The Mindjet Labs

1. What Wiki software do you use?
2. How would you like to see it integrated with MindManager?
3. What kinds of projects, documents do you use Wikis for?

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Michael S. Scherotter
Developer Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

1: I am using Wikispaces: http://itil-glossary-v3.wikispaces.com/

2: I'd like to have the ability to put fully funcional MindManager-maps on the web and into Wiki-pages

3: ITIL-Glossary 

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Andreas Weinberger
http://www.itligenz.de/
IT architect at DekaBank Luxembourg
Certified Trainer for MindManager and MS Office (MMI)

I have to add something:

 

4: I´d like to link to MindManager-maps from a wiki and I´d like to link to topics directly - the other way is important too, but that depends on the wiki of course 

5: importing wiki-structures into a Map could be interesting too - kind of a link-explorer-thing 

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Andreas Weinberger
http://www.itligenz.de/
IT architect at DekaBank Luxembourg
Certified Trainer for MindManager and MS Office (MMI)

michaels:

1. What Wiki software do you use?
2. How would you like to see it integrated with MindManager?
3. What kinds of projects, documents do you use Wikis for?

1. TikiWiki
2. I'd love to see an embeddable viewer that could sit on a wiki page. I'd BUY a module that lets me collaboratively edit my projects live on the wiki
   
3. I'm currently using it for brainstorming and meeting agenda/minutes tracking
   
4. I agree, I'd also like a way to link to underlying wiki pages.
   

It would be nice to have the ability for many people to collaborate within the same MindMap -- imagine something like Wikipedia in a MindMap. That would be awesome having many people contribute to a collosal MindMap.

Joel Barrett

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Joel Barrett
Solutions Architect
Cisco Systems, Inc.

Joel,

That sounds like a really cool idea.  I think that Wikipedia works great for encyclopedic knowledge. 

• What kinds of maps would you want to share in this way?
• Where would you use text wikis (like wikipedia) and where would you use Maps?
• What would the business model be now that Google bought JotSpot and has made the wiki service free?

Michael

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Michael S. Scherotter
Developer Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

What I'd like to see is a way to collaborate (truly collaborate in a shared environment at the same time) and link information from many different sources. I'm not saying pull the entire content of a source into the map; I'm saying be able to link to that source from within a map. For example, say you wanted to "index the Internet" but do it graphically, you could start a MindMap that allows others to contribute at the same time and the map would grow to huge proportions quite rapidly. You'd be able to see the relationships between two different topics as you opened them, like the relationships between Stephen King (author) and George Romero (director) or between Porsche, Volkswagon, and Audi. These links could be updated by map members as knowledge about the topics grow. You could expand this to genealogy and any other topic. Content and links wouldn't have to come from the Internet but could be linked to whatever was stored in the map, such as the member's personal information (if they wanted to make that available).

 Of course, there are challenges in doing this, such as:

• How do you scale something that can always grow larger than what it is today?
• How do you make it searchable (and fast)?
• Who would "own" the top tier and grant or deny access to members?
• And, of course, how would you monetize it?

 But those are things you guys would need to figure out, not those of us who want to use it. 

Joel

 

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Joel Barrett
Solutions Architect
Cisco Systems, Inc.

I am a lone IT guy for a small municipality in central Alabama. I would like to find some tools for knowledge retention so that when my department expands past me (or without me), the next guys will not be in the dark like I was when I got here in January.

1. I do not have a wiki of choice yet. I am still evaluating options.
2. I would like to see MM be used for framework of the wiki.
3. I would be storing all network related info, device configs, asset inventories, etc.

Thanks,

Michael Ramm 

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Co-Founder,
Black Belt Productivity
http://www.blackbeltproductivity.net

I'm a heavy MindManager user and am quite interested in the combination of maps and wikis for knowledge management, to allow for decentralized documentation and organization of technical knowledge (primarily) in our biotech company.   The idea would to use short wiki pages for the basic knowledge elements - definitions, orientation, data, analysis, status updates -- and to use mind maps to organize (and continuouly reorganize and update) the hierarchy and connections among the wiki pages.   Of course, the wiki pages would contain hyperlinks to allow horizontal jumping as well.   But the maps add a feature missing from most wiki software -- the high level visual organization and structuring of the knowledge.

The key features, in my view, are:

a. Enablement of the greatest ease of writing and flexibility in editing the wiki pages, the mindmaps, and their linkages

b. Support for different levels of decentralized control of editing, for both for the wikis and the maps. 

IN my view, effective and reliable knowledge management MUST be decentralized and easily updated without computer sophistication; placing a heavy burden for updates and curation on a small number of individuals creates an unsustainable system.   A decentralized system allows the true experts to update their specialties, and keeps the system dynamic and fresh as it grows.   Of course, some curation will always be needed, but the burden of database management must be kept low.  

Does Mindjet have anything brewing here?

Todd Becker, Staff Scientist, Genencor/Danisco

Todd,

We definitely have some ideas but we want to have these kinds of dicussions to determine what would be an effective use.  Here are some ideas that our customers and we have come up with:

• Use MindManager to start a Wiki
• Use MindManager to monitor Wiki content
• Synchronize a MindManager map with a Wiki
• Use a MindManager Map as the database behind a Wiki.

As you may realize, there are many directions that we can go. 

Michael

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Michael S. Scherotter
Developer Evangelist
Microsoft Corporation

Using MM as the database behind a wiki is intriguing. Does MM have ways to manage the bi-directional updating of pages required in this type of situation?

I was just about to implement an intranet based on Jot, but applications closed when they were bought by google. One issue I had was that I would build process documentation in MM so the Jot Wiki would need to go 'outside' to get to the process pages and then sort out a link back in.

A complete Wiki built and maintained in MM would suit me to a 'T'.

That's a great idea, Joel. What I would like to do is to use the MindMap and a Wiki as a collaboration tool for experts in a business vertical group setting. Anyone here already doing something similar or willing to collaborate on this idea?

 Earl Rudolfo
 

1. What Wiki software do you use?
   - MediaWiki, but I will be happy to convert it once the MindManager wiki feature is available.
   
   
2. How would you like to see it integrated with MindManager?
   - No idea (lack of IT knowledge)
   
   
3. What kinds of projects, documents do you use Wikis for?
   - Knowledge base (MM as a structure-making element for cross-over topics)
   - I work for training and consulting company... we have many methodologies stored in MMaps, but it is hard to make database-like links between certain elements (target groups, training topic, trainer, best practices etc)
   
   

Todd, I also find the "enablement of greatest ease" very important. A knowledge management system should have the least possible barriers. That's exactly what wikis are about.

But I don't think that "levels of control of editing" are necessary, that's against the wiki spirit. Version management is a central element of any wiki, so that you cannot easily abuse the system. And in any case you could always have seperate wikis and link them via a MetaWiki. The individual wikis could then have access restrictions.

For me, an ideal knowledge management system is accessible and editable from anywhere via my web browser.

 

>Earl asked: "MindMap and a Wiki as a collaboration tool for experts in a business vertical group setting"

Dear Earl,

I am doing something in this direction and just today I realized that I now have a much better answer for Michels question. I will post that answer seperatly.

What I am doing together with a group of three of my collegues is building interconnected multimaps (imagine overlapping pyramids) where the starting points (mountain tops) are either people (we 4 IT architects) or our IT-glossary. Outgoing connections may point to my ITIL-wiki or to other technical Wikis and websites.

The interesting thing is, that our IT-glossary is to big for one single map and I am thinking of transforming it into a Wiki but that would not be necessary if MindManager would have some more features that a Wiki has (as for example two-sided linking and typed links).

Best wishes

Andreas 

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Andreas Weinberger
http://www.itligenz.de/
IT architect at DekaBank Luxembourg
Certified Trainer for MindManager and MS Office (MMI)