CGI based)
• Works with IE and Firefox

If anyone has any experience with this app, please pass it along.
posted by DerekTheGeek at 10:17 PM on June 1, 2007

I've been looking for the same thing. As several people mentioned, a wiki is a good choice--not quite as easy to paste things into as a Notebook Webapp like Google or Zoho with their Firefox extensions, but not bad. I've found StikiPad and PBWiki to be two of the better interfaces--both free and hosted but password protected for security.


Another similar option is to implement a server side wiki on your own server. I have a hosted account on Dreamhost and they offer free, single click installation of MediaWiki (the engine that drives Wikipedia). Not as easy to use as Stikipad or PBWiki, though.

My beef with Google Notebook in comparison with Zoho is in Google you can only paste in text, whereas with Zoho you can put in any web content (just about any kind of content at all, including word processor files, spreadsheets, slideshows, images, audio, video, a live web page feed, RSS feeds, etc etc.) The downside to these solutions is you can only access then when you're connected.

Another option I've been experimenting with: copying web content with ClipMarks (has one of the nicest interfaces for picking what you want) and then emailing it using Clipmarks service. I'm using GMail at the moment to store it, because the search is so good, but you could store it in any email account.
hope this helps!
posted by Benjaloo at 10:59 PM on April 12, 2008