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TWiki Newsletter 2012-07-20

Release Status

Current release: TWiki-5.1.1, released 2012-01-14

TWiki-5.1 introduced many usability enhancements, such as point and click user data management, more visual user profile pages with picture selector, and a backup feature to help upgrade TWiki sites. This release also strengthens TWiki as an application platform to more easily build custom wiki applications...

See http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/DownloadTWiki for download, and for current and previous release information.

In this newsletter: Items posted to the TWiki Blog between Jan-May 2011 as well as items posted after May 2012.

1. Open Source License vs. Copyright vs. Trademark - How They Differ
2. How to: Single Sign-on, a Convenient Way to Authenticate Users
3. What Are Transclusions? How to Use Them in TWiki Applications
4. Social Media Software: A Crowded Space - Not Just Facebook
5. Social Media at Work: Viral Shift towards Information Age
6. How to Create an Amazon EC2 Instance (and Install TWiki)
7. How to Create Image-less Gauges
8. Introduction to QR Code, a Matrix Barcode
9. Web 2.0 Primer: How Does Ajax Work? With Ajax Example
10. Point and Click: Color Picker / Color Code Generator

Articles have been shortened, below, to save some space. If you're particularly interested in one of these items, be sure to visit the link to the complete entry!

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1. Open Source License vs. Copyright vs. Trademark - How They Differ

This article is intended for busy business people with interest in open source. I have seen that there are misconceptions on open source licensing, copyright and trademark. I am not a lawyer, so this is not legal advise. This article should give you a good overview on this topic...

-- 2012-07-19 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201207x1

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2. How to: Single Sign-on, a Convenient Way to Authenticate Users

Single sign on (SSO) is a way to authenticate users on multiple related, but independent software systems. Once logged in, a user can switch from one system to the next without the need to login again. Conversely, single sign off is a way to log out and terminate access to multiple software systems with a single sign off action...

-- 2012-06-29 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201206x1

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3. What Are Transclusions? How to Use Them in TWiki Applications

Transclusion is the inclusion of a document or part of a document into another document by reference. For example, press releases have an about section. Rather than copying the about section over and over again, a transclusion embodies a modular design by allowing the about text to be stored only once and included in the press releases...

-- 2012-05-27 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201205x4

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4. Social Media Software: A Crowded Space - Not Just Facebook

Social Media is everywhere. As it is with many things, new technology is first pushed in the consumer space, then enters the enterprise market. Friday was a big event for social media when Facebook went public and was valued at $100B (that is a 1 with 11 zeros). Everybody defines social media differently...

-- 2012-05-19 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201205x3

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5. Social Media at Work: Viral Shift towards Information Age

Over the last decade I have seen organizations change fundamentally by applying wikis and other social media technologies at work. I was recently invited to speak at a panel on "Social Business as the New Organizing Principle" organized by Bay Organizational Development Network (OSBN) on 2011 05 02 where we talked about the paradigm shift social media brings at the workplace, some of which I am sharing here...

-- 2011-05-30 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201105x3

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6. How to Create an Amazon EC2 Instance (and Install TWiki)

I recently installed TWiki in the cloud, the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). I am sharing my installation experience for all to enjoy...

-- 2011-05-28 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201105x2K

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7. How to Create Image-less Gauges

Do you have a need to show gauges in your TWiki or HTML pages? TWiki has a GaugePlugin to show bitmap images generated on the fly based on some parameters. But Showing a page with hundreds of gauges (for example to show server status in a data center) can be slow...

-- 2011-05-25 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201105x1

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8. Introduction to QR Code, a Matrix Barcode

QR Code is a two dimensional barcode developed by Denso Wave in Japan. It is very popular in Japan and is getting more popular in the USA. For example, offers a QR Code for each shortened link. Many smartphones (Android, iPhone, Nokia etc) have applications to quickly navigate to a website, dial a number or add a contact, all simply by taking a photo of a Wikipedia:QR Code QR Code...

-- 2011-05-25 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201102x2

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9. Web 2.0 Primer: How Does Ajax Work? With Ajax Example

By now you are very familiar with Ajax: Photos on Facebook load in the background without reloading the whole page, and when you type a word into the Google search box, the search results updates while you type. How does this work? Ajax, which is shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, does the magic...

-- 2011-01-07 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201101x2

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10. Point and Click: Color Picker / Color Code Generator

Color: Do you need to pick a color for your web pages? Use the color picker to the left; point and click, then copy the hexadecimal color code to your website or TWiki. The color picker uses the intuitive HSL (hue, saturation, and lightness) color space rather than the more common HSB (hue, saturation, and brightness), which means it's easy to make a color brighter without touching its saturation, or vice versa...

-- 2011-01-05 -- Peter Thoeny
Read more: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog/BlogEntry201101x1

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Visit the TWiki Blog at http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Blog.

Do you have a TWiki experience to share? Don't hesitate to write a blog post. We like to learn from you. Not sure what to write about? We've got some ideas! (If you don't have enough for a blog post, consider Twitter. Be sure to mention TWiki in your post. Follow @twiki for TWiki tweets.)

Do you need help? Check the Support Forum or consider hiring a TWiki Consultant.

-- Contributor editor: VickiBrown -- 2012-07-20

Discussion

Looks good!

-- PeterThoeny - 2012-07-21