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May 31, 2005
Mind Mapping
By: Rowan
I have been a devotee of "mind mapping" for years. I am not a linear thinker and the discovery of mind mapping helped me dramatically in organizing and exploring concepts, ideas and information. I first "discovered" the concept in a book by Gabriele Rico called Writing The Natural Way. I was laid up after a knee surgery and read the book. I immediately saw that it fit exceptionally well with the way that I think and see connections.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across Cmaps. Radical Noesis is part of a Peak Oil webring hosted by Flying Talking Donkey. Flying Talking Donkey is also a mind mapping afficianado, and has a link to a concept map on peak oil. I saw the map and immediately got excited. SO I followed a link on the map to IHMC Cmap Tools and downloaded the free software to create concept maps.
Over the years I have looked at one software program after another that purported to do mind or concept mapping. They have all been big busts in my opinion because they forced a linear process. But the Cmap program really does provide concept mapping ability. It also allows the linking of annotations, notes, and url links to concepts. That is a tremendous leap forward. The software allows collaborative mapping, but I am still working on the basics of how the program works. You can try that out at the Flying Talking Donkey map link above.
If you are interested in concept mapping I highly recommend IHMC Cmap. Wired News has a piece on it called Concept Maps Go to School.
Posted by Rowan at May 31, 2005 12:04 PM Category: Authors --- Rowan
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Comments
Have you tried out FreeMind - freemind.sf.net ? It is java based and runs on basically anything and I use it a fair amount for project brainstorming.
Posted by: Jeremy at June 4, 2005 01:03 PM
Thanks for the link Jeremy. I had not tried the sourceforge FreeMind. I went and looked at the public maps generated and they tell me it follows the same model that others have followed - a linear strategy. The difference between true mindmapping and linear presentation is that in true mind mapping you can have multiple interlinking components that is it's true strength. This distinction is pretty clear when you look at this concept map using CMap, and this public map using FreeMind.
The difference goes beyond a difference in the presentation. My guess is that, depending on how one thinks, FreeMind would work well for some and Cmap would work well for others.
Posted by: rowan at June 4, 2005 02:53 PM