{"id":446,"date":"2007-02-06T00:27:07","date_gmt":"2007-02-06T05:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/06\/are-there-interesting-affordances-of-mind-mapping\/"},"modified":"2007-02-06T00:28:52","modified_gmt":"2007-02-06T05:28:52","slug":"are-there-interesting-affordances-of-mind-mapping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/06\/are-there-interesting-affordances-of-mind-mapping\/","title":{"rendered":"Are there interesting affordances of mind mapping?"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\n.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }\n.flickr-yourcomment { }\n.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }\n.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }\n<\/style>\n<div class=\"flickr-frame\">\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/netomer\/162477795\/\" title=\"photo sharing\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/77\/162477795_54d2a4f3f6.jpg?w=840\" class=\"flickr-photo\" alt=\"\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>\n\t<span class=\"flickr-caption\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/netomer\/162477795\/\">seismograph #4<\/a>, originally uploaded by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/people\/netomer\/\">Nils K. Windisch (netomer)<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"flickr-yourcomment\">\n\tBill over at <a href=\"http:\/\/williamtozier.com\/slurry\/\">Notional Slurry<\/a> has been wondering <a href=\"http:\/\/williamtozier.com\/slurry\/2007\/01\/28\/the-broken-mirror-of-the-mindmap\">whether the mind mapping emperor actually has any clothes<\/a>.  Which is a fine bit of timing, because I&#8217;d been wondering the same thing.  In all the driving back and forth to Arkansas to help out with Dad, I speculatively downloaded a bunch of different podcasts onto the aged iPod including (nerdly, I do confess) some stuff on software development and project management.  Much of it was, sadly, crap, but it kept me awake so I won&#8217;t be too harsh.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhere in all that was a mention of mind mapping, so I figured I&#8217;d dust that idea off again and see if it made any more sense this time than it did when I poked it a year or so ago.  I downloaded <a href=\"http:\/\/freemind.sourceforge.net\/wiki\/index.php\/Main_Page\">Freemind<\/a> and used it to sketch out some plans for my current courses.  It wasn&#8217;t exactly a revelatory experience, and while I&#8217;ve continued to play with a bit I can tell that &#8220;new toy sheen&#8221; is beginning to wear off.<\/p>\n<p>One of my main concerns\/disappointments\/realizations was one shared by Bill:  These &#8220;mind maps&#8221; are really just plain old-fashioned outlined with some pretty (or, really, not so) pictures laid on top.  Freemind sorta allows you to break out of the standard outline mode (one parent, zero or more children; a plain old tree in computing parlance), but that bits pretty weak, and in the end you just have an outline with some decorations.  As Bill put it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nAnd I look at the results, and I see: A rooted tree. An outline. A strict hierarchy. A homogeneous classification diagram. A bundle of undifferentiated hard constraints. A simple Venn Diagram made difficult and misleading by the addition of geographical information.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So what&#8217;s the point?  Why not just make lists or outlines?<\/p>\n<p>So, with a not terribly convinced tone in his voice, I will suggest a possible argument in favor of mind maps:  They do (or at least can) have different <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Affordance\">affordances<\/a> (in Norman&#8217;s sense of the word) than an outline.  Sure, I can presumably write an outlining tool that allows all kinds of cool dragging and (re)connecting, but that&#8217;s not how I <em>think<\/em> about outlines.  Dragging crap around and playing with the connections comes entirely naturaly (to me at least) in the realm of graphs.  And maybe that&#8217;s enough of a difference?  Or maybe it&#8217;s just an argument for writing more drag-around-friendly outlining tools.  (Lord knows that Freemind is hardly a rocket science impressive piece of software.  It wouldn&#8217;t take a ton to equal or better it.)<\/p>\n<p>None of which addresses Bill&#8217;s other concern about the planarity of the darn things, but that&#8217;s all I got for now.  Sorry.  I&#8217;ll probably keep playing with Freemind for at least a while longer, but it&#8217;s not clear if I&#8217;ll still be firing it up at the end of the semester.  We&#8217;ll see.<\/p>\nNo tag for this post.\n\t<h4>Related posts<\/h4>\n\t<ul class=\"st-related-posts\">\n\t<li>No related posts.<\/li>\n\t<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>seismograph #4, originally uploaded by Nils K. Windisch (netomer). Bill over at Notional Slurry has been wondering whether the mind mapping emperor actually has any clothes. Which is a fine bit of timing, because I&#8217;d been wondering the same thing. In all the driving back and forth to Arkansas to help out with Dad, I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/02\/06\/are-there-interesting-affordances-of-mind-mapping\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Are there interesting affordances of mind mapping?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-7c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":551,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/05\/05\/24-hours-of-flickr\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":0},"title":"24 Hours of Flickr","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"5 May 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Popu, originally uploaded by fraud_art. The Flickr folks are finally getting around to doing a \"Day in the life of Flickr\" sort of event called \"24 Hours of Flickr\". (It seems like such an obvious idea, I'm really surprised they haven't done it earlier.) Today (5 May) is the big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/writing\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":570,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/06\/01\/64000-views-on-flickr\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":1},"title":"64,000 views on Flickr!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"1 Jun 07","format":false,"excerpt":"In one of those weird flukes, I happened to visit at exactly 64,000 views on my photostream on Flickr. I realize this is nothing compared to the giants, but it continues to amaze me, especially when I think of the dozens and dozens of boxes of slides hidden away in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1263,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2010\/05\/06\/mom-loves-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":2},"title":"Mom Loves Me","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"6 May 10","format":false,"excerpt":"Mom Loves Me, originally uploaded by nailbender. I don't get enough time to look at the wonderful photos that other people are posting on Flickr, but every now and then I carve out a few minutes. This morning over breakfast I discovered this gem and had to share. There is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":561,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/05\/19\/please-vote-options-for-24-hours-of-flickr\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":3},"title":"Please vote &#8211; options for &#8220;24 hours of Flickr&#8221;","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"19 May 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Please vote - options for \"24 hours of Flickr\", originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. OK, folks - here's the bits and pieces from my ambling about on \"24 hours of Flickr\". I've got until Monday, 21 May, to decide which single image to submit. They've been contacting certain folks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":510,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/03\/10\/i-really-needed-spring-break\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":4},"title":"I really needed Spring Break!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"10 Mar 07","format":false,"excerpt":"I really needed Spring Break!, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. Happily it begins tonight. Now I have to remember to balance the desire to sleep a lot and goof off on Flickr against the need to do grading and course prep and sorting out other things that need attending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":506,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/03\/07\/honey-jar\/","url_meta":{"origin":446,"position":5},"title":"Honey jar","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"7 Mar 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Honey jar, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}