Archive for December, 2005

Mapping the Field of Organizational Theory

Fabrice Cavarretta, on his blog "Mapping OT field," has, like I blogged earlier about Haily doing, has created and posted an incredibly deep set of maps on the subject of Organizational Theory.

Fabrice says that "The maps have been developed in the context of preparing comprehensive examinations. This process was extremely productive since it allowed at the same time massive accumulation, manipulation and memorization of knowledge. It remains to be seen if the results can be used as such by someone else, or only as a suggestion to build one’s own maps."

Maps like Fabrice’s and Haily’s clearly show how the combination of the new MindManager IE browser-based viewer and the maps themselves enable people to share a really pretty staggering amount of information in a very concise way — and in a way that enables the recipient of the information to parse it as they choose.

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Seeking Beta Testers for Japanese Version of
MindManager Pro 6

Mindjet is planning to release a Japanese language version of Mindjet MindManager Pro 6 and we need your help in beta testing the product. We are seeking multi-lingual testers with knowledge of the Japanese and English language. Beta testing for the Japanese version starts February 2006. Apply today.

Please pass this message on to anyone who might be interested in beta testing this version.

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Brainjamming with MindManager

The BrainJams event this past Saturday was a blast. It combined 2 great interests of mine: “Web 2.0” technologies and MindManager.  The central theme throughout the day was how web technologies can be used and how they should evolve to improve people’s lives.

Chris Heuer did a fantastic job of organizing the day’s events. The morning focused on 5 minute brainstorming sessions. This enabled every attendee to talk with almost every other attendee about what they are passionate about and get feedback and new ideas. The afternoon had 30 minute sessions on topics uncovered in the morning for brainstorming by a larger group. MindManager captured the ideas brought to light in the sessions and will be used as a permanent repository of the knowledge accumulated.

I can’t wait for the next one.  

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A Core Component of a Good Presentation: Questions

The first "Powered by MindManager" event was BlawgThink 2005 (go here to download the MindManager Viewer you will need to navigate the BlawgThink map). The event, hosted by Matt Homann and Dennis Kennedy, was held in Chicago and presented as a "conference, reimagined." Dennis and Matt’s idea was to stage an event for people interested in blogging for the legal profession (hence the "b-law-g" moniker). When we heard what they wanted to do, we knew we wanted to be part of it.

Their plan? Simple: "No PowerPoint. No Agenda. No Kidding…attendees work in small groups to explore the key issues that interest them most. LexThink! facilitators would use collaborative brainstorming techniques [ahem!] to stimulate small group participation while keeping discussions anchored to a central theme."

One way to make any event more interactive might be to have guest speakers arrive with their heads not completely filled with answers.  What if, instead, the mark of a good presentation was one that included a few well-considered questions to pose to the audience?

Of course, this format wouldn’t work as well if the speaker was using one-way tools like slide presentations. If they presented using MindManager, however, the speaker could go through their prepared presentation map, then open up the map to the questions. They would then immediately start engaging the audience is a dialog –the essence of which could be captured and later shared in the presentation map itself. Sounds like fun to me!

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