Category: Mind-Mapping.Org

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What’s dead? What’s moved?

I’ve done some more tidying on Mind-Mapping.Org.

Wallace Tait (@visualmapper of visualmapper.org fame) put out a question on Twitter about the fate of one of the earliest tools for mind mapping on a computer: VisiMap.  I replied with what the Master List showed and it gave me the idea that I should go through to see which mapping products had turned to dust since Vic last checked. Turns out there are quite a few.

After clicking through links to 302 entries that were not marked as ‘historical’, I found that 36 visual thinking tools have gone from the web so I’ve marked them as defunct.  And I found 19 that had moved or changed their name so I updated their records.

Vic’s approach, which I’m going to run with, was to mark as ‘historical’ any software that was still available (through one of the miriad software download sites, for example) but was no longer supported. Software that was no longer traceable for download or on-line use are marked as ‘historical (defunct)’. These are kept just as a matter of interest, and for the record.

Breakdown

By default, both historical types don’t appear in the Master List, but you can elect to have them included by a checkbox in the ‘Refine software list’ tab (top right on Master List pages). And if you search for a product by name, it will show up whether it’s current or historical.

I’ll have to check the historical ones to see which have gone defunct, as well.  Ah well, another day!

Oh, and I also went through WikIT’s list of free mapping software and took out the dead ones.  I have many to add as well, but I’m focusing more on the Master List at present.

Roy
Mindmapwiki Twitter Our faves Libraries

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The handover gets under way

Since I took Mind-Mapping.Org under my wing, I’ve been freshening the front page design a little…

The Master List

… learning how the code is put together, tidying some inner pages and getting familiar with the database of mapping & other visual software.

Then I started looking through my and Vic’s lists of new software to add, found over a hundred (oof!) and mapped them by category. I tweeted an earlier version of this a couple of days ago, but this is where we are now:

Additions to MMO-s
Soooo … there’s a lot to do. But I’m mighty pleased to have found more interesting software for mapping, diagramming and all your other visually-based activities.

Stay tuned.

Roy
Mindmapwiki Twitter Our faves RSS feed Libraries

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The Mindmappers’ Forum

 

I had a work panic last month and regrettably didn’t visit the Mindmappers’ Forum for three weeks.  When I got back, I found it had been taken over by spammers. I’m not sure why, because I was using an anti-spam plugin that had worked well since the beginning.

Anyway, I cleared it up in three stages:

  • First, last month, I deleted all the spam entries,
  • and set moderation on for new member applications.
  • Finally, yesterday, I updated the forum software (it’s the excellent, free Vanilla forum), added more anti-spam stuff.

It’s now back to unmoderated membership and it seems OK now. There was one spam signup but that was automatically halted. Previously I was getting many per day and denying them manually.  Easy enough, but a nuisance.

I’m left with one minor problem.  Rather than manually delete each spam post – one by one – using the forum functions, I went into MySQL and bulk deleted in a couple of tables.  That worked OK, except there’s a list of continuation pages at the foot of the front page, but no content for those pages.  Somewhere (in the database I guess) there’s a note of how many posts there are, and it includes all those spam comments that I deleted.  I can’t find where though.

If you’re familiar with the Vanilla Forum software, and can explain, please add a comment!  Thanks.

Vic

Have you checked Our Faves yet?
Subscribe to the RSS feed for news of regular
posts & follow me on Twitter for in-between
items about visual tools you never knew existed.

If you’re on Twitter and tweet about mapping topics,
tweet me — I’d love to know and follow you.

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Suggestions from the competition yielding results

The ideas that readers sent in to Mind-mapping.org’s recent competition are starting to bear fruit.

  1. You can now comment at the blog or on Vic’s Picks without needing to register.
  2. There is now a Mindmappers’ Forum.
  3. Following suggestions that came up in the competition, I have added categories in the forum to cover:
  • Categories
    • Case studies
    • Collaboration
    • Education
    • Libraries and Directories
    • Specific software
    • Mapping s/w data interchange
    • Multi-platform versions compared
    • Success stories
    • Tutorials

Suggestions for further categories are welcome, and I’ve added places for Suggestions about Mind-mapping.org and Networking with fellow mappers as well.

You can tag posts, and it would be good to use tags

I’ll be looking at how to implement other suggestions soon.

Vic

Have you checked Our Faves yet?
Subscribe to the RSS feed for news of regular
posts & follow me on Twitter for in-between
items about visual tools you never knew existed.

If you’re on Twitter and tweet about mapping topics,
tweet me — I’d love to know and follow you.

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Win a copy of iMindMap 5 Ultimate [closed]

Update: Competition now closed. Vic is analyzing the excellent suggestions, deciding
what is most practical and preparing a post with the results and winners.

Add a comment here answering the following two questions about Mind-mapping.org and you might win one of the five licences for iMindMap 5 Ultimate that I have to give away:

  1. Which is the most useful part of Mind-mapping.org to you at present?
  2. How could I improve Mind-mapping.org?  Focus on which improvement you would most like to see, but feel free to make general suggestions as well.

The five most useful replies, in my judgement, will win a full license for ThinkBuzan’s iMindMap 5 Ultimate.  That is the new, much-enhanced version released earlier this month.  The winner can claim it for themselves, or, if they already have the software, nominate someone else to receive a license.

Mind-mapping.org is a personal interest, developing it has been fitted into my spare time since 2006, so suggestions should take that into account.  For example, a proposal that I should post a detailed review of every piece of software here would not be a winner, because it would represent close to a year’s full time work.

In case you don’t know the full extent of Mind-mapping.org, here’s a map – take a look round (click map for larger version):

You can find plenty of links to explore from the front page.

The deadline for submissions will be May 5th 2011 and winners will be announced on May 6th, the one-month anniversary of iMindMap 5’s release.

Vic

Have you checked Our Faves yet?
Subscribe to the RSS feed for news of regular
posts & follow me on Twitter for in-between
items about visual tools you never knew existed.

If you’re on Twitter and tweet about mapping topics,
tweet me — I’d love to know and follow you.

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The Master List follows Vic’s Picks

The launch of Vic’s Picks was received with enthusiasm – my warm thanks to all the bloggers and tweeters who gave it an airing – so I decided to carry aspects of its style over into The Master List.  Just finished that.

I suppose this blog should be next . . . hmmm.

Vic

Have you checked Our Faves yet?
Subscribe to the RSS feed for news of regular
posts & follow me on Twitter for in-between
items about visual tools you never knew existed.

If you’re on Twitter and tweet about mapping topics,
tweet me — I’d love to know and follow you.

Google

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Top Picks (formerly Vic’s Picks) is here!

[Updated: September 1 2013 when Roy Grubb took over this site from Vic Gee]

Mind-Mapping.Org is the unchallenged leader in completeness of information on software for mind mapping, visual information management and other forms of mapping on the Web.

But the amount of information there may be overwhelming: 97 pages of current products, 3 per page, and 29 pages of historical ones.

So in August 2010, Mind-Mapping.Org introduced a major enhancement: Vic’s Picks.  When Roy Grubb took over mind-mapping.org, he renamed it: Top Picks. To avoid breaking any links, bookmarks, favorites or shortcuts that users may have saved, the web address http://www.informationtamers.com/mind-mapping/VicsPicks/ has been preserved.

Top Picks is really two things: A place for readers to quickly find what’s significant, and a place for crowdsourcing: Here you can mark your favourite software and comment about your own experience of it in use.

You can browse the screenshots, click the red tab (top right) to see the name and beginning of the description, or click a button to read the remainder.

Rate the software with stars, and make comments about your personal experience with the various applications.

To see the list filtered down to show only one of the broad categories, choose from the red menu bar.

For more detail, pick from the categories drop-down on the right hand side.  They are organized like this:


There’s an added category, Faves, which tells you what Vic uses and likes most.

Please join in, Speak out! and rate your favourite software. Check out Top Picks now.

Vic (updated by Roy)

Have you checked Faves yet?
Subscribe to the RSS feed for news of regular
posts & follow me on Twitter for in-between
items about visual tools you never knew existed.

If you’re on Twitter and tweet about mapping topics,
tweet me — I’d love to know and follow you.

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Mind-mapping.org ‘OS’ category tidying

I recently noticed that the categories for browser based applications were inconsistent in Mind-Mapping.Org – sometimes I’d used “browser based” and sometimes “web based”.

I’ve just tidied that up.  Most are now changed to “browser based”.

A few, like MindManager, Cmap and Xmind now include “network enabled” as one of their categories.  These do not run in a browser.  They are desktop applications (you download and install them on your PC), but they include the capability of hooking up with a server on the Internet for sharing maps.

If I’ve got any of these entries wrong, let me know, please.  (See ‘Send us an email’ in the right-hand column.)

The “browser based” or “network enabled” categories appear under “OS” (Operating System).  A bit loose, but it works best that way, I think.

Vic

Subscribe to the RSS feed for regular posts
& follow me on Twitter for in-between items
about visual tools you never knew existed.

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Tweet, tweet, tweet

Feedburner tells me I have well over 3,000 subscribers to my feed. 

I was surprised when I saw that.  And humbled.  My posts are sporadic, and yet still people follow this blog.  Thank you folks!

Now, please come and follow me on Twitter, and you’ll be more up to date, with between-post happenings. 

Twitterpage

You won’t find out what I had for breakfast, when I got out of bed, or if it’s been a bad day for Vic.  Just tweets about mind mapping software news and related topics.

If you’re not using Twitter yet, you may be staying away because you think it’s all about personal, trivial, and frankly uninteresting stuff.  For me, using TweetDeck (it’s free) got me past that stage, because I can have columns of searches on subjects I’m interested in.  No reports telling me Bill ‘had kippers and cornflakes for breakfast’!   There’s plenty of useful information to be found.

If you’re already twittering, just follow @VicGee, and I’ll see you there.   Come and say “Hi!”

If you’re not, you can go to http://twitter.com to sign up (it’s easy – they don’t require blood samples).  Then visit http://twitter.com/VicGee and click on the Follow button on the left.  I hope I’ll see you there as well, and that you get more out of Twitter than you expected.

Vic    (@VicGee in Twitter)
http://www.informationtamers.com/mind-mapping/
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software

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Did you think mind-mapping.org had gone?

404.jpg

My hosting company rolled out a fix in the underlying PHP software that runs most of mind-mapping.org on July 22nd.The fact that this had broken the site was brought to my attention by a helpful user (thanks Sue), saying “Oh, no! I just posted a link to you.  Have you gone for good?”

Well, fortunately not.  It took a bit of communication with the host-company support staff to find out what had happened (and get a gracious apology) but now the hiccups are over and it’s back.  A case of one bug hiding another apparently.

Vic Gee

http://www.informationtamers.com/mind-mapping/
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software

Google