Yet Another MindMap Application, you might think. But this piece of software has the best of three worlds: the power of Mindjet, the UI of The Brain and, like FreeMind, it doesn’t cost a penny. I’m talking about MindRaider.
MindRaider is personal notebook and outliner. It aims to connect the tradition of outline editors with emerging technologies. MindRaider mission is to help you in organization of your knowledge and associated web, local and realworld resources in a way that enables quick navigation, concise representation and inferencing.
I found it reading this month’s LinuxFormat magazine #119. Open Tube listed it at the 12+ list of Free MindMapping Tools. Freemind is still on top of the list, but I would be surprised if that will change shortly: MindRaider is not only Another MindMap Application, it is also a Semantic Webtool.
What is the Semantic Web? In fact, I find it difficult to explain! Earlier, I wrote about Twine, a service that combines social bookmarking with the semantic web. I subscribed to the semantic web twine. But all this didn’t increase my understanding of the Web3.0. The MindRaider website offers some great presentations about the Semantic Web, like this one by Freek Bijl, who explains the web3.0 with a stamp:
Another Web-Based MindMap apllication, and again it is Collaborative, Mind42:
Isn’t 42 the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything? Well, in this case it means FOR TWO and indicates the collaborative character of mind42. Manage all your ideas, whether alone, twosome or working together with the whole world – collaborative, browser-based and for free.
The best way to make a MindMap is still by hand. Plain Treeware and a pencil or rather: a set of pencils. Here you see a SketchNote – not quite a Mindmap – by Esther Gons as published in “De Volkskrant” of 21 april 2009. It is an impression of the “TheNetWeb2009-Conference“.
More MindMap-style work by Esther Gons is at her website, especially the sketches she made for The nextWeb conference.
As mentioned in another article, a very special MindMap-tool is TheBrain. But, this application has now a free and a “pro”-edition. In the free edition they removed some of their most interesting features – so that made me moving away from The Brain experience.
An interesting attempt to replace the Brain and integrate MindMapping with another great non-linear tool for note-taking, TiddlyWiki, is VismoWiki by Jon Robson. Still Work in Progress, but it looks very promising – a really exciting development.
Webcomic site xkcd had a comic on flowcharts: “Understanding Flowcharts” last week.
This reminded me of some interesting Flowchart applications.
First of all, there is Dia, an open-source diagram-crating program, based on Visio, a commercial Microsoft program.
Then there is a web-based application, “Lucid Charts“. Of course I have signed up for an account to give it a try:
A similar web-based flow-chart maker is Gliffy, this offers a free basic account and a premium account that is a little more expensive than Lucid Chart.
Of course you can also use the free Dabbleboard for flowcharts.
A Man must get a thing before he can forget it. – Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Wisdom of Thomas Aquinas - Fresco by Andrea da Firenze
This fourteenth-century fresco is on the walls of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. It pictures the wisdom and virtue of Thomas Aquinas. Thomas is sitting on a throne, surrounded by flying figures representing the three theological virtues (Faith; steadfastness in belief, Hope; expectation of good and Love; selfless, unconditional, and voluntary loving-kindness) and four cardinal virtues (Prudentia=prudence; proper judgement of reasons for action with regard to appropriateness in a context, Justitia=justice; proper judgement regarding individual human interests, rights and desserts, Fortitudo = fortitude; forbearance, endurance, and ability to confront fear and uncertainty, or intimidation and Temperantia=temperance; practicing self-control, abstention, and moderation).
There is a lot to see in this picture on a theological level, but what is of interest now are the female figures sitting in niches symbolizing the knowledge of Thomas. The seven figures on the right represent the liberal arts, from right to left: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy. The first three are also known ast the “Trivium“, the other four as the “Quadrivium“.
Septem Artes Liberales by Herrad von Landsberg's "Hortus deliciarum" (1180)
The liberal arts are still the guide to education, aiming to acquire a general knowledge and developing intellectual capacities.However, the scope of our 21-century wikipedia is much bigger than Thomas’ Summa, so it is impossible to know everything about everything.
Google helps us to save all the available knowledge, yeah, but what is on a server @Google is not always accessible to my mind, so I still want to save, edit, recall as much information I can handle. Learning strategies may help us, so this is a round-up about some techniques I use to build up my brain:
Basic study strategies: I made an outline of the book “Your memory. How it works and how to improve it.” by Kenneth Higbee. I used the Brain for representing the information, you’ll find it here (opens in a new window).
Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Mindmapping: I’ve written on this subject before, no reason to repeat myself. Only that the range of MindMaptools is stillexpanding: I prefer Freemind, but there are other applications: see my delicious bookmarks for a more extensive list. However, I have tried The Brain software recently, which offers a quite new perspective on MindMapping.
The Student Academic Resource Centre of the University of Florida offers a lot of Learning Skill Handouts. Collect them all!
Edward deBono’s Thinking Hats: Part of DeBono’s thinking Skills. I’ve adjusted them to my own habits, four example I only have a four-color pen, not six. So, when note-taking or -making, I use Blue for facts, Black for disadvantages, Green for what I like and Red for references, things I have to do or to evaluate someday/maybe. (it works good with my GTD habits)
Of course there are still four great “”Mental Filing” techniques. I will mention them here, but they require a lot of training:
The Link-system (or chain-system)
The Phonetic system
The Peg mnemonic system
The Memory Palace.
The last system has been treated extensively by Frances Yates in “The Art of Memory”.
Well, as you can see, there is enough; you can make a study of study techniques without getting wiser:-).
I personally think there is not one style, but you need different techniques for different things you must learn. And, of course, the best way of learning is playing; doing things.
I will finish this blog with the lyrics of a song about the mnemonics of Giordano Bruno:
You built all memories on a framework
of the zodiac and other known structures,
every thought was linked to a special picture.
You stigmatized their keenness and location
on a deep and shrouded level. Remembering, controling
was the way to higher knowledge.
In the nature you saw the outlines of an universal intelligence,
every process a reflecting mirror. Symbols meant to trigger
the shadow of the ideas in the maze of recollection.
A vortex of information reigned inside
and found its way,
THROUGH THE LABYRINTH OF THE MIND.
With self-hypnosis you put it in
a dynamic pattern,
IN THE LABYRINTH OF THE MIND
No physical laws were rooted in your system
everything was forces of thoughts and sensations,
which is streaming through man.
Mist and rain just a condition of unawareness,
and volcanos a state of rage.
A prophet in cosmology, like Copernicus
you saw the stars as suns.
And a warrior who fought with intellctual swords,
with arrow-sharp words.
In the nature you saw the outlines of an universal intelligence,
every process a reflecting mirror. Symbols meant to trigger
the shadow of the ideas in the maze of recollection.
A vortex of information reigned inside
and found its way,
THROUGH THE LABYRINTH OF THE MIND.
With self-hypnosis you put it in
a dynamic pattern,
IN THE LABYRINTH OF THE MIND
Dabbleboard is a powerful online whiteboard that’s actually easy and fun to use. With a revolutionary new interface, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw.
Draw with flexible tools. Reuse previously-made drawings. Share and collaborate in real-time. All as naturally as using a marker or a pencil.
For teachers this is great, but it works for presentations anyway. Itg will even work better with your favorite slide application (Power Point, OpenOffice Impress or SlideRocket).
Kuehleborn's World 