Mindmapping online for great collaboration
Posted by jtravers on April 25, 2007
I have been a great fan of Inspiration, the education focused mind mapping application, but the recently committed the mortal sin of launching version 8 which is not compatible with previous versions. It is quite expensive and does not have an online capacity.
There are now some very promising looking web based mindmapping applications that are free, at least in basic version, and have the huge advantage of allowing collaborative development of a map. A good review of three of them: bubbl.us, Mindomo, and MindMeister is found here in the Daily Web Worker.
The reviewer concludes that none of them have the full flexibility of the best tools, but are very promising. They rate MindMeister as the best, and it is still in private beta. Users can work on a map simultaneously, and can have a chat via Skype while doing it!
That looks as though these offer great educational potential. Another Web 2.0 success story in the making.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Although not an online tool, I quite like using Cmap which is a free downloadable app similar to Inspiration without the picture gallery. The flowchart diagram I used in my recent RamPage article on blogging was created in Cmap. Another open source option is FreeMind.
April 26th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
No sooner had I posted the above solemn words than Graham Wegner mentioned that he has used cmap, which is quite good. It certainly is. Not a web application, but an open source concept mapping application that is very powerful and flexible and intuitive. An excellent and fully functioning alternative.
http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/
April 27th, 2007 at 8:33 am
ONly a basic tool, but it is one I have made use of…
http://www.gliffy.com
May 2nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I’ve now used cmap more and am very impressed with it. There is the ability to save maps on shared spaces and have collaborative editing. It is very sophisticated and easy to use and very, very flexiple. And Free!