I was a private beta tester for MindMeister and I have been using it for some development planning for RandomStorm, one of my new business ventures.
I must say that I am very impressed with what has been achieved by MindMeister.
Now, it is pretty obvious that I am a huge fan of Mind Mapping. What MindMeister gives you is an online system, in true Web2.0 style for creating and managing Mind Maps.
Where MindMeister really comes into it’s own is the online collaboration. For example, seven people from RandomStorm have got access to the development Mind Map that I have created. I simply created this Mind Map, and then I shared the Map with the other users. Two of the other employees were already MindMeister users and five were not. The five that were not were first sent an invitation to join MindMeister and then they are sent a link where they can join and share my map. I can collaborate with all of these people at once and the online collaboration is really cool, being able to see other people editing the Mind Map in real time.
Again, what a fantastic tool for group collaboration. You can even Skype call or Skype IM from directly within the Mind Map to other users of the Mind Map.
The AJAX interface of MindMeister is great. Amazing how far technology has come in order to facilitate something like this. Sure, there are not as many features as MindManager from MindJet or the other desktop based Mind Mapping applications that I would still use on my Mac. However, for a free online collaboration tool, keeping with the Mind Mapping tradition then MindMeister blows the socks of any other online tool I have used and it safely in place for my list of applications that will become my corporate standard.
Visit the site now, and see why I am ranting on about how cool this is 🙂
There’s a whole bunch of Web 2.0ish mind and concept mapping applications. Mostly they’ve sprung up over the last 6 months, though Web of Web goes back further, and as a piece of archeology, there was Mayomi, now gone, long before that.
bubbl.us Collaborative mind mapping (radiant format not enforced)
bubble-mind.com Collaborative mind mapping
comapping.com Collaborative (but, for people who like free-format mind mapping, rigid) left-to-right mind mapping
glinkr.net Concept mapping and mind mapping (shared but not collaborative)
kayuda.com Collaborative concept mapping and mind mapping
mapul.com Collaborative mind mapping with an organic, Buzan-style flavour
mind42.com Collaborative mind mapping
mindomo.com Collaborative mind mapping
webofweb.net Collaborative mind mapping
writemaps.com Web-site hierarchical maps
Incidentally, have you tried wikimindmap.org? It lets you pick a topic from a WikiMedia source like Wikipedia, and builds a mind map for you. Not suitable for desining new ventures, but great fun.
Regards
Vic
http://www.mind-mapping.org
The master list of mind mapping &
information management software
Hi Vic,
Thanks for the great comment and the links you have provided. I love Mind-mapping.org and will add it to the resource section of this site when I finish it.
Thanks again, Andrew.
Just signed up for it now, will give it a shot. Would be nice to be able to update a mind map from home and work, without having to transfer it via email or USB stick.
Cheers,
Here is another really good collaborative web-based mind mapping tool that might be worth looking at comapping.com.
The link on the last line is bad. It is http://www.mindmesiter.com/. It should be http://www.mindmeister.com/