Middlespot – a central point for daily browsing

I’ve just added Middlespot to Mind-Mapping.Org.   Although it’s not exactly a mapping application, it is highly visual and supports organising information, provided it’s on the web, by clustering.

Middlespot

This browser-based application lets you mash together web pages you visit regularly into one big sheet and you can have many such sheets.  Each web page can be shown in thumbnail or larger sizes, moved around and arranged in clusters that are just right for you.  And you can get at and use your collection of ‘mashtabs’ wherever you have an Internet connection.

The free version already provides a useful application, but for a very reasonable $5/year, you can have as many mashups as you want, 200MB of storage and file sizes of up to 10MB.

Vic

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A couple of significant updates for 2010

Happy New Year!  Gradually catching up – more to go though.

Topicscape Pro

The beta version of Topicscape I wrote about last month has now passed out of beta and been formally released as a live version.  2D and 3D views below.  I’m using this and liking it a lot.  Give it a try.

Freeplane

The alpha version I wrote about last June is now into a more stable release – it’s in beta.  I tried it and had one problem, but that turned out to be an out-of-date graphics driver, so it’s fixed.  Try this one as well and report any bugs to the Freeplane team.  The appearance of the map owes a lot to FreeMind, naturally, and it has a pleasant uncluttered interface.

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

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Dendroscope, LinkSViewer, Shared Space, Skrbl, Surfulater and Solution Language Tool

Some new information organizing and visualization software for you.  Things got behind as I put together the web-based mindmappers reference pages (see my post of 14th December, 2007) and continued working on the interoperability reference resource.  The web-based one is done, as previously announced here, and the interop one is approaching first publication. 

But the entries for the mind mapping software database kept piling up, so I had a clear out over the holidays, and I bring you six new programs.

Dendroscope

Information mapping for a very specialised area, evolutionary biology, but this could be stretched to other forms of hiearchical visualization, and anyway it’s free.

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LinkSViewer

This is a web-based service that gathers together information about people, companies, educational establishments and all sorts of relationships and turns them into an interconnected map.  A concept map of sorts.

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Shared Space

An information management tool with a mind-mapping influence.

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Skrbl

Not a mind mapping tool, but an on-line whiteboard that would allow collaborative mapping.

Surfulater

Organize files in an advanced form of outline, with graphics and web pages in a browsing screen.

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Solution Language Tool

A mind map and activity map editor.  No easy download for the free trial, instead you must fill in a form having five mandatory fields.

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Finally, a historical note:  Rationale has been in the database since July 2007, but I just learnt of Reason!Able that it replaced, and added it for the record.

Happy New Year!
Vic

 Update: Corrected spelling of Surfulater.  December 28, 2007

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Imindi, PAUX, UML Explorer, Mappio and yalips

There are five additions to the mind map software list at Mind-mapping.org this weekend: Imindi, PAUX, UML Explorer, Mappio and yalips.

Imindi – Something to watch – with interest.  It has high aspirations but little information on actual progress so far:

imindi.jpg

Mappio – This is not officially out yet, but it’s accessible and you can sign up without waiting.  I made a little mind map of mind-mapping.org with Mappio, but I’ve blogged about that already: http://www.informationtamers.com/mind-mapping/blog/?p=63  This is web based:

mappio.jpg

PAUX – Information management sofware with a visual element, an outlines element and a claim to a “multidimensional mindmap”.  I have no idea what the pricing is.  It says: Free “in the context of a development partnership” and there is no information about how it is priced outside such a partnership.  This is a thumbnail of the only image I could find of how the UI looks and feels:

paux.jpg

UML Explorer Part of the ModelMaker family, this UML tool can make mind maps and is at a good price point for a product with such capabilities:

 uml-explorer.jpg

yalips – Yes the lower-case name is the way they’ve registered the trademark, so I won’t capitalize it.  Makes you wonder where the name comes from.  This is another UML diagrams product that goes much further in the diagramming, and includes mind maps.  Reasonably priced for such a product as well:

yalips.jpg

As usual, there’s more information with full-size images at mind-mapping.org

Vic

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Coming soon? – Imindi

Here’s a proto-product that will be interesting if it lives up to its aspirations – Imindi.

There is little more than a blog peeping up over the parapet for now:
http://imindi.typepad.com/imindisaid/2007/08/what-is-imindi.html

“The Imindi Thought Engine enables you to input your Thoughts and the semantic connections between them (Why, What, Where, When, Who, How) in a naturally radiant fashion with one thought radiating outward to one or many associated thoughts that themselves radiate outwards towards other thoughts which …” you get the idea.

“Our aim is for Imindi to integrate with … many of your favourite  third party applications …”

Just a few images for now – here’s one:

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Vic

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Cayra, VORG Express and SnapXT

This weekend’s update to Mind-mapping.org brings a lively and colourful new mind-mapping product, Cayra; VORG Express, a free information manager; and a development platform for throw-away web applications that revolves around a MindManager mind map.

Cayra – This is an attractive program, free for now, that produces colourful maps that don’t have to represent a pure hiearchy.  It can therefore produce a limited form of concept map as well as mind maps.

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[Update December 2010: No longer supported but still available from download sites like CNET, and still good.]
VORG Express – VE is a free information manager that also has diagramming capabilities.  It has a big brother, VORG Team, which costs US$48 a year per user.  There are other products in the family that are aimed at vertical markets: Finance and medical.  

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SnapXT – Finally, there’s SnapXT that uses a MindManager mind map to build collaborative web applications.  The key to its original approach to application development is that the connection between the mind map and the application is “live” – changes to the map can be reflected in the on-line application. 

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 Vic

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“Little Sir ECCO how do you do?”

There’s an update on the amazing status of ECCO Pro.

Those with long computer memories will recall how much of a popular (almost cult) following this had soon after it was launched in 1993, with its highly customizable interface.  It’s been  on mind-mapping.org since June last year loosely under the outliners and information management categories.

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Well, I just had a comprehensive update from Jim Chisholm, and learned that there are two tech groups on Yahoo supporting it – not only that, one group is actively enhancing ECCO Pro, even making it run on USB sticks without installation on the host PC!

And it’s all for free.

Vic

Updated:  “There is another Yahoo tech group that appears to have been formed to cover ECCO, but it is a spam site now.”

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New/updated entries on the mind mapping software list

New: Curio – I mentioned this project management software with mind mapping built in recently in the blog and now it’s up on mind-mapping.org.

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New: Free outliner Task Coach has been added.

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New: BrainStreamer is a task manager that includes a mind mapper.

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New: (Well, new to mind-mapping.org) ThinkTank a charming piece of downloadable, runnable outlining history from twenty years ago.  That cover looks strangely familiar…

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New: TVO (The Vim Outliner) a free Linux outliner.

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Update: The entry for TheBrain has been updated and an image has been added.

Brain

Update: The entry for 3D Topicscape has been updated, with images of 3D mind maps from the newer version.

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Update: The Leo entry also has new images and a new sourceforge URL.

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Vic

 

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Five tools added to the master list of information management and mind mapping software

There are some interesting additions today.  One, Rationale, is for making argument maps, and another, Pocket FreeMind, that has potential.  The author says he may later make it produce actual mind maps on pocket devices.

gjots2: a simple, free jotter and outline processor for Linux,

NeoMem: a free outliner that lets you define different classes of record.

Rationale: A graphical tool for expressing what the makers call “Argument maps”.

Pocket Freemind: A free outliner that uses the FreeMind file format and runs on Windows Mobile.

EDrawMax: A diagramming tool that can make mind and concept maps.

Vic

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7 diagramming and mind mapping products added to mind-mapping.org

After fussing over the new blog, I had time to catch up with some of the new entries I’ve been accumulating recently (more to come).  The current trend is still mainly for on-line, browser based services.

Cumulate Draw -=-  Free on-line diagrammer.  Could be used for mindmaps but not designed for that.  A poor-man’s MS Visio, perhaps?

SproutLiner -=-  Free on-line outliner.  No security for your outlines (no log in) if you use an easily-guessable name.  I have not tested simultaneous multi-user access but it does not appear to be designed for real-time collaboration.

Flowchart.com -=-  Free on-line diagramming tool.

WikiMindMap -=-  You can’t build your own mind maps with this tool (unless you do it by building a MediaWiki), but you can choose from the millions of topics covered in many Wikis.  I think this is an intriguing tool, but one of the great values of mind mapping is the process – the thinking you do as you build the mind map. I believe WikiMindMap should be seen as a quick way to grasp the structure of wiki articles rather than as a mind mapping tool.

ThinkFold -=-  On-line collaborative outlining service.

MAK (MindMap and Knowledgemanager)  -=-  Knowledge Content Management System – seems dormant.

InfiView -=-  Not a mind mapper or other form of tool for graphical information management, but a development environment for such products.

Projekt S60 -=-  Outliner for Symbian-based mobile phones.

InfoRapid Cardfile System  -=-  A kind of outliner.

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

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