Context Organizer for MindManager-Screencast

I recently did a post about Context Organizer for MindManager and thought that you would be interested in seeing how it actually works within MindManager with this screencast. Please note just how easy it is to use within MindManager and how it is able to extract and summarize the key words to give you the context. In the screencast you will see how it works to give you the context within a PDF and Microsoft Word file as well as within a blog. Enjoy. Look for another post about how Context Organizer can be used for Microsoft Office and the Web to summarize information.

If you or your company are interested in learning how you can integrate Context Organizer into your workflow, please feel free to email me. This is an ideal tool for executives, research analysts, or for anyone who has to plow through reams of reports or do research on the web. Context Organizer can also be integrated into existnig software applications- so please contact me if you need additional information.

Happy New Year!

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year! It has been a busy year at the AssistiveTek Blog and want to thank you my readers for making it a wonderful year. I have learned a lot from my interactions with you and have developed some great working relationships with some of the leading software developers in the field. Being the eternal optimist I am looking forward to the upcoming year and have some things in the work that you will be interested in reading about. So stay tuned and looking forward to hearing from you in the year ahead! All the best - Brian

Context Organizer for MindManager

I have been meaning to write about Context Organizer from Context Discovery for some time now and was recently reminded just how important this tool will become as we become increasingly inundated with information that we will be required to juggle in the work that we do. In my last post about, Wordle I received an interesting comment that made me think about Context Organizer and its value in the work that we do as information workers. Wordle is an online application that can pull out the keywords that are in the text and create a way to help us visualize the key content that is body of the text. One of my readers has been using Wordle to do just that- by copying and pasting text into Wordle it can quickly give you the context of the material entered. It was this comment that sparked me to delve more into the Context Organizer which can be used to summarize web pages and documents of different types to help you pinpoint relevant information.

I was first attracted to Context Organizer because of the fact that it is an add-in to MindManager 7 & 8. Using Context Organizer you are able to quickly get the context of attached documents as well as web sites right within MindManager 8, that are visually displayed as topics and subtopics. In the screen shot to the left you can see that I have a PDF document attached to the topic, Inclusion Times Issue.
With Context Organizer running it automatically created the rest of the topics and subtopics to the left of the topic Inclusion Times Issue, by looking at the content of the PDF file that was attached. You can see that it pulled out the 3 top keywords as well as the Summary which gives me a great idea of what I would find if I were to open the PDF file and readthe entire document. Context Organizer will also will give you more extensive summaries of the PDF that are included within the the MindManager 8 map as you can see from the screenshot to the right. Context Organizer is very easy to use and when you Right click on a topic the Context Organizer menu options are displayed along with any Options that you would like to set. Context Organizer can also be used for determining keywords from websites that are connected to your visual maps from within MindManager 7 & 8. If you are a MindManager 7 or 8 user and are looking for a tool to help you wade through piles and piles of documents and or websites than you should definitely take a look at Context Organizer for MindManager. Context Organizer works with MindManager 7 as well as 8 and is a very handy tool to help you find the context of the documents as well as websites right within MindManager. There is a free trial available at the Context Discovery website. So give it a try and post your comments here.

Wordle- "Word Clouds"

For some time now I have been playing around with Wordle, a web based application that can take your text or feed from your blog and create "word clouds" which you can display or post to the web. It is an interesting visualization tool and one that gives you some context, at least for me, about what I have been writing about. I recently entered my blog URL into Wordle and came up with this word cloud. What do you think of Wordle?

MindMeister 3.1 Released

One of the first mindmapping Web 2.0 applications that I tried awhile back was MindMeister and it continues to be one of the leading online mindmapping applications available. Just today MindMesiter released version 3.1 with lots of added features. One of the features which I feel will be a welcome addition is the ability to add relationships to your map. MindMesiter calls these graphic cross connections which are easily added by clicking on the Connect button on the Tool bar. You can see in the map below how I added the green connection arrow from one node to another one in the map. In Version 3.1 it is now possible to alphabetize the nodes and so that they are sorted alphabetically. If an individual who has been invited to collaborate on the map but has not yet entered the map a coffee cup icon will appear and by clicking on the coffee cup icon you can "nudge" them to participate. It has also just gotten a lot easier to take your maps offline. No longer do you have to wait for endlessly for all your maps to synch when you go to offline mode - a new dialog allows you to choose which maps you want to take offline. Very useful if you have a lot of them!So check out MindMeister and sign up for a free account. You will also find it easy to embed yourMindMeister maps on your website or blog to communicate your ideas. Below is an actual map that was created with MindMesiter that you can interact with. Let me know what you think.

XMind -- An Open Source Brainstorming and Mind Mapping Software!

XMind, a leader in mind mapping, visual thinking and collaboration software, helps you to think and create, and to collect and organize information with great flexibility.

Even more, you can also easily share your mind maps online with any people. As an Open Source software application , XMind also brings Web 2.0 concepts and community online sharing.

XMind will enable you to:

* Easily capture your ideas from brainstorming sessions

* Easily organize information for meetings and presentations with a wide range of formats

* Share your ideas and broadcast your knowledge to the world

Happy Holidays

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish all of my readers a happy and healthy holiday season! We have a lot to be thankful for. Enjoy your time off and look for some new posts later this week.

MindManager 8 Web Services Video Up

Each month for the past year I have produced a video tutorial or tip for Mindjet Connections Newsletter and I am happy to report this month's video is up on the topic of Web Services, a new feature found in MindManager 8. MindManager 8 Web Services offers users some very powerful search features that can be accessed right within the MindManager8 without having to leave the application. In the video I demonstrate how you can use both the Amazon and Google Web Services right within MindManager 8. I hope you enjoy the video tutorial.

Animoto

I came across Animoto today and wanted to share it with you. It is a web site that lets you upload your pictures, select your music form their library and then puts the whole thing together for you. You can see the sample video in this post. It is very cool and with a click of the mouse let me embed it in my blog. Try it out and let me know what you think!

bCisive 2.0 is Here!

I want to thank Katherine from Austhink for spending some time over Skype this evening going over bCisive 2.0, which was just released. As soon as you open bCisive 2.0 you will immediately notice a new and improved user interface with a Start Screen that lets you select from several templates to get your business decision making process off the ground. If you are new to the software, Austhink now includes an introductory video which helps you get started- a nice touch. bCisive 2.0 now supports a Spell checker which was one of the most asked for features for users of the previous version. Austhink has added some new Tools to bCisive 2.0 which are a welcome addition- it is now possible to add various colored Notes to your business map. To highlight certain ideas in your business decision map you can now color them using the Color tools. bCisive 2.0 also adds Task as well as Source Tools for making your business decision map more meaningful by allowing you to communicate your ideas with appropriate icons. bCisive 2.0 now allows you to create powerful presentations from your business decision map with their all new in-product Presentation and export to PowerPoint feature. But best of all users of bCisive 1.0 can get a complimentary upgrade to bCisive 2.0 for free by simply clicking on the ‘Check for latest version’ button on the Help ribbon within your bCisive 1.0 software. bCisive 2.0 is a welcome addition to the field of business decision mapping and I for one am going to dive deeper into this rich application to find what other jewels await me. For more information about bCisive 2.0 go to Austhink website. Enjoy bCisive 2.0!

Dimdim 4.5 Released

I know I have written about Dimdim in the past but just wanted to let you know that their product offering has been upgraded and I had a chance to use it today with a colleague to share with him just how easy it is to start a web conferencing session. Dimdim is an very easy to use web conferencing application that runs through the browser and lets you upload your PowerPoint presentation for seamless webinars complete with Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and access to your webcam. Dimdim provides for a shared whiteboard and as the host you can pass control to your participants with the easy to use interface. Considering that this is a free webconferencing tool it packed with features- in fact even if it were not free it would be worth the price of admission. The free account will let you host sessions with up to 20 participants and the Premium account for just $99 a year will allow you to host up to 100 participants. Your participants can use the VOIP to hear the presentation and can use the built-in IM feature to ask questions. With Dimdim you can also record and playback your meetings which makes it easy to post and archive for future use. If you would like you can also use Dimdim to share your desktop or any applications on the hosts computer. If you haven't tried out Dimdim give it a try you will be happy you did.

RobiNZ MindManager 8 for Kiva Auction

In the spirit of the holiday season Robin Capper who is well known to the MindManager Community is auctioning off a copy of MindManager 8 on eBay with100% of the proceeds going to benefit the community loan charity, Kiva.org. Here is more information on the Kiva Organization (http://www.kiva.org/), and on Robin's original blog post: http://tinyurl.com/62mo8h. Happy Holidays to all!

Podcast up at the VizThink Website

Earlier this month I was interviewed by Tom Crawford of VizThink and we had a great dialog about how visualization is used to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The session was recorded and is now live on the VizThink website. During the interview I had the opportunity to share with Tom some software tools that are used to help students who may present with reading and writing disabilities and just how important the visual supports are in the learning process.

As excited as I am to listen and view the podcast, I am more excited that I have been asked to present at the VizThink 2009 Conference on this very topic, that will be held in San Jose, CA on February 22-25. It is important to understand that when I usually do assistive technology presentations and workshops that I am primarily talking to regular and special education teachers who have students who could benefit from these technologies. This is one of the first times, that I will have the opportunity to talk with individuals with a wide range of backgrounds that are deeply interested in how visual thinking can help solve real world problems. In my session I will demonstrate and talk about how different programs utilize visual supports to aide students in reading, writing, thinking and organizing ideas. I look forward to the feedback and input from my participants who may come up with new ways to think about how we can use visual supports. To register for the VizThink North America 2009 Conference just click on the link.