Synesthesia

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user Synesthesia on 2007-04-18

• XML.com: Hacking iTunes:
  Including how to import the iTunes Library XML into C# native objects
  Keywords: xml, xsl, itunes
• XSLT script to generate album listing from iTunes XML:

  Keywords: XML, XSL, iTunes

• The Top 50 Productivity Blogs (most of which you haven’t heard about) | zen habits:

  Keywords: PersonalProductivity

• The IT Service Catalog Toolkit:
  PDF by by Musab Qureshi on establishing a useful set of Service Catlogues
  Keywords: ServiceManagement, ITIL, ServiceCatalogues
• Open Source Service Catalog Community (OSCC):
  The OSCC is dedicated to the creation, sharing and distribution of Service Catalog and Service Portfolio best practices.
  Keywords: ITIL, ServiceCatalogues, ServiceManagement
• Spiral Presentation Maps and Virtual Donuts:
  Nick Duffil’s ideas on using software mindmaps tools for presentations
  Keywords: Mindmapping, Presentations
• More about MindManager PIA (Primary Interop Assembly) Add-ins and .Net Framework 2.0 & Visual Studio 2005:

  Keywords: MindManager/AddIns, DotNet

• Building Upgrade-Safe Add-ins for MindManager:
  How to use the MindManager PIA
  Keywords: MindManager/AddIns, DotNet

Technorati Tags: dotnet, ITIL, iTunes, MindManager, mindmapping, presentations, Productivity, ServiceCatalogues, ServiceManagement, XML, XSL

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user Synesthesia on 2007-03-28

• Kanban in Action:
  David J Anderson describes the application of Kanban “pull” techniques to scheduling work through a software sustaining team.
  Keywords: Agile, Software, Agile/Methods, KanBan, Lean
• Kayuda:
  Kayuda is a web-based visual wiki, a mind-mapping tool, and a non-linear writing tool that allows you to track ideas and the relationships between them.
  Keywords: Wiki, Mindmapping, Collaboration
• Comparison of web-based mind mapping applications:
  Chuck Frey surveys the field for web-based mind-mapping. Conclusion: Mindomo top on features, Mindmeister top on input/output and other workflow aspects, Bubbl.us and Thinkature lagging badly…
  Keywords: Mindmapping

Technorati Tags: Agile, Kanban, kayuda, lean, mindmapping

Until now, mind-mapping has been one of the key aspects of information-management that has not been well-supported on the web.

Granted, Freemind has been platform-neutral since the beginning (through its use of Java), and somewhat-integrated with WikkaWiki, but this still very much relies on an individual providing their own server-based architecture. Other tools such as word-processing, calendaring and spreadsheets have had web-based incarnations for a while, but my frustration has been the lack of a truly web-enabled mind-mapping tool: on the desktop I now use MindManager as my core tool for organising and creating information, dropping out to other applications only when a specific treatment of information is required.

At last, companies are rising to the opportunity of this gap in the market – the two best known being Mindomo and MindMeister (still in private beta – subscribe to newsletter to get invitation). Chuck Frey has just published a first feature-comparison of these plus Bubbl.us and Thinkature (although as Chuck points out, the latter two are not really mind-mapping in the traditional sense).

Chuck’s initial conclusions show that the two main products are taking different approaches to development – Mindomo seems to be focusing on UI features whereas MindMeister is providing a basic feature set coupled with good ability to import and export from/to other applications and websites. The collaboration model seems to be different too, with MindMeister offering real–time shared editing.

It will be interesting to see what happens to these products – my guess at the moment is that they will appeal to slightly different groups for whom the differing feature sets create a value distinction. Extrapolating from the sorts of things that people do already, both on- and off-line, I think there are two main sorts of workflows for which these online maps wil be suited:

1. Long-term collaboration and knowledge sharing amongst a group, where the Mindmap becomes the primary repository; and
2. Dynamic brainstorming, possibly primed with information prepared offline, and where the results of the collaboration are taken away for further work.

On the face of it, although both tools could do either, Mindomo seems to be heading in a direction best-suited to approach 1, whilst MindMeister looks to be a good fit for approach 2 as well. Obviously these workflows are not decoupled, rather they are places on a continuum, but it will be interesting to see which gains most traction first.

One of my main concerns about using an online service such as these is the stability and security of the offering - none of us wants to invest time in creating information only to find that the platform we have used for storing and sharing it has evaporated overnight. (Nick Duffill makes a related point) For that reason I suspect that workflows nearer to (2) will be the better initial match for these online mindmapping tools, which in theory should give MindMeister an advantage. Let’s see!

Update

Eric Blue has issued a call for action for a common mind-mapping file format, and Kayuda is another online product that looks worthy of investigation…

Technorati Tags: bubbl.us, Collaboration, freemind, kayuda, mindmapping, Mindmaps, mindmeister, mindomo, Productivity, thinkature, wikkawiki

I’ve been spending time re-familiarising myself with the nuances of this tool. I’ve been using it for about six months, and now use it for planning meetings and pretty much any major document. I’m about to start a project that will also benefit from its ability to link with MS Project and Powerpoint, so I’ve been digging into that part of the functionality.

What I love about the project management link is the way the functionality of this tool complements the total left-brain-ness of standard project management tools. The most important part of any project is the first meeting where the people involved get engaged with breaking the scope down into manageable chunks - to be able to do that with a mindmapping tool and then export a first-cut WBS or PBS is just…cool…

I’ve played around a bit with mind-mapping for a number of years and although you can’t beat the flexibility of pen and paper for personal notes, for collaborative work some kind of electronic tool seems essential. (apart from anything else, I lose paper!)

Links to old broken wiki removed
The other idea that’s nagging me tonight is a need for a MMToWiki tool. I’ve slowly started putting some NLP Wiki pages together but I’m finding the flat-file format of a Wiki rather frustrating when writing a set of interlinked documents. I’d love to be able to outline and write the first major tranche of those pages in MindManager, then export to a set of Wiki-formatted text files.

Hmmm… and when, I wonder, is tool-building a displacement activity from the writing?

[update 2003-02-13] Have found Mind2XML an add-in for MindManager that does “exactly what it says on the tin”. So now the gap in my knowledge that comes into focus is how little I know about XSL

[update 2007--4-11] And almost exactly 4 years after I wrote this post, a very similar idea about the combined use of wiki and mindmaps emerges over at Activityowner.Com - with the big difference that he has actually produced a first draft of a conversion tool…

Technorati Tags: Creativity_Tools, MindManager, mindmapping, Project_Management, Technology