Catching up on Mind Mapping; collaborative tools and some
"market research"
I've written about mind-mapping before - definitely a fan of the
concept, I've used it for project tracking, organizing threads for blog
topics, and even planning major multi-project initiatives. Here's a
quick catch-up on some links I've been seeing over the past few weeks
...
- From Vinson, a link
to Keldsen's
latest podcast on mind
mapping tips from a "master". Not the highest quality podcast I've
everheard, but some interesting insights. He also gave a decent
explanation of why the curved lines; it's all about providing visual
variety; straight lines make different mind maps look the same. Sounds
like part of the challenge for a mind mapper is to think of the
presentation of the overall picture - it's just as important as the
flow of ideas you are mapping.
- Many
links
pointing to
Mindmeister,a collaborative,
web-based mind mapping tool. Like previously
mentioned bubbl.us, it's web based and
facilitates collaborative brainstorming with others. A nice feature for
the experienced mind mapper - it can import from MindManager (commercial)and FreeMind
(FOSS). I like the idea of collaborative mapping, and I certainly like
being able to reuse all the work I've done in MindManager, but I still
like the "fat client" interface - handles navigation, zooming, etc. a
bit better. Still, pretty impressive stuff - I may suggest converting
to this tool for my international collaboration.
- Chuck Frey has
conducted a pair of surveys on mind mapping and mind mapping software.
Interesting to see how others have been introduced to this concept
(found on web sites, referred by friend, replicating a pen and
paper process). The older survey (from September 2006) talks about
things like why the idea is being held back at work; interesting to
note how internal IT continues to take the hit (at times) for stifling
innovation.
- Also via Vinson (thanks, Jack!!), a nice list of keyboard
shortcuts for MindManager. It never ceases to amaze me how much time
can be wasted by reaching over for the mouse to do repetitive actions.
- From the download
squad - news that market-leading MindManager is teeing up version 7.0 - I
hope it's more than just a user interface facelift, to match the Office
2007 look. Mindmanager does have an impressive connection with Office,
but I'm curious about any other new features ... I can't find mocuh
info yet ...
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