Underlying theory of Concept Maps

Dear Mind-Mapping.org
Congratulation with your great homepage, which I just discovered. I am a Danish specialist in creating structures for re-use of information within engineering all engineering disciplines, based on in-ternational ISO/IEC standards, and have also published some official guidelines here in DK (available in English as well). Looking trough your website (and others), it does not seem like the perfect match of re-use of engineering information supported by mindmapping is clear at all (if anybody was aware at all). Since the economical benefit of doing so is huge, and as I would like to introduce this technique as such, I do miss some kind of official email I can write to for further discussions about this subject. As said, the technique is based on ISO/IEC 81346 standard series (engineering/design). Please have a look at my homepage http://www.81346.com (to be developed - please have a look at the Danish flag as well (:-). Kind regards Henrik Balslev

vic at mind-mapping dot org

2008-08-08 11:12:43

Hello Henrik,

Thank you for getting in touch. I haven't heard of mind mapping for information re-use. I would have thought it was not sufficently rigorous, and too individualistic? That's not a criticism, of mind mapping, I use it all the time, but feel it is more a thinking framework than a way of presenting information for re-use. Wouldn't Topic Maps be more suitable? Already an ISO standard, and a rigorous one.

At first glance, I could not see how ISO/IEC 81346 is connected with mind mapping. I found this reference "IEC 81346-2 Ed. 2 Industrial systems, installations and equipment and industrial products – Structuring principles and reference designation – Part 2: Classification of objects and codes for classes..."

My mind is open though, and I'll look at your page and fuerther at ISO 81346. Maybe you can guide me more on the connection.

My email address is in the first paragraph of the mind-mapping.org front page, but anyway in its anti-spammer form, it's this : Vic at the above domain

Vic Gee

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Research and mindmapping to kickstart your writing

Here is another slant on getting your writing going -- research and a dash of mindmapping. [Vic]

Writing, come what may

There's only a brief mention of mindmapping here, but it's obviously important to the author. Anyway, to me it's a great article on getting moving with writing. I hope you find it so, too. [Vic]

Project estimating – Mindmaps are a tool in the armory

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]

Tony Buzan has defined these "rules" for Mind Mapping:

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.

Who invented mind mapping

This comes up from time to time - usually in the form of "Buzan didn't invent mind mapping".