Saturday, January 10, 2009

Re: iThoughts

Thks calvin,

happy new year

i have been using this:

ibluesky for mindmap

also Outliner
both use OPML

i use outline and mindmap extensively on work
however, i havent found the best way to integrate that into the iphone lifestyle

my working habit for innovative/knowledge creation thinking is as below
  1. Thinking out loud,
    • usually typing and drawing ideas and words without any sequence
  2. Organize them into groups,
    • seeing patterns,
    • using groups and
    • priorities,
    • simple rules like not more than 5 nodes in a level
    • the new mindmanager tool for putting the whole thing into a timeline view in Excel is also very useful, if the thing is a project (Win only)
    • the new iPhoto feature that organize thru Time(Event)/Place/Face would be very useful, Tagging can help
  3. Research
    • usually involve a lot of Googling, Wiki-ng
    • the Safari book library is very very useful for tech related works, and it has a lot of business works, with full text and images
    • other context specific libraries, e.g. Medline, Harvard Biz school case library
    • a Lot of Scrapbooking (using Firefox Scrapbook addin)
    • Sync Bookmark (thr Firefox, Foxmark; cross platform, across all my PCs and Macs)
Mindmap usually require "space", drag and drop reorganization is also very important
i.e. requiring large screens

Outliner fits better into the iPhone well (esp with drag and drop) and good way to export (not sync) back to my Mac (mindmanager)  thr OPML

iPhone provide some clear advantage and fits in my world of creativity
  • Mobility, Ubiquity
    • quick "Thinking Out Loud" process
    • Think Anywhere
    • see something interesting anywhere and remember 
    • Snapshots through camera will be nice for Outliner/Mindmap
    • i use dump screen a lot
    • iPhoto integration is also very important (OCR or barcode decoder would be nice)
  • Organization
    • good drag and drop feature will be nice esp with Touch screen
  • Some Research
    • but one page at a time with a small screen and a slow (relatively) network..
    • still, can do anywhere..
  • Reading and Action
    • take ideas anywhere
    • maybe integration with Todo list
this is a new area, made possible with iPhone type modern phone w Great GUI

if time and resource permit,
i'd like to do a application on the iPhone for this purpose, would be a interesting venture   =)

also, you might have remember i wrote some classes for the EDB (ex-EMB) to help with the Liberal Study classes in HK High Schools
i really think these thinking process should be encouraged in today's education in a Knowledge Society


Calvin C. Yu wrote:
Hi Erwin,

This is the best mindmap tool i can find in appstore. Its file format is freemind format which can be directly edited by the freeware Freemind in Mac and PC. It also support icon and note. A very impressive tool. Highly recommended.

Calvin



Check out this application:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=294144368


Sent from my iPhone

at 1:53 PM