I’m a big fan of mind mapping apps: probably because I have a mind that often needs quite a bit of organising. While I was working on my thesis, I always had a copy of Mind Manager close at hand. It was invaluable as it allowed me to make sense of large amounts of research, organising it into useful categories quickly and efficiently. Now that I have since moved on into a new job, I don’t have it any more and I have felt slightly bereft, having to make do for the time being with Microsoft’s One Note.
Mind Manager is an excellent application, particularly if you have presentations or project plans to write on the fly. However, it’s a bit pricey, so the alternative is a free application on the web.
Mind42 allows you to write, save and publish your maps on the web. You can also collaborate with other users, co-writing or reviewing a map as part of a virtual brainstorming session. The mapping tools are rudimentary but nevertheless easy to use and more than adequate for the majority of mapping tasks.
I tried to publish the above mind-map to my blog using the publishing tools, but unfortunately the code provided does not work on WordPress.
Passive Impressions 
It’s strange. I have a messy, free-flowing, non-linear mind…but I simply can’t be doing with mind mappers. It’s especially odd since an acknowledged talent that I have is an ability to structure my thoughts – or others’ – into a coherent story.
That said – I can see how I might be able to use them to tease ideas out of more – how can I put it? – constrained thinkers. Brainstorming I’m all in favour of.
I would have been very skeptical of them too until quite recently, however I found them to be incredibly useful during the writing of my thesis. I was able to write detailed and informative notes while doing interviews, and it also helped me to organise my thoughts while ploughing through reams of research material.
Your namesake originally introduced me to the concept of brainstorming many years ago. I loved the concept back then, and still enthuse about it. While I’m still not sure whether creativity can be taught – my feeling is that it is innate – just making people aware that rational thinking is not very useful in coming up with ideas is a valuable concept in its own right.