Chuck Frey has been promising everyone a new e-book for some time, and now it’s here.  It even has its own domain name: MindMappingManifesto.com

Chuck has gathered in one place research from disparate sources, to show how today’s knowledge worker has new challenges, and how many have not found the tools to cope.  In the Mind Mapping Manifesto, he sets out to unblock this logjam.

If you are not mind mapping now, I urge you to read this manifesto.  If it appeals, you won’t regret it if you start as soon as you have read it.

I spend a lot of time commenting on blogs all over the web, spreading the word about how flexible this thinking technique is and telling readers about the software that can be used.  Chuck’s e-book is a valuable supporting tool in the same cause.  It gives good specifics, with examples, on the many varied types of use to which mind mappers put the technique.

Great stuff Chuck!

Vic

Kyle McFarlin was just interviewed on the Productivity Show.  More here:
http://productivity.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/12/14/the-productivity-show-34-kyle-mcfarlin-visual-strategist/

Don’t suppose he’s gonna talk to us any more!

Way to go Kyle.

Vic

Singapore has claimed that a two-tennis-court sized mindmap all about Singapore itself, is the world’s largest: http://blogist.wordpress.com/2007/11/17/worlds-largest-mind-map-unveiled/

There are hints of an even larger one (”well over the size of a football field”) here: http://pkab.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/capturing-the-second-life-worlds-information-in-one-giant-map/ but that’s in Second Life, so it’s virtual.  I’d call that pushing the claim a bit, wouldn’t you?

 Vic

Our friends at ConceptDraw* have just announced an interesting new site for sharing mind maps over at mindmappedia.com (mindmapwiki.com takes you to the same place). 

They accept maps in many file formats, not just their own ConceptDraw.  MindManager, VisualMind, NovaMind, MindGenius, iMindMap and FreeMind maps can all be submitted.  You can also submit mind maps in image form, including hand-drawn ones.  It would be good if there were some type of browsing capability, with thumbnails, say.

 They have some running to do to catch up with the Topicscape Mindmaps Directory, which had almost 600 maps, last time I looked.  That just has links to maps on their original sites, but it does tag and classify maps and has thumbnails, which makes it easy to browse.

I’ll be adding this new site to mindmapsearch.org soon.

 Vic

* I would link to the ConceptDraw site, but it’s rated red in SiteAdvisor, and I don’t want mind-mapping.org to get the same treatment!  Can’t you fix that Odessa guys? 

I really liked a slideshow that comes from a group at the Open University, UK, so I did a write-up to alert like-minded thinkers.  It’s about different forms of visualizing information, knowledge, argument, debate and evidence.  I’ve done a quick write up in my Seminal papers in information mapping section of mind mapping articles.

Favourite moment? This provocative (but I maybe not-too-serious) idea for the search engines:

 It’s called Knowledge Mapping for Open Sensemaking Communities

Vic

The Google Co-op mindmapping search engine now has its own site at MindMapSearch.ORG

Head on over to: http://www.mindmapsearch.org/

I’ve taken all the links that make up the sources on which the search engine draws, added a description, and categorized the links.  Links can appear under more than one category.  Where a site is mainly about mind mapping, the link is to the front page.  If, like Lifehacker for example, it’s mainly about other topics but has good mind mapping references as well, there’s a link to the front page and a link to the specific mind mapping items.

I’ve added forum or newsgroup links for all the mind mapping software that has support or user communities.  MindManager, as the market dominator with many sites originated not by Mindjet but by users, has its own category page.

Please tell me about broken links, as well as any sites that should be added, and I’d like to hear what you think about the site.  Is it useful?

Vic

There is a new division in the “Articles” section: Seminal papers in information mapping

This presents links to articles on concept mapping and other forms of information map by some of the leading authorities in the area: Joseph D. Novak, Alberto J. Cañas, John F. Sowa, Sigmar-Olaf Tergan and others. There is also the full text of one article.

Topics covered are:

1. Underlying theory of Concept Maps
2. Semantic networks
3. Visual representation of knowledge
4. An overview of concept mapping
5. Concept maps and web research

I have more and will add them as time permits, because they contain a lot of very useful ideas, research and analysis.

 Vic

Past versions of mind-mapping.org were limited and made users search for what they wanted from the “all products” list.

Some users asked if I could add a search function so that they could check if a specific product was there.  Others want to to look at, for example, all mind mapping software that ran on a Mac, or all concept mapping and mind mapping products that could be used from a browser, from the Web, with no software to install.  Many wanted to know the cost of software and one person wanted to be able to check all items added after a specific date so that when they call back from time to time, they can see what’s new.

 So I’ve added the selection and filtering in a tab at the top-right of each software list page, and each entry shows what I know about price (it’s not always clear on the publishers’ web sites), and when I added the item to my local database - which is always within a week if the information appearing on line.  I decided to cut out the historical records by default, but you can tick a checkbox to see them as well.

So that’s what I was vain enough to call ”fully instrumented”.  I’ve no doubt someone will soon point out an essential missing item and I shall slap my forehead and have to add more.

I did have a request to add reviews for all products.  Hmmm . . . I reckon a very minimal review would take a couple of full-time days, and with, right now, 162 current products, I could say goodbye to a year of my life.  Jus’ ain’t practical, I’m sorry.  But I’m thinking about how to get user reviews on-line without inviting the spammers in.

Vic

The mind-mapping.org site has been around for almost eighteen months now, and after many requests to provide an RSS feed for new stuff at the site (I don’t know how to do that), I’ve added a blog.  I’ll announce new additions here in this blog, and if you’re interested, you can subscribe to its feed and get to know about the updates that way.

Not only new items - I’ll also include notes about new versions of mind mapping and information management software as it’s released (and as I find out about it).

This site started as a personal collection of information on this type of software.  I’ve been mind mapping in one form or another for longer than I care to admit and was always on the lookout for software that helped. 

I started with Mind Manager and still use it, though I find the upgrade prices a bit steep.  Now I play with FreeMind sometimes.  That’s a mixture of rather basic in some ways, and very sophisticated in others - the attribute capability is useful to me.

Once mind mapping was available on computers, I started using it for information management as well.  That wasn’t so successful because of space on the screen, but then Topicscape came along and solved that problem, and wikis with mind mapping capabilities too, so I started adding information management software to the database.  I’ve never taken a rigid view of mind mapping, whatever Tony Buzan says, so I gathered concept mapping products and other diagramming tools.

Outliners came into the information I collected because the idea isn’t so different from mind mapping, it’s just less flexible.  But when you have a mind map and want to turn it into a report, you’re likely to get there via an outline anyway - or at least an indented text format.

I do apply the criterion of requiring a visual element to the presentation of the information shown in the software collected here.

As I collected information from all over, across the years, I stuck it in an Access database.  Once I had enough it started to become a useful source, so I decided to share it so now it gets banged into MySQL on-line and the end result was the mind-mapping.org site.

The original site. 137 items, all on one page!

I’ve been collecting the information for more than ten years, so there’s plenty about products and free services that came and went.  I decided to keep those as history, but flagged them so they can be filtered out for most readers.  If you’re looking for information about what once existed, you can see the historical items by ticking the “Historical software” box in the “Refine software” tab.

Many people have written to suggest new items - my thanks to them.  Some have told me what they don’t like, and I thank them as well - their comments have made me improve the searchability, filtering and information shown.

Mind-mapping.org today - fully instrumented . . .

Keep on mapping, and keep the feedback coming!

Vic