|
|
|
Software for mindmapping and
information organisation
Vic's compendium of software that supports knowledge management and information organisation in graphical form. Includes mind mappers, concept mappers, outliners, hierarchical organisers, KM support and knowledge browsers, 2D and 3D.More...
If you find this site useful and have your own web pages or blog, please let other people know by linking here - thanks! 
Blog
RSS feed
Vic on Twitter
|
|
|
| |
| From:
Assaph Mehr, Peter Fitzgibbons, Nicolas Delsaux
Product:
Pimki Added:
2008-02-20
|
 |
19
|
| What they say: |
"
Pimki is a PIM (Personal Information Manager) loosely based on Instiki's Wiki technology.
Besides all the regular Instiki features, Pimki adds:
Mind Map: a graph of wiki connections (made with GraphViz). All graphs can be laid-out with the 4 GraphViz engines. There are several options for what pages to include in the map. Graph contents can be arranged as:
Page ? linked pages
Authors ? pages
Categories ? pages
Defaults can be set through the edit_web page.
Requires that GraphViz be installed and the bin on the system PATH environment to be enabled." |
| Observations: |
Personal wiki but it finds its way into Mind-mapping.org because it has a Mind Map feature. Needs Ruby.
Can anyone send me some screenshots? None on the site |
| Where: |
http://pimki.rubyforge.org/ |
| OS: |
Linux, Mac, Windows |
| Price: |
|
| Categories: |
mind maps, wiki-related |
|
 |
|
|
| From:
AT&T (originally)
Product:
GraphViz Added:
2007-04-16
|
|
20
|
| What they say: |
"
Graph visualization is a way of representing structural information as diagrams of abstract graphs and networks. Automatic graph drawing has many important applications in software engineering, database and web design, networking, and in visual interfaces for many other domains.
Graphviz is open source graph visualization software. It has several main graph layout programs. It also has web and interactive graphical interfaces, and auxiliary tools, libraries, and language bindings.
The Graphviz layout programs take descriptions of graphs in a simple text language, and make diagrams in several useful formats such as images and SVG for web pages, Postscript for inclusion in PDF or other documents; or display in an interactive graph browser. (Graphviz also supports GXL, an XML dialect.)
Graphviz has many useful features for concrete diagrams, such as options for colors, fonts, tabular node layouts, line styles, hyperlinks, and custom shapes.
In practice, graphs are usually generated from an external data sources, but they can also be created and edited manually, either as raw text files or within a graphical editor.
(Graphviz was not intended to be a Visio replacement, so it is probably frustrating to try to use it that way.)" |
| Observations: |
Graph Visualization Software. See also 'Tomboy mindmap'. This requires considerable technical knowledge to use but is extremely flexible, as the gallery at http://www.graphviz.org/Gallery.php shows |
| Where: |
http://www.graphviz.org/ |
| OS: |
Linux, Mac |
| Price: |
Free (open source) |
| Categories: |
concept maps, diagramming, networks |
|
|
|
|
| From:
Austhink Software Pty Ltd.
Product:
bCisive Added:
2008-09-15
|
|
21
|
| What they say: |
"
Software for business decision making and diagramming.
bCisive is ... specifically for Business Decision Mapping. Structure and visualize your thinking, create organized diagrams, and be more confident in your business decisions.
- Build and communicate compelling business cases
- Make informed, considered decisions
- Share your thinking, get consensus and take action
- Collaborate and increase your workplace productivity
- Document the reasoning behind decisions, and improve knowledge management" |
| Observations: |
Austhink is the publisher of Rationale, and there was some discussion about their differences on the Rationale Google Group. The company responded in this way: ''bCisive is intended for the 'professional' or workplace market and is oriented towards business decision making. Rationale is being repositioned as a purely educational product, focusing on reasoning, argument and critical thinking.
In bCisive, you'll find much stronger support for decision making (inc. the ''decision summary'' which automatically generates the rationale behind decisions), for formatting of maps, and for communicating with others. Also, a lot of work has gone into making it even more easy to use.
Somebody whose main interest is using this kind of tool in the workplace, specifically for decisions, will find bCisive a much more suitable tool. But somebody who is interested in teaching the fundamentals of reasoning and critical thinking will find Rationale more suitable.'' |
| Where: |
http://bcisive.austhink.com/get-bcisive |
| OS: |
Windows |
| Price: |
AUD349 |
| Categories: |
argument maps, concept maps, decision diagrams, logic trees |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Articles
The key to getting something useful out of this article is to read the author’s title carefully. Mind mapping simplifies the process of project estimating -- it doesn’t simplify the actual task-time estimation. Every project manger knows that the work of a project must be broken into separate and manageable units for estimating. To look at a project and think “That’s about a week’s effort” is a recipe for frustration and missed targets. Mindmaps, spider diagrams and bubble charts are excellent for the first phase of breaking a project into manageable parts. For me mindmaps, as strictly defined by Buzan’s rules, are less suitable than spider diagrams for this type of analysis, but we can assume that Dr. Mariaraj is not being too strict in his use of the term below. [Vic]
I believe these rules are well worth following if you use mindmaps for learning. They are very hard to follow completely and rigidly - and its not worth trying I have found - if you use mindmaps in adult life, in your work or projects.
This comes up from time to time - usually in the form of "Buzan didn't invent mind mapping".
Here are links to important scholarly papers by Joseph D. Novak and Alberto J. Cañas on Concept Maps, their theory and construction.
"Semantic network" is a broad enough term to cover many forms of information map. Here is a link to an article by John F. Sowa, originally written for the Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence.
|
|
|
|
