Mindjet’s Director of Solutions Marketing, Michael Deutch, and PMPi’s James Bulmer, MCP – Senior Associate, will present "Productivity-Improving Techniques for Using MindManager in the PMBOK^® Framework" at PMI Global Congress 2007.

Sunday, October 7th

12:30 pm –2:00 pm   Room A404

You’ll walk away with:

• An understanding of the new techniques for managing projects within the PMBOK^® Framework
• An understanding of basic methods of applying MindManager in project management
• Knowledge of the best practices for reducing the time required for requirements capture, scope definition and project communications

Visit Mindjet at booth #722 by downloading this free exhibit hall pass and get a firsthand look at MindManager 7 and the Project Management Jetpack.

I first heard about the Web 2.0 map in Nick Wilson’s Metaversed blog. Nick pointed me to George Kurtz, the mastermind and creator of what is possibly this lifetime and Second Life’s largest map, built in MindManager. Just how big is it? According to George, SL aka Butch Dae, the 3D version of the map in Second Life measures about 120 x 510 feet/ 40 x 160 meters – well over the size of a football field, and contains over 400 parent topics with over 3 gigabytes of references. The landmark for the map in Second Life is Quiricosta (228,87,108).

In a recent phone conversation, George and a small team in Second Life are working on what they describe as the Virtual Information Technology (VIT) World Project, an effort to stimulate development and promote collaboration within Second Life. They define VIT as “the computational hardware, software, and human systems that handle the ever-increasing amount of available data.” They have learned that the management, analysis, and interpretation of such massive streams of data demands a new perspective. George describes these changes as “a refresh in the way we work, interact, communicate, collaborate, and play.”

The VIT team uses MindManager to capture the enormous amount of information related to their project. George reports that by identifying all the components of Virtual Information Technology and developing the hierarchical structure of the information, he then can start seeing the trends that are developing, what’s working and what’s not.  George said, “It’s like putting a puzzle together.  If I don’t have all the pieces, I will not have a complete picture of what’s going on."

George theorizes that today, no one invents anything completely new.  He believes that what is new is the packaging of the components into a cohesive whole.  "The components of a new idea are floating around out there somewhere, just waiting to be discovered.  This is why the notion of building a “big picture” view is so important," said George.

Developing a map helped George build the hierarchical structure of The Virtual Information Technologies Concept.  "Using the map," he said, "I can examine the relationship of all the components and by grouping the like components; I can identify the emerging patterns and sequences in today’s rapidly developing technologies."

At a growth rate of about 25 parent topics a day, George may very well have the lead on the world’s largest map.
 

To download a copy of the Virtual Information Map, click here.

If you find this project interesting, please contact George Kurtz at gekurtz@comcast.net or go to their VIT World Group headquarters (landmark is Quiricosta 231,33,45) and ask for Butch Dae.

In a proud display of corporate camaraderie, the third annual (and biggest yet) "Team Mindjet" competed along with 5,340 participants from 233 companies in the 23rd San Francisco JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge.

It was a brightly-shirted, energetic crowd that gathered in the blustery dusk at Crissy Field at 6 o’clock Wednesday evening… some more ready than others, to brave the weather and fellow runners on the 3.5-mile course.

Two months of postering, emailing, mapping (see image), and cheerleading colleagues to join the Corporate Challenge, resulted in an impressive 18 men and women from nearly every department at Mindjet (including the CEO), some marathon trainees, and some for their first race ever.

After the  race, we gathered at the jazzy Bistro Yoffi for food and drinks.