Here is a nice, short overview of what PersonalBrain does and where it fits into the mind map software spectrum. If you haven’t yet, I urge you to check out PersonalBrain. It’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux and the files can move between the three os’es effortlessly. This is a great feature for people like me who use multiple operating systems.
On any operating system, PersonalBrain is one of the most sophisticated personal knowledge management tools you’ll find. It’s great for organizing bookmarks or files into an ontology of your own devising. It is probably on the same level as other mind mapping software as far as complexity and capability, but is stronger than mind mapping tools in metadata and organization of topics and not as strong in presentation.
Even the free version of PersonalBrain would be a great addition to any knowledge worker’s toolbox.
Technology News: Software: Mind Mapping Goes 3-D With Personal Brain
Called “Personal Brain,” recently released in its fourth edition, TheBrain Technologies’ latest mind mapping software is amazingly easy to use, especially considering the complexity of the tasks that it’s handling. When you create a map, you’re immediately prompted for your central thought. After you name it, it appears on your display framed in “bullets.” The bullets are called “gates.”
Great news. The existing version of NovaMind for Windows is the best hand-drawn / artistic mind map analog I’ve seen yet. Not only do they design great software, but all of the dealings I’ve had with NovaMind sales and support so far have been a pleasure.
NovaMind News » Blog Archive » NovaMind 4 Pro for Windows enters beta testing
“NovaMind 4 Pro for Windows represents a major rewrite of much of the Windows version of NovaMind, with a much improved user interface, better usability and many new features. We look forward to completing the beta testing and releasing the production version in the next few weeks.”
Stephen G. Harms is creating a mind map of western philosophy to aid readers of Daniel Miessler’s “most influential books” list.
stevengharms.com » Blog Archive » A Mind-Map to Western Philosophy
“I gave some thought as to how I could give a rough sketch of Western intellectual development in a broad-strokes sense that worked visually. Enter FreeMind. FreeMind is a mind-mapping software ( Free! ) that exports to PDF.”
Here is a nice write-up from Investor’s Business Daily about how useful mind mapping software can be. I’ve highlighted below a nice success story from the article. They mention other mind mapping tools that most people haven’t heard of, so good for, for example, FreeMind, Labyrinth, and VYM.
Makers Of Mind-Mapping Software Visualize Success
On a friend’s tip, Brasher started using MindManager last year. After taking a brief tutorial, he was running the software in 15 minutes. He says it’s boosted his productivity.
“This is the first piece of software that I turn on in the morning, and the last one I turn off each day,” he said.
Brasher uses the software to visualize his 20 largest accounts as spokes that emanate out from “Alan’s Opportunity Management” on his computer screen. In the past, he used clumsy, multipage text documents to manage each account. It was “a nightmare” to pinpoint certain details and pick out client relationships, he says.
With MindManager, he designates each sales opportunity by a green dollar sign. Red flags pop up to mark each priority or action item. Yellow smiley faces are used to show customer groups.
“We use the software to educate my team, because a picture really is worth 1,000 words,” Brasher said.
I came across this interesting post about how mind mapping is being implemented in Second Life to explore Web 2.0 technology. I couldn’t find much information about it at all, but I imagine that if you use Second Life you’ll find more information in the SLUrl.
Mind Mapping Web2.0 in Second Life | Metaversed
“Though as yet the Second Life build is pretty minimal, consisting of some nice graphics of the mind map and some globes that give out notecards and web links, the project isn’t lacking in ambition, wanting to map ” The computational hardware, software, and human systems that handle the ever-increasing amount of available data” and the functionality of the inworld system is in a permenant state of development much like the web2.0 tecnologies it catalogs.”
“Sparx updates Enterprise Architect modelling tool - ZDNet UK
To extend creativity capabilities in UML environments, Sparx has improved the tool’s requirements-management features and brought in a new “mind mapping” profiler to help capture creative-idea development.”
Nice! I would often “fake” mind maps in Enterprise Architect using use case diagrams, winnowing brainstormed pseudo-use cases into the real thing. This is a very welcome edition to a really great software engineering tool.
I’ve wanted to join Toastmasters International for quite some time. When I find myself procrastinating, my first instinct is to break down the tasks for the outcome I’m procrastinating on in a mind map. This is also a great example of how useful ResultsManager is. There are only a couple of tasks in this map, but when I review my to do list, I will see them along with every other relevant task because my Toastmasters map is in my Map Central. Don’t worry if that doesn’t make any sense, you’ll hear more about ResultsManager here soon.
Here is the result … if you’re a Southcentral Texas Toastmaster, see you around 
This mind map was created using the Mindjet MindManager Pro 7 software. Click on the image to get a full-size clickable image map.
