Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Wise Mapping: a Mind Maps creation tool




Wise Mapping is a free online mind maps editor that allows you to create and share your mind maps with others.


Some features of Wise Mapping


Here is a list of the main features that Wise Mapping offers to its users :

  • It is free
  • It is easy to use
  • It has an interactive interface
  • It requires a sign up
  • It allows you to create and edit colorful and complex mind maps using just mouse and keyword
  • It lets you customize your maps by changing the border, text,shape and background color of your notes
  • It has a sophisticated authoring editor to help you manage your maps
  • You can share or save your mind maps right from the editor
  • You can make your mind maps either private or public
  • You can embed the image of your map anywhere you want online

Watch this tutorial video to learn more






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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Mindjet Reaches Cloud Altitude with Mind-Mapping Tools for Getting Things Done


Ask Scott Raskin to name the number-one innovation that changed the world of project management and business collaboration, and he has a surprising answer: the whiteboard.


It’s not that the answer is nonsensical—Raskin may well be right. It’s that it’s coming from the CEO of Mindjet, a San Francisco software company devoted to helping workers capture their thoughts and plans digitally. After all, if Mindjet’s 2 million users gave up their laptops, PCs, and tablets for old-fashioned whiteboards, the company would be out of business.


Raskin’s real point, though, is that business people deal with lots of data and ideas, and it’s often helpful to arrange this information visually, in a place where everyone can see it. Whiteboards are great for that—the problem is that they aren’t very portable or shareable (your team in Hong Kong probably won’t see the brainstorming notes that your team in Atlanta captured last night). Mindjet’s “mind mapping” software lets teams organize their thoughts on virtual canvases that can be accessed and modified from any Web browser, with the data on the maps feeding directly into project management tools such as Cohuman, a social task management platform startup that Mindjet recently acquired.


Read complete at XConomy.com

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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

DropMind takes your research to another level




Having in mind the constant search for quality data, the new release of DropMind v3.3, mind mapping software focuses on facilitation of research procedures and data management. 


It is evident how Internet saves time and money, but information overload makes research quality and data selection difficult.
In order to simplify the process of data assortment and visualization of valuable search content, DropMind v3.3 offers Web mapping experience.


The web browser functionality offers possibility to search the web without leaving DropMind. It allows you to search data, save links, content and images directly into a mind map


The automatic map building tracks the web search and creates maps in real time. This feature helps in saving valuable time people spend on daily searches for relevant information, without the need of extra effort. It is suitable for project initiation, market research or managing favorite web content.


Get more information on the new releases. Visit dropmind.com.


DropMind team will continue working hard to make mind mapping experience more effective and intuitive. The upcoming year will include improvements that will ease the process of organizing and planning information. The project management and mind mapping future is directly related and therefore features that will advance this relation will be added.
Online collaboration and integration is another piece of the mind mapping puzzle, which will grow significantly. Driven by worldwide market trends, the road map of DropMind 2012 is certainly rich offering better business and mapping performance. 


And remember, a mind map is as an opportunity to organize and picture data, as much as the Internet is an opportunity to find it.


Video: DropMind® Mobile


Read more

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Brainstorming Essentials: Graphic Organizers Such as Mind Maps & Venn Diagrams




How useful are graphic organizers such as mind maps and Venn diagrams to brainstorming?


There are those who equate brainstorming to coming up with a series of terrific ideas that help us get something done or some problem solved, and on the levels of simplicity, there is truth to that. In some circles, the concept of brainstorming is also referred to as idea management or creative thinking.


Yet, brainstorming, especially when done in a group setting, is much more precise and organized. There are tools and techniques that have been developed to help minimize a random brainstorming approach, and instead develop it into a precise technique. These tools help an individual or a group to focus on a problem, and then very deliberately develop creative solutions to that problem. 


Some of the more common tools used in the brainstorming process are graphic organizers like mind maps and Venn diagrams. These tools are most useful when the brainstorming process is being embarked upon by a group.


Chief among the brainstorming graphic organizers are the mind map and Venn Diagram. There are also the KWL tables, which although this graphic organizer is often used as a creative tool in a learning environment. The KWL Table for example is very often used by instructors KWL is an acronym for What We Know.


The mind map helps one to see how the key word radiates out from a centralized point. The mind map is a diagram that one draws by placing the key word in the center and then mapping out radially all the words, ideas, tasks or other items that are linked to that key word or key idea. It can help the brainstorming group visualize, structure, or classify the ideas. It can show how one idea feeds into another, etc. 


Concept mapping is structurally different in that the key concept is placed at the top of a chart and many other concepts are added below. It can often help to stimulate learning in the sciences and other subjects. It is also used to represent the expert knowledge of teams for business or even government projects.


Then there is the Venn diagram, which has been in existence since 1880. The Venn diagram is named after its inventor, John Venn. Venn diagrams are used quite extensively in a number of fields to help show all the possible relations between groups of things. They can be used in as complex of settings as logic, statistics, set theory and probability, or as simple a setting as a brainstorming session to determine and visualize possible relationships within that specific creative problem solving arena. 


As the web develops and grows, it is now possible to locate templates or research possible tools to buy or create these various graphic organizers. For example, there are a number of websites where one can download mind mapping and concept mapping charts, as well as Venn Diagram templates. It is possible to make these items on one’s own computer, but many have found the ease in downloading these various graphic organizers to be much swifter and definitely more efficient especially when you take into consideration that their primary goal is to use the mind maps and Venn diagrams in their brainstorming not have to first create those graphic organizers to that they can finally get on to the higher goal of brainstorming.



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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Newest Update to ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7 Makes Mind Mapping Easier to Learn




CS Odessa’s most recent update to ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7, available today, adds a user-friendly start-up dialog to the product and provides a link to instructional videos for new users. Additional improvements to the product include enhanced drawing tools, improved HTML exporting, and further support for a variety of graphical file formats.


Available for Macintosh and Windows, ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7 is the first arm of the ConceptDraw Productivity Line. It is available as a standalone product, bundled with ConceptDraw PROJECT v6 as ConceptDraw MINDMAP for Projects v2, and in the full ConceptDraw Office v2 suite. ConceptDraw Office v2 also contains ConceptDraw PRO v9, CS Odessa’s popular business graphics and drawing product, in addition to ConceptDraw MINDMAP and PROJECT.


Video: ConceptDraw MINDMAP v7 Video Lessons (Basic Level)





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Thursday, December 8, 2011

Mind Map Software for Clear Thinking




The idea of mind map has developed to facilitate and organize concepts and ideas that generally could take longer time to understand. When ideas and concepts are drawn on paper or even on a computer screen the relationship can be shown is an effective way which otherwise is difficult to understand.  The traditional way of thinking hampers creative thinking and hence the idea of mind maps came into prominence. What happens in mind maps is that there is a central idea or concept around which a pattern or framework is built and that becomes instinctive for the individual. The visualizations of mind map are an excellent aid to problem solving and its business implications are immense. Mind Maps enables visual thinking which is generally not possible in the traditional way of learning and problem solving.


The mind map software is a great way to have drawing of ideas and concepts that show the linkages between different concepts. The mind map diagram drawn with the help of the software greatly facilitates learning and one can better understand the interrelations between disparate ideas and concepts. As opposed to the traditional method of note taking the mind mapping software enhances the efficiency of the individual in learning or studying by as much as fifteen percent according to Farrand and other scholars. There are mind-mapping software that uses three-dimensional techniques to enhance retention and understanding of ideas and concepts. Some mind map software are open source that enable users to draw mind map diagrams while others are free mind map software. The open source mind map software support platforms like Linux, UNIX, Windows, Mac OS, while others are cross platform software. The proprietary mind map software has additional functionality as compared with the open source and free software that has limited functionality.


Some freeware mind map software are web based and enables the users to collaborate and have their mind maps on the internet and the users need to have flash on their system to have this functionality. Another freeware mind map software lets the user to draw colorful concept maps and mind maps with good visualization and also have automatic topics' layout functionality. Different free mind map software come with their own functionality, users can have other functionalities in these mind map software such as exports, free-float texts and images, color and fonts, rich text notes, task information, outline exports and much more.


The benefits of the mind map software for businesses are many and allow the users to have great visualizations. In the business of marketing the use of these mind map software is undisputable, and one can use the software to better outline the marketing strategies with their available resources. The individuals for whom the visualizations are created with the help of the mind map software can easily understand the interrelations between different ideas and concepts. The sharing of the mind maps also enables businesses to share knowledge with their clients and business associates. Visual thinking becomes more effective and efficient with the mind map software.

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Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Best Android App for Creating Mind Maps




If you’re a person with big, stellar ideas, your mind’s wheels always seem to be a-turning. Having a pen and paper handy might have offered you some comfort, and the pen-and-paper tandem can be useful for when you just want to scribble down that fleeting, elusive thought, or for when you need a blank canvas to to help you jot things down and get organized or, well, for when you’re just plain bored and doodling offers some cheap entertainment.


But, how cool is it if your smartphone can do that for you, plus more? That can be made possible with the Android-based mind-mapping app called Thinking Space.




A nifty app in itself, Thinking Space’s simplistic and functional interface is key to offering users a conducive environment to let thoughts run wild.


The app allows you to create visual maps that help you plan, organize,and follow through on ideas and activities, making sure you’re on top of everything even while you’re on the go.


Creating a mind map starts with a single node, which you can break down into further subnodes around this main node for branching or interrelated ideas. These subnodes can then, in turn, be broken down into more subnodes of their own, going deeper and providing more details for easy organizing and tracking of ideas.


Links, notes, colors, and icons help you highlight important items and organize your material better. The app also allows you to tag your mind maps or sort them into categories or folders. Just by selecting a tag or category, you can instantly bring up the nodes with those tags or placed under those categories.


Video: Thinking Space Android App Review





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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Mind Mapping is more about Collaborative Work Management: Mindjet




Mind mapping is in the midst of a shift away from its traditional roots and is increasingly focused on being more about collaborative work management, a vendor has claimed.


Mindjet’s general manager of the Asia Pacific Australia Japan (APAJ) region, Cameron Ackbury, said the information overload caused by the rise of the internet has forced enterprises to seek out new ways to cut through the chaos.


“The problem we’re trying to solve is that there is a lot of information out there and there are people trying to work out where their documents are,” he said. “There are websites that they get information from, and people are overloaded with information.”


Running the APAJ operations for the visual collaboration software business, Ackbury said this information overload has caused a shift in priorities for enterprises, with the future of mapping set to be focused on making employees more productive.


“I do believe that mapping as a concept will not be particularly strong,” he said. “But if you look at the way mapping is going and moving more towards collaborative work management, it is going to be making teams of people more effective.”


While he didn't want to speculate on what mind mapping will look like in the next five years, Ackbury said using software to drive revenue may be at the top of the minds of IT managers.


“It could be anything from helping sales teams improve revenue, by driving sales processes,” he said.


“It could be through helping reduce expenditures of an organisation, [or] it could be about creating more compliance through having rapid and repeated processes to follow.”


Video: MindManager Version 9 for Windows





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Saturday, December 3, 2011

TheBrain helps keep your thoughts straight




What if you were able to put your entire brain into one computer program? Every thought, work-related or personal, with links to Web pages or files on your computer, and any additional notes you'd care to make. And what if you could then link those thoughts together, weaving them into free and complex associative patterns, much like an actual train of thought going through your head? That's what TheBrain tries to let you do.


At its core, TheBrain 7.0 is a powerful and flexible mind-mapping program. If you're looking to create a simple mind map for just one project, you could always go with a minimalistic free app like Blumind, or even with mind-mapper favorite Freemind. But if you'd like to create a vast mind map which covers a lot of ground, TheBrain might just be what you need (and its free version retains lots of functionality).


The first thing you see when creating a new brain is just a single "thought" against a background called "the Plex." In TheBrain, a thought is just a name for a node in your mind map--much like an "idea" in online mind-mapper MindMeister. Each thought can have multiple siblings, multiple children (sub-thoughts), and even multiple parents. That last one is not an obvious feature, and allows for creating very complex layouts. For example, in a film-related mind map, you could have actor Keanu Reeves both under "male heroes" and under "Matrix cast."


The Plex itself hasn't changed much since I first used TheBrain (when it was still called PersonalBrain), about five years ago. It is still visually impressive and fun to use. As you click a thought you'd like to focus on, it smoothly floats over to the center of the Plex, and the other thoughts get rearranged (or shown or hide), all with slick, futuristic animations.


One major visual change for TheBrain 7 is that links between thoughts are now curved, rather than simple straight lines. That sounds minor, but when you're working on a huge mind map, it does make a visual impact.


Official WebSite: TheBrain.com


Source: PCWorld.com

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Friday, December 2, 2011

How do you use Mind Mapping techniques in your business and personal life? (Via ThinkBuzan.com)


Interesting Video about how do you use Mind Mapping techniques in your business and personal life?

iMindMap is a creative tool that accurately delivers the visual flexibility and brain friendliness of the highly proven and renown Buzan Mind Mapping techniques. As the only tool to be officially endorsed by Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Mapping, it allows you to organise, create, plan, present, notate, learn, structure, communicate, problem solve and project manage all in one place.

Schools and top universities from around the world have adopted iMindMap into their educational strategies, and global businesses and organisations are benefiting from the unique way that it stimulates ideas and creativity allowing them to truly stand out from the competition. 

In Japan, iMindMap's demand exploded last year and it reached #1 in all software sales on Amazon.co.jp outselling the likes of anti virus software, operating systems, and even video games... The software continues to go from strength to strength with the list of companies now using iMindMap growing continually, this includes: IBM, Walt Disney Imagineering, Proctor and Gamble, Reuters, Ministry of Defence, United States Air Force, Vodafone, Microsoft, US Armed Forces, Toyota, Rolls Royce, BP Merrill Lynch, Intel, Friends of the Earth and Save the Children.

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