For Hypershifters it is important to collaborate in real time with colleagues and clients. Combine this with MindMapping for overview and insight and it all makes more sense. One of the best offerings on the market is MindMeister from MeisterLabs.

MindMeister is rapidly moving forward to become the most interesting web 2.0 application for collaborative MindMapping. Besides features like Geistesblitz which allows you to enter ideas to you mindmaps without even opening the application (via mail, SMS. (i)Phone and gadgets) MindMeister now teams up with Google apps.

Now you can connect MindMeister to your own Google Apps or buy it at the Google Apps Marketplace. This means that you can save your maps to Google Docs directly and that you can use all your Google contacts in MindMeister.

Check out this introduction movie to learn more about this great integration.

Besides the integration with Google apps, MindMeister also released an new version with some interesting new features.

• Customizable templates (including background colors, images, organic and color branches)
• More Formatting options for the nodes. At last you can use background colors and shapes around the nodes.
• There is a built in chat functionality. This enables you to chat with one person at the time or to perform a group chat with all participants.
• And there is more to come….

If you don’t know MindMeister please check out their tutorial movie at.  It will only cost you a few minutes to get an idea of what this stunning application is capable of.

A Tour of MindMeister from MindMeister on Vimeo.

A complete new review of MindMeister is coming next… Stay tuned.

The term “method neutral” is an oxymoron, and IMO; it is a genius breakthrough approach to challenging existing perceptions to the data, information and knowledge development processes.

Graphical information management has been around for a while, and it has unfortunately continued to be restricted to the fringes of the mainstream. This is to a degree, due to a certain radiant technique being touted as being the “one size fits all” solution.

A single hierarchy while being the basis for reasonably effective graphical communications, has become rather passé when assessing the needs (read demands) of the forward thinking information manager.

Multiple modes of expressiveness are now needed within products that offer end to end capabilities that combine various information management modes. Convergence is the key request from information management expressed within corporate business.

Method neutral offers flexibility in a convergence model, cutting through the one size fits all approach.

The three main arenas for information management are; personal, academic and business. While looking at the overwhelming range of software offerings currently available, we simply have way too many choices. Choice is (we are told) good and competition is what motivates creativity; so why do we keep on getting the same old same old from the Mind/Visual mapping developers?

Method neutral has its origins at Mindsystems, the developer of Amode, and version 2 was recently released. Amode gives the user the ability to experience a further enhancement of method neutral in a completely new functional approach within the product.
This new function is called ThoughtPad; offering the user the ability to associate almost any kind of graphical expressiveness that can be associated with the central mode of the database knowledge tree.

The genius of this new approach; we are no longer constrained by the many singular formats that are either Mind, concept, flow, argument and others offered by some software developers. We can simply use them all, and then some.

Information is the core function and importance that is contained with the knowledge database tree mode. Having the ability to associate almost any kind of graphical idea and visual thinking within the ThoughtPad; giving the user absolute freedom and comfort of knowing they are not constrained by a singular format.

Mindsystems has taken this opportunity of shaking up the status quo, and I do believe this is exactly what is needed within the Visual information management arena at this time.

As a forward thinking Information Handler, IMO there’s 4 main points of your future success to consider.
1. The need for a stable desktop knowledge database product
2. The need for absolute freedom of graphical expression
3. The need for control of all of your processes that support your particular system
4. Seamless integration into to your business/project management mainstream

Mindsystems Amode offers the user these and more. Of course there are more points to consider; it is however very clear though that Mindsystems Amode has developed an information management tool in Amode that offers an end to end complete package for the forward thinking information handler.
The information management arena offers some wonderful products, and I firmly believe Mindsystems Amode takes the lead for the business/project management approach to Personal, Academic and Business knowledge handling.

I certainly look forward to experiencing the further evolution of this product; it has a very light footprint, an amazing stable database load. The new Mindsystems ThoughtPad will take the Visual mapping arena into a whole new mindset of flexible graphical expressiveness.

The status quo shift is CHANGE; nothing to be scared of and much to embrace. So; do you want the same old same old, or do you want to move forward with confidence, control and flexibility?

Wallace Tait: Visualmapper
www.visualmapper.org

San Jose, California, March 1st, 2010 – CS Odessa released a version of its mind mapping tool for Google Wave. This is a no charge add-in to Google Wave that can be used as part of Google Wave to map out a strategy rapidly or brainstorm on a critical topic. The ConceptDraw MindWave for Google Wave tool allows teams to collaborate on a mind map in an interactive flowing manner building a map structure that represents the planned work. The map add-in supports Google Wave playback that allows one to step back through a map. Once a mind map is has the contents from the interactive session the mind map file can then be downloaded to one’s desktop to be further developed using ConceptDraw MINDMAP for Macintosh or Windows.

Olin Reams, General Manager for the Americas at CS Odessa, states, “We hear from our customers that collaboration tools are critical for team communication today. It is what gives them the competitive edge needed to maintain flexibility. Google Wave and ConceptDraw MindWave are free tools that deliver seamless communication inside or outside your organization”.

Yuriy Varbanets, Product Manager for ConceptDraw MINDMAP, adds, “We feel that Google Wave is a great collaboration backbone for us to support with our collaboration tool. Beta customers have been talking up about how well suited it is to their planning process”.

Learn more about ConceptDraw MINDMAP add-in for Google Wave on the ConceptDraw website http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/mindwave

ABOUT CS ODESSA

Founded in 1993, Computer Systems Odessa supplies cross-platform productivity tools and graphics technologies to professional and corporate users around the world. With headquarters in Odessa, Ukraine and an office in California, CS Odessa sells products internationally through resellers in over 25 countries. The ConceptDraw Productivity Line of products has won numerous awards and is used by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

My iPhone is packed with similar products but this one really stands out. Now you can create beautiful mindmaps with just using your fingers. This is completely different from the other Mindmapping apps where the software determines the way your mindmap looks.  iMindmap Mobile enables you to produce BUZAN proof MindMaps on the small screen of your iPhone.  Normally there is a catch when an app is free, but not in this case.

It has a rich feature set that is comparable to the paid apps.

• Speed mindmapping mode. Just type your word en press +
• Edit branch colours
• Add hyperlinks
• Add Notes
• Mail the map as iMindmap file so you can edit the map on your desktop computer.
• built in help which is really useful

The screenshot shows the main interface and the kind of mindmaps that you can create.

So don’t wait and rush to the app store to download this nice new app.

I am very happy to see a contextual analysis tool included with Comapping. This will be invaluable for cutting through document and web page overload.

The bottom line is, we have an excellent marriage of a very effective process approach to information management in the Comapping app, and we also have an ideal contextual analysis tool.

Context Organizer is a standalone cloud application service working at this time on the Amazon server (extremely fast), that can indeed be added to numerous other software apps. I would expect the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo to be interested in this app for convergent use with their respective web search engines. The “Analyze” button will probably be a standard for web searches.

As much as we should be contextualizing every piece of information we create and share (Use the T.A.P process); the vast number of documents and web pages that have been created thus far, are probably full of filler words and text that are useless to getting to the point of communicating with clarity.

The question of IP security is handled with an arrangement to have an internal server install setup; corporate wide cloud configurations are available from Comapping too, thus enabling a more robust secure environment for IP. Of course, Comapping clearly indicates the security level of your information embedded into a Comap; whether it is documents, media formats or text of proprietary nature.

The Comap and analyze tool now give you the opportunity to see what these two combined tools can do for your information clarity. Time management and effective communications are two of many constraints we experience within our academic and business environments.

For the academic; the use of Comapping with Contextual Organizer will be invaluable, as the cloud gives you the ideal medium for creating, managing and sharing information and knowledge with your colleagues and students within a protected cloud space.

For The Business user Comapping can become a very convenient information carrier and knowledge mapping tool; becoming a standard process and system tool for creating all relevant information associated with your business management system. The addition of Contextual Organizer now gives you the ability to research Web Pages. With the insertion of a URL you’ll be offered an “Analyze” button and voila, the Contextual engine which uses the Amazon server extracts the contextual relevance for your research purposes. In a similar vein, attaching a document to your Comap, you’ll be offered the same “Analyze” button, simply click the button and your document shall be extracted with textual relevancy.

OK, so what use is this you may be asking? I too asked the same question some time ago when I was using the desktop edition of Context Organizer. The point of extracting context from Web Pages and documents is quite simple; we are overloaded with data, information and knowledge and we need to get to the point of the barrage of data that attacks us daily. Imagine a colleague sending you a PDF doc that is 500 pages long (Crazy eh?). Extracting context enables you to get to the root points of documents, while speed reading your way through the extracted relevancy associated with the docs.

The example Comap below shows you hyperlinks attached to the map branches that have been “analyzed”. The relevancy is extracted and numbered, and the relevant word is underlined red. The same can be accomplished with adding a document such as Word or PDF too.

I encourage you to download the latest edition of Comapping with Contextual Organizer beta included, and I’m confident you’ll get to the proverbial “AHA” moment pretty soon while using this very affordable and efficient information management tool.

Read the second part of the Mindjet MindManager 8 test.

Why after almost 40 years; do we have to explain what Mind mapping is to almost every colleague, client and potential we meet?

Most (not all admittedly) who look over my shoulder while I am graphically mapping out information, invariably ask, “What is that”. It does become rather tedious after a while; doesn’t it?

But, as a consultant and trainer, I persevere with this question numerous times, and I go through the same old same old process of taking some through a discovery, which undoubtedly changes their perception of how they may create, manage and exchange knowledge.

OK, I just vented, but it’s true; after almost 40 years we still have to explain away Mind mapping. And, the truth of the matter is; we’ve moved way beyond Mind mapping and have been exposed to the tools, methods and Mindset of Visual mapping. For some; an evolution towards Knowledge mapping has been the result of exposure to many Visual mapping approaches.

“Visual mapping includes but is not limited to Mind, concept, flow and argument mapping” And of course; there are many other tools that enhance our graphical expressiveness.

It can be said with a high degree of confidence; a shift is taking place regarding current perceptions of the data, information and knowledge processes associated with, the nature and implications of systems thinking.

As much as we haven’t experienced a wholesale adoption of Mind mapping at the base level, I firmly believe we may have missed the point of the range of Mind and Visual mapping products. I am absolutely sure it was never the intention of Mr. Buzan to enable people to perpetually visit a graphical framework, making it look even more colorful and pleasing to the eye.

“Information Management” is the core of the tools, methods and Mindset of Information and Knowledge mapping. If we accept that Data (which is made up of numbers, words and images) when aggregated becomes information (when contextualized), eventually becomes relevant Knowledge; we are somewhat on the way to realizing the true nature of process and system.

So as 2010 envelopes us, I encourage you to consider expressing your thoughts, feelings and desired actions for taking the full range of Visual mapping tools, methods and mindset to the mainstream. Please consider joining us at a growing Linkedin group named Visualmapper; here you’ll find many professional Visual mappers from varied backgrounds, ranging from consultants, to Academics through corporate business and software development. Your opinions matter, so please jump in a make your voice heard.