About

Knowledge Mappers is a unique, digital mapping consultancy & publishing company, producing ground-breaking knowledge products & services that ‘visually connect’ people with what they need to know so they can do what they need to do. Find out below who we are, what we do, and who we do it for (as well as what they they think about what we’ve done for them).

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Our People

As well as our in-house team, we operate with a virtual team network of associated technical developers and subject experts to create and deliver our visual knowledge solutions. Knowledge is all about people – there’s no point to it if the right person doesn’t have it to hand when they need it, in a form that they can easily digest, assimilate and act upon. All the people we work with are “people” people and understand that implicitly 🙂

In-House

Angus McDonald (BSc, MSc)

Founder, CEO & Principal Consultant

I have over 25 years experience as a Geographic & Visual Knowledge Consultant within both the local government & private sectors, both employed & self employed, with a proven track record of envisaging, designing, producing & delivering innovative, ground-breaking information products & services.

Since my MSc in Environmental Science in the early 1990’s when I first encountered computerised Geographic Informations Systems (GIS), I have held a passionate belief that working visually with knowledge using mapping in all it’s guises – geographic, information, knowledge, concepts, processes etc. – can help people make the world a better place, through doing whatever it is that they do, quicker, easier and with a lot less stress!

At the same time though I’m also conscious of the fragility of knowledge – often hard won – and the difficulties involved in retaining it in the collective conscience and transferring it it to those that need to know now. That’s why I also have a passion for making the most of the resources we do have and not re-inventing the wheel wherever possible.

Associate Network

MindManager International Value Added Partner (MIVAP) Network

MindManager Software Consultants & Developers

The MindManager International Value Add Partner Network are a group of professional companies & individual consultants with a passion for MindManager, the world’s best information mapping software and the only one with an application programming interface (API), which makes it possible to develop macros and add-ins that automate processes as well as further extend it’s already formidable & unique functionaity.

Our many decades of combined MindManager knowledge, experience & expertise enables us to offer training, consultancy, support & development solutions that are second to none, to all types of users across the world.

Many MIVAP members are official Authorized Mindjet Partners.

Andrew Combes

Active / Sustainable School Travel Consultant (STHC)

I started working in the field of sustainable travel with Sustrans back in the mid 1990’s, doing just about everything from survey through to construction. From there I entered local authority life, first with Somerset and then with Dorset County Councils. During my time there I was also seconded to the UK Departments for Education and Transport as the SW Regional School Travel Advisor for the national Travelling To School Initiative.

A common theme throughout has been to take an evidence based approach to the work undertaken. This approach has delivered change, however it has also highlighted some of the inevitable policy conflicts that pull in opposite directions to achieving active and sustainable travel…

Although no longer full time in local authority life my work with the School Travel Health Check continues, as does my consultancy work – I am currently working with Dorset County Council to deliver a Local Sustainable Transport Fund funded ‘Schools Doorstep Leakages’ & social marketing’ project.

That said most of my time recently has gone in to turning an old unloved windmill on the Isles of Scilly in to a camera obscura!

Our Skills & Tools

At Knowledge Mappers we believe knowledge works better for people – ie. it is more easily discovered, captured, understood, organised, managed, archived, retrieved, shared & acted on – when it’s visually structured. Thus our skillset (and indeed passion) lies in the creation of visually structured knowledge resources – ie. maps – on just about any subject, that help individuals, teams, organisations & communities…

Make connections and gain business-intelligence insights they didn't have before

Avoid 'information overload' and generally get a lot more done with a lot less stress...

Save time and money and increase return-on-investment

Geographic Information Mapping & Spatial Analysis

Our first passion is the mapping, analysis and sharing of geographic information (GI) – ie. the knowledge about the ‘places & spaces’ that make up our physical world and our interactions with them – and we have over 50 years of collective experience covering all aspects…

From it’s initial sourcing / capture, spatial analysis using GIS (from every day mapping tools like Google Maps and Google Earth, to full blown analysis software like ESRI, MapInfo and QGIS), and publishing & sharing with expert & non-expert stakeholders alike as both online map-enabled data portals and large format paper maps.

Indeed our School Travel Health Check (STHC) spatial analysis service – which was born out of an initial GI consultancy project to provide high quality, spatial intelligence data to one local authority, it’s school communities and other stakeholders interested in how children travel to their school, from where, and how far they travel to get there – has been combining all of our GI skills in a nationally available, ‘one-stop shop’ service since 2005.

We are also passionate about the development of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) at all levels to ensure that this key knowledge about their world is accessible to all who need it – be they members of the GI Professional Community or communities defined geographically – and they have the capacity to use it to support them in whatever it is they need to do, once they have it.

Note we are a registered data processor with the UK Information Commissioner (ICO).

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Our School Travel Health Check (STHC) spatial analysis service has been combining all of our GI skills in a nationally available, ‘one-stop shop’ service since 2005….

Go to our Geographic Information Services page

Go to our School Travel Health Check (STHC) Service page

Knowledge Mapping With MindManager

Our ‘traditional’ mapping skills are complemented by nearly 20 years expertise with Corel (formerly ‘Mindjet’) MindManager, the worlds best information (‘mind’) mapping software. It’s awsome flexibility and productivity-boosting features make it the ‘digital tool of first resort’ for anybody who works with any sort of digital information (which is most of us).

Utilising our unique range of information cartography skills we create comprehensive knowledge maps of universally important geographic and time ‘spaces’ and make them available to download from our map store. The HTML versions can be accessed by anybody using any modern browser, on any device, on or offline, without the need for any plugins, whilst anybody with access to MindManager software can use the MindManager format maps as ‘ready made’ templates to amend, adapt & repurpose (in whole or in part) in their own projects so they do not have to re-invent the knowledge wheel each time.

We also offer a bespoke knowledge mapping service for clients, as well as consultancy so they can benefit from our extenstive expertise. Along with our fellow partners in the MindManager International Value Added Partner (MIVAP) Network we offer a complete MindManager consultancy service to help others to get the most from this most amazing tool.

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Knowledge Map Guide

New to our ground-breaking knowledge maps? Find out all about what they are, how to use them and the benefits they bring, in our map guide below. Please contact us directly if you still need more information…

Welcome to our digital download knowledge map store. Here you will find unique, ground-breaking knowledge maps that visually & virtually connect official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ general, geographic & specialised knowledge resources about all the key ‘building blocks’ that we humans use to structure, and make sense of, the ‘real world’ we live in and have to manage on a day to day basis – for example geographic areas and their subdivisions in our World Atlas Maps, time and it’s sub-division into manageable chunks in our Annual Calendar Maps etc.

The knowledge our maps contain are of…

‘Building blocks’ – what ‘building blocks’ of which type make up a given ‘real world human knowledge space’, be they physical or conceptual.

Knowledge resources – what official / definitive / ‘plain old useful’ knowledge resources about said building blocks exist in the online public domain (ie. freely available).

Links – where those resources are online (ie. their URLs), so map users can access them ‘there and then’ with a click of their mouse.

Core contextual knowledge – core knowledge taken from said external resources and embedded / attached to the building block map branches using MindManager’s unique information cartography capabilities to enhance the user experience.

The visual & intuitive layout and richness of content of our maps makes existing knowledge resources (and knowledge gaps!) easier to discover (& re-discover), assess, understand & make use of, which in turn benefits users, creators, and the world as a whole. Individuals / organisations / communities / projects can spend more of their precious time & resources actually utilising the worlds existing knowledge bases so that they can do what they need to do to move forward as quickly and efficiently as they can, rather than wasting so much of them getting lost down internet search rabbit holes (or worse recreating resources that already exist).

In short, our knowledge maps are an interactive, visualy structured, intuitive to use, ‘discover within the bigger picture context’ index of the ‘building blocks’ that make up a given ‘human knowledge space’, the online knowledge resources about them, and a ‘minimal-click’ portal to those resources, all in one.

We create our maps using our unique mix of professional information hunting & cartography skills and MindManager, the world leading information mapping software.

Thanks to MindManger’s unique HTML export capability, we can make our ground-breaking knowledge maps available to download in 2 formats….

Original MindManager (.mmap) format – for full featured viewing, interactive querying, editing, expanding, adapting and re-purposing in whole or in part by MindManager software users.

HTML5 (.html) format – all the content – and most of the interactivity – of the original MindManager map (but ‘view only’), viewable on any any modern browser, on any device, without the need for any plugins, or indeed an internet connection to view it once it has been downloaded (so it can be viewed offline, in remote locations with no signal).

We welcome your feedback & suggestions for subjects for future maps, or other definitive / official / plain old useful 🙂 knowledge resources to link to (as long as they’re freely accessible in the public domain). We are also keen to collaborate with like minded organisations, communities & projects for the benefit of the common good.

As far as we are aware we are the only company in the world creating and publishing public domain knowledge maps in this way, as well as offering a ‘done for you’ service for clients, as well as training & consultancy services to help them do it for themselves.

Our knowledge maps are built from 2 different sorts of components that together, we hope you agree, make something that is much greater than the sum of it’s individual parts…

Hierarchical framework of interconnected branches

The framework of the knowledge map is made up of interconnected branches – of varying colours, shapes, and sizes, which are arranged in a visually connected hierarchy around a central topic. There are different ‘types’ of branches within our knowledge maps (though the types are not all mutually exclusive).

Embedded / attached knowledge elements

Each branch in the map has a mix of elements – often unque to MindManger – embedded within, or attached to, it and/or has some other physical attribute, that conveys core knowledge, or link to primary knowledge resources, about the ‘real world building block’ the branch represents.

Find out more below…

Hierarchical Framework Of Interconnected Branches

The framework of the knowledge map is made up of interconnected branches (of varying colours, shapes and sizes), which are arranged in a visually connected hierarchy around a central topic. There are different ‘types’ of branches within our knowledge maps (though the types are not all mutually exclusive)…

Central topic
Contains the map title, publishing details and a central image.

Main framework branches
The next one or two levels of branches define the layout of the map, in 2 different ways…

Physical layout – how the branches are physically arranged around the central topic. The classic mindmap structure is branches radiating in all directions from a central topic, however MindManager has many more options. As our knowledge maps are reference maps – i.e. the user ‘looks up’ the knowledge within them – our aim is to fill the width of the screen with visual knowledge, whilst minimising the amount of horizontal / vertical scrolling required by the user. Thus we usually use an ‘org-tree’ layout – the 1st level of main branches are arranged horizontally like an organisation chart, with all the sub-branches arranged in a vertical, hierarchical tree like structure below them.

Logical layout – the logical arrangement of the seed branches with respect to the central topic. This needs to fit in with the ways we humans structure the world in our heads in order to break it down into manageable chunks so we can make sense of it. This arrangement could be alphabetical, geographical, chronological, or a combination (e.g. alphabetical within geographic areas & sub-areas).

Knowledge Seed branches
These are the main focus of the knowledge map, with each seed branch representing a particular building block in the real world e.g. geographic subdivisions, public bodies, elected representatives, communities etc. These are ‘visually rich’, with multiple embedded and attached knowledge elements, including core images like logos and geographic maps as well as links to online knowledge resources, and so are mini knowledge portals in their own right (see below).

Collection branches
These enable the grouping of related sub-branches, and can appear at more than one level in the map hierarchy.

Knowledge Resource Link branches
These sub-branches each have a single attached hyperlink to an external knowledge resource, with the branch title being that of the resource. They are grouped into related collections, such as ‘General Knowledge Resources’ or ‘Geographic Knowledge Resources’. Having a branch linking solely to one knowledge resource enables easier, more ‘thumb friendly’ browsing & discovery of them, which helps in more intensive activities like prolonged desktop research.

Map Meta branches
These are branches that tell the user more about the map and how to get the most out of it…

Map Legend branch – Describes in detail each of the different types of branches – and the different knowledge elements embedded within or attached to them – that make up this particular map.

Contributing Knowledgebases branch – Describes the various official / defnitive / plain old useful online, public domain knowledge resources that we have discovered and ‘tapped into’ to make this map, grouped into related collections, such as ‘General Knowledge Resources’ or ‘Geographic Knowledge Resources’ etc. Many are linked to directly within the knowledge seed or related knowledge resource links collection branches in the main map, whilst some cannot be linked to at the deep level of ‘individual building blocks’, but all are worthy of further exploration if you are interested in the subject area of the map.
Floating branches – As the name suggests these are not visually connected to the framework branches. Because they are more visually prominent within the map, they are usually used to point the user in the right ‘direction’.

Embedded / Attached Knowledge Elements

Each branch has a mix of elements embedded within, or attached to, it and/or has some other physical attribute that conveys core knowledge, or link to primary knowledge resources, about the ‘real world building block’ the branch represents. Created using functionality that is often unque to MindManger, these ‘knowledge elements’ take the form of…

Outline Shape
This may convey knowledge about some aspect of the subject of the branch. For example for branches representing geographic areas, the outline shape indicates the nature of its’ borders with neighbouring areas with respect to the sea…

CIRCLE = all coastal borders (ie. ‘island(s)’)

HEXAGON = all land borders (ie. ‘land-locked’)

ROUNDED RECTANGLE = mixed coastal & Land borders

Fill Colour
Sometimes the colour filling a branch conveys knowledge eg. a particular political party.

Image [Embedded]
Images such as logos, thumbnail location maps, flags, icons, people profile pictures etc. provide a unique visual element that users can instantly ‘latch onto’ as they navigate their way around the map.

Text
Thanks to MindManager’s unique ability to handle ‘rich’ text – the ability to variably format individual chatracters within a single text ‘string’ – we can pack several different pieces of ‘core knowledge’ – such as names & unique identifying codes (taken from official sources) – into the text of a single branch without it visually overwhelming the user.

Note [Attached]
A branch note can contain all the elements of a word processed page – variably formatted (‘rich’) text, links, tables and images, and so is an ideal place for supplementary information that would otherwise add visual clutter to the map.

Data Elements [Embedded]
MindManager has 2 unique ways to add contextual ‘facts & figures’ (i.e. text and number fields) to individual branches so that they are visible to the user (though only one can be used on any given branch)…

Spreadsheet Table / Chart –A branch specific spreadsheet table created using MindManager’s spreadshet tool (i.e. not referencing cells in a ‘normal’ spreadsheet file stored elsewhere), with all the usual functionality available. If the data content is structured appropriately, it can be toggled between ‘table’ and ‘chart’ view (though this view is ‘fixed’ when the map is exported to create the HTML version).

Multiple Single Data Fields – These are like single cells in a spreadsheet and the values – which can be text or numeric – can be used to format the branch using MindManager’s Smart Rules feature.

Index Marker Tags [Attached]
Arranged in groups and added to individual branches as appropriate, index marker tags add visible contextual knowledge, enable map filtering to show / hide only those branches with specified tags, and internal map navigation.

Multiple Hyperlinks [Attached]
Another unique feature, multiple links to a range of official definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources attached to the seed branch – usually selected from the full range of general & geographic knowledge resource collections – help turn the map into a knowledge portal without adding to the visual clutter.

We make our knowledge maps available to download in 2 file formats…

MindManager (.mmap)

MindManager (.mmap) maps are the original maps we create. Thus when opened in the world’s best information mapping software, all the features of are available for full featured viewing, amending, expanding, adapting and using in other MindManager maps. These files can often be imported into other ‘mindmapping’ software applications, but with caveats (see the ‘Other mindmapping software’ tab below…).

HTML5 (.html)

HTML5 (.html) versions of our maps retain all the content – and most of the interactivity – of the original MindManager map (from which they are exported). They can be viewed by anybody, in any modern web browser software, on any digital device, without the need for any software plugins, as stand-alone files or embedded in web pages, on(or off)-line (once dowloaded).

Find out more below…

MindManager (.mmap) maps are the original maps we create. Thus when opened in MindManager, all the features of the world’s best information mapping software are available for…

full feature viewing…
editing & amending…
adapting & re-purposing…

MindManager is available for both Windows and Mac, with an Enterprise version that can be centrally installed on local area networks for users of 5 or more (eg. integrates with Microsoft SharePoint). There is also a free mobile app for Android.

A fully functioning 30 day free trial copy can be downloaded from the links. At the end of the trial period MindManager remains fully functioning, apart from the ability to save files. Thus it can be used as a free file reader for our knowledge maps in MindManager format.

HTML5 (.html) knowledge maps retain all the content – and most of the interactivity – of the original MindManager map (from which they are exported). For example they can be interactively queried by filtering using index marker tags to hide / show / highlight the coresponding branches.

And, just like any other html file, they can be …

viewed by anybody, in any modern internet browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safara etc.), on or offline (once downloaded), on any device…
shared by email or file sharing services (eg. DropBox).
published online as stand-alone web pages, such that they have their own URL (which can be shared), or even embedded within existing pages (and hosted somewhere else eg. the aforementioned URL).

However HTML maps cannot be edited or ammended, or content copied and used in other maps.

Other Information Mapping Software

Because MindManager was the first software of it’s type and has been the market leader for over 20 years, many other information software programmes (or online platforms) that have subsequently emerged have the capability of importing map files in MindManager (.mmap) format. A word of caution however…

Our maps fully utilise the large range of unique ‘information cartography’ features available in MindManager…

large maps (1000’s of branches)
‘rich (ie. variable) formatting’ of topic text
multiple hyperlinks attached to a single branch,
embedded data features (spreadsheets, charts & topic properties)
configurable sub-branch layout options for every branch within the one map

These features are not supported by other information mapping software programs. Thus even if your program can import a MindManager file, how it copes with each of these features, and what it renders on-screen as a result, will vary from the MindManager version so user beware!

The fact that our knowledge maps can be published as HTML5 files – viewable in any modern web browser software, on any digital device, without the need for any software plugins, as stand-alone files or embedded in web pages, on(or off)-line – means they can be viewed & used by anybody!

However unlike MindManager users, almost by definition those who are using our HTML maps for the first time will be unfamiliar with the whole ‘knowledge map thing’ – what the different parts are, how you interact with it, how you acess the embedded / attached content (eg. accessing the multiple hyperlinks to knowledge resources, or filtering the map using marker tags).

That’s why we’ve produced the content (including short videos) below…

MindManager is the only information mapping software that can also publish it’s maps as HTML5 files…

HTML knowledge maps are…

Just about the same as the original – HTML versions of knowledge maps retain all the rich, visual content – and just about all the functional interactivity – of the original MindManager map, though how the user interacts with that functionality does differ a bit. It’s also continually being developed. For example HTML maps can now be visually filtered using the index marker tags attached to branches.

A bit bigger – The file size of the HTML version of the map is about 40 – 50% bigger than the original MindManager (.mmap) file, depending on the type of content (the presence of lots of images is really what bumps up the file size no matter which file format).

Easily Viewed – Just as importantly HTML map files can be viewed…

In any modern web browser software – Which is basically all of them – Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge etc…
On any device – Desktop computers, tablets and smart phones (all of which come with browsers pre-installed!)
Without the need for any software plugins – No need for additional bits of software to be downloaded and installed on your device in order to open and view your file properly,
As standalone files or embedded in web pages – The .html file can be viewed as you would any other file downloaded from the web or file sharing service (eg. Dropbox), or sent as an email attachment – by double clicking on it on the device. However like a Google Map it can also be embedded within a frame on a web page and viewed without the viewer consciously downloading anything (the file still has to be physically ‘hosted’ on a server somewhere and ‘served’ to the page when viewed). An example would be our ‘map of maps’ is embedded in the footer of every page of this website.
On-, or off-, line – Once the file – or the web page in which its is embedded – has downloaded to the device, there is no need for an internet connection in order for it to be viewed and interacted with. Obviously a connection is required to view the online knowledge resources linked to in the map, but the contextual knowledge contained in the seed branches of the map itself will be available.

‘Thumb Friendly’ – Easily interacted with on small touch screen devices such as mobile phones.

Find out more about map elements, basic navigation and some tips for viewing on mobile devices in the following sections…

We pack a lot of knowledge ‘bits & pieces’ into our maps, either embedded within, or attached to, the 100’s of map branches (‘topics’) that provide the visual structure that connects them all together. This video explains the different types of knowledge content.

Now that you know the different elements that make up one of our knowledge maps, this video shows the basics of navigating your way around it and accessing the hyperlinks to the public domain knowledge resources via the hyperlinks…

As stated already our HTML knowledge maps are “thumb friendly and viewable in any modern browser, on any device”. Here are a few extra tips to enhance your user experience if viewing maps on a small touch-screen device…

Vertical Scrolling Of Webpage – If your ‘scrolling thumb’ is anywhere within the embedded map window when it slides across the touch-screen, you will pan around the map rather than scroll the webpage as a whole. To counter this there is always a narrow margin around the map panel at the edges of the screen, which you can ‘drag’ to move the page. (Viewing the map full screen in a new browser tab also gets round this issue :-).

Activating Branch Content – Clicking on map branches will activate content. Notes & the list of attached hyperlinks will open up in a side panel in the browser window. On mobile phones this panel can be take up a disconcertingly large proportion of the screen. If you don’t want to access this content, just click on the map background away from the activated branch, and the panel will disappear.

Following Hyperlinks – If there is a single hyperlink on a branch then clicking on the favicon symbol at the end once will activate it and the web resource linked to will open up in a new browser tab. If the branch has multiple hyperlinks attached (another unique MindManager feature) then these can only be followed by clicking on the link in the list in the side panel that opens up within the browser window when the branch is clicked. Note that notes and hyperlinks are on separate tabs within the sidepanel if both are present. Hyperlinks are listed in the ‘Attachments’ tab. **[NOT IN MM24**]

Our knowldge maps work on many levels…

visually structured indexes of what ‘things’ exist in a defined ‘space’.
visually structured index of knowledge resources about the ‘things’ available in the public domain.
visually structured portal to said knowledge resources (discover & access with a couple of mouse clicks).
visually structured source of rich contextual, ‘big picture’ knowledge about the ‘things’.

By combining our unique range of data / information / knowledge hunting & cartographic expertise with MindManager’s many unique capabilities, we are able to…

Map the ‘building blocks’ of any sort of ‘knowledge space’ – By capturing the ‘things’ that make up any ‘space’ of human interest and endeavour – be it physical, virtual, conceptual or whatever – as branches in a MindManager ‘tree diagram’ map, we create a digital, visually structured, knowledge framework that not only records what entities make up ‘the space’, but also the hierachical relationships between them.

Map public domain knowledge resources (and their URLs) about the ‘building blocks’ of the space – By mapping the multiple official, definitive or just plain old useful knowledge resources about ‘the things’ that can be found in the public domain as sub-branches to ‘their branch’ in the map, they become both more easily discoverable within the ‘bigger picture’ context of the whole map, and more easily accessible as they are never more than a couple of mouse clicks away! No more scrolling through endless search results (assuming you know what to look for in the first place of course).

Incorporate core contextual knowledge about ‘the things’ from the resources in the map branches – Using MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features not only can multiple links to the core external knowledge resources be attached to the one branch, some of the core information contained in them can also be embedded within, or attached to, the map branches – such as images of ‘traditional’ geographic maps (eg. location maps) or basic geo-statistical data like area size and population – creating ‘knowledge seed branches’ that act as mini knowledge portals in their own right as well as reducing the need to consult the external resources for core information.

Share and use – Thanks to MindManager’s unique HTML export capability, we can make the maps files available to download in both HTML5 (.html) format – viewable on any any modern browser, on any device, without the need for any plugins, or indeed an internet connection to view it once it has been downloaded (so it can be viewed offline, in remote locations with no signal) – and the original MindManager (.mmap) format for full featured viewing, amending, expanding, adapting and re-purposing in whole or in part by MindManager users.

Find out more about the benefits they bring below…

All Map Users

Users of all our maps (HTML or MindManger) enjoy these benefits…

Visual Register – Maps are the official / definitive list of what’s what, visually structured in a way that makes it easier to see what’s there and understand the context.

Big Picture – See everything in the context of the bigger picture, within the context of the other (parent and/or sibbling) map branches and/or the official / definitive / plain old useful public domain knowledge resources linked to.

Contextual Knowledge – MindManager’s many unique information cartography features – rich (variably formatted) text, embedded images, embedded spreadsheets / charts / data fields, attached index marker tags – enable much useful knowledge to be visually encoded in the map so users don’t even have to look up the linked knowledge resources in many instances.

Fast Search – Even when a map has 100’s / 1000’s of branches & links, searching the content – in all the different ‘information channels’ that MindManager provides – is super quick.

Knowledge Portal – Maps contain 100’s / 1000’s of single / multiple hyperlinks attached to the map branches, which means a virtual library of official / definitive / plain old useful online knowledge resources about the ‘things’ in the register is no more than a mouse click away. The visual structure of the map makes it easier to discover, assimilate and utilise the new knowledge eg. for desktop research.

Interactively Query – Users can query the map using the filter function to hide / show branches based on the index marker tags attached to them (even the HTML ones).

Share – As they are single files, maps can be easily shared as email attachments, via file sharing services, or as downloads. HTML files have the added ability to be pusblished as standalone webpages, or embedded in existing web pages.

Print – Maps can be printed, in their entirety or in it’s filtered state. Printouts can be used as a visual prop to facilitate discussions and meetings amongst stakeholders, no matter how impromptu.

Archive – Because the maps are an actual digital file (as opposed to a web page assembled ‘on the fly’ from a database), they can be permanently preserved as a knowledge artefact by simply saving it in a digital archive. Obviously as time goes on the knowledge in the map will gradually be superceded and the URL’s for the linked resources therein may no longer work, however the knowledge that this was the big picture at one time and that these knowledge resources about it existed (and may still exist but now at a new URL?) will still be useful in the future.

MindManager Map Users Only

Discovering knowledge is usually just the starting point. Once it has been understood & assimilated, users want to do things with it, depending on why they were looking for it in the first place. MindManager users therefore have further options available to them to take our knowledge maps to the next level for their own benefit…

Living Document – As well as re-arranging the existing content to suit them, users are free to add their own, as and when they want, turning the map into their own living document. So for example users can add their own appointments & events (with links to files etc.) to our calendar maps, turning them into their personal diaries, after having first perhaps removed some of the content (eg. international events), or added another level of granularity using content from the time template map, to personalise it. Or if undertaking desktop research using our world atlas knowledge maps, they can selectively add the newly disocovered knowledge to the map as sub-branches and/or branch notes on the existing seed branch, which has the added beenfit of retaining the ‘big picture context’ of where it came from in the first place.

Template Basemap – If your need to add / ammend your map with the latest knowledge is ongoing, then you can think of it in terms of a ‘basemap’, to which you are adding additional ‘layers’ of knowledge (just like ‘layers’ of geographic ‘things’ – points, lines, polygons, travel routes – on top of a geographic basemap from Ordnance Survey or Google). Once you have a basemap template, it is easy to re-purpose for many other uses without having to start from scratch each time.

Content Source – Use any of the content of the map in other maps as appropriate. So not just whole branches withtheir sub-branches, but individuala embedded / attached elements like spreadsheets / charts, data fields, hyperlinks etc. This could be a simple, one off ‘copy & paste’, or creating a map part that is saved to your parts library so that it it is instantly accessible to be added to any map without recourse to the original source map.

Index Marker Tag Source – This is especially true of groups of index marker tags, used to tag map branches. Thanks to the great MAP add-in from our partners at Olympic, a whole new group of marker tags can be created from a whole level of map sub-branches with a single mouse click. As our maps are usually definitive registers of ‘real world things’, our maps always contain those as a groupf of marker tags as well as branches. For example our world atlas knowledge maps contain tags for every country in the world (as officially defined by ISO3166-1), which can be used to ‘geo-filter’ the map ie. show only those branches tagged with a particular ‘geographic location.

The origins of knowledge mapping, MindManager software and our own journey to creating the knowledge maps that we do, lies in the technique of ‘mind mapping‘, popularised in the 1970’s by by British popular psychology author and television personality Tony Buzan (though the use of diagrams that visually “map” information using branching and radial tree maps traces back centuries).

Find out more below…

The technique of ‘Mindmapping‘ was originally pioneered by Tony Buzan in the 1970’s & 80’s (though the use of diagrams that visually ‘map’ information using branching and radial tree maps traces back centuries). It is a manual, graphical (ie. using coloured pens and paper) way of capturing, storing and working with your own knowledge and thoughts that works in harmony with the way your brain actually processes and stores it – that is in ‘branching’ chains of associated concepts (literally ‘chains of thought’).

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The Power of a Mind to Map: Tony Buzan at TEDxSquareMile (Dec 18, 2012) [19:35]

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How to Mind to Map with Tony Buzan [4:59]

In the creation of a ‘mind map’ knowledge is not captured ‘linearly’ in traditional lines, paragraphs and pages of text, but instead in discrete words and associated images, arranged around the central idea, connected together by radiating branch lines that show the hierarchical inter-relationships between them.

This forms a branching structure, radiating out from the centre, which is why they are also known as ‘tree diagrams‘. Text is minimal, a few words only that encapsulate the concept or idea, but this is supplemented by the use of different colours, pictures, shapes and symbols so that the mindmap engages the whole brain, both in creating it and reading it.

The power of the mindmapping process is that, because your brain can literally see your thoughts and the relationships between them in front it as a picture, it can’t help but think of other thoughts and connections, which once added to the map, spark yet more thoughts and so on in a positive feedback loop.

Thus a mind map is both a fundamental ingredient in the mental thought process, as well as a physical, tangible by-product of it.

Given the popularity of the mindmapping technique (especially in the worlds of Education and Business), but the physical limitations placed on it through using a sheet of paper and pens, by the 1990’s it was only a matter of time before somebody wrote a software program to create mindmaps on a desktop personal computer (well there weren’t any other kinds of personal computer back then, right kids? ;-).

MindManager was one of the first (version 1 was released in 1994 under the name ‘MindMan’), but this was followed by a handful more by the 2000’s (including Tony’s own iMindMap, which was used to create the above map), and now there are dozens and dozens and it’s a very crowded ‘software space’ (though all are not created equal, as we will see in the next section).

What Software Adds To The MindMapping Process

MindMapping software overcomes some of the physical limitations of the traditional, analog process, but also adds fundamental abilities that were not conceived of in the original scope and design of mind mapping, which came from a pre-personal computing age…

It's A Digital Document

And so, just like any other digital file, a digital mindmap can be stored and shared and archived and retrieved and re-worked on and everything else…

Unlimited Editing & Re-arrangement Of Contents 'On The Hoof'

Digital maps can be endlessly amended, edited and rearranged within the software ‘on the hoof’ as they are being created. This is at best problematic on paper, if not completely impossible once the main structure of the map has been committed to. In other words digital maps can be changed “at the speed of thought”.

Infinite Canvas

Unlike a sheet of paper, the canvas in mindmap software has no edge. Thus it is possible to literally follow and record a complete ‘chain of thought’ without the mental disruption of worrying about running out of space.

Infinite Hierarchical Levels

Likewise there is no limit to the number of levels of sub-branches that can be added to the map. Furthermore at any level in the hierarchy, the software allows you to collapse the sub-branches below so you can’t see them, and then expand them out again so you can. Thus it is possible to record effectively unlimited amounts of information down to the finest level of detail, but to hide the detail from view until required so that just the upper branches – which outline the ‘big picture’ about the central topic in question – can still be seen in one view.

More 'Visual Channels' For Capturing Information

There are additional ways that information can be embedded within, or attached to, the branches of a digital mindmap, over and above the ‘traditional’, immediately visible text and images, such as…
Notes attached to the branch (which can be at least an infinite amount of text and sometimes tables and images).
Hyperlinks ‘attached’ to a branch can take the viewer anywhere on the internet, or a file on the computer, when ‘clicked’.
Index Markers ‘attached’ to a branch can ‘tag’ it with contextual knowledge.

From Initial Thoughts & Ideas, Through Plan Of Action To Completed Deliverable

In todays ‘information-age society’ almost everything we do in terms of work is digital – creating, consuming and sharing a lot of information on a daily basis in order to do whatever is we want to do. Mindmapping software is an ideal digital tool to do all that in the one environment. From defining the problem / project, through brainstorming a solution (how the problem will be solved / deciding on the project content), to a plan of action to deliver it (who is doing what, by when, with the resources available), to a dashboard that is visually telling you if everything is going according to plan!

The key thing to note – and this is one of the ‘killer applications’ of mindmapping software that saves you time and makes business processes so much more efficient – is that the final map produced by the end of each stage, is re-purposed as the starting point of the next one.

As you can see ‘mindmapping’ software goes way beyond the manual, paper-based technique of ‘mindmapping’ as envisaged by Tony Buzan. It is a hugely versatile digital tool that enables users to do a lot of the everyday digital stuff they have to do anyway, but much quicker, easier and efficiently, allowing them to stay more in control of the whole information capturing, understanding and sharing process.

Anyway as ‘mindmapping software’ became popular, there was heated debate amongst mindmapping advocates as to whether or not mindmaps created by compter software were ‘real mindmaps’ according to the rules of Tony Buzan. However we have never been much vexed by this academic argument because, as cartographers, we could see the exciting possibilities that mindmapping software offered for the mapping of any sort of ‘knowledge space’. Not just abstract thoughts and ideas generated inside your brain, but also tangible things that exist in the real world (often in hierarchical relationships), and the knowledge resources about them that exist in the online public domain.

MindManager software has always been about more than just mindmapping on computer. It has always had a business focus (often describing itself as “the missing piece of Microsoft Office), lending itself to everyday tasks that individuals and teams in organisations need to do – brainstorming, project planning, task lists etc.

When we first started using MindManager over 20 years ago it was for those classic business mapping uses, and it soon became our ‘go to digital tool of first resort’ for working with any sort of information. However we were always struck by the similarities in the processes of mapping ‘business information’, and the traditional ‘geographic information’ mapping we had hitherto been involved with.

And so began our development of MindManager as an information cartography tool, capable of ‘visually capturing’ pretty much any ‘space’ of human interest and endeavour (be it physical, virtual, conceptual or whatever) in a single ‘map’ (ie. a visually structured document), or series of inter-linked maps. Not just the ‘things’ that occupy the space, and the spatial inter-relashionships between them, but also the man knowledge resources about each ‘thing’ that already existed about them in the public domain, and the links to those resources.

Information Mapping Features Unique To MindManager Software

Even though many other ‘mind mapping’ tools have emerged into what is now a very crowded space over the years, both ‘standalone’ software or an ‘online service’, MindManger remains our main knowledge mapping tool. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly it has always grown as the wider technology has (eg. the integration with first Microsoft SharePoint and now Teams). Secondly – and this is the most important one – no other software has such a wide variety of ‘visual channels’ to attach / embed information in a map. Most of these features are unique to MindManager and it is these that we use to take our ‘information cartography’ to the next level. You can find out more about these in our MindManger section, but here are the main ones…

Wide Variety of Map Layout Styles (even at individual branch level)

Not only does MindManager offer an unrivalled number of different map layouts – ‘traditional’ (radiating from the centre) mindmap, organisation chart, timeline etc. – the layout of individual branches & sub-branches can be separately styled, no matter where they are in the hierarchy.

Big Maps, With 1000's Of Branches & Even More Hyperlinks

MindManager maps can have 1000’s of branches without affecting the software ‘performance’. The biggest one we have created so far had 20,000+ branches. This has been enough for us to knowledge map the solar system, and all the countries of the world in a single map. Thus we can be fairly confident that we can map all the ‘things’ in a space before we start!

Variably Formatted ('Rich') Branch Text

By being able to variably format individual elements within the text of a single branch, we can create visual hierarchies for the different components. This means the text string can contain a greater amount of more diverse information, without visually overwhelming the viewer eg. including unique identifying codes (taken from official sources) as well as the name.

Multiple Hyperlinks On A Single Branch

MindManager has the unique ability to attach multiple hyperlinks to a single map branch. This means that…
1) maps need fewer branches so are less visually cluttered;
2) a single branch can become a mini knowledge portal in it’s own right;
3) links to core knowledge resources can remain with the branch when it’s re-used in other maps (whether or not it’s the key focus of that map).
4) a map with 1000’s of branches, can contain many more 1000’s of hyperlinks!

Embedded Single Data Cells ('Topic Properties')

Multiple data fields (akin to single cells in a spreadsheet) can be embedded within a branch and is another way of adding contextual facts & figures to the map. Also the field values can be used to visually format the individual branch eg. if the value is greater than a particular number then make the branch text / fill this colour, or this shape (this is equivelant to ‘thematic mapping’ in GIS)…

HTML Export

MindManager has the unique ability to export maps as HTML5 (.html) files. These retain all the content – and most of the interactivity – of the original eg. they can be interactively queried by filtering using index marker tags to hide / show / highlight the coresponding branches. And, just like any other html file, they can be…
1) viewed by anybody, in any modern internet browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safara etc.), on or offline (once downloaded), on any device;
2) shared by email or file sharing services (eg. DropBox);
3) published online as stand-alone web pages, such that they have their own URL (which can be shared), or even embedded within existing pages (and hosted somewhere else eg. the aforementioned URL).

This means that anybody can view the knowledge maps we create, they don’t need to have MindManager software (unless they want to amend or re-use the content).

Anyway as you can see MindManager software really does enable us to take knowledge mapping to the next level….

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Commonalities Between Geographic Mapping and 'Mind' Mapping Modalities

We seriously began using MindManager – the world’s best information mapping software – as a business information mapping tool back in 2002 (see above). However we soon realised that the MindManager maps we were now creating, and the geographic maps that we created and worked with every day (Knowledge Mappers started out as a consultancy offering geographic information mapping & spatial analysis services), had many characteristics in common….

Both are their own type of visual knowledge format

Maps are a type of visual knowledge format in their own right. By ‘visual knowledge’ we mean that they capture and encode data / information / knowledge within them as visual elements (‘pictures’ at their simplest) that convey said to the viewer visually rather than as text that they have to first understand the words of, and then interpret their meaning.

Sure you could use words to start describing a map, but you would soon tie yourself up in knots – where do you even start? Do you describe every ‘thing’, or just the most important ‘things’? Do you describe the relationships between ‘the thing’ and every ‘other thing’, or just the ‘adjacent things’ round about it? And is that description absolute in terms of distance, or relative in terms of position? And isn’t it just easier to draw a picture?

Both map 'the things' that together define 'a space'

At it’s simplest ‘a map’ is a visually structured index of what ‘things’ together define a particular ‘space’, and the inter-relationships between them within ‘the space’.

Geographic maps depict ‘geographic (ie. ‘real world’) space’ and the ‘geographic things’ that exist within it…

Topographic features – these define the physical landscape within which we humand exist eg. rivers, coastlines, mountains, valleys, forests etc.),
Human geographic features – these are all man-made and exist in the ‘real world’, but some are ‘physically tangible’ (eg. settlements, roads, fields etc.), whilst some just exist as ‘lines on a map’ and so are purely ‘conceptual’, even though they may be vital to the running of a human society (eg. administrative / electoral / public service delivery areas etc.).

In a MindManager map the space is always ‘conceptual’ (ie. it exists in our ‘brain space’), and the branches are the ‘things’ that define the ‘conceptual space’. Traditionally the ‘conceptual things’ in mindmaps are of an individual’s ‘thoughts’ and ‘ideas’ about a particular subject, however we realised that they was no reason why they couldn’t also be about ‘real world things’ – say the aforementioned ‘human geaographic things’.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT

Both map the relationships between 'the things' that together define 'the space'

Professionally produced geographic maps are a visual record of the recorded locations of ‘the geographic things’ within the mapped ‘geographic space’. Geographic locations can be defined in 2 ways, each of which in turn enable the spatial inter-relationships between ‘the things’ to be described in different ways…

absolutely using numeric co-ordinate systems to locate them in at least 2 (if not 3) dimensional ‘real world’ space. This is what makes a ‘geographic map’ a true scale drawing of the geographic space, from which we can quantitavely answer queries like ‘how far apart are these 2 ‘point things’ from each other’, ‘how much do these 2 ‘area things’ overlap? etc.
relatively with respect to each other, from which we can derive qualititative logical relationships like ‘beside’, ‘connected to’, ‘overlaps with’, ‘contained enirely within’, ‘is a sub-division of’ etc.

Where the relatively defined relationships between ‘the things’ within ‘a space’ are logical and hierarchical, they can also be captured in a MindManager map.

The classic logical tree diagram map for a ‘conceptual human space’ is an organisation chart, which shows the different divisions and sub-divisions of an organisation, and who is in charge of who. However it is surprising how often that the ‘things’ that make up our everyday ‘human geography space’ have hierachical inter-relationships. For example the ‘Countries of the World’ are arranged into macro geographic sub-regions and regions for official statistical purposes by the United Nations, whilst also being made up of sub-national divisions like states, counties and communities. It is through all these administrative areas that the afairs of the human race are usually organised and run…

ANOTHER LIGHTBULB MOMENT

Both use cartographic principles and devices to create a visual structure & language

A map encodes & conveys information visually, but crucially does so in a logical, structured way using the art & science of cartography, which uses cartographic principles & devices such as….

visual hierachies – more visually prominent things (bigger, bolder etc.) are more important.
lines – can show relationships between things – equivelant to, subdivision of, border between etc.
shapes – points, lines and areas (polygons) etc.
symbols – these could be literal depictions or visual metaphors.
colours – meaningful, eye-catching, complementary, contrasting etc.

All these are in conjunction with a minimal amount of text – which is usually in the form of brief labels of said points, lines and areas – which too are visually formatted using the same cartographic devices.

Together all these elements create a visually structured, cartographic framework (‘language’) of knowledge elements that…

more actively engage with the viewers brains than a linearly structured, text-only knowledge resource does, and so it is more easily navigated, understood and assimilated (as per mindmapping principles – see above).
can be replicated when creating other maps to establish a common visual knowledge framework & language for capturing and working with different sets of data / information / knowledge that occupy the same ‘conceptual space’ (which as we say could still be ‘real world space’).

Both can be built up in layers of related 'things'

Most of us at some point have taken a geographic map and drawn our own information on top of it to quickly transfer our geographic knowledge to others or for it to be transfered to us – eg. ‘the route’ for new friends to get to our house, or for us to get from the hotel we’ve never stayed in before to the museum we’ve never visited before. In the old days it was by drawing a line on a paper map, but Google Maps showing you the ‘routes’ between the 2 points as coloured lines on your mobile phone screen is still the same priniple.

And that principle is that the starting geographic map is acting as a ‘basemap’ knowledge layer upon which additional layers of more specialised knowledge (eg. ‘the route’) are added. These additional layers are proper ‘layers in the information system’ in their own right, but without the visual context provided by the underlying basemap layers (which place them in a bigger picture / real world space, that is familiar to the viewer) they would be difficult for a viewer to understand, especially without any exisiting ‘local knowledge’. For example ‘a route’ is just a line on a piece of paper (or screen) if it doesn’t reference ‘things’ in ‘geographic space’ – a starting location, a destination location and named roads in between.

Similarly we can think of each level in the branch hierarchy of a MindManager map as additional layers of ‘related things’, each building on the previous layer. This is the basis of our series of Countries of the World knowledge atlas maps (see below).

ANOTHER LIGHTBULB MOMENT

Both are physical - and therefore archivable - knowledge artefacts

Geographic maps have 2 lives…

The first is as a ‘living / working document’ that shows ‘the space’ and the ‘things’ that define it ‘now’ (or at least the date of publication).
However the world moves on, ‘things’ change, ‘spaces’ change, and so the maps of them have to be updated so that they still reflect the latest situation ‘in the real world’. It is then that the original map becomes a historical record of what ‘things’ made up ‘the space’ at that particular point in time.

In the age of paper geographic maps this cycle of ‘survey, publish and archive’ was usually infrequent, due to the expense of manual field survey methodoligies, but also the fact that the pace of change of the real world was not that fast. Superceded maps were physically archived in map libraries (just like the books in the rest of the library) so they could be still be available to future generations to consult.

However in the digital age the whole process happens much quicker. Field surveyors use digital tools and upload their data to a central spatial database there and then, where it may be augmented with data gathered using remote sensing techniques (from satellites, planes and drones). Online mapping services like Google Maps ‘assemble on demand’ the maps they display to the viewer from the objects in the spatial database, so they always ‘serve up’ the most current picture. Thus unless the underlying digital data is shared, a ‘Google Map’ isn’t a ‘map type artefact’ that can be archived.

By definition MindManger maps too are digital, however they are saved as a physical software file, which can be copied, stored locally and/or centraly, and archived.

In other words in theory we could replicate ‘traditional maps of geographic space’ in a MindManager map – well at least it coud be a visually structured record of the ‘geographic things’ that define a single ‘geographic space’ along with the hierarchical relationships between them.

So we realised that it may be possible to use MindManager to map ‘geographic space’. Yes it would be in a more limited way compared to some aspects of a ‘traditional geographic map’, however we could use mindmapping principles and MindManager’s amazing ‘information cartography’ tools to take other aspects much, much further. For example…

incorporating hyperlinks to multiple online, public domain knowledge resources about each of the ‘geographic things’ – be they ‘official’, ‘definitive’ or just ‘plain old useful’ 🙂 – by attaching them to the map branch that represents that ‘thing’.
incorporating core contextual knowledge about each of the ‘geographic things’ – gleaned from those now linked to online resources – using MindManager’s many information cartography tools – embedded elements like images (such as geographic maps), spreadsheet tables & charts, and single data cells; and attached elements like notes and index marker tags.

That in fact we could create a knowledge atlas (ie. a knowledge map about real world geographic things)…

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But how did we actually do it? How do we get from a ‘traditional geographic map of countries of the world’, to a ‘knowledge atlas of countries of the world’?

Well it’s all about those inter-relationships between the geographic building blocks (ie. the countries) that make up a space (ie. the world), as it is mapping these in MindManager that will create the fundamental, inter-connected framework of map branches.

But in order to do that, we need to know….

What are all the ‘Countries of the World’ (each ‘country’ will be represented by one branch only in the map)?
What are the hierarchical relationships between them (which will define how those branches are best arranged within the map)?

As we’ll see below, the answers to these are officially defined in downloadable data tables & spreadsheets, which can be easily imported into MindManager as a starting point….

ISO3166-1 - The definitive list of 'Countries of the World'

So it turns out the official list (or ‘register’) of the ‘Countries of the World’ is the international standard ISO3166 – ‘Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions’. This can be found on the International Standards Organisation (ISO)’s website, with the actual data table on the ISO online browing platform. (Though as ISO point out they are only responsible for maintaining the coding system of unique letters and/or numbers – so that countries and their subdivisions can be referred to in a completely unambiguous way that transcends language barriers – whilst the names come from official United Nations sources.)

UN Geoscheme - ISO3166-1 Countries grouped into Macro geographic regions & sub-regions

There are many ways of arranging the ‘Countiries of the World’ into related groups and sub-groups, but the main official (but not only) schema for grouping them together geographically into macro-geographic regions and sub-regions is the United Nations Geoscheme (or M49 Statistical Standard), devised by the UN to consistently collect and aggregate country based statistics to try and keep track of what’s going on in this big old crazy world of ours.

Thus it is the UN Geoscheme that officially defines the hierarchical inter-relationships between the official ‘Countries of the World’, and it’s those that our MindManager map will capture as a network of knowledge seed branches – one for each country, region and sub-region – inter-connected by relationship lines to create the hierarchy and so define ‘the space’.

And so now we’ve tracked down this definitive data source, we can get cracking….

Turning the Geoscheme data table into a basic MindManager map

Turning an existing data table into a map is where MindManager comes into it’s own, providing several ways of ‘getting it into the system’…

Manual – highlight, drag and drop (or copy and paste) the data from the source into where you want it to go on the map (ideal for data capture ‘on the hoof’).
Automated – import the spreadsheet or .csv file directly into MindManager with the Excel Mapping Tool (or link it to a database).

The choice is yours, but personally speaking, as with mindmapping, there’s nothing like the physical process of creating a knowledge map with your own hands to really improve your understanding of the subject, especially from a base knowledge of zero.

Anyway once that’s done, we now have our basic MindManager map – a ‘tree diagram’ network of branches (one for each country, region and sub-region), inter-connected by relationship lines to visually define the hierarchy.

So now that we have our basic MindManager map – a ‘tree diagram’ network of branches (one for each country, region and sub-region), inter-connected by relationship lines to visually define the hierarchy – how do we transform it into our Countries of the World Knowledge Atlas?

Turning the basic MindManager map into a Knowledge Atlas

So what does this basic MindManager map lack that we will have to add to create our Knowledge Atlas map? Well….

Links to official / definitive / plain old useful multiple knowledge resources about each country, grouped into ‘collections’.
Visual knowledge elements embedded / attached to the branches to add contextual knowledge and utility.
Integration of all these together in country / region knowledge seed branches, each of which is a mini knowlkedge portal in it’s wn right.
Everything tied together in a visually appealling but still structured way that ‘packs a lot in’ but doesn’t immediately overwhelm the user.

In other words what is required is a lot of detective work and application of cartographic ‘know how’….

Incorporating links to knowledge resources about the country / region into the map

In order to include links to official / definitive / plain old useful public domain knowledge resources about the ‘Countries of the World’ in our map, we first need to track them down ourselves wherever they are in the online public domain (what we call ‘going on a knowledge safari’ :-).

This may seem like a daunting task, but actually we’ve already ‘got one in the bag’ in the form of the original ISO online platform listing all the countries that are part of the ISO3166-1 standard, as each one has it’s own listing page (eg. this one for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

And as we’ve said, the GeoScheme schema was devised by the United Nations for country-level data gathering, so it’s no surpirse that each country and region has a data page on the UNdata portal – so that’s 2 knowledge resource links. (Actually it’s quite a lot more as once you look deeper you will find they also have pages on the websites of many of the UN family of organisations, but that’s for later :-).

And then of course there’s Wikipedia, because in this day and age just about everything important has it’s own page (or even it’s own category) on Wikipedia (the corollary being if it’s not on Wikipedia, is it even important? – discuss ;-)….

And then there’s all the external links referenced to in the Wikipedia page….

And possibly sister sites to Wikipedia, like the Wikivoyage site for travellers….

And then there’s all the ones we can find with a browser and a Google search bar (other search engines are available ;-)….

Of course before they’re added to the final map all these links have to be….

assessed for quality before adding.
‘tidied up’ and cartographically improved after adding.
arranged into logical collections (eg. ‘General knowledge’, ‘Geographic knowledge’ etc.)

However once that is done…

we can explore them ourselves to find useful contextual knowledge to incorporate within the map (which in turn might lead to more knowledge resources to include).
for the end user they become both more easily discoverable within the ‘bigger picture’ context of the whole map, and more easily accessible as they are only ever no more than a couple of mouse clicks away.

Thus as well as being a visually structured index of knowledge resources about the ‘things’ in the ‘space’, our knowledge map is now also a portal to those resources.

Incorporating contextual knowledge gleaned from the 'linked to' resources as visual knowledge elements

Using MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features (see above), some of the core information contained in the linked to resources could be embedded within, or attached to, the indiividual seed branches in the map as one or more knowledge elements….

Outline Shape – This may convey knowledge about some aspect of the subject of the branch. For example for branches representing geographic areas, the outline shape indicates the nature of its’ borders with neighbouring areas with respect to the sea…

CIRCLE = all coastal borders (ie. ‘island(s)’)

HEXAGON = all land borders (ie. ‘land-locked’)

ROUNDED RECTANGLE = mixed coastal & Land borders

Fill Colour – Sometimes the colour filling a branch conveys knowledge eg. a particular political party.

Image [Embedded] – Images provide a unique visual element that users can instantly ‘latch onto’ as they navigate their way around the map. So such things as….

screenshots of actual geographic maps (eg.thumbnail location maps),
flags
icons
people (eg. profile pictures)
logos
etc.

Text – Thanks to MindManager’s unique ability to handle ‘rich’ text – the ability to variably format individual chatracters within a single text ‘string’ – we can pack several different pieces of ‘core knowledge’ – such as names & unique identifying codes (taken from official sources) – into the text of a single branch without it visually overwhelming the user.

Note [Attached] – A branch note can contain all the elements of a word processed page – variably formatted (‘rich’) text, links, tables and images, and so is an ideal place for supplementary information that would otherwise add visual clutter to the map.

Data Elements [Embedded] – MindManager has 2 unique ways to add contextual ‘facts & figures’ (i.e. text and number fields) to individual branches so that they are visible to the user (though only one can be used on any given branch at one time)…

Spreadsheet Table / Chart – A branch specific spreadsheet table created using MindManager’s spreadshet tool (i.e. not referencing cells in a ‘normal’ spreadsheet file stored elsewhere), with all the usual functionality available. If the data content is structured appropriately, it can be toggled between ‘table’ and ‘chart’ view (though this view is ‘fixed’ when the map is exported to create the HTML version).

Multiple Single Data Fields – These are like single cells in a spreadsheet and the values – which can be text or numeric – can be used to visually format the branch using MindManager’s Smart Rules feature.

Index Marker Tags [Attached] – Arranged in groups and added to individual branches as appropriate, index marker tags add visible contextual knowledge, enable map filtering to show / hide only those branches with specified tags, and enable internal map navigation.

Multiple Hyperlinks [Attached] – Another unique feature, multiple links to a range of official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources attached to the seed branch – usually selected from the full range of general & geographic knowledge resource collections – help turn the map into a knowledge portal without adding to the visual clutter.

In practice these processes are not sequential but organically iterative – one feeds into the other, which then feeds back into that and so it goes on (like the Mindmapping process described earlier, but unlike that it is constrained by what is actually out there in the real world).

Anyway we hope you agree that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts 🙂

You can find out more about the details of knowledge mapping individual countries in more detail in the ‘About – The Process’ section of ths Scotland The Map website.

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Intrigued, we applied the same technique to the humble calendar – the atlas for ‘time space’ – and, to cut a slightly shorter research & development story short – our calendar knowledge maps were born…
(These also crossed over to the ‘geographic space’ when we added links to the national days of every country of the world, as well as calendars for specific countries…)

Thinking further we realised there’s plenty of ‘things’ in the world of human endeavour that are real, and important, and have hierarchical (and other) inter-relationship with other real, and important, things….

organisations from governments (national to local) and public bodies, to corporations to community groups, to informal networks
in fact networks, people and organisations of any type and the ‘spaces’, economic spaces. Such spaces can’t be mapped geographically, or even if they can, mapping them only geographically doesn’t add much to our practical knowledge about them. An ‘organisation map’ is an obvious example of such a non-geographic knowledge map.

In fact we soon realised that, using this new visual mapping technique , we could map pretty much capture any ‘space’ of human interest and endeavour – be it physical, virtual, conceptual or whatever – as a MindManager map…

In these days of information overload we also realised that our knowledge maps could help people – and the teams, organisations and communities of which they are part – more quickly and easily answer the basic questions about ‘the spaces’ that they spend a lot of their time & resources trying to find answers to…

What are the important ‘things’ that make up this ‘space’ we are interested in?
What is the ‘spatial’ / hierarchical relationship between them?
What do we know about them?
Where are those knowledge resources to be found?
How do we access them now – and in the future – so we can use them to benefit our organisation / community / project?

By discovering & accessing the knowledge they need more quickly (and with a lot less stress :-), they could spend their precious (and usually limited) time & resources actually utilisng it to do what they need to do, rather than scrolling through endless search results (assuming they knew what to look for in the first place of course).

Anybody with access to MindManager software can use our knowledge maps as ‘ready made’ templates to amend, adapt & repurpose (in whole or in part) in their own projects, so they do not have to re-invent the knowledge wheel each time.

However thanks to MindManager’s unique HTML export capabilities, the HTML versions of our knowledge maps can be accessed by anybody using any modern browser, on any device, on or offline, without the need for any plugins ie. everybody!

And so we opened our digital download map store so that anybody can benefit from the ‘universdally useful’ knowledge maps of our world we create, and began offering our knowledge mapping services to map ‘spaces’ on behalf of clients as well as help them to do it for themselves…

Go to our Knowledge Mapping Services page

Go to our MindManager Services page

Go to our Public Domain Knowledge Map Store

Our Clients

Knowledge is all about people – it does little good if the person that needs it can’t find it, when they need it, in a form that they can easily digest, assimilate and act upon. We therefore take a people-centric approach to designing and delivering our knowledge products and services, and we see all our clients as people first – whether they are acting on their own, as part of a bigger team, or a whole organisation, and in turn delivering services to clients of their own.

Whoever they are, we like to work in a collaborative way with our clients and partners so that we achieve more together. You are experts at what you do. We would like to help you do it quicker, easier and with a lot less stress with what we do!

Client Testimonials

From the UK Chief Medical Officer to Local Council Officers, Project Managers and Headmasters, our mapping products and services have connected many individuals, teams, organisations & communities with the knowledge they need, to do what they need to do… quicker, easier, and with a lot less stress 🙂

Organisations

Over the course of our careers our team have worked – as both employees and contractors – for public sector organisations, private sector organisations, and public sector organisations that became private sector organisations! But also over that time the distinction between the public sector and private sector has become much less distinct. Indeed partnerships and collaboration is the name of the game.

This is of course where our mapping skills comes into their own – who’s who, where are they, who knows what, where all we all going, and what are we all doing along the way?

Communites

Communities are where we choose to live & collaborate with each other for personal & communal benefit. It’s also where the world is changed, and that the knowledge of how to make change, resides.

When we work with Communities it’s all about empowering them with the knowledge resources they need in order to move forward with challenges or opportunities they are facing. This is done by connecting them with each other, with what they do know, and with the wider general and specific knowledge bases so that they can fill in the gaps.

Our skillsets & tools mean that communities don’t need to be defined geographically in order for us to map them, the knowledge they retain, or the existing knowledge resources they can harness and benefit from…

Featured Client

Andrew Crummy - Community Tapestry Man

There are many ways of visually capturing, sharing – and indeed preserving – community knowledge for future generations. Over the last 10 years or so we have been helping friend & neighbour renowned Scottish community artist Andrew Crummy with his work on the many community tapestries he has designed.

Individual tapestry panels are large – typically 1 x 1m, 0.5 x 1m or 0.5 x 0.5m – so we are able to print out Andrew’s design templates at full size with our large format printer, which the designs are transferred onto. The design is then traced onto linen panels from the template and then sent out with the hand-coloured colour print to an army of hundreds of volunteer stitchers across the country, who realise it as a tapestry, usually in small community groups.

As a designer I can say without hesitation that Knowledge Mappers were important, unsung heroes, when I was designing The Great Tapestry of Scotland, Scottish Diaspora Tapestry and more recent projects. They provided a fantastic custom-made service in printing out large scale drawings and grids, without this key support it would have the made designing these tapestries more difficult. They also had an attention to detail that was very important. I cannot recommend them enough.

Andrew Crummy MBE Community Artist and Principal Artist & Illustrator of The Great Tapestry of Scotland, Battle of Prestonpans Tapestry and many others

Here are some of Andrew’s community tapestry projects we are immensely proud to have played a small part in…

The Battle Of Prestonpans Tapestry (2010)

Launched in Prestonpans in July 2010, the 104 panels in the Prestonpans Tapestry tell the story of the promising start to the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, from the landing of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” in Eriskay to the victorious Battle of Prestonpans.
104m x 0.5m, 104 panels, produced by over 250 stitchers.

Go To Tapestry Website

Go To Andrew's Website

Watch Documentary by Eric Robinson

The Great Tapestry Of Scotland (2013)

Launched at The Scottish Parliament in September 2013, the 163 panels of the Great Tapestry Of Scotland depict the complete history of Scotland, from its geological formation millions of years ago to the tennis triumphs of Sir Andy Murray in the present day.
143m x 1m, 163 panels, produced by over 1000 stitchers.

Go To Tapestry Website

Go To Andrew's Website

The Scottish Diaspora Tapestry (2014)

Launched at the 3 Harbours Arts Festival in May 2014, the 307 panels in this Scottish Dispora Tapestry tell how people from Scotland have travelled and settled all around the world, but also how these “Scots Abroad” in turn profoundly influenced thier homeland.
307 panels, 0.5m x 0.5m, produced by over 700 stitchers in 30 countries

Go To Tapestry Website

Go To Andrew's Website

The Tapestry For Renfrewshire (2016)

Begun in February 2016, the Renfrewshire Tapestry is an ongoing project that traces the history of the county of Renfrewshire. As well as the customary panel templates, we were also asked to print this ~1583 map of Renfrewshire by renowned Elizabethan mapmaker Timothy Pont (Pont 33) at both A1, and ‘double A0 taped together’ size, as part of this very unusal community mapping project.

Go To Tapestry Website

Go To Andrew's Website

Go To Timothy Pont On the National Map Library Website

The Mount Felix Hospital Tapestry (2019)

This beautiful community tapestry tells the story the ANZAC hospital at Mount Felix in Walton on Thames. 27,000 New Zealand wounded soldiers were welcomed into the heart of Walton on Thames and treated at this hospital during WWI and Andrew Crummy’s design depicts some of the most powerful true life stories surrounding the hospital.
44 panels 0.5m x 0.5m

Go To Tapestry Website

Go To Andrew's Website

The Cancer Tapestry (2019)

In 2017 Andrew went through cancer treatment. In conjunction with his ENT surgeon Rod Mountain and his oncologist Dr Ioanna Nixon he decided to o create a tapestry showing the science of the journey when going through Cancer Treatment and the care & compassion which is an important part of the journey. The aim is to get a 1000 people to add to the tapestry.

Go To Tapestry Website

Go To Andrew's Website

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About

About

Our People

Our People

Our Skills & Tools

Our Skills & Tools

Our Clients

Our Clients

Our People

In-House

Angus McDonald (BSc, MSc)

Founder, CEO & Principal Consultant

Associate Network

MindManager International Value Added Partner (MIVAP) Network

MindManager Software Consultants & Developers

Andrew Combes

Active / Sustainable School Travel Consultant (STHC)

Our Skills & Tools

Make connections and gain business-intelligence insights they didn't have before

Avoid 'information overload' and generally get a lot more done with a lot less stress...

Save time and money and increase return-on-investment

Geographic Information Mapping & Spatial Analysis

Knowledge Mapping With MindManager

Knowledge Map Guide

What Software Adds To The MindMapping Process

It's A Digital Document

Unlimited Editing & Re-arrangement Of Contents 'On The Hoof'

Infinite Canvas

Infinite Hierarchical Levels

More 'Visual Channels' For Capturing Information

From Initial Thoughts & Ideas, Through Plan Of Action To Completed Deliverable

Information Mapping Features Unique To MindManager Software

Wide Variety of Map Layout Styles (even at individual branch level)

Big Maps, With 1000's Of Branches & Even More Hyperlinks

Variably Formatted ('Rich') Branch Text

Multiple Hyperlinks On A Single Branch

Embedded Single Data Cells ('Topic Properties')

HTML Export

Commonalities Between Geographic Mapping and 'Mind' Mapping Modalities

Both are their own type of visual knowledge format

Both map 'the things' that together define 'a space'

Both map the relationships between 'the things' that together define 'the space'

Both use cartographic principles and devices to create a visual structure & language

Both can be built up in layers of related 'things'

Both are physical - and therefore archivable - knowledge artefacts

ISO3166-1 - The definitive list of 'Countries of the World'

UN Geoscheme - ISO3166-1 Countries grouped into Macro geographic regions & sub-regions

Turning the Geoscheme data table into a basic MindManager map

Turning the basic MindManager map into a Knowledge Atlas

Incorporating links to knowledge resources about the country / region into the map

Incorporating contextual knowledge gleaned from the 'linked to' resources as visual knowledge elements

Our Clients

Client Testimonials

Organisations

Communites

Featured Client

Andrew Crummy - Community Tapestry Man

The Battle Of Prestonpans Tapestry (2010)

The Great Tapestry Of Scotland (2013)

The Scottish Diaspora Tapestry (2014)

The Tapestry For Renfrewshire (2016)

The Mount Felix Hospital Tapestry (2019)

The Cancer Tapestry (2019)

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