Knowledge Mapping

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‘, originally pioneered by Tony Buzan in the 1970s, is a manual, graphical way of capturing, storing and working with information, and the thoughts, ideas and connections that it generates once it’s in your head, 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’). In a “mind map” information is not stored in traditional “linear” lines, paragraphs and pages of text, but instead in discrete ‘chunks’, arranged around the central topic, connected together by lines that show the (often 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 concep t 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 mindmapping, and the physical limitations placed on it through using a sheet of paper and pens, it was only a matter of time before somebody wrote a software program to create mindmaps on computer. MindManager was one of the first (version 1 was released in 1994 under the name “MindMan”).

Now we don’t care a jot about the arguments around whether or not mindmaps created by compter software are “real mindmaps” according to the rules of Tony Buzan. What we do care about is the power of the mindmap form – the tree diagram – as a visual knowledge framework for super efficiently recording, sharing and retrieving any sort of digital information (ie. not just thoughts and ideas generated inside your brain but also existing, published information about any subject), in way that works in harmony with the human brain.

Software adds several fundamental features to the information mapping process that are not described in the original scope and design of mind mapping:-

• Unlimited editing & rearrangement – Maps can be endlessly amended, edited and rearranged within the software. 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 visual hierarchy – Likewise there is no limit to the number of levels of sub-branches that can be added to the map. At any level in the hierarchy however, 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.

• Digital integration with information sources – in the modern knowledge society information is digital and available on the internet, so by using software to map it there is the opportunity to connect the map with the information in ways not possible if the map is only on a physical sheet of paper. As you will see from the next point, the map can contain all the information about a subject (as is the case for traditional paper “mind maps”), or it can be a summary index that links to the actual content elsewhere. The analogy is with the table of contents at the start of a reference e-book, with the chapter / section headings linking through to the relevant content (which can be anywhere else and in any digital form). Because it is arranged in a tree diagram however, it forms a visual knowledge framework that can put information in context depending on where it is placed on the map. As with all maps that show the spatial relationships between things, this is in itself useful and valuable information.

• Multiple information recording “channels” – You will have choice of ways for recording information in a digital map. As well as text and images visible on the branches of the map, mindmapping software allows you to record information as:-

  – branch notes attached to the branch, which are visible in a side panel in the software. In Mindmanager notes are mini documents in their own right so can be formatted and stylised and contain tables and images.

  – files “attached” to branches, which can be opened up by clicking on the icon on the branch. The appropriate software will then be fired up and the file opened within it (obviously the appropriate software must be installed on the device on which it it to be viewed).

  – hyperlinks“attached” to branches to either files stored elsewhere or pages on the internet. Two of the unique features of MindManager in this respect are the ability to have multiple links stored on the one branch, and the built-in browser which allows you to view webpages in a panel beside the map without leaving the MindManager software environment.

  – data tables and charts, just as you would have in ann excel spreadsheet (this ability is unique to MindManager).

• Built in templates, icons and graphic images – MindManager especially comes with a large number of template maps already installed. These templates allow users to be guided through a process to create maps to fulfil particular purposes quickly and efficiently, even if they have never done it before. For example undertaking a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) analysis of their business / project.

• Sharing The Map – It is much easier to share a digital file than a static image on a sheet of paper. At the very least digital maps can be shared with other users that have the same software that was used to create it. Most software will allow maps to be saved as a static image, but another of MindManagers unique features is the ability to save maps as interactive Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files, which can be viewed by anybody using the freely available Acrobat Reader. Though not editable, users can still drill down through the visual hierarchy of information by expanding and collapsing branches. This is done through a built-in feature of the Adobe Acrobat Reader so the end user does not need to install an additional plug-in or anything like that.

• From initial thoughts & ideas, through plan of action to completed deliverable – Again in todays “information-age society” almost everything we do in terms of work is digital, especially if we are “knowledge workers” who must create / use / share 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 take you 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 apps” 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. The following examples illustrate this key point:-

  – Authoring Digital Documents – If you need to produce some sort of digital information document, like a report or a presentation, plan out the broad structure as a map. Then flesh out the branches of the map with the content, the words and images, perhaps as notes. Mindmanager is especially good at enabling maps to be exported to other “linear” file types, like Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. However not only is the content exported, all the styling and formatting to make it look right can be too. Thus you can end up with a more or less finished file by doing all the work in MindManager, the same enviromnment in which the content was created.

  – Better Meetings – Plan the meeting – the purpose, the venue & related logistics, the invitees etc, – using one of the built-in template maps. Spin off a comprehensive agenda map from this, complete with links to the relevant files and web pages (or embed the files within the map so that they are always avaiable, even offline). Send it to all the attendees beforehand and they will be much more engaged when they turn up. Have this agenda map on display friom the start and use it like a digital whiteboard to run your meeting. If you add to the map as you are going along, recording the key thoughts, ideas, proposals and responses, it will be the focal point around which everybody engages. Quickly move from planning to execution by assigning tasks, priorities, and deadlines right in the meeting map. Comments and decisions can be documented so everyone is prepared for next steps, and participants leave the meeting knowing what’s happening, who’s assigned to each task, and when action items are due.  This final meeting map can be swiftly sent out as the post-meeting minutes. A link to this map can be added to your digital calendar as part of your digital archive. Ideally your calendar should also be a map so that it can serve both as a rolling archive of past activities as well as a diary planner of future ones.

  – Problem Solving – define the problem in map form, capturing all the thoughts and ideas about it. Use the unrestricted map canvas to follow chains of thought as far as you want, then backtrack up your branches as far as you need and branch off in another direction. Or just put things anywhere on the canvas as discrete, as-yet unrelated elements. Whatever. The idea is just to record thoughts and any connections as fast as they are articulated. When the time comes, move into consolidation mode. Review what’s there, the overall structure, the substructure of the individual branches and chains. edit and re-arrange as necessary. Move the discrete elements into the map structure, even if it’s just in a “parked for now” branch. Organize and prioritize elements in a relevant way that boosts everybodys understanding and buy-in and gets you towards your solution. MindManager for example has a Guided Brainstorming feature to inspire new ways of thinking that drive you and your team to consider alternative approaches and solutions. Choose from predefined challenges and questions cards that help you categorize ideas and work through hurdles when you hit a mental roadblock.

  – Project Planning – What is project management if not an exercise in anticipating a series of inter-related problems, resolving them and documenting the solution in the form of a plan that all particpants have “bought into”? Thus the next stage to transform a problem solving map into a project plan map is to assign tasks, resources and timeframes. Or again simply start with one of the many project management template maps included with the software. Visualize goals, validate requirements, intelligently manage resources and identify dependencies. Create and manage budgets in the project map alongside priorities and schedules (again MindManager has this ability built in to the map). If kept up to date in near real time, the map becomes a live project dashboard, where progress on individual tasks can be visualiy tracked against the deadlines that have been set, whilst not losing sight of the “big picture”. Quickly make adjustments when schedules and resources change. The task roll-up feature in MindManager shows the overall impact of changes to assignments and dependencies so that everyone can understand (and respond to) the implications of schedules and budgets. Integrated Gantt charts provide a timeline view of your schedule. Another essential feature of MindManager is the ability to export maps straight to Microsoft Project if that is what is required.

  – Program Planning – More than one project to keep track of? A Project Program is a series of related projects that may be running in series or parallel. Again it is a logical extension of the previous 2 points (and a very straightforward process) to create a program dashboard map that links to all the individual project plan maps. Again MindManager has the ability to update this dashboard map in real time from the other maps.

• Filtering the map based on content and properties of the content – Most business orientated mindmapping software allows you to use your map like a visual database by enabling you to query the map (technically known as “filtering”) on text string values and / or formatting elements (such as colour) and / or text or icon tags associated with the topic. This hides all the map content that doesn’t fit the selected criteria, leaving only the content that does. However because of the visual branching hierarchy the query results are instantly placed in a wider context. Also the filtered map can then be saved as a new map that can be used elsewhere. The queries can also be saved in the software to be repeated at any time in the future.

• Other diagram types – “Mindmapping” software has gone beyond the simple tree diagram and most have the ability to create other visual diagram structures as well. For example Mindmanager allows users to create organisational diagrams, process maps, concept maps, swim lanes etc. The key thing with mindmapping software over other drawing software that could also be used to create such diagrams, is that they retain all the other advantages of digital mindmaps, especially the multiple channels for recording information. Thus information elements within these other diagrams can still have associated notes, multiple hyperlinks and attached files!

Anyway as you can see “mindmapping” software goes way beyond the technique of mindmapping as envisaged by Tony Buzan. It is a hugely vsersatile digital tool that enables you to do a lot of the everyday digital stuff you have to do anyway, but much quicker, easier and efficiently, allowing you to stay more in control of the whole information capture, understand and share process.

So much so in fact that we don’t like to call MindManager “mindmapping” software. We produce maps of information and information sources so it is “information mapping” software as far as we are concerned!

We use MindManager from to create our multi-level, multi-purpose, digital knowledge maps. First created in 1994 and now with over 2 million users worldwide, including over half of the Global 2000 and Fortune 500 Corporations’ such as Boeing, BMW, Ford, Hewlett Packard, KPMG, Microsoft, Motorola, Rolls Royce, & Siemens, Mindjet MindManager is the worlds leading information (“mind”) mapping software. We have been users since version 4 (MindManager 2002). 18 years later we are now up to version 21 (MindManager 2021).

There are plenty of free software tools out there if all you want to do is “mindmapping” on computer. However we haven’t found any other software to match the versatility of MindManager for the sheer range of easy-to-use – and often unique – opions and tools for…

• capturing information digitally “on the hoof”, either through manual, keyboard entry during solo / group brainstorming sessions, or by simple on-screen “drag and drop” with a mouse.
• importing existing information from other “standard” digital sources such as Microsoft Outlook, Excel and, for coporate IT setups, SharePoint.
• organising it into a visual framework, in other words a map or diagram. Not just a traditional “mindmap” ie. a radial branching tree, but organisations structure maps, right/left-only maps, flow charts, concept maps etc.
• combining (“mashing up”) information about the same subject from (sometimes radically) different sources into the one document that is effectively infinite in capacity but more compact and intuitive to navigate than traditional “linear” documents – “drill down, not scroll down!”. For example our biggest map to date, which maps all the pages in the websites of over 60 European Union bodies, has over 17,000 hyperlinks in over 18,000 branches – try getting that amount of information in a single, usable Word document 😉
• re-organising the map content quickly, intuitively, flexibly, organically, responsively, as you want so you stay in control.
• formatting the map with great information cartography tools to get the look and feel that you want eg. the ability to use your own, customisable image libraries.
• visualising information in different ways within the map eg. as embedded spreadsheets, charts etc.
• creating new information from existing information within the map using formulas and auto-calculation features that incorporate data from sub-branches (branches can also be formatted according to the value of the newly calculated data to aid visualisation).
• tagging map branches using your own or imported tags and groups of tags.
• querying your information like a visual database by filtering the map on text string values and/or formatting element and/or tag. Query results can then be saved instantly as a new map.
• re-purposing existing map elements to quickly use in other maps, either by simple copying and pasting, or as map parts which can be made available to all users in a library.
• hyper-linking to online resources, with multiple hyperlinks on a single branch and a built-in web browser so you never have to leave the MindManager environment to view the resources (one of our personal favourites 🙂
• exporting information to other “standard” formats such as Acrobat pdf, Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc.
• sharing your map so that others also have the benefit of discovering / accessing a huge amount of information in a more compact and intuitive to navigate – “drill down, not scroll down!”.
• presenting /publishing your map to make it easier to transfer knowledge and experience in a form that makes it easier for others to act upon it.
• adapting & extending the softwares capabilities via the API (Application Programming Interface) and macro writer to create  bespoke solutions.
• enabling people and organisations to not just collect and organise information from a huge range of different sources into the one environment, but to assimilate it and act upon the inights it provides them to get the stuff done that they need to do, in a more productive way. For example the great project / task management tools and templates are used by project managers controlling multi-million dollar projects and project programmes around the world.

In addition there is a community of official Mindjet partners (such as ourselves) offering a range of value-added services and add-ons / plug-ins that greatly extend the functionality of Mindmanager, which is already pretty awsome anyway!

All of these mean MindManager is a hugely flexible, digital information tool that provides practical, focused, low-cost solutions to help people and organisations stay on top of their information and ideas, and get a lot more done with a lot less stress… 🙂

Where it began…
Once we seriously began using MindManager – the world’s best information mapping software – as a business mindmapping tool back in 2002, we soon realised we could also use it in a way that complemented our geographic information mapping work. We could…

• Map geographic space in a different kind of way – By capturing geographic entities as branches in a MindManager ‘tree diagram’ map from definitive source spreadsheets, we created a visually structured, digital framework that, just like a ‘traditional’ geographic map, not only recorded the different entities that made up ‘the space’, but also the hierachical relationships between them.
• Map knowledge resources about the space – By attaching (often multiple) hyperlinks to public domain knowledge resources about the entities to their branch in the map – be they official, definitive or just plain old useful – 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. So as well as being a visually structured index of knowledge resources about the ‘things’ in the ‘space’, our map was now also a portal to those resources.
• Incorporate contextual knowledge – Using MindManager’s many unique ‘information cartography’ features (see above), some of the core information contained in the linked resources could 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 size and population. The resulting ‘knowledge seed branches’ are mini knowledge portals in their own right, and can often negate the need to consult the linked resources for basic information.

A different kind of geographic world atlas
We decided to begin applying this new knowledge mapping technique to the fundamental building blocks of ‘geographic space’ – the countries of the world and the macro-geographic regions and sub-regions in which they sit. So we…

1. Started with the data tables for the international standards that define these things – UN Geoscheme (macro-geographic regions) &  ISO3166-1 (countries) – and imported the appropriate fields into mindmanager to create the basic framework.
2. We then hunted down all the official / definitive / plain old useful knowledge resources about them we could find in the public domain online, and attached their URL’s as hyperlinks to the appropriate map branch.
3. Finally we applied a bit of cartographic know-how.

And so (to cut a long research & development story short) we created our first countries of the world knowledge atlas map…

But with important similarities
New and exciting though this new type of atlas was, we realised that our knowledge maps still shared important characteristics with ‘traditional’ geographic maps…

• A map is it’s own ‘type of knowledge’ – A map – the visually structured index of what things are where and how they inter-relate within the space – is a type of knowledge in it’s own right. It’s not a pure picture, and it’s not just words, rather it’s a carefully, and scientifically calculated, combination of the 2.
• A map is a knowledge artefact – Geographic maps have 2 lives… The first is as a working document that shows ‘the space’ now. However the world moves on and spaces change, so the map then becomes a historical record of what the space looked like at a particular point in time. Traditional (ie. paper) geographic maps were physically archived in libraries, so they could be consulted by future generations. Online mapping services like Google Maps however are constantly being updated to always show the most current picture, and anyway aren’t a discrete artefact that can be stored but are assembled from databases on demand to the viewer. Because MindManger maps are a software file, they can be saved and archived.
• A map as a ‘basemap framework’ – Most of us at some point have taken a geographic map and drawn our own information on top it to quickly communicate information to others – how to get to our house / the hotel etc. (though these days Google Maps will do that automatically for you to show you the driving route between 2 points). In such cases the geographic map is acting as a ‘basemap’ – a visual knowledge framework upon which additional, more specialised, content could be added that would be difficult to interpret if the basemap wasn’t there. Well we realised that our general knowledge atlas map could be used as a basemap to create all sorts of different knowledge maps about the countries of the world.

A different kind of calendar (‘time atlas’)
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…)

Map Any ‘Space’
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…

Share It With Everybody, Even If They Don’t Use MindManager
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!

Save Everybody Time & Resources
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).

Let’s start a map store
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…