The TOE Mind Map

[Robert]

The TOE Mind Map is a project that is still somewhat vague at the moment. The idea is to record all knowledge captured by the ToeQuest forums and make it presentable to our members in a useable way. It's genesis is captured in my exchange with yogi on 2/8/2005, and repeated below. The original thread can be found here.

I would suggest a one main thread (I think we have it already) where we can maintain/archieve the conclusions of various threads. It should go something like this- say i visit Toe-quest -I should be directed to the main thread where all the facts are archieved. from there if you want to get into the proof and validity of the statements, one can branch out to visit various other threads and discussions threads where factual statement originated. I nominate you as the moderator (we can have multiple moderators) of the main thread. Please comment on this and also accept the nomination.

I think this is a great idea. I'll accept the nomination [img]images/smilies/icon_smile.gif[/img] but need to consider the best approach. I've thought about this in the past, and have considered various ways to present that data. I researched mind-mapping software in the past, which actually worked pretty well, but it's web presentation was not nearly mature enough for what I wanted. A flash presentation where you can drill down on the facts and then link to supporting discussions in the forums would be nice too, but that would require a lot of programming and members may not wish to download the necessary flash player. A thread in the forum may work for now, but I'd like to move towards a more visual oriented display of the factual information in the future that links to the supporting text discussions. I'll give the thread approach some more thought and comment more later.

My next step will be to update the mind-map with the contents of the ToeQuest forums and provide links to the ToeQuest threads for supporting detail. I'll then make this available to users on a periodic basis. It may take some time to prepare this for the first release. The mind-map file will be placed in a package that can be downloaded with a free viewer, provided by the vendor, that will allow you to view the full contents of the mind map on your desktop. I may charge for the mind map, but will probably make it available for free to TOE Club members. This will represent our group thinking on the TOE Quest and, in that sense, is very personal to us and I don't think it should be available to just any visitor that happens to drop in. I think some level of comitment to the quest should be demonstrated even if it is simple registering as a member.

I'll post my progress to this thread. Please let me know if you have any comments.

[Robert]

I've decided on the product to use to create the TOE Mind Map representation of the ToeQuest Forum contents. I purchased this product last year and briefly used it on the website, but ultimately decided against it due to poor web presentation. However, the product is awesome when used on the desktop, so I think I'll package this up as a free download for all my TOE Club members.

I purchased the latest upgrade to the product yesterday and it looks much better since the last time I reviewed it. I've started creating the TOE Mind Map but this is going to be a major undertaking and will take many hours for the initial release. Much of the time will be spent on organization and presentation, then I have to pull in the references to the forum threads, but I think it will be well worth it. I don't know of anyone who has done something like this before. I'll be tracking my time devoted to this venture (just because I like to time things ) and I'll report back here periodically on my progress.