MindMapSwitch

On the Systems Wiki blog, I read an interesting article regarding a new contextual analysis feature in the online mind mapping service, Comapping. What this feature does is analyze an attached document or URL and creates new branches in your mind map using keywords extracted from the document or URL.

This is an extremely helpful feature for information gathering, but I can't help wonder on the dangers of allowing technology to make these decisions for you, and especially when it comes to a thought process like mind mapping.

Everyday Decision Making

Everyday we allow technology to make decisions for us and influence our decisions. Probably the biggest decision maker today is the search engine. From millions of articles and references on the Internet it decides which results would be the best fit for the query you have entered.

This is okay for things that are clearly impossible for a single human to do, but when it comes to analysing a document or website then use these forms of automation with caution. For example, you don't always assume that the first post returned from a search engine is the best fit do you? Of course not!

Mind Mapping is Your Thought Process

You see, mind mapping is a process of getting information from one place to another. Part of this process is deciding on which information is important to you and should be included in your mind map.

As a long time mind mapper, I have taken a number of different sources of material and mind mapped the information that was important to me. Each time I did this, I made decisions that would be of benefit to me. Some of these decisions were made based on emotion or irrational thoughts. Can a machine make such decisions? Of course not.

Always Review

Tools that automate processes for us are great when we tell them exactly what to do, but when those processes employ a form of decision making in your mind maps, take some time to do a review.

If your software application employs such automation and returns 5 keywords from a business proposal, don't automatically assume those are the right keywords.

Scan the document yourself, and compare the keywords you have extracted with the keywords your mind mapping software has extracted.

You'll more often than not, create similar lists, but there might just be an important piece of information that your mind mapping software has missed.

What do you think? Is the process of information gathering for your mind map something you would rather do, or are you quite happy to delegate this process to your mind mapping software? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

It was interesting to read Chuck's post about the iPad being a game changer for mind mapping software. Exciting times are ahead for mind mapping software, but what is so exciting about the next generation of mind mapping software?

10 years ago mind mapping software was truly innovative software that could be used for a number of things, but it never felt as easy to use as pen paper.

However, fast forward 10 years and I'm still seeing limitations on mind maps that I saw 10 years ago. Too many mind mapping applications still adhere to the horizontal display of branches. It seems that while we get all these great new features, we still need to limit ourselves on the way our mind maps look.

The mind mapping software that has broken this mould however is iMindMap. Its ability to draw branches with keywords at any angle you want means you get more freedom with your mind map. This is something that any next generation of mind mapping software should offer.

But why stop there? With the iPad, software makers should be envisioning the iPad as a smart piece of paper. Don't like the mind map you're working on, shake the iPad to remove all your branches and start again. Moving branches, could be as simple as dragging those branches with your finger. There are just so many more options with device that knows when it's being moved or touched.

With a device such as the iPad, we will have a more natural device for creating mind maps. Instead of fiddling with a mouse, we can rely on simple hand gestures and the use of the iPad's accelerometer to allow us to mind map in a more natural way.

It will be interesting to see how the mind mapping software market plays out over the next couple of years and to see how innovative software makers will be, harnessing the the gesture features of devices such as the iPad.

For me, the best mind mapping software will be the one that gives complete and unrestricted control over my mind map. It's why I started mind mapping with pen and paper in the first place anyway!

In the last few weeks, I've been reviewing a number of software mind maps online and I've noticed a pattern with some mind maps (and including my own!). Some mind mappers are not taking advantage of the features in their mind mapping software and utilizing those features to produce better mind maps.