Site of mind maps
There are many ready mind maps available in the Web, as you can
see in the Galleries page. They are
fragmented and sometimes it is hard for the user to find the one he wants
or needs. Even if he finds such a map, it can be in a format that is not usable
by that user in particular.
The opportunity here is to grab all those disperse mind maps
and build a site of mind maps, an integrated library of them, where
each mind map is available in several formats: images (PNG, JPEG, maybe a
vectorial format like EMF or SVG if possible) and application-specific files.
The site would have a search engine through
which the user could find mind maps by keywords, author and file format, among
other possibilities. In the search results, the found mind maps would be shown and, for each one, a brief description, author, a thumbnail and the
formats available with links to download each version. The thumbnail could be
clickable to show an image of the mind map, so the user wouldn't have to
download any file to see if it is of his interest, assuring a higher
productivity interface.
(More)
One critical factor of success is semantic quality, in the
sense that people other than the author can understand the mind map without other sources
of information. Not all mind maps have it, and it would be nice to offer only
good maps so the users can create an impression that they find what they need
most of the time
and so they want to come back.
Another factor is usability. We have seen mind maps in
format A1, which is hardly printable or even usable on screen. Other mind maps
are not prepared for printing at all, which reduces their usability. So the
published mind maps may require some preparation, called diagramming. There
could be several diagramming formats, as Letter and A3, for example.
Such a site will require a database with
entities like category, mind map, author, file formats and their relationships.
Ranking systems - as for mind maps and authors - could also be implemented.
An extension would be to have a store as well, so anyone could sell mind maps, probably in the e-book format, with several maps to
make a reasonable value.
Later, mind mapping desktop software may have
direct contact with the library, so users can search and download - maybe
buy - directly from the software.
Do it before Google does!
To mind map learning strategies
The site Learning Guides & Strategies (www.studygs.net/index.htm)
has dozens of strategies, in several languages. The main point being that those
strategies are presented in a semi-structured format - steps - that makes them
relatively easy to mind map.
The opportunity here is to mind map the best strategies of
that site and to make a site, an e-book or even a book. An e-book can be sold at
eBay or
Clickbank, for example.
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The content could be a combination of a descriptive
text and the correspondent mind map, made with a software in order to achieve greater
productivity. Using more than one software may enrich the reader experience.
A possible issue here is illustration. Illustrating a
mind map takes time and increases the mind map dimensions, which in turn may
create diagramming issues. One intermediate solution is to illustrate the main
and level 1 topics. Or do it in the second edition.
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