Contextualized knowledge mapping on steroids. Google just acquired MetaWeb, and this inclusion may just make Google the unbeatable 900 lb gorilla of search engines.

The implications are numerous, but I see a more contextual search within the web; based on generalizations that are attached to contextualized entities.

An ingenious idea indeed. We see this approach in Knowledge management products such as TopicScape and The Personal Brain that use relational data bases.

This is also a rather good model for Mind-Visual mapping practices. What do you think?

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper

Mindjet MindManager Emerges as Must-Have Software for Business Professionals

MindManager empowers business professionals to better capture, organize and communicate ideas, information and projects for business success

San Francisco – July 13, 2010 – Mindjet®, the leading provider of software and cloud-based applications for visually organizing and managing information and ideas, today announced the latest version of the company’s flagship software – Mindjet MindManager Version 9.  Used by millions of business professionals, MindManager delivers an inherently unique value to today’s workers – a flexible, intuitive way to visually brainstorm concepts, organize information, develop actionable strategies and project plans, and communicate results.

On a daily basis, business professionals combat masses of information coming from multiple sources – web, email, documents and meetings – with no means to connect the dots and see the big picture.  MindManager provides the destination that unifies diverse information allowing users to organize, act on and communicate their ideas and strategies.  With its enhanced integration with Microsoft® Office and fluid, drag-and-drop interface, this latest release cements MindManager as the go-to software for business professionals to quickly capture, organize and reorganize information to discover new avenues of thought and new solutions – and then put those solutions immediately into action and stay ahead of the competition.

“By organizing information visually, MindManager fits the way I work and serves as a destination for me to be more productive and effective,” says Corey Sherman, Principal at Sullivan, Cotter and Associates, Inc.  “If you can think, MindManager can help you work better.  And with an ever-expanding list of features and functionality, the new MindManager Version 9 solution has more ‘ooomph’ than ever!”

MindManager provides an intuitive visual framework for individuals and teams to capture information, analyze complex relationships and identify priorities.  Taking advantage of MindManager’s tight integration with Microsoft Outlook, Office, Project and SharePoint, Mindjet is helping users to accomplish more, ensure project success and improve communication by organizing and presenting information in a visual context.  In one clear, easily modified visual “map,” information from group thinking and the web can be combined with existing documents, files, meeting notes and emails.  This visual, flexible presentation of information improves business planning and fosters better collaboration among teams.

A main feature of MindManager is data import and integration with Microsoft Outlook, Office, Project and SharePoint, which enables users to take advantage of MindManager in the context of typical workflows. MindManager version 9 for Windows integrates with Microsoft Office 2010.

“Throughout history, a key leading factor in economic growth and wealth creation has centered around productivity and creativity to drive innovation,” said Scott Raskin, CEO of Mindjet.  “Our goal with MindManager Version 9 is to dramatically improve an organization’s creativity, project planning, performance and innovation.  Whether overloaded with information, solving a problem, working with a team on an important project, or wanting to communicate more effectively, MindManager Version 9 is simply a must–have.”

Key Features in MindManager version 9 for Windows:

• MindManager Slide Show – Enables users to create and present a series of slides based off map, tree and organizational chart layouts helping to align and organize information, ideas and strategies to be more productive.

• Microsoft Outlook Integration – Features more powerful integration with Microsoft Outlook tasks, emails, notes, calendar items and contacts and enables individuals to easily assign priorities, filter on priority, and drag and drop content for better organization.  Dynamic branches of Outlook tasks can be added to maps and visualized in MindManager’s integrated Gantt chart.

• Microsoft PowerPoint Integration – Users can now easily export content from MindManager into PowerPoint slides to accomplish more, faster.
• Microsoft Project Integration – Improved integration allows for exporting of plans created within MindManager as Microsoft Project files.
• Resource Utilization – To help ensure your plan’s success, users can better understand which resources are over or underutilized.

• Gantt Chart View– Individuals can view task and project plan timelines in MindManager’s integrated and synchronized Gantt chart. Updates can be made to maps by adjusting the Gantt chart or by making changes directly into a map.

MindManager version 9 for Windows will be generally available on August 10 in three languages: English, German and French, and can be purchased through Mindjet.com for $349.

Supporting Resources

• Hear what individuals and organizations have to say about Mindjet
• Follow Mindjet on Twitter to learn more: http://twitter.com/Mindjet
• Learn more about Mindjet on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mindjet
• See the post on MindManager version 9 announcement on our Dutch Chapter site.

Olin is a results-driven, technology sales and marketing professional with experience building market presence and success for emerging companies. He has demonstrated ability to drive strong and sustainable revenue growth in both domestic and international markets. Olin has for the last 3 years been the General Manager of CS Odessa in the Americas, an innovative developer of visual personal productivity products based in the Ukraine, whose responsibilities include sales, channel development and marketing for the Americas.

Prior to CS Odessa, Olin was responsible for sales at Mindjet for the Americas and Asia Pacific for nearly 5 years. Olin has had a number of senor sales, marketing and business development roles in companies ranging in size from Fortune 500 to start-up. Olin is also a frequent contributor to the CS Odessa company blog “CSO: The World of ConceptDraw Products” at http://mapthink.blogspot.com/ and can be reached at oreams@csodessa.com.  Wallace Tait: Visualmapper

The Human Side of Data

Mind mapping. Visual mapping. Business mapping. These are all information management strategies that have a bit of a relationship to one another. The primary focus behind each of them is to get something accomplished—create a process, make a plan. There are lots of tools that can help with this—each of which might present information in different graphical forms. Software applications that map out processes and plans using a radial format, though, have been getting lots of attention lately. Users say there’s something about them that seems to make it easier to think quickly, creatively, and strategically.

Visual information mapping applications can be used to do an endless variety of things: from managing new product releases or developing a testing process to planning a home remodel or writing a novel. But if I was to put my finger on the one general thing they do very well, I would say it is to organize human thinking in a visual format that‘s easy to grasp, and that puts the content into a hierarchical order that allows you to use and reuse the information to do your job more creatively and efficiently.

User testing versus lab testing:

I’ll be the first to agree that very little hard scientific evidence supports my contention about the value of radial placement of information or mind mapping. But there is lots of very positive user feedback. Three such comments in particular give me the confidence I need to market and sell this kind of software—which I’ve been doing successfully for the past ten years.

The first comment is one I hear a lot when I ask users if they’ve told other people about mindmapping: “Are you kidding? This is my secret advantage, my competitive edge. Why would I want to level the playing field?”

Then there is the blunt, but very human, observation from dedicated mind mappers that they don’t want to introduce the software into their organizations because “my company doesn’t deserve the benefits you get from mind mapping.”

And then there was the sort of compliment my wife permitted mind mapping tools. My wife is a huge auto racing fan – and of one team in particular. One evening I came home and told her I’d learned that a rival racing team had bought a copy of our mind mapping software and were probably going to use it to work through their race and preparation strategies. Unbeknownst to me, my wife bought a copy of our product and sent it, along with a note, to her team—explaining that she suggested they use it to plan smarter race strategies. But she never heard back from them. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that this same team has since had to merge and be reorganized. Maybe they never installed her gift.

A Short List of Criteria
With all of the visual mapping, mind mapping and business mapping solutions on the market, how do you know which one’s best suited to your needs? Based on my experience I have four suggestions for people considering different applications.

1)      The product has to be comfortable for you. Does it work the way you want it to work? Does the operation seem logical? Many products have two or three ways to accomplish the same goal. Is there a way that works for you?  Be wary of marketing spin. Trust your gut instincts.

2)      If you think you’ll need help, make sure you can get it from a human. Most companies say they provide “support.” Find out exactly what that means. For starters, see if you can get someone from the company to have a meaningful email or phone conversation with you about whether their product will meet your needs? Find out if the support you get before the sale resembles in any way, shape or form the support you can expect afterwards?

3)      Find out if the company is planning ahead. The product might meet my needs for the present time. But will it adapt to future requirements that may become standard? CS Odessa, for example, greatly extended ConceptDraw MINDMAP capability by integrating it into the ConceptDraw Office suite. This integration enables users to move seamlessly from project inception, to detailed planning, to comprehensive reporting and even to documentation. Our InGyre technology allows you to work the way you want to work, during every step of the process. Recently, CS Odessa has also introduced new collaborative technology based on Google Wave that enable groups of any size to work together in a shared, same-time edit mode to collect and organize the combined intelligence of the group.

4)      Finally, understand your total cost of ownership. What are you getting and what is it going to cost you? If 1, 2 and 3 are in place; then it is important to look at how much it’s going to cost you over time to use and maintain the application.

With so many choices on the market, it can be hard for someone to decide which product is right for them. Price is always an important consideration. The bottom line is to understand what you need in a product, compare alternatives against a clear—and short—list of criteria, and then make your best decision. Of course I always suggest you start looking here http://www.conceptdraw.com

The ugly truth about visual mapping and list-making

Power Markers for MindManager solves the incompatibility between maps and lists

In recent years “Mind Mapping” software has expanded rapidly into productivity management and information management, with most products offering some form of graphical labelling and task management capabilities ranging from simple icons through to fully featured Gantt charts. But the tree-shaped diagrams created by mind mapping software are poorly adapted to handling these extra layers of information hung on the topics. How does this problem arise, and how can we solve it?

Let’s go right back to basics.

The parent topic sets the context for subtopics

A topic in a map has a number of “properties” that combine together to represent something meaningful. Its primary “property” is the parent topic to which it belongs. This sets the context, which delivers the majority of the meaning in a map. It is the visualisation and manipulation of context that sets visual mapping apart from most other ways of conveying information, and adds substantial value.

The second most important property is the topic text itself. When combined with the context of its parent, the topic becomes something meaningful that can be understood, explored, expanded upon or examined as part of a pattern. (I’m not going to debate the “one word” rule for mind maps here.)

So far, so good – this is standard mind map visualisation. But with the advent of mind mapping software, we can also hang lots of other information (or properties) to our humble topic, for example

• converting it into a full-specified task, with a percent complete value, a priority, a duration, a start date and a due date,
• adding extra tagging information such as keywords or task resources,
• adding extra text (Topic Notes),
• adding named visual markers (icons),
• adding images,
• adding text or fill colours, boundaries or shapes, or
• adding a hyperlink or an attached document.

A topic with too much information assigned to it

These properties enrich the topic and tell us more about it. Further, using the same marker on several topics creates a grouping across the map, so that the presence of a marker tells us that the topic also belongs to other groups, e.g. “Priority 1 items” or “Finance Department items”. The advantage of these properties is that you can apply several of them to the same topic; a topic can belong to multiple groups at the same time. Compare this to the primary property of context (the parent topic); a topic can have one and only one parent, unless it is the central topic, which does not have a parent. Topics cannot have multiple parents – after all, this is what makes a tree a tree. So it is very handy to have so many ways for a topic to be a member of other cross-tree groupings as well.

This is where mind mapping software starts to cough and splutter. The primary property, context, is very well supported. We can surf around maps, drill down into trees, expand or collapse detail as we wish, visualise patterns, summarise things and literally change the meaning of a map simply by moving topics around. We can visually “understand” the relationships in a map through the lines that connect topics together. We can play around with contexts, reinforce our knowledge and create new insights. Mind mapping software offers a rich and rewarding set of controls for working with the context property. But the picture is very different when it comes to understanding our map in terms of its other properties, indicated by icons or other markers. Typically, there are only a couple of options:

• We can look at the map and visually recognise markers, with reference to a legend to explain them if necessary (and if available).
• The software can help us to look in a more focused way by filtering out the parts of the map that don’t carry the markers we are interested in (unless they are in the path to the central topic). This removes the context surrounding the topics of interest, making them easier to spot.

In both cases, we need to change our mindset to stop looking at the map as a whole, and try to see it as a list – but the list only exists in our minds. Whichever way you slice it and dice it, the information in our map is still a tree, dominated by the context property. It relies on our concentration and visual diligence to ensure that we don’t overlook something important. But take care – there are many ways that a topic can be out of view; it might be outside the visible area, or filtered out, or folded up in a collapsed tree. There is no safety net.

That’s easily solved, I hear you say. All you need to do is make lists in your map – a section for things to do today, a section for critical information, a section for open questions and so on. This works perfectly if you can devise a way to organise your stuff so that each item clearly belongs in only one place. Remember that a topic can have one and only one parent. This is fine for natural hierarchies, such as a breakdown of countries, counties, towns and districts. But the majority of the real world is not as nicely organised as this. Most of the things we deal with belong on more than one list at the same time. If I have promised to finish a report for my boss by next Friday, which list does it go on? The list of actions? The list of commitments to other people? The list of things to do by next Friday? The list of things connected with my boss? The list of reports to write? How about all of the above? If you are constructing lists within a map, this last option is not a practical one unless you are patient enough to create the same topic in five different places – and the novelty of doing that will vanish the first time you get it wrong.

The conclusion is that visual maps are perfect for the big picture, and for making sense of information by organising it, summarising it, surfing it and manipulating it. But visual maps become much less ergonomic if you want to keep track of the detailed properties of topics. Lists are far better for taking action and quickly assessing what needs to be done. So how do we get reliable lists out of our maps, without compromising the structure of the map itself?

If you haven’t already guessed, this is what Power Markers for MindManager does. Power Markers is an extension for MindManager for Windows that adds a “Hot Lists” task pane, and automatically extracts lists from your maps. So you get not one but two views of the information in your map; the visual map for the big picture and navigation by context, and the cross-tree groupings that exist within your map, based on the map markers that you have used. These lists group and sort topics by every property except context – colour, task status, icons and so on. Because this is a set of lists, rather than a tree of topics, it is normal for the same topic to appear on more than one list at the same time – so your “Write report” item is simultaneously shown on five lists, and you can find it by reviewing any one of them. When it is completed and checked off, it disappears off all five lists again.

A dashboard map with dynamic status indication

Hot Lists of topics, generated by Power Markers

Power Markers can do a lot else besides. It can “roll up” important information to the centre of your map, greatly reducing the risk that you might overlook something vital. You can also design your map marker groups in the map itself, and make their definitions a richer part of your map. Power Markers Standard Edition will create up to 15 lists per map, and does not require a license key.

If you use MindManager to organise information or keep track of activities, Power Markers will help you to get a lot more value out of your maps by being able to see them from two perspectives at the same time.

Resources

Power Markers demonstration map on BiggerPlate: www.biggerplate.com/viewmap.asp?id=904

Download Power Markers for MindManager 7 or 8 for Windows:  http://www.olympic-limited.co.uk/mindmanager-add-ins/power-markers/

Free white paper on designing Dashboard maps with MindManager: http://tinyurl.com/34mlzos

The Beyond Mind Mapping blog: www.beyond-mind-mapping.com

Copyright © Harport Consulting 2010. All Rights Reserved.

“DON’T BELIEVE ALL YOU READ”

I was recently reading an article by Jim Giles, in the New Scientist [May 2010] called “Giving Life to a Lie”. In it he quotes a story written by an Australian Journalist, Piers Akerman for the Daily Telegraph (2006) where Akerman claimed that global warming was exaggerated. Now it was not that fact that caught my attention but rather the reference he attributed to John Houghton, a former chair to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was “unless we announce disasters no one will listen”.

This reference was picked up by a journalist in Canada followed later by an academic in Michigan. Giles goes on the say that today there at least three books, 100 blogs and 24,000 web pages that in some way cite Houghton’s original book published in 1994. The really interesting thing is that Houghton seems never to have uttered those words in his life and they certainly do not appear in that book!!

Perhaps Akerman made a genuine mistake, perhaps he intentionally manufactured the quote … I do not know and do not really care. However, my point is based on the thought that I wonder just how common is changing a lie or a misrepresentation into a “known fact”? How many of the statements which are taken for granted and quoted as “proof”, really have a firm basis?

I know I have jokingly said, when watching a somewhat dubious documentary on TV: “Well it must be true because it is in colour”. A silly statement certainly, but it is really based on the premise that many of us have a tendance to believe a fact if it is printed and from an apparently reputable source. A good example is Wikipedia, which many people use as a first source of reference these days. However, you should remember that this excellent online resource can be edited by just about any Tom, Dick or Harry. Certainly, I do know there are editorial controls, but Wikipedia contents cannot, in reality, be guaranteed as accurate.

The theme of the whole New Scientist issue was “Denial” in various forms. Only thing is clear that often people will simply deny an inconvenient fact (or truth) as a way of refuting a particular point of view rather that offering persuasive counter argument. A perfect example of this was Copernicus’s trial by the Catholic Church when he offered evidence that the earth revolved around the sun. The Church’s response was an absolute denial that this could be possible as it went against current teachings.

The point is that we should be careful when reading or writing blogs for two reasons:
1. Question if an assertion we read or make is founded in fact or just “parroted” because it has become “conventional wisdom”?
2. To avoid or be very wary of flat, unsupported denials as they can be a smokescreen for either a subtext or even pure ignorance

Perhaps an additional guideline would be to reserve comment for times when such comments makes a positive contribution to the discussion.

Some food for thought

As both Visualmapper and Hypershifters are concerned with visual thinking, information handling and associated topics, here are some points worth considering:

1. Do diagrams aid understanding?
2. Is a picture worth a thousand words?
3. How important is colour and curved lines in left & right cortex linking?
4. Are mind maps the best way to represent the majority of business information?
5. Is Cloud computing the way of the future?
6. You cannot beat face-to-face communication
Can you think of some statements or “facts” which we take for granted?

John England: MindSystems

I’ve been developing, writing about and generally evangelizing about Crystal Mapping for a few years now. I’ve focused mainly on how it can be used in business to communicate organizational level vision and team objectives and how it can be used in education to help revision and learning. But one thing that consistently comes up in conversation, and one I’ve had in depth with Wallace Tait at visualmapper.org, is that people see crystal maps as a natural way of setting personal goals and creating their own life maps. With this in mind here’s my take on ‘life maps’ and ’self development maps’ using crystal mapping.

Below is an example of a Personal Dashboard created in crystal mapping

WANT TO VIEW AN INTERACTIVE EXAMPLE? CLICK HERE
Keep your eye on the left hand pane of the interactive map; this is where you’re offered a linear list of the contents of the interactive map!!!!

Among the many theories, teachings and techniques in the area of personal development there are two features which are common to all and critical to success:
• You have to know where you are going
• You have to know how you’re going to get there

The first point is pretty much a given in that it is vital that you know what you’re trying to achieve and where you want to get to. Otherwise how would you know if / when you’d arrived?

The second is a bit less clear cut because there are usually a number of ways you could get to the same point. However, the fact that you need a plan or a route to follow is not in doubt. All journeys need to be planned.

Just as you wouldn’t set out to climb Everest without knowing which route you were going to take, you wouldn’t (or shouldn’t at least) set out to achieve your life or career goals without a map.

Crystal Mapping helps you map your goals so you can see where you are going and how you’re going to get there.

We work on a simple process: Think it, Map it, See it, Do it

For most of us life is busy. We live at speed, grabbing coffee on the go, having a sandwich at our desk, making calls as we drive (hand’s free obviously). When we have ideas for things we’d like to do or changes we’d like to make we don’t write them down so we forget about them – sometimes for good. It’s important to think about what you want. So, go on think about it!

One of the problems people often find with all the different methods and techniques of self improvement and the vast library of literature that exists is how to remember the stuff which is relevant and how to bring it all together in a way that is personal to you. Well – the best way is to map it – so it’s crystal clear what you are trying to achieve!

Visualization is the key to success for most successful people and it takes place on two levels. On one level it is important to visualize our goals in our minds and to start to allow our subconscious mind to go to work on finding strategies to achieve them. Secondly you need see how you’re progressing. Your own crystal map personal dashboard lets you see it ; how you’re performing in achieving your life goals!

When you took a few moments to think about your goals you were doing nothing new. You probably didn’t need to think that hard before a few ideas at least popped into your head. That’s because these dreams have rattled around between your ears for quite a while. But now is the time to do something different. Just do it!

Do you have best practises with iMindMap and work processes please inform us via the comment field, or contact us.

Read the full testreport about ThinkBuzan iMindMap 4.1 Ultimate

Hypershifters focuses on the use of visual mapping software. It addresses open source, freeware as well as commercial solutions.

The added value Hypershifters provides is in research, advice and consultancy for experienced and inexperienced users.

Many users have concerns about the possibilities of visual mapping in their work environment. This was reason for Hypershifters to create a test team that, co-advised by international experts in the field of visual mapping, critically reviews current products.   Not so much viewed from the intricacies of the software, but rather from its scope of applicability. Thereby think for example of doing some brainstorming, meeting management, project management and knowledge management.

The reviews are based on a matrix drafted by us to serve as a yardstick for the aforementioned scope of applicability. Besides the reviews you will also find the results in a comparison table.

iMindMap 4.1

Tony Buzan, who has been advocating mind mapping  since the late sixties, was and is not pleased with most software packages that claim to create mind maps. They do not conform to his image of a mind map – rich, organic shapes, full of color and graphics. Besides, the term “mind map” is registered to the Buzan organization, and thus protected.

After Chris Griffiths in 2003 decided to invest all his energy into developing a “true” Buzan software solution, the Buzan organization made a decision in 2006 to launch the mind map software developed by Chris. iMindMap 2 was released in 2007.

Indeed, with organic shapes, colors and keywords on the lines – a true mind map (however, it is the only form the branches can take). Meanwhile a vast online library of images has become available!

It was a bit of getting used to compared to the existing packages, but now you get Tony Buzan mind maps which also appeal to the right brain hemisphere.

Read the full testreport about ThinkBuzan iMindMap 4.1 Ultimate

Just completed reading Mark Wogan’s excellent publication named Crystal mapping; The BIGGER Picture. The book gave me quite a few “AHA” moments, but I want to focus on one that’s impacted me.

IT’S THE POWER OF 3

A really good case was made for limiting the foundation of how we may best initially create our Visual maps. The power of three refers to being confined to the core, first level and second information levels. And looking further at the structure of Crystal mapping, I agree with mark’s finding; here’s why.

Mark states; “the number three wasn’t selected based on any magic number theory, urban myth or mystical quality but on its practical real world ability to present information in a simple context”.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel the 19th-century philosopher put forward a three tiered evolution of thought from thesis to synthesis via antithesis in aid of the pursuit of logic. And in language and grammar; three elements are needed to form a simple proposition; a subject, a predicate and a copula.

Three keeps on popping up as if it is some kind of mystical adage of getting your point across. I even find myself using the three elements stated above to get my point across most of the time. I state the Visual mapping arena is made up of three arenas; personal, academic and business. I could also state the personal has 3 sub arenas of productivity, motivation and communication, and that academia has 3 sub arenas of school, college and university, and further define business to have 3 sub arenas of service, industry and corporate. OK, I’ve just blabbed on about 3, three, III; but it does feel so comfortable to restrict to three elements, and from that point onwards to express sub associations.

So, it does appear three seems to offer something, at least anecdotally, in support of qualities as a communication method.

7 (+ or – 2) is also thought of as being a magic number relating to communication based on George Miller’s work in his 1956 paper The Magical Number seven, plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.

There has however been a great deal of misunderstanding of what was meant regarding the use of seven in communication. Many have taken 7 as the standard number of units for communicating anything.

7 points on a slide, 7 words to a line, 7 paragraphs on a page; using 7 in such a format seems to be taking things too far and doesn’t seem to be what Miller meant.

George Miller states 7 (+ or – 2) was a limit “for the discrimination of uni dimensional stimuli (pitches, loudness, brightness, etc.) and also a limit for immediate recall, none of which has anything to do with the capacity to comprehend printed text”. According to Edward Tufte a deeper meaning of Miller’s work is “to suggest strategies, such as placing information within a context that extend the reach of memory beyond tiny clumps of data” http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0000U6&topic_id=1

Using three is a convenient and practical strategy to assist simple context. Putting information in context answers the following questions
• What is the point being made?
• Why is it important?
• How does it relate to me?

Delivering information in such a way enables authors and recipients to create, manage and exchange information processes quickly and easily. By adopting such an approach; the creative processes enable a bigger picture.

Another unit of three in context asks who where, and when?
• Who is responsible for it?
• Where is it to be found?
• When will it be done?

Setting organizational targets we have another contextual threesome, where objectives are communicated relating to responsibilities such as:
• What is my target?
• How does this fit in with my immediate superior’s target?
• How does this fit in with my immediate subordinate’s target?

By managing information within a simple power of 3 contexts; instant understanding is captured.

The power of 3 is experienced in and through using Crystal Mapping. It works by limiting information display to three levels within the visual workspace, presenting information initially within the simplest of contexts. Understanding is further built upon, by continuing to add more levels, while retaining the graphical display of information within units of three.

It is essential to make sure that wherever you are in the organization structure, you and your team are aware of the organizational objectives. To grasp the bigger picture context you need to see how objectives fit into the overall organizational structure.

Crystal Mapping always starts with the purpose at the core or centre of the map it is easy to always see how your ‘piece of the pie’ fits in with overall information objectives.

Mark Wogan believes the best way to achieve success is to make sure everyone understands the overriding mission or plan and then to let them get on with it. The Crystal mapping power of three structures enables clarity, concept in an unambiguous visual format.

So; I encourage you to grab your copy of Mark Wogan’s publication and experience your very own AHA moments. The product is developing at an agile rate, and it’s certainly going to evolve into a very formidable information management app for the forward thinking Information manager.

Here’s a youtube video of getting started with Crystal Mapping:

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper
www.visualmapper.org

Mark wrote a very informative book titled “Crystal Mapping: The Bigger Picture”, which was published during 2007.

As CEO of Crystal Mapping and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; Mark spends his time committed to finding new ways of combining words, pictures and numbers to present information and knowledge.

Improving understanding and changing the way organizations think and communicate is his mission. Mark and his colleagues also offer a business management consulting service through The Visual Perspective at http://www.thevisualperspective.com/

While talking with Mark it became clear the circular Crystal Map approach had real merit. This product adds to our expanding world of visual mapping tools in a very unique format. So here’s a brief synopsis of the idea with a few questions answered by Mark.

Brief description of Crystal Mapping:

The best way to describe it is to show it so here is a screen shot of a basic map:

The first thing you’ll notice is the point I make about it using circles to organize discrete bits of information into a unified whole rather than the traditional ‘root and branch’ style of mind mapping approaches.

The thing that strikes me right away is the sense of unity you get from such a clean view of the information. It really does start to give the viewer a feeling of gestalt and that the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts! Of course you’re not limited to three levels of details as to delve deeper into the map, click on any segment and it takes you to another level of iterated detail. A visual audit device on the left side of the screen leaves a ‘breadcrumb’ trail to always make it clear where you are in the map.

From a utility point of view, as you’d expect you can attach/embed hard disk files, URL links, images and copious notes to the segments to enable the viewer to access more detail about any particular segment but – as Mark say’s, you never lose sight of the bigger picture so whatever content you look at its always in context, helping viewers to form a real understanding of whatever is being presented in the map.

Q & A:
Mark, tell us how you came up with the idea of Crystal Mapping and why.

Well it was really a case of necessity being the mother of invention. In a previous business I needed a way of presenting company objectives to everyone in a way that was inclusive across functions and geography and that represented the unity of the business. It was that word ‘unity’ which got me drawing circles as they just seemed like the logical way for me to represent that we are all part of the same team, and everything else stemmed from there. However I didn’t start the business which eventually became Crystal Mapping till a few years later.

Why didn’t you use a more traditional mind mapping approach to organize your thoughts and represent your ideas for the business.

To be honest the ‘node and line’ approach didn’t really seem to me to convey the ‘unified – one team’ relationship I was trying to represent. Mind maps are great in some contexts but you do get the feeling that right now they are pretty much used in a blunt manner for everything – a bit like a guy with a hammer seeing everything as a nail! I think you’ve made the point yourself Wallace that not everything as a visual mapping solution has to be a mind map – it’s time we had more variety to meet the different demands of the visual mapping world.

So what’s the benefit of crystal mapping over mind mapping and why would business use a crystal map rather than a mind map.

In my mind the bigger question is getting business users to appreciate the generic benefits of visual mapping in the first place. As you’ve mentioned before we are still a long way off mainstream acceptance! So assuming we have a receptive audience who are turned onto visual information management, we have to provide them with the right solutions to their needs. My view is that there are certainly many ways to ‘skin a cat’ (such a quaint phrase) but it definitely doesn’t always have to start with mind mapping. For example if you want to communicate your company / team objectives; using a crystal map gives you a much more one company – one team feel as everything is joined to the core of the business so employees see themselves as part of the bigger picture.

In education my research and feedback from schools is that crystal maps offer a great alternative to mind maps as they are much more ordered and structured and thereby allow students to recall the content more easily.

Crystal Mapping is a cloud app – do you think mainstream business users are going to embrace cloud technology?

I know there is a fair amount of debate about whether business is ready and willing to embrace ‘the cloud’ due to data security issues of their information being ‘off site’ but I believe this is more apparent than real. Just as we as individuals initially reacted very cautiously to internet banking but now think it a necessity, so will business start to adopt and benefit from the utility and cost advantages of cloud technology. Personally I would be far more worried if I were running a desktop/server only software business.

Why do you believe users will purchase and subscribe to Crystal Mapping?

Because its good value for money as cloud apps are, it’s easy to use and it ‘does what it says on the tin’ i.e. it helps you clarify your thoughts and ideas and makes them clear to others – crystal clear if you like! More than that little pitch response – CM is great for collaboration (a real benefit of cloud apps.) and the fact that we have a desktop version which synchronizes with the web app. Being server based means; if our business users want to ‘play safe’ – they can, and we don’t need to store their ‘sensitive’ files outside of their own internal server comfort zone.

On top of this we have some features that make CM unique. For example we have built in an auto-generation feature which creates a map from one word for education and business research. So if you wanted to build a map of RFID in the retail industry let’s say – you type in ‘RFID Retail’ and the app builds the first level of the map. You can then edit as you like and continue asking the system to auto generate your map content – not just the segments but the Notes content as well.

We also have a search feature that helps users build maps by automatically creating search strings in Google, Bing, Flickr, You Tube and Wikipedia. This not only helps you find the content to help build you map but lets others continue the search for more detailed or specific information as they might require.

Another important capability of CM is the data load of any given map stored in the cloud. We currently allocate 1GB of data storage for subscribing cloud user; this will indeed increase when we have a more defined user base. We have everything in place to increase the data load capability significantly according to demand, and we shall offer specific data storage levels priced for corporate users.

What is your approach to The Voice of the Customer?

At Crystal Mapping, we firmly believe the user base defines the future direction of this product. With this in mind, we proactively measure the needs and wants of our users. We also believe communication is a key factor in the continuous improvement process.

What’s your pricing strategy?

Pricing is per account and at the time of this interview is offered at £29.99 (around $45/€33 at current exchange rates). We offer site/group and volume discounts and education discounts.

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper
www.visualmapper.org