From Beyond Crayons to Beyond Mind Mapping

Just today, I read yet another conversation in a bulletin board about the merits (or otherwise) of "mind mapping software" versus Buzan's "Mind Mapping®". As always, there were supporters on both "sides", the Mind Mapping® fans preferring the immediacy and creativity of hand-drawn maps to the sterile, slow and technology-dependent world of software. Who could disagree?

To me this seems like unconditionally declaring whether you prefer to walk or drive. If you are going to the local shop for a loaf of bread, walking is the healthy option. If you are visiting somewhere sixty miles away, walking is unlikely to be a serious contender, regardless of your preferences. So some preferences should be conditional to avoid being dogmas.

I prefer to draw Mind Maps® by hand, but I prefer "mind mapping" software if I want to draw something that needs to be shared and frequently updated and revised. Only those who (understandably) mistake mind mapping software as a tool for drawing Mind Maps® might declare an unconditional preference. There are a few software packages that aim to recreate Mind Maps®, but they are outnumbered by tools that simply aim to provide fast and easy graphical organisation of information.

Unfortunately the industry seems to be stuck with the term "mind mapping software" because that is where most of these tools originated from, and there is no other category that is as clearly recognised by the reviewers or potential users. But this does a disservice to both techniques, by

• implying that a Mind Map® is merely a tree,
• implying that a tree-shaped diagram must be a Mind Map®, and
• inviting misleading comparisons between Mind Mapping® and mind mapping software.

For this reason, I am changing the name of my Blog from "Beyond Crayons" to "Beyond Mind Mapping", to make it clearer that the use of mind mapping software is quite distinct from Mind Mapping®. Not better, not worse, but designed to do different things.

Comments

[Vic Gee]

I couldn't agree more, and I think the person most guilty of not recognizing 'horses for courses' is Tony Buzan. His pronouncements on mind mapping(R) can be taken as authoritative - after all he invented the term. But most of the time he talks as if people who used mind mapping in school and college never use it for anything else but learning.

And yet there are hundreds of thousands of people using 'mindmaps' in business (based on licences sold for Mind Manager, and that's just one package). I've put 'mindmaps' in quotes because Buzan dismisses them as not being mindmaps.
I doubt whether many of those hundreds of thousands would agree with him, judging by what we see all over the Web. It seems that he is pushing against a tsunami that he, more than anyone, started in the first place.

[Tim van Gelder]

"Beyond Mind Mapping" is a good name because it helps break down the idea that Mind Maps, or "mind mapping" software, is the be-all and end-all of "fast and easy graphical organisation of information". Our own product, Rationale, is a tool for hierarchically structuring information, focusing on arguments - i.e., argument mapping, as we call it. The problem is that, as you point out, "there is no other category that is as clearly recognised by the reviewers or potential users". So to explain what argument mapping is, we sometimes have to say "like mind mapping, but...". However this immediately loads into the hearer's mind a lot of preconceptions about what sort of product or graphic we're talking about. The over-arching category, perhaps, is something like "graphical organisation of information networks", where a mind map (loosely speaking) is just one kind of information network, i.e. hierarchy laid out radially, and a Mind Map is a more particular category again. If anyone can think of a sexier phrase than ""graphical organisation of information networks" please let us know!

[João Leitão]

Why don`t you call it, Cognitive Mapping? I`ll create a blog to agregate the research in Psychology related to Cognitive Mapping...

[Florian]

I like the distinction between Mind Maps as created by Tony Buzan and the term “Mind Mapping software” and I think it is important to stress the difference. In Germany I try to advocate the term “Business Mapping Software” as used by Mindjet to make the distinction between Mind Maps and Business Maps more obvious. Otherwise it could imply that using software is just another way of creating Mind Maps.

I totally agree that it depends on the purpose when to use Mind Maps and when to use Business Maps. Although (as one commenter already pointed out) it is like fighting against a tsunami, I think it is important to stress that difference. If something wrong is repeated over and over again that does not make it right!

I am looking forward to read more.

[Nick Duffill]

João - the reason not to call it anything else is because people now search for "mind mapping" tools. If you called it Cognitive Mapping, it might be a theoretically better name, but nobody would find you. Is it better to be right, or alive? :)