I do research in a cleanroom. This brings up some interesting problems in terms of documentation. Working in a cleanroom gives me a bunch of restrictions:
- Poor wireless/cellular coverage
- I can bring a phone/tablet, but have to wipe it clean before I enter the lab (alternatively put it in a plastic bag - shrug)
- Wearing a bunny suit, I have no pockets where I can keep my phone
- I am always wearing plastic gloves
- Only designated PCs are connected to the internet
- Dust-free paper can be used inside the cleanroom for taking notes
- If I want to bring paper into the lab, I have to laminate it and wipe it, every time.
Most users of the cleanroom take notes on dust-free paper. They leave their notes in the cleanroom until they are done with the project and if they need parts of their notes they typically take pictures of the pages they need. Being paperless, bringing paper in and out of the lab was not really an option for me from the start.
Even if I liked Windows, it would not be possible to solely use the designated computers in the lab. Using stationary computers in a lab where I move around a lot is quite challenging. I tried bringing an iPad, but found carrying the iPad around, quite the hassle. So, I have landed on my iPhone, it is lighter and smaller than the cleanroom notebooks and works surprisingly well for typing with gloves. Wiping it with ethanol multiple times a day, I am pretty confident I have one of the cleanest phones in the world.
Not only can I use the iPhone for note-taking, the camera on the iPhone 5 is great for taking pictures of samples and instrument setups. The problem is that many of my samples are based on silicon wafers and highly reflective.
For a long time I have wanted a wiki solution for my research. I have seen solutions based on MediaWiki and Confluene previously and while those can be good solutions for some, I wanted to be able to organize my files myself. Therefore Gollum was a natural choice.
The problem with Gollum, is that