Are You Thinking About a Mindmapping Conference?

It has been a number of years since I had initiated putting together a mind mapping conference here in New Jersey, and today I was talking to my good friend and visual mapper Wallace Tait about the possibility of setting up a mind mapping conference so that we convene and share ideas. With the economy in its current state we need to bring innovation and ideas to the work that we do whether it is in the public or private sectors. What better way to  kick-start this year then by planning to convene interested participants who want to explore how we can put mind mapping to use in the work that we do.

I have spoken to Wallace about the idea for an Unconference -whereby we pick a time and place and build the agenda the day of the conference based on your needs. This model has worked really well in the educational marketplace and is one that could work well for us. At the Unconference we could learn about new and innovative ways that people are using mind mapping in the work that they do, whether it is academic, personal, or business related. In this spirit, it would be great to have some corporate sponsorship that could take care of some of the expenses and be a host for the day. I for one think that a mind mapping conference is long overdue and hope that some of the leading companies in this arena will find value in this idea and step up to the plate to make this a reality. I know that Wallace and I are willing to put the time in to see that it happens. If you are interested in making this a reality please feel free to contact me.  All the best and Happy Mind Mapping!

How Has a Shift to Mobile Platforms Impacted on Your Use of MindMapping Applications?

Over the last couple of months I have been pondering and reflecting on the use of my mind mapping tools and how to best integrate them into my mobile lifestyle. More and more, I find that I am accessing my iPhone and iPad and need to have access to my mind maps for projects, to-do lists and brainstorming sessions. While I still rely on my desktop applications for doing the critical creation of my mind maps, I want to be able to access the information on my mobile devices wherever I am. Several years ago, I moved a lot of my mind maps to the web using Comapping, which I have used to teach my graduate courses. Comapping produces great embedding code and works wonderfully within Moodle. My students get the benefits of a prepared visual agenda-complete with links and file attachments which are easy to navigate. The only flaw in using Comapping at this time, is that it is Flash based and can't be accessed using an iOS device.

Looking at the options, I now needed to evaluate mind mapping tools that would give me the flexibility of being able to create them on my computer but have the capability to view them on my iPhone and iPad. Being a long time Mindjet MindManger user, I can use the desktop version for the mind mapping creation and upload it to my free Connect account which can be accessed from any iOS device with the Mindjet app. This is a new workflow for me but so far so good. My MindManager maps are stored on line and can be quickly accessed via my iPhone. Likewise, I can also choose to save my mind maps from my computer to my Dropbox account which is tightly integrated with the Mindjet app on my iPhone and iPad. One of the nice advantages of use the Mindjet Connect account with my iOS apps is that the maps are always synchronized and I don't have to be concerned if I am working on the latest version. In a pinch I can also access my Mindjet Connect account from any computer connected to the web and create mind maps which I can than access from my iPad or iPhone-which is really great!

I have also revisited MindMeister which I had used for a time several years ago and am very pleased with the features and the fact that it is web based and I can access my maps from my iOS devices. Unlike, MindManager, MindMesiter is all web based which gives me added flexibility of being able to create and access my mind maps with a browser and a connection to the web. With MindMeister, I can attach files and links which makes it a wonderful digital repository for my work. MindMeister creates a graphically rich mind map which can be embellished with icons and images to jazz it up. One of the really nice features of MindMeister is the ability to create embedding code which makes it easy to share out my maps-and works well in Moodle. Using the MindMeister app I can access my maps from any iOS device which has proven to be really helpful on several occasions.




Based on my workflow-I still tend to do more creation of my mind maps using a laptop computer which is just fine- but having access to the information and my files on the road from my iPhone or iPad is really indispensable. As developers of mind mapping application begin to think through their strategies for future product development  they need to enter into the formula ways for users to access their information from mobile devices. I trust that some of the leaders in the mind mapping space will announce apps shortly that will give end users more choices so that they don't have to leave their maps trapped on the island of their desktop or laptop.  As always, I'm interested in learning how the mobile platforms have impacted on your mind mapping workflow.

PS: I have just begun to utilize MindGenius and the MindGenius app on my iPad and will share my experiences in the next week or so.

MindMeister 3.1 Released

One of the first mindmapping Web 2.0 applications that I tried awhile back was MindMeister and it continues to be one of the leading online mindmapping applications available. Just today MindMesiter released version 3.1 with lots of added features. One of the features which I feel will be a welcome addition is the ability to add relationships to your map. MindMesiter calls these graphic cross connections which are easily added by clicking on the Connect button on the Tool bar. You can see in the map below how I added the green connection arrow from one node to another one in the map. In Version 3.1 it is now possible to alphabetize the nodes and so that they are sorted alphabetically. If an individual who has been invited to collaborate on the map but has not yet entered the map a coffee cup icon will appear and by clicking on the coffee cup icon you can "nudge" them to participate. It has also just gotten a lot easier to take your maps offline. No longer do you have to wait for endlessly for all your maps to synch when you go to offline mode - a new dialog allows you to choose which maps you want to take offline. Very useful if you have a lot of them!So check out MindMeister and sign up for a free account. You will also find it easy to embed yourMindMeister maps on your website or blog to communicate your ideas. Below is an actual map that was created with MindMesiter that you can interact with. Let me know what you think.

MindMeister 3 Rolls Out

I just received an email that MindMeister 3 has been released with a a large number of new features and tweaks to the user interface. Here is a list of the new features and changes in MindMeister 3:

• Task Management

  Many more features for easier task management in MindMeister, including start date and duration, email notifications, iCalendar feeds, WunderTasks and a task overview from all maps.

• Search and filter, better tags

  The new map search - you'll find it in your map list view - makes managing many maps a lot easier. You can search for titles and contents, and even use Find in maps (CTRL-F). Also, managing tags was enhanced with a new overflow dropdown.

• Resize ideas and wrap

  Overlong idea labels always created problems. In the new release you can now resize them via drag and drop, and your maps will also keep the wrappings when exported e.g. to PDF or as image.

• History View

  We completely revamped the version history to make viewing and replaying the collaborative changes of a mind map a useful and fun experience. Clicking on the coloured bullets starts "replay" mode. See also our tutorial video.

• WikiMaps

  You can now turn any public map into a WikiMap. This will make it editable for everybody (well, everybody who has a MindMeister account, to avoid spamming). Quite useful to gather input from many people at once!

• Import text files

  In addition to Freemind and MindManager^TM formats, you can now also import plain text files into MindMeister.

• Emailing attachments

  Geisesblitz Email now supports attachments which will be inserted as attachments to your ideas into MindMeister.

• Many more key shortcuts

  Our users say they love them, so we've added quite a few more for common operations. See a complete list.

• Other enhancements

  New user interface, revamped "My Account" section, Offline mode for Safari, recommendations in map view, new export dialog and options, better printing (via PDF), clone public maps, larger note previews and much more.