I logged into my beta account, after choosing the option to convert it to a Webspiration Pro trial account, and had a look around. The interface is identical to what I saw when I first reviewed the beta version in 2008 (click the image above right to view a larger version). The application now offers nearly 50 mind map templates, a mixture of business (group project plan, problem solving process and social media campaign, for example) and college/educational (persuasive speech or essay, inquiry-based paper and study guide, for example). That’s nice to see, but the list of templates is a hodge-podge and could have been divided more neatly into business and college-level template folders. There also seems to be a number of templates that are focused on the needs of educators (vs. students) that I’m not sure really belong here.

The map collaboration capabilities of Webspiration Pro now include the ability to track who made what changes to your team map, as well as the ability to roll back changes to a previous version of the map. I also noticed that, in addition to downloading your mind map as an Inspiration document, you can choose options to download it as a Word document or transfer it to your Google Docs account. In particular, it’s nice to see the capability of moving your map from one cloud-based service (Webspiration) to another popular online document tool (Google Docs).

My only question is: Why was Webspiration in beta for 3 years? Normally, a program spends 3-6 months in beta, with a small group of testers. Inspiration Software says over 200,000 people participated in the Webspiration beta. To be fair, the application was launched just before the global economy went into the deepest recession in many years. The education market, which is Inspiration Software’s main focus, probably faced frozen budgets and limited spending on software for the last several years. Now that the global economy is starting to recover from the doldrums, it will be interesting to see where the developer takes this solid online tool. Will it become a leader in the online mapping space and continue to expand its palette of business-focused visual mapping tools? We’ll see.

Webspiration Pro is very affordable: subscriptions are US$39 per year (or $3.25 per month). No enterprise or volume pricing has been announced.

I said it in 2008 when I first saw Webspiration and I’ll say it again: This is a well-designed tool that is on par with the best web-based mind mapping tools, and is worthy of your attention. The cost is low enough that you can easily open an account and spend several months playing around with it to see if it meets the needs of you and your team.

You can learn more about Webspiration Pro on the application’s website.

Here’s what’s new in Webspiration:

Add your own images: You can now add graphics and images from the files on your computer or from a URL as a topic, a symbol and even into a note. I tried inserting a graphic from a URL; the application quickly fetched it and inserted it into my map, along with grab handles that I could use to resize it. This new functionality worked great, but it would be even better if Webspiration enabled you to drag and drop images from another browser window (I tried it in Internet Explorer 7 – it didn’t work).

A redesigned starter screen gives you fast access to the documents and tools you use most often, including links to recently opened and updated files, and recently invited people. In addition, a new “templates/examples” button gives you access to an expanded library of templates and examples you can use to jump start your projects. Many of these are clearly business oriented, covering applications such as:

• Developing an action plan,
• Analyzing causes and effects,
• Developing a job description,
• Taking meeting minutes,
• Conducting a performance review, and
• Performing a SWOT analysis (strengths/weaknesses/opportunities/threats)

There are over 35 templates and 7 examples in all. Each one is professionally designed and contain brief instructions. I predict that these resources will go a long way toward making Webspiration a valuable tool for business collaboration.

Improved chat tool: An improved chat tool integrated within the Webspiration interface lets you generate a complete and accurate log of conversations between map collaborators. All chat activity for a map document is permanently recorded and date- and time-stamped, and all document users can view the complete record. At the bottom of the chat window, a small icon gives you access to cut, copy and paste options for chat text, so you can incorporate it into Word documents and other reports – nice!

Conclusion

Although Inspiration Software has focused its flagship desktop mind mapping software on the education market in recent years, it appears that the developer is giving business users a nod with this well-designed web-based mapping application. It’s good to see that they’re continuing to add features and updates to it. They’re doing a great job!

A webified Inspiration interface

A horizontal toolbar at the top of the screen contains map level tools, which can be used to add topics and hyperlinks, and to switch to outline view. Above that is a set of drop-down menus, containng document, edit, view, symbol, link, effects, utilities, tools and help.

The bottom of the screen includes formatting tools, which control such things as topic font, size and formatting, line and arrow styles and more. This part of the screen also contains map zoom and collaboration controls. Webspiration displays a list of the map users and editors; clicking on a name pops up a dialog box showing all of the current contributors to the map.

A familiar floating symbols toolbar, long a fixture on the Inspiration desktop, makes an appearance on the left side of the Webspiration desktop, too, providing quick access to topic shapes.

What can it do?

Like Inspiration, Webspiration can be used to create mind maps, concept maps and process flow charts. It also offers an outline view – which has long been one of my favorite capabilities of Inspiration.

Also, surprisingly, the program’s popular RapidFire brainstorming mode – which enables users to add topics and sub-topics to their maps using only the keyboard and the Enter key.

Overall, it’s a very rich, well-laid out workspace that closely mirrors the experience of mapping in Inspiration. I actually found myself forgetting that I’m creating a mind map within a web browser!

Collaboration enhances the mapping experience

The biggest new feature of Webspiration is collaboration – you can invite people to share and edit a map. Inspiration Software says this feature is ideal for team projects, study groups, and for co-authoring materials. The process is easy and quick; after you have sent your invites, a small, translucent dialog box pops up to let you know how many it sent – that’s nice user feedback.

One person can edit a map at a time; when you’re done editing it, you use the “current user” pop-up window to relinquish your editor role so the map owner can once again edit it. There is no integrated chat function at this time.

Integration with Inspiration

Webspiration can upload map files from Inspiration 8 to the web space, and vice versa. I tried downloading a map that Brian Friedlander and I worked on together in Webspiration (pictured above; click on image for a larger version). It saved the map as an .ISF file in the directory I specified, and it opened with no problems in Inspiration 8. I also uploaded a fairly complext Inspiration map to Webspiration, and it appeared there quickly, with no apparent problems. I was pleased to see that it placed this map in a separate tab from the one that I was co-editing with Brian. Nice!

Conclusion

Webspiration is an impressive web mapping tool. I’d hardly call it a beta version, however. It appears to be full featured, stable and behaves the way I would expect it to. In fact, the experience of using it is so similar to using Inspiration that I’d say that the developer has a real winner here. No pricing has been announced for Webspiration; I would guess that it will be available via a monthly subscription fee after it emerges from beta testing.