The Mindjet Blog

Archive for April, 2006

Why Is Mindjet Interested in Web 2.0?

Apr 3

Posted by Michael Scherotter in MindManager, Mindjet

Great question.

Why is the company that makes everyone’s favorite desktop productivity application so interested in what’s happening with Web 2.0?  Isn’t MindManager a desktop application and the web, well, the web?  It’s all about XML. 

When Mindjet re-engineered MindManager for Version X5 in 2003, it built it upon a new XML foundation.  This meant that all of the data that is in a map from the topic text to the images is stored in the human-readable extensible data format XML. 

So for a simple example, the XML text below will make a map with a central topic “Web 2.0″ and single main topic “MindManager”. 

<ap:Map xmlns:ap=”http://schemas/mindjet.com/MindManager/Application/2003″>
    <ap:OneTopic>
        <ap:Topic>
            <ap:SubTopics>
               <ap:Topic>
                   <ap:Text PlainText=”MindManager”>
                      <ap:Font/>
                   </ap:Text>
               </ap:Topic>
            </ap:SubTopics>
            <ap:Text PlainText=”Web 2.0″>
                <ap:Font/>
            </ap:Text>
        </ap:Topic>
    </ap:OneTopic>
</ap:Map/>

It just so happens that the language of Web 2.0 is XML.  In essense, almost all of the Web 2.0 applications serve their data as XML.  To see a list of available web services, take a look at the database at ProgrammableWeb.com. As I have said before, one of the great advantages of using XML is that it is easily transformable, so moving data from one XML format to another XML format is actually quite easy.   In 2003, when we released MindManager X5 Pro, it used one of the first Web 2.0 applications, Google (GOOG) Web Search, and then we released the Accelerator for Salesforce.com, which intereacted with one of the most successful Web 2.0 applications, Salesforce.com (CRM).  The Research Accelerator acts as a client for various web services from research and search sources like Yahoo (YHOO), Technorati, Microsoft (MSFT), and Google.  We built that because we wanted to demonstrate a consistent interface for accessing research and search services while uisng MindManager.

Mindjet sees incredible innovation and competition (I think they go hand-in-hand) in the Web 2.0 world and we are very excited about how easily MindManager can act as a client for web 2.0 applications.  If you are a MindManager user, take a look at the services at ProgrammableWeb.com, see if you use any of those services already, and if so tell us what services would make your work using MindManager more productive.  If you are not a MindManager user yet, of course <marketing tone=”shameless”>you should download the free trial today</marketing>. But if you have a web 2.0 application and you want to get it in front of 750,000 business users while they are planning projects, brainstorming, and running business processes,  send an email to labs@mindjet.com; we want to talk to you today!

Michael

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Mindjet Technical Documentation Wins Awards

Apr 3

Posted by Tim Bombosch in Mindjet

During a recent technical communications competition, two Mindjet entries were honored for the quality of their work. Mindjet MindManager 6 Online Help received a Distinguished Technical Communication Award, while the MindManager Pro 6 Large-Scale Deployment Guide received an award of Merit.

The competition is sponsored by the Society for Technical Communication (STC) Willamette Valley Chapter (Portland) and is the first step in an international competition sponsored by the STC. Because of its award, MindManager 6 Online Help will advance to the final round of competition. Hats off to Jeanne Daniele, its author, for outstanding work!

Receiving a Distinguished Technical Communication Award is not easy. Willamette Valley winners included submissions from Apple, Borland, Intel, IBM, Xerox, and Network Associates. The criteria for judging are quite strict, “The entry is superior in all areas. It contains no major flaws, and few, if any minor flaws. It applies the principles of technical communication in an outstanding way, particularly in the way it fulfills the needs of its audience.”

The Praise for the MindManager 6 Online Help is impressive. One judge comments, “For years I have relied on aftermarket guides from Microsoft Press, Sybex, and Peachpit Press for help of this quality.” Another comments, “Overall, great work!! Having designed help systems, I could see a lot of thought had been put into issues that might” affect the user.

The Large-Scale Deployment Guide has evolved into a key document for corporate customers wanting to install MindManager on large numbers of machines. It is the product of three subject matter experts. Tim Bombosch serves as the technical writer, Hasan Funk as the release engineer, and Johannes Modersohn (we call him Jomo) as the product support specialist and quality assurance engineer. Because this document serves largely as a reference for configuring MindManager from the command line or registry, the information is extremely complex and requires a great deal of attention to get it right. All three contributors have gone through every comma in the document to assure its accuracy.

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