The Mind Mapping Software Weblog

InformationTamers.com, a web site created by the developers of Topicscape, a 3-D mind mapping software program, walks the reader through concise and engaging analysis of different information management solutions, and their strengths and weaknesses. Here are a few highlights:

Indexing software: This genre of programs indexes the contents of your computer's hard drive and then enables you to conduct keyword searches it. This type of software was of limited use to the author because it was hard to come up with a precise search term that would deliver the results he was looking for. Like using a web search engine, these indexing programs often returned too many irrelevant results.

Mind mapping/concept mapping software: These tools moved information management into the realm of a “visual road map,†which made it easier to “see†pieces of information and how they fit into the larger whole. But he found this model of visual mapping to be somewhat limiting for two reasons: First, the strict adherence to hierarchy – in other words, a node in a map could be the child of one other node. The other shortcoming, in his opinion, was that as the volume of data contained in a mind map increased, it tended to get very large and ponderous to work with.

PersonalBrain: This software program overcame some of the shortcomings that the author experienced with mind mapping software, namely that an item in a map could now be the child of multiple nodes. In other words, it was a better platform for visually describing complex relationships between items. Also, the fact that you could place any topic in the center of the screen, which caused the entire map to rotate around it, made large maps somewhat easier to work with. But the author found that large maps were still hard to work with, even on a high-resolution computer monitor. Also, because you could center your map on any topic, he found that PersonalBrain lacked a sense of “place†– which means that he found it hard to determine where he was within the overall structure of a Brain map, which made it harder to zero in on the information he was looking for.

Topicscape: The author became part of the development team for this 3D mind mapping program, where he was able to help design an interface that overcame the limitations of these other information management paradigms. The solution was to represent topics, their parents and children as 3D “cones,†to use screen real estate more efficiently, while also clearly displaying the relationships between the topics in your map. These “cones†look something like mountains on a 3D plane. Topics can be related to multiple other topics, and each topic or node can contain multiple attachments. This allows users to develop very complex visual databases of knowledge and information, while still retaining the ability to navigate through it efficiently.

To be completely honest, when people would ask me why I never covered Topicscape in this blog, nor did I include it in my list of mind mapping software, I dismissed it as not being a “true†mind mapping program. I thought it was an intriguing information visualization tool, but I failed to see how it handled hierarchies of topics. Now that I have read this excellent backgrounder, I have a better understanding of the problems it was designed to solve, and how it does incorporate some of the principles of visual mapping. I plan to download the trial version of Topicscape and explore it more closely, now that I have a better understanding of it.

If you are a fan of visual mapping and information management, I think you’ll find this article to be very interesting!

SimTech, the developers of MindMapper, will release a new USB Edition of their flagship mind mapping program later this week. I've had a chance to play around with it for the last month, and I'm mighty impressed with how well it works.

The entire MindMapper 2008 Professional program - not a stripped down version - comes on a 4 GB USB key, which is partitioned to allow you to store your mind maps and other key files on it. When you plug it into a Windows PC, MindMapper starts up automatically, and displays a dialog box with the following choices:

Patrick Koh from SimTech says the USB Edition contains a few extra capabilities that enable it to work better from the USB key, such as being able recover from accidental formatting or file deletion from the USB drive. Also, the first time you insert the storage device into your computer, you can select from localized versions of MindMapper in English, German and Dutch. The USB version of MindMapper is protected; it cannot copied or loaded onto your computer. It must always be launched via the USB key. When you unplug it, MindMapper exits automatically after saving your data.

I asked him what motivated his team to develop this version of MindMapper?

"The idea came from many sources. Road warriors wanting to use MindMapper when they were away from their laptops. Corporate employees who wanted to use MindMapper in a conference room. Also from people who didn’t like the process of registration and activating the software. Then we noticed some security companies were using USB keys to launch their software to repair infected PCs. So we took this idea and found a way to launch MindMapper when you just plugged in the USB key."

Who is the USB Edition designed for?

"Our initial target segment were the road warriors. But we think it will also appeal to many people in the corporate environment. Even regular workers can copy their work on the USB, take it home, and work on MindMapper at home and have all their data accessible in the USB drive. This concept of portable software and install-free, instant-on software will be attractive to many people."

I used the program on both my work and home PCs, and it ran without incident. My work laptop is packed with mind mapping software, because I evaluate so much of it for this blog. But my home PC, which is quite old and has limited memory and hard drive space left, doesn't have any mind mapping software installed. So it was quite nice to be able to start a map at work, then take it home, plug in the USB key and continue working.

Kudos to SimTech for exploring this idea and developing this program. It's definitely one of those "why didn't anyone think of this before now?" kind of products!

SimTech says the list price of MindMapper 2008 USB Edition will be US$179.95, but they plan to run a promotion when the program launches at only US$149.95. As soon as SiTech launches their USB Edition web page, I will post the link here. But in the meantime, you heard it here first, folks!

InnovationGear has just announced the release of version 3.0 of its MindVisualizer Standard mind mapping program. New in this release are 4 new export formats: to PDF, Excel, OpenOffice document and OpenOffice spreadsheet. This new version also includes several printing enhancements, including the ability to split large maps into smaller pages, and the ability to print a map as an outlined list. It also includes numerous other enhancements to existing features, plus performance fixes. A trial version is available for download from the InnovationGear website; the developer says you can try it out, even if you previously downloaded a trial of an earlier version that has timed out.

Mindjet announced today that it has hired two new vice presidents - a VP of marketing and a VP of products. In the company's  news release, it states that it has made these hires to "prepare for web expansion."

Neil Mendelson, the new VP of products, comes to Mindjet from Business Objects, where he led development of its first software-as-a-service offerings - in other words, Web 2.0 stuff! Although the news release doesn't explicitly state anything more about Mindjet's strategy, other than the cryptic headline, it would appear that the company plans to launch a new web-based visual mapping tool. Very interesting!

I am scheduled to have a conference call with Mindjet CEO Scott Raskin in mid-June, which should result in more details about the company's plans. Stay tuned to this blog for more details as they develop.

A few weeks ago, I pointed to a post by Shelly Hadyuk from TheBrain Technologies, in which she made the case that traditional hierarchical mind maps may not be the best way to present complex information and knowledge. This post generated more comments than any other in the history of this blog (22 to date). Most readers agreed with Shelly’s assessment, and were excited at the prospect of being able to represent more complex relationships in their visual maps. Here is a sampling of reader comments:

This reader addresses the limits of hierarchical mapping: "I find the radial tree structure of mind mapping very limiting. It works OK for representing a restricted set of knowledge, but if you need to dissect a large problem it fails, as you cannot rotate the problem around (you are always in the pathway of a set hierarchy). That means you’re limited in your problem solving or analytical approach by the way you structure your tree."

One reader compares the branches of mind maps to tables in relational databases, where multiple tables of data can be linked in multiple, complex relationships: "I believe we should take the next step and (be able to) link any record to any other record in whichever table (map topic). Then the notes in mind maps can be truly object-oriented and the mind maps (can show) multiple perspectives."

This reader envisions a visual mapping tool where selecting one topic causes related topics to re-cluster themselves into a new constellation, which will reveal new insights and connections: "If this is the beginning of a trend in mind mapping software, it's good news! I imagine ‘picking up’ a semantic network by the mode I'm interested in, ‘shaking it out’ so the links cascade down, studying it, then selecting a new node and repeating the above process."

A PersonalBrain power user tells us how he employs the program: "As an avid user of both MindManager and PersonalBrain, I believe that both have their place. However, I think that in order to deal effectively with the glut of information we receive daily, we need to organize beyond simple hierarchical systems, and work in conjunction with our brains…  I currently have nearly 14,000 thoughts in my brain (his PersonalBrain file, not his “wetware†brain), and am able to see connections beyond the normal hierarchical view. I use PersonalBrain as my main interface, storage system, information management tool, creativity laboratory, presentation system, etc.  Everything else links to it and through it, including MindManager, Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.."

PersonalBrain is a great tool, but the interface still needs work, according to this reader (I agree - CF): “My biggest struggle with MindManager is that each topic can only be a child of one other topic. Relationships are visually cumbersome at best. If PersonalBrain (TheBrain’s single user mapping software) gets more polished (the user interface feels pretty cludgy right now), I would be hard pressed not to switch over. The ability to navigate nodes and see the relationships to other concepts is extremely powerful."

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