Four courses are being offered initially:

• An introduction to mind mapping
• Mind mapping for marketers
• Mind mapping for business planning
• Mind mapping for innovation

Training will be provided on any one of the four mind mapping software programs that the website currently supports: MindManager, iMindMap, XMind and MindGenius, and can be tailored to the needs of specific clients and their needs.

I was curious about what’s behind this move, so I interviewed Biggerplate.com founder Liam Hughes via e-mail:

Chuck: What made you decide to launch this service? What unfulfilled needs did you see that you aim to fill with your training programs?

Liam: We have done various pieces of mind map training over the years, but it never quite felt like the right time to invest in making this a more structured and/or widely available part of the business. After the growth and success of Biggerplate.com in 2011 however, I felt that the offline side of our business was failing to match the standards set by the online side, and I wanted to change this. We felt there was a need (and a space) for more targeted training services that focus on particular processes or job functions using mind maps, and this is what our training products aim to do. We currently have a program focused on marketers, a program focused on business planning, and a program focused on innovation, with others in the pipeline. The idea is to provide a training experience that is entirely focused on practical contextual learning.

Another consideration was the huge disparity in the price of training services that we saw elsewhere, and the belief that we could be very competitive in this area due to the strength of our online business. We set ourselves the objective of designing a range of products that could be delivered worldwide at prices that were competitive, regardless of where the training takes place. With Biggerplate being a global community of mappers, it was extremely important for us to be global in our thinking about these services, which means ensuring people who want training overseas are not financially penalized for the fact that we are based in the UK! It’s taken a little longer than planned, but we are very happy with the outcome!

Chuck: Will you be the person who delivers the training worldwide, or will you hire others to do so outside of the UK?

Liam: All training around the world will be delivered by myself and the Biggerplate team, which we are very excited about! (We don’t get out much…)

It’s important for us to ensure the style, tone, quality, and delivery of the training experience fits with what people associate with Biggerplate and expect from our brand. At this stage, this can only be achieved by keeping everything ‘in-house’, and that’s why we do not hire others to do training on our behalf. We have been fortunate enough to establish a strong name for ourselves in the mind mapping world, and I would not want to damage that by having anyone feeling short-changed by us, or having a training experience that falls below the standards we set.

It’s also important and enjoyable for us to meet mind mappers and our members in person, and this is something we have been more focused on over the last year. Our aim is to combine training assignments abroad (and in the UK) with opportunities to host small public events for our members in the local area, with a view to further strengthening the connection between Biggerplate and our users around the world, as well as the connections within the mind mapping community as a whole, which is a key part of our overall mission.

Chuck: A number of software resellers already offer mind mapping software training. How will the training from Biggerplate.com be different, better or unique?

Liam: Our aim is to be specific and focused on the practical use of mapping and mapping software within a particular context. This means if you are a marketer, for example, we’ll show you the ways in which mapping can be used in specific marketing situations and processes, rather than giving you the A-Z of everything a particular mapping program can do. Software training can sometimes be like being taught to drive by the maker of your car. By the end of it, you may know everything about the body, the engine, the lights on the dash, and the service plans available, but that information does not exactly prepare you for the reality of the open road, or even how to pull out of the parking lot!

Perhaps an advantage we have is that we don’t sell mapping software, and neither do we need to make it look great; it will do that by itself when left in the hands of someone who fully understands the contexts in which it can be put to use most effectively. Our job is to give people that understanding, and the confidence to explore mapping in ways that make sense to their everyday working lives. The mind map library and community at Biggerplate gives us truly unique perspectives on how people around the world are using maps in a variety of organizations and situations. It is this knowledge and understanding that enables us to help others do the same!

Chuck: What kind of training materials will participants receive as part of your on-site training? (such as a manual or worksheets)

Liam: We call it “The Playbook.” It’s a workbook or manual that is specific to whichever training program a person is taking with us. It is used for various exercises during the workshops, and also contains a huge amount of practical “when you want to do this, click here” type information, as well as numerous map examples and templates to provide food for thought. It has a distinct Biggerplate “tone” to it, and also contains suggestions, ideas, exercises and activities that can be carried out after the training is completed to try and reinforce learning once participants are back to the reality of daily working life. It also contains information about other sources of quality mind mapping information, such as this blog, and some of the other great sites that mapping experts around the world are running for the benefit of others.

Chuck: What is your experience in a corporate environment? How does this give you a unique perspective on the needs of business people?

Liam: In the early years of Biggerplate (2007-2009), my working life was divided between developing the Biggerplate website and working within my dad’s small consultancy firm, delivering training and consultancy services to businesses all over the world. The business is largely focused on change management, strategic planning and executive training programs. It was what you might call a baptism of fire for someone who was straight out of university and looking to build a mind map library!

The experience was invaluable in helping me understand the value of making information and problems more visible and visual. I gradually integrated mind mapping into more and more of the work we were doing, usually with great effect. From small to large businesses, a key problem that many people have is that information, learning and problems are largely buried on hard drives or in “the cloud.” Working with people to overcome these issues served to reinforce my belief that mind mapping is a powerful tool to overcome these issues, provided people could see the relevance of it to their particular department, job role or challenge.

This is something I think the mind mapping world has perhaps been slow to deal with, and in many cases we sing the virtues of mapping, almost as if the map is the end goal in itself. It is not necessarily the answer to everything, and in many cases is simply another tool to be used as part of a set in order to complete a particular process. However, my work in this area served to reaffirm that people are far more able to make sense of complexity when it is made more visually accessible, and maps are a great way to do this!

As Biggerplate has grown into a fully-fledged business, I have been fortunate enough to meet and work with a number of interesting individuals and businesses of all shapes and sizes around the world, who have helped me to further develop an understanding of where mind mapping can fit into daily life to improve performance, understanding and results. The training services we have designed keeps these ideas at their core, and when combined with the learning and experience we have from our library and community, we think the final products are unique in terms of their focus on context-specific learning and practical mind map training.

Chuck: Any thought of delivering this type of training via GoToMeeting, WebEx or other web conferencing applications?

Liam: It’s certainly on our radar, because this is obviously the way that much of the world is going. On a personal level, I prefer to be in a room with people and engaging with them in person. You can feel and respond to the energy and interests of the group in a way that just not possible online, ensuring people get what they want out of a training session. However, the realities are that you can’t be everywhere at once, and some people simply won’t be able to access our training services, no matter how affordable we try to make them, because of budgetary restrictions or other factors. We therefore need to come up with an answer, and perhaps online training webinars are the way forward.

We may go part of the way to solving this issue when we rebuild the tutorials section of our website later in the year. On the old version of Biggerplate, which as retired in March 2011, this was a highly visited but poorly constructed area of the site, and we decided not to rebuild it until we knew we could do it properly. The new tutorials area will pull together the best video tutorials on the web from software developers and mind mapping experts, to provide a learning hub that will hopefully help numerous people to get to grips with mind mapping without necessarily having to engage with paid training services. While we will be sad not to see them in person, if they can become a mind mapping expert by spending time in the new tutorials section, then we’ll consider that a win, too!

• Moving mind maps between the iPhone and desktop mind mapping software
• Do tablet-based mind mapping applications support handwriting recognition?
• Fitting mind mapping into your daily productivity workflow
• Tinderbox for the Mac
• MindManager vs. iMindMap – which is best?
• Getting high school students to use mind mapping software for class writing projects

Mind Mapping Insider members can access this audio file using the link below:

If you cannot see the link, you need to become a member of the Mind Mapping Insider membership group. It’s inexpensive – about the price of a few large cups of premium coffee per month! Click here to learn how.

Please be sure to send me your questions for the June coaching call. You can use the contact form on this blog to submit them or send them to me via Twitter.

Here is a summary of Mindo’s most notable features:

• You add ideas to a mind map using a simple double-tap gesture
• Ideas can easily be rearranged by dragging and dropping
• Topics can be grouped within boundaries
• Topics can be tasks, and display priority codes (1, 2, 3, etc.) and percentage complete icons
• Mindo can be used with an external monitor
• Text and topic colors can be easily adjusted using an intuitive color wheel
• Comments can be added to topics, and may be shown or hidden (it would be awesome if Mindo supported notes, which I consider to be an essential feature for any mind mapping software, no matter what platform it runs on)
• The app supports undo and redo when editing a mind map
• Topic shapes can be dragged to adjust their shape (in other words, a longer topic can be one line, or can be reduced in width so that the text appears on two lines) – this is the first time I’ve seen this on an iPad or iPhone app
• Relationship lines can be added to depict connections between related topics
• Maps created in Mindo can be e-mailed, converted to PDF or transferred to your desktop PC via iTunes.
• Maps can be imported from XMind and other popular mind map file formats

Based on a quick look at this Mindo video, this application does a nice job of utilizing the iPad’s interface features. I can’t wait to see what it’s developers do to improve it in the months ahead.

This appears to be the standard basic, open-source version of XMIND v3.0.3 – not a stripped down version. It also supports 5 languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German and Japanese. 

The good news is that the program files are small enough that you can easily copy them onto a USB key and carry both the programs and your maps everywhere. The program can be used without registering it online. Just install it and start mapping. The developer says that XMIND Pro is also available in a portable version.

Crash recovery: XMIND version  3.0.3 will save a back up file every a few minutes while you are editing a map. If your operating system or XMIND closes unexpectedly, this back up file will be opened again the next time you launch XMind. This backup file is be deleted if you close XMIND normally.

Topic text alignment: In previous versions of XMIND, all topics had text that was centered. In this new version, topic text can be right aligned, centered or left aligned. For certain types of maps, this may be advantageous. 

Export to FreeMind map format: Version 3.0.3 adds export to the popular FreeMind open source mind mapping format. XMIND now supports an impressive array of export formats, including image file, HTML web page, MindManager, PDF, RTF, Microsoft Word (Windows only) and PowerPoint (Windows only) and plain text.

Enhanced map zooming: You can now zoom the map view with CTRL + the mouse scroll wheel in Windows, and Command + mouse scroll wheel in Mac OS X. I like this functionality, because it’s much faster than trying to click on a zoom button within the program’s work space.

Find and replace: You can now search for and replace text in topic labels, relationships, boundaries, map summaries and topic notes.

Auto hyperlink: If you are typing a web page address in topic notes, XMIND v3.0.3 will automatically convert it to a hyperlink. Apparently this wasn’t supported in previous versions.

Spell checker in topic notes: XMIND v3.0.03 now checks your spelling as you’re typing. If you add a lot of notes to your mind maps, this feature is be essential. I’m surprised that it wasn’t offered before. 

In addition, the developers of XMIND improved its memory usage and made other bug fixes to the program.

Most galleries give you multiple options for downloading maps, either in the native file format of a particular mind mapping program, or as PDF or a JPG image. In the case of a map in your favorite program’s native file format, you can open the map and see how the author created it, or use it as a starting point for a project you’re working on. Many of these galleries also enable you to create text tags when you upload maps, making it easier for others to find them.

Here is a summary of these map galleries and the services they offer:

BiggerPlate.com is focused on providing a map sharing space for MindManager files. It offers a map library that is searchable by keyword, tags and categories. When you upload a map to share, the site automatically generates a preview image. Also, you can rate others’ maps, a feature which may help you to zero in on the most valuable maps, as judged by your peers. When you upload maps, you can designate them as password protected.

Mappio is a repository for MindManager and FreeMind maps. Maps are searchable by title and keyword tags, and you can also view a set of featured mind maps. You can preview any map as an image file, including small, medium, large and full screen (1024×768 pixel) images that show a lot of detail. You can then decide if you want to download it as an image or as a map. Mappio also displays related maps beneath the currently selected one. The whole site is well designed and is a pleasure to browse.

NovaMind Connect – This gallery is a companion to the website of NovaMind Pty. Ltd., a leading developer of mind mapping software. NovaMind enables you to create very colorful and engaging maps, and offers its users a unique capability: They can publish their maps directly from the program to the NovaMind Connect workspace. This gallery contains the most colorful and engaging maps of any I’ve seen. If you want to see what’s possible with mind mapping software, this is the gallery that will inspire you to a higher level of visual mapping.

XMIND.net – Like NovaMind Connect, this gallery is part of the XMIND website. You can upload your map files directly from XMIND to this shared map space.

Freemindshare – This website bills itself as “a fast, simple way to share your FreeMind mind map(s).” After I logged in, the only option I saw was to upload and view my own maps. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of a public map gallery here. In fact, several of the capabilities of Freemindshare, including “groups” and “messages” don’t seem to be finished yet. Clicking on the links for them leads you to pages that say “This feature is not yet available.”

In addition to these galleries, the websites of many of the major mind mapping software developers also house smaller collections of maps, aimed at inspiring potential customers to buy their programs – and to help existing customers get more done with their software.

Software for process mapping

Doug: I was asked today to recommend a software tool to help a company map out the work processes for its advertising executives.  The reflexive response was “Visio.”  However, something gnawing away inside me suggests this might be a good mind mapping application.  Have I lost my marbles and entered the realm where everything looks like a mind mapping application?  If I haven’t lost my mind could you suggest a place where I could turn to demonstrate this makes sense?

Chuck: If you’re planning projects, then mind mapping software can be an excellent “front end” tool to help organize them. On the other hand, if what you’re doing is purely business process mapping, then I’d recommend Visio or SmartDraw, which is a great, less expensive alternative.

ConceptDraw MINDMAP

Stuart: I don’t recall seeing much about ConceptDraw MINDMAP, yet I have it on my Mac and like it better than others I have used including MindMatters. Are you familiar with it?

Chuck: Yes, I am. It’s a good program, which I last reviewed here. It is powerful enough to handle the needs of most business users, plus it enables you to do some unique things as far as adding vector-based drawings to your maps – because ConceptDraw MINDMAP is produced by the same developer as the powerful ConceptDraw vector illustration program.

Which mind mapping software is best for me?

Jawn: I’m lost in this ocean of choices. Do you have a guide on which software is best suited for me?

Chuck: Yes, there are too many mind mapping software programs on the market today, with more being introduced on a regular basis. The best software for you depends upon what you want to get done. Some programs are better suited for brainstorming, while others have some strengths in the area of project management. I would start with a clear picture of what you want to DO, then download the trial versions of the programs that are focused on those areas. You really need to do this in order to figure out which one is the best match for your workflow. If you’re completely new to the concept of mind mapping, you may want to start out with a free program like FreeMind or XMIND, or one of the new genre of web-based mind mapping tools, which are free or available at an inexpensive subscription fee. You can find reviews of many of the best mind mapping tools here and a comprehensive list of links to these tools on the resources page of this blog.

Boundaries for non-contiguous topics

Glen: Do you know of any mindmapping software that enables you to draw a “cloud” around topics in more than one parent link? (in other words, a cloud that extends across several branches that may not be adjacent to one another in your map).

Chuck: No, unfortunately, I don’t know of any mind mapping tool that is capable of doing this. As I understand it, what you want to do is show that these disparate topics are related. You can accomplish this using relationship lines.

Send me your questions

Got a question for me? You can submit it using the contact form on this blog.

Here are the factors that I believe will drive this rapid growth:

The barriers to adoption are falling: Tools have recently emerged that enable workers who do not have licensed copies of a major mind mapping software package to collaborate with those who do. I’m speaking here specifically about Mindjet’s recent announcement of the Mindjet Connect collaborative workspace and the MindManager Web client. The former is a collaborative workspace where work teams can share my maps and other files, while the latter is a new web client that replicates much of the functionality of the excellent MindManager desktop PC application. Both are available on an affordable subscription basis. When used together, this trio of tools significantly lowers the cost of deployment to corporations, while bringing workers who don’t have licensed copies of MindManager into the collaboration loop. BusinessWeek magazine recognized the significance of this new family of visual mapping and collaboration tools in a recent article.  The author states, “The company may have hit a tipping point with the new online version that came out in November… So much Web 2.0 stuff targets people with a lot of free time on their hands. It doesn’t add much value. But this Mindjet application is the kind of thing that, eventually, could give Web 2.0 a good name.” MindManager Web is also an easy way for individuals and organizations to try out mind mapping software, without making a big investment in licensed desktop software. I believe that this new business model, as pioneered by Mindjet, will help to drive much wider adoption of mind mapping tools in 2009.

It plays well with other productivity tools: The leading mind mapping software programs have evolved to the point where they integrate very tightly with other productivity software, such as the Microsoft Office suite. This makes the process of moving your information and ideas from a mind map into other formats almost seamless. As a result, mind mapping software will enjoy growing acceptance as a powerful “front end” tool for developing projects, presentations, reports and for performing other common business tasks.

The move to open source mapping software is expanding: XMIND’s recent announcement that it will offer an open source version of its well-designed mind mapping program will further help to drive increased adoption of mind mapping software by business (click here for Vic Gee’s interview with an official of XMIND, who explains the reasoning behind their open-source move). Many people are already familiar with FreeMind, an open-source mind mapping program that is now downloaded over 5,000 times a day – that’s over 1.8 million potential new users per year! It has effectively become a no-cost way for people to try out mind mapping software, to see if it fits with their work style and workflow. It remains to be seen, however, how long it will take for a community of developers to coalesce around XMIND to help drive its future development and the creation of plug-ins to enhance its utility. Still, the move by a major software developer to offer an open-source version of its application is quite significant, in my opinion.

The outlook for future growth is bright: According to the developers of desktop mind mapping software, who I surveyed during December for some business outlook research I’m conducting, say they expect the market for mind mapping software to grow more than 25% during the next three years. Despite the current economic conditions, nearly 90% of them said they are very optimistic about the worldwide outlook for mind mapping software for the next year.

Positive, growing media coverage: Mind mapping software has enjoyed increased exposure in the business and computer media during the last year or two. Many of these articles give the impression that mind mapping software is now ready for prime time, because it is well aligned with today’s business needs. In short, it’s a powerful antidote to information overload, and it can help executives to be more productive and creative – critical qualities for today’s challenging global economic conditions. Mindjet has published studies that show that its MindManager software can save businesspeople up to 2 hours a day, and my surveys have shown similar results; readers of this blog say that mind mapping software increases their productivity by an average of 20 percent. One of reasons why the acceptance of mind mapping software hasn’t grown any faster is a lack of awareness; this wave of increased media coverage should help to spread the word to more business people that mind mapping software is the “must-have” business tool that meets today’s challenges.

What do you think? Do you believe mind mapping software has reached an “inflection point” of more rapid growth? Please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

Because there are over 20 commercially available mind mapping software programs on the market today, there are actually many bargains to be had. Earlier today, I did an informal review of all of the developers’ websites, and found an amazing 14 programs available for under US $100. In some cases, these are the basic versions of the programs. Two of these programs are actually free.

Here are the programs that you can purchase and download today for less than US $100:

Aviz ThoughtMapper (PC): $59

BrainMine (PC): $52

Eminec MYmap (PC): 29 Euro/approx. US $36

Freemind (PC/Mac/Linux): As its name indicates, this open source program is free. Nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch. $0.

HeadCase (PC): 50 Euro/approx. US $63

iMindMap 3 Elements (PC/Mac): $99

Inspiration 8 (PC/Mac): $69

MindApp (PC): $39

MindCad (Mac): $49

MindPad (PC): $70

MindChart (PC): $20

MindVisualizer (PC): $79

NovaMind 4 Express (PC/Mac): $49

XMIND 3 (PC/Mac): The developer offers a free open-source version, as well as a full version for a subscription fee of $49 per year.

One caveat: These programs vary widely in terms of how often they are updated by their developers. Several of them are getting pretty long in the tooth (e.g., HeadCase, MindChart), while others (XMIND, NovaMind) are state of the art.

One final note: If you’re looking for help finding the best program for your needs, don’t forget about my Mind Mapping Manifesto e-book.

Both versions are enabled for online sharing and collaboration via XMind Share, a new website which allows XMind users to share their mind maps and other visual thinking content in a Web 2.0 style online community.

The major new feature in XMIND Pro 3 is the addition of a Gantt view, which will make it more attractive to project managers. This new map view is completely interactive with your map’s task information; if you drag a task bar in Gantt view to change its duration, this will also be reflected in the topic’s task data. XMIND 3 Pro is available for a US$49 per year subscription, a great value in these troubled economic times.

XMIND Ltd. says that the open-source version of XMIND isn’t stripped down, but provides extensive functionality. Users of this no-cost version can share their maps via the new XMIND Share community, but only publicly. Only XMIND Pro 3 users can designate their maps as private, and control who has access to them. Both versions make it easy to upload maps to this site; the program prompts you to login when you first open it. Then, it’s simply a matter of clicking on the “upload” command in the file menu. One click – that’s nice!

Watch for a detailed review of XMIND Pro 3 in the coming weeks.