Greg On Small Business

I had the pleasure of summarizing the posts at Joyful Jubilant Learning, Make a Difference forum this month. I found 20 authors, 31 posts and 191 learnings or distinctions. The learnings, distinctions, and observations one could make from these 20 people is almost overwhelming.

Since I created this mind map ,two new posts have been added. You can read my entry at Rapid Fire Learning, and read more about it on the learning forum. It is worth a visit and just pick one or two that resonate with you and read them - you will be glad you did.

I have discovered a plethora (at least more than expected) of online, mind mapping tools.

Standard Features

Each offer a free version that you can try out. Mindomo free version is ad supported. They all allow some form of export functionality to import and export from Freemind and Mind Manager as well as RTF (Word Compatible) documents, PDF, and Mind Meister offers a PNG image export functionality.

Here is a brief introduction/review to the three I have tried and my personal favorite.

Mindomo

Requires Flash Player 9. This was the first online mind mapping tool I tried. It imports and exports from Freemind and Mind Manager really well plus it allows you to form a relationship between two items on the map. It is the most expensive of the three at $65 for a year. Performance seemed a bit sluggish and if I was using it a lot, would become frustrating. In fact, I began to fall back on Mind Manager for building the map then importing it into MIndomo when I wanted to “share” it.

Mind Meister

This one does not appear to be flash based. It works really well and imports and exports from Mind Manager and Freemind nicely. They offer a free widget which allows you to record a quick thought that gets added to your default mind map. I really like this feature and found it quite handy. You can invite people to edit a mind map and collaborate on it live and initiate a chat using Skype, which is a nice feature. Subscription is $49.90/year which I paid.

Comapping

This one surprised me. I found this one after the CEO contacted me by commenting on a post I wrote about Mind Map Collaboration Tips. Before jumping into even trying this one, I spent some time reading their FAQ and was impressed with the amount of research and study they did on how people used mind maps.

They stated they observed people were more confused when a map spread from the center or from right to left.

“Topic organized from left to right gives a much faster overview of the semantic structure - probably because you can physically see the topic in less eye spans.”

Curious, I decided to give it a try and can say that I am left-to-right convert.

When I first started using Comapping, my initial reaction was “this is the way a desktop application should work” when I realized this was a web based application - I was impressed. It is also the most affordable at $11.99 for a six month subscription and they also offer a free 3o day trial.

Left-to-Right

IMO, left-to-right oriented mind maps seem more natural and less intimidating. I have also had the same reaction from my clients who prefer the left-to-right orientation. These maps lend themselves to simplifying complex maps easier than center oriented maps.

When I combine the value of using their left-to-right maps, the elegant interface, and speedy performance Comapping is the clear winner. I wish I could easily export a PNG image but Omar (the CEO) tells me that export to image feature is coming. For now, I just do a screen capture when I need an image. One other weakness is that when embedding a live mind map in a web page Comapping does not allow me to move and adjust the mind map manually.

I can say that I will definitely be purchasing a six month subscription for Comapping, wish I had found them much earlier as it would have saved me spending money on the Mind Meister subscription. I am just glad to have found it as using a left-to-right orientation was not something I would have tried had they not shared the results of their research.

From a business perspective, I also like how this company is organized. They started in the summer of 2006 as a joint venture between Area9 and Lanit-Tercom. Their board members are quality people with strong backgrounds in mind mapping and computer science. The management team is equally impressive.

If you need to share mind maps, collaborate with others, and want an elegant application, Comapping is the clear leader. They have my business and I will recommending their service to my clients. An enthusiastic two thumbs up!

Thanks for reaching out Omar.

One of the ways I use Mind Maps is to mao ideas I have for an article, project, or idea. Then I will export it into n RTF outline which gives me the structure I need to get started writing. For example, I wrote Entrepreneurs Make a Difference: Celebrate and Thank Them which was based on the following Mind Map.

While the end result ended up slightly different the mind map helped me organize and evolve my thoughts.