It'd be pretty cool to have some map making software to make maps for all the different languages with native names for places.

James

-----Original Message----- From: wikipedia-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org [mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Sj Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2004 9:44 AM To: wikipedia-l@wikimedia.org; cecil.houchin@ngc.com Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] FW: [Ticket#: 105515] Wikipedia - Concept and MindMaps

Cecil, great idea! There aren't many graphical-interface designers around here, and it would take a bit of cleverness to work out how to fit a map's worth of content onto a screen. Perhaps there is some offline mindmapping software which could be open-sourced and adapted to the purpose? Let us know if you are aware of such software.

Jens, there are hundreds of mind-mapping methods; Buzan is welcome to reign emperor of his vapour-empire, but should hardly dampen this discussion.

+sj+

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 13:57:29 +0100, Jens Ropers ropers@ropersonline.com wrote:

Careful there. [[en:Tony Buzan]] may hold associated copyrights, patents and/or trademarks. Not sure though; just a caveat.

-- ropers

On 2 Dec 2004, at 17:12, Houchin, Cecil wrote:

...

Dear Wikipedia Support Team,

Have you ever thought of adding software that would allow the development of concept and mind maps within Wikipedia? I believe that concept and mind mapping are concise and efficient ways to display information and their associations. I think it would add tremendous value to your site.

A web site with examples of concept and mind maps can be found at: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html

The following websites may also help if your interested: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/scholonto/summary.html http://users.edte.utwente.nl/lanzing/cm_home.htm http://www.macrovu.com/VLBkExmplPgsMenu.html http://www.triz-journal.com/archives/2001/01/c/index.htm

Thank you for Wikipedia, Cecil Houchin

-----Original Message----- From: Wikipedia information team [mailto:info-en@wikimedia.org] Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 4:11 PM To: Houchin, Cecil Subject: [Ticket#: 105515] Wikipedia - Concept and Mind Maps

Dear Cecil Houchin,

Thank you for your mail.

...

Have you ever thought of adding software that would allow the development of concept and mind maps within Wikipedia? I believe that information mapping tools would add tremendous value to your site.

As you may know, Wikimedia projects are written and maintained solely by volunteers - both on the technical side and the actual content. Your suggestion sounds like something our technical volunteers would be interested in hearing more about. You might be interested in introducing your ideas on one of our mailing lists.

Our general information page on the mailing lists is at: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_list

In particular the technical mailing list may be of use: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

The general Wikipedia list is also very active: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l

Thanks for your kind words about Wikipedia,

Regards,

Lisa Cushway Wikimedia support team

-- Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org _______________________________________________ Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l

---

Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l

...

...

...

...

"S" == Sj 2.718281828@gmail.com writes:

S> Cecil, great idea! There aren't many graphical-interface

Agreed; a very good idea.

S> designers around here, and it would take a bit of cleverness to S> work out how to fit a map's worth of content onto a screen. S> Perhaps there is some offline mindmapping software which could S> be open-sourced and adapted to the purpose? Let us know if you S> are aware of such software.

I'd recommend [[en:GraphViz]], a generic graphing tool.

The real challenge would be coming up with a succinct way to enter the connections. One way would be to enter the information on the referring pages, as we do with categories. For instance, you might have the following on [[Investments]]:

[[Conceptmap-to:Bonds]] [[Conceptmap-to:Real estate]] ...etc.

The trouble would come up if a page participated in multiple concept maps. For instance, an article on hematopoietic stem cells (the cells in the bone marrow that give rise to all blood cells) would logically fit into maps of immunology and hematology. Those maps would overlap, but are conceptually distinct (you might mention T cells on both maps, but you would only talk about MHC molecules on the former). Perhaps, when the map diverged, the links could be named explicitly. For instance, the common lymphoid progenitor would be linked from the hematopoietic stem cell node in both cases, so you could avoid specifying the map:

[[Conceptmap-to:Common lymphoid progenitor]]

But the T cell article might have sub-nodes only in the Immunology map. From [[T cell, you might have]]:

[[Conceptmap-to:MHC|Immunology]]

Of course, it might be better to explicitly specify the map in all cases. (You have to explicitly specify the map at least once; because there are no back-links, people are likely to be confused if it wasn't specified in every case.)

--Joe