I'm going to tell you about one of my favorite programs I've ever found.

Before I do, I should say that I like standard text editors, I like the fact that I can have a word program in front of my screen ready to instantly and permanently save any and everything I could ever choose to write in it. There is nothing stopping any computer owner from outpouring libraries upon libraries of text, whether its creative writing, a journal, philosophy, etc. etc. The written word is amazingly powerful and having a computer to record it utterly unleashes it. As long as you don't have carpal tunnel syndrome.

Inspiring as that all is (except for carpal), I am pretty sure your brain operates differently from a computer, and so much that you COULD express ends up getting dropped. An idea has to travel from an emotion to a word, through your hands and into a sentence in a text editor. Distraction upon distraction upon distraction piles up as you are looking for the right word, the right key, and putting it in the right spot on the page.

It also doesn't help that text in a text file always has to go in a linear stream. Because your actual thoughts go in more than one direction. Thoughts are very physical. They have locations, some are linked together, some hang over others, some have colors of emotion, some are thicker, etc. etc.

What is the point? The point is that a whole new genre of software has been developed called mind-mapping software. This breed of software is essentially a text editor that uses thought bubbles instead of paragraphs to write text. Here is how it works:

You start with a primary "node". You choose a word for it, any word you want, like "experience". You give it "child" nodes that branch off of it, like perception, illusion, objective truth. And those nodes can have sub-nodes, etc. etc. Not that complicated if you've ever used this method for "brainstorming" before. But on a computer it has so much more potential. For example, you can click on a primary node to show/hide the nodes branching off of it, and the more you ad, the larger, more complicated and more fruitful a behemoth of thought you will produce, every bit of it useful.

You will be able to write things and think of things a text editor would normally make inconvenient, and essentially open up new dimensions of thought to a ready method of recording.

Of course being a program there is much more you can do. You can have a "note" inside each node. For example, if you were using my example, you could stick a note inside the "perception" node explaining what you mean by it. But you can use it for any subject imaginable. Maybe you are planning to move to a city, you could use it for setting all your thoughts in order, what opportunities you are looking for, what aspects of city life you want to become involved in...

It is startlingly easy how much you can come up with so quickly, and if you insert notes inside your nodes you can accumulate all kinds of thoughts and expand upon tons of ideas and make putting your thoughts in writing an easier process.

So if you use windows, get Freemind! What a neat tool. It just makes you wonder what other kinds of programs could be developed that just look at text editing in a different way and how much thought they can unlock in a person.

So this isn't my idea, but my musings on the potentialities for an existing idea.

This post has been edited by glenstein: Feb 4 2007, 03:53 AM

Freemind is quite a good program. I remember a few years ago when I was studying at school, I needed to create a mind map for one of my subjects. I didn't have any money to pay for anything fancy, so I did a few searches on Google. Freemind was the program which came up.

I downloaded it and managed to create the mind maps the way I wanted them to look. The mind maps were very easy to create and when they were created, they looked very professional.

This post has been edited by sportytalk: Apr 16 2007, 11:20 PM

I don't know about this. The concept is good however in implementing this in today's computers you run into roadblocks that aren't found in standard text editors. Mainly to create these bubbles you have to press many buttons. In a text editor, you put a title and under it you put your thoughts. This takes no other actions but to type the keys and press enter and tab. But to do it in a program such as this you have to create a bubble, connect it to other bubbles, etc. (I say this though I haven't used the program). It seems that all this program would do is take your information and put it in a graphic context. I feel that I would have much more leeway and the thoughts would flow more freely if I wasn't worrying about where I'm placing bubbles and such.

Yes, I would like to just add here some things.

I don't know whether you have heared for the Imagine Cup it is Microsoft funded competition where students of computer science develop innovative software.

And last week on the presentation I had watched similar software in use developed by few guys from my faculty. With one thing one you typed words it was searching for the prases then for the events and so on it was using google search engine except they have utilized then looping trough the search list that is result list. And after a while using graph theory techniques it started several pictures depending on the era event involved persons and so on larger result and influence of the event.

Then person could choose the the suitable graph and program would continue searching the phrases and data according to the given graph after a while it would draw mind map.

So this was not actually innovative but the style how they did it was really creative adn innovative.

Also I would like to point out that these programs are really helpful when you are learning using cognitive perspective.

Thanks for sharing.

i exactly, in way to learn about mind mapping... I interest with this stuff.... any one can give more advice about this....

The program is written in Java and seems relatively bug-free after testing it on both Windows and Mac computers? The mind maps were very easy to create and when they were created, they looked very professional.
This looks very interesting.

Well mind mapping is thing which in fact helps you learn something new that is it helps you acquire knowledge in the easiest possible way by association if you are such visual learning type of persons. Also they exploit cognitive scheme in physiology and in that way help you assosiate newly acquired knowledge with the knowledge you've already absorbed and have in your own memory that is why this process is faster and helps you learn a lot more in certain time interval.

However I would like to point out also that if you consider everything can be learned by using mind maps you are wrong. You cannot learn those things that are in fact imaginative and you have to be visual type of person to do this to be able to learn trough this process.

Hopefully I was helpful enough there is a lot material available on this subject online you can try acquiring it by google or just do search on wikipedia.