A couple years ago I was introduced to a very interesting mind mapping program called Topicscape.    The program is rather unique in that it provides a three dimensional landscape view of a mind map of information.  That was version 1 and I worked with the software up through about version 1.5x beta if memory serves.

Now Topicscape Pro Beta 2.0 is on line.  The new version has a number of new features driven by user feedback that include but are not limited to:

• An improved tag cloud
• Capability to customize the Home view position to your own taste
• Another zoom option

From a strictly mind mapping perspective one of the things that is very cool about Topicscape is that it allows you to refocus your perspective on the entire landscape by changing any given topic into the ‘central’ topic of focus.

Navigating the map itself has the look and feel of flying through a video game interface similar to something like Entropia or SecondLife (without all the crazy looking avatars).

The program also runs on a database essentially, which gives it more horsepower and potential than most mind mapping programs that are more common in this software category.  In many ways despite the look and feel this is a seriously powerful mind mapping tool for people with seriously complex sets of information or knowledge to classify, map and categorize.

If you are looking for a unique mind mapping experience, or if you are finding that more conventional mindmapping programs are not enabling you to see the real level of complexity of the information you are working with in a single glance, or restrict you too much in viewing things from a single perspective, I highly recommend you try Topicscape.  There is both a Pro and Basic version as well as an education version.  You can typically try the program with a free 30 day trial as well.

Video Reviews of the Older version of Topicscape

I’m going to sign up an become a beta tester for topicscape, which is a software tool designed to help users manage knowledge in a 3 dimensional landscape. There appear to be some benefits to this methodology over mindmapping.

While a map helps a person get an overall perspective of the big picture, memory options start to fade as the map grows to large.

Topicscape, per the demo, appears to introduce an improvement on this concept as the images representing topics favor a landmark. The user then orientates their memory of knowledge and makes the association to the landmark.

As a knowledge management practice, this is actually a very old concept dating back to the dark ages when monks among other groups would memorize scriptures and other texts associating passages initially to buildings and landscapes and sometimes even constellations.

I foresee a couple potential weaknesses with this approach, however, the purpose of a beta test is to find out the good and the bad, so its possible that this group might benefit from some insights or additional perspective.

I’ll provide a follow up to this initial post later to identify how the testing is going.

For more information check out the link above and this example of topicscape in use for a project manager
Users’ Stories – project management profile of program usage

Technorati Tags: Project Management, Visual Project Management, TopicScape 3D, Knowledge Management

Written by: Brett Bumeter, President

http://mavemappers.blogspot.com
www.softduit.com