This survey is a project of ongoing importance at the Minciu Sodas laboratory's working group Thinking Powerfully and our efforts to interconnect software tools for augmenting thinking . We are collecting information on the variety of tools that can or might assist a thinker. A main goal of this survey is to classify these tools according to the faculty of thought supported by each tool. We invite you to contribute to our survey by sending information to Andrius Kulikauskas at [email protected]
Updated regularly:
Our database of thoughts on interconnnecting tools for thinking
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See also:
Tools for Organizing Information
[8/99]General References:
Hypermedia Systems and Applications
[7/99] Stimulating Creativity:
Virtual Thinking Expedition Company
| ThinkPak Card Deck
[8/99] Recording Information:
[8/99] Reorganizing Information:
The Brain
| Multicentrix
| CMC
| Mindmanager
|Questmap
|Hypercard
| Guide
| HES
Retrieving Information
Visualizing Information
Reflecting on One's Thinking:
KnowPort
| LiveNote
Sifting Information
Analyzing Information
Decision Making
The ACM SIGCHI International Workshop Creativity & Cognition 3 , Intersections and Collaborations: Art, Music, Technology and Science, will be held October 11th-13th 1999 at Loughborough University in England. The topics and themes are:
The CHI'97 One Day Workshop on Interactive Systems for Supporting the Emergence of Concepts and Ideas , 22 March 1997, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, was organized by Thomas P. Moran , editor of Human-Computer Interaction , and Ernest A. Edmonds , editor of Knowledge-Based Systems . "The key idea is that a person needs be able to easily create a concrete representation, even for abstract ideas and then respond to it perceptually to discover new arrangements representing new ideas. The new concepts emerge from the concrete materials of the representation (see, e.g., "The Reflective Practitioner" by Donald Schon). The research question is how interactive systems can aid users in quickly creating and manipulating representations and whether they can support the discovery of new relationships, structures, and meanings in the materials. This is clearly an important new direction for the development of computer system design." The workshop intended to bring together researchers in human-computer interaction, psychology, sociology, design, architecture, and philosophy. The topics suggested were:
Ernest A. Edmonds ([email protected]) is the Director of the LUTCHI Research Centre at the Department of Computer Studies, Loughborough University, UK. The centre conducts multi-disciplinary research into future interactive computer systems and focuses on support systems for professional people at work, including computer support for human creativity. [AK 1/99, from LUTCHI [http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments /co/research_groups/lutchi.html]]
The Strategic Knowledge and Concept Formation Workshop was held November 17-19th, 1997, at Loughborough University, UK.
The HCI Bibliography is a free-access online bibliography on human-computer interaction edited by Gary Perlman of the Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
Hypermedia Systems and Applications by Jennifer A. Lennon (published by Springer in 1997) is a helpful overview of the hypermedia developments that lead up to the World Wide Web. It includes a chapter on Visionaries, Pioneers, and Benchmark Applications that describes sixteen milestones in the development of hypermedia concepts, systems, and tools. The timeline starts in 1945 with Vannevar Bush's Memex [Bush, V. As we may think. Atlantic Monthly, 176 (1):101-108.] and ends in 1993 with HM-Card and Hyperwave by Hermann Maurer. [8/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
The ACM Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence has an extensive conference calendar .
Technological Tools for Thinking and Learning is a class taught in the Fall of 1997 by Uri Wilensky , [email protected], [email protected], with a lengthy collection of recommended papers and sample software. [http://www.tufts.edu:80/~uwilensk/classes/TTTL/TTTL-syllabus.html, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Thierry Nabeth of (CALT) the Centre
for Advanced Learning Technologies
and INSEAD has put together an
encyclopedia
including a huge list of links about
knowledge management and workflow
and related subjects, including a list of knowledge management tools.
There are related pages for
Groupware
, Information
Technologies
and other subjects.
[http://www.insead.fr/CALT/Encyclopedia/ComputerSciences/Groupware/Workflow/,
2/00, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Roger Von Oech, the author of A Whack on the Side of the Head , has taken his Creative Whack Pack deck of cards online at his website CreativeThink . His cards offer fresh approaches as you randomly click through them such as learning from nature, changing terminology, or jumping into what you would like to do. [http://www.creativethink.com, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Micheal Michalko, [email protected], is the author of Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity) and Cracking Creativity (The Secrets of Creative Geniuses) as well as a ThinkPak Card Deck for stimulating creative thinking. As an officer in the U.S. Army, he organized a team of NATO intelligence specialists and academics to survey known inventive-thinking methods. [http://www.creativethinking.net/, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
The Virtual Thinking Expedition Company organizes Thinking Expeditions that bring together diverse teams to work intensely on a challenging cost reduction objective. Rolf Smith, Director of the Office of Strategic Innovation, and Mike Donahue, Director of the Colorado Mountain School , came up with this approach to fostering creativity. Rolf Smith is the author of The 7 Levels of Change , that considers seven levels of change , and seven levels of fear . [http://www.thinking-expedition.com/index.html, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
I'm aware of a lot of creativity techniques but dont actively practice a lot of them. I am rectifying this situation. My favourite idea generation techniques are: RANDOM INPUT, Who - What - When - Where - Why - How, PMI (Plus/Minus/Interesting) question of de Bono. [8/99, Charles Cave]
[What kind of help or tools would you like for helping organize thoughts and creating new ones?] Creating new ideas - an online library of creativity techniques, templates, checklists to use for processing ideas and programs. An "idea mill" or "thought factory" - containing an input area, processes, and output area and warehouse for ideas. I like the name of IDEA MILL because Adobe have a product called Page Mill and the name of Idea Mill says a lot about a place or factory to generate new ideas from raw materials. [8/99, Charles Cave]
LiveNote is a tool developed by LiveNote, Inc. to allow attorneys to view, mark, annotate, and search text while it is being transmitted live to their PC from the court reporter. An attorney can mark whether an important question was answered, or examine an earlier line of questioning. An additional product, VideoNote, combines court reporter transcripts with video testimony onto CD-ROM, yielding a synchronized record of testimony. The resulting CD-ROM can be viewed on IBM 486s running Windows. LiveNote, Inc./ 520 North Columbus Blvd. Suite 303/ Philadelphia, PA 19123, (215) 629-2900 or 800-LiveNote [Andrius Kulikauskas 12/98, www.livenote.com]
The Six Thinking Hats is a system by Edward de Bono for indicating the type of mental role that one chooses to play. White hat thinking takes an objective look at data and information. Red hat thinking legitimises feelings, hunches and intuition. Black hat thinking deals with risk assessment, judgement and caution. Yellow hat thinking considers the logical positive, feasibility and benefits. Green hat thinking is for new ideas and creative thinking. Blue hat thinking controls the thinking process. A book and CD are available. [http://www.edwdebono.com/debono/shcd1.htm, Andrius Kulikauskas, 7/99]
Marina Umaschi Bers, [email protected], of the Epistemology and Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab , is "interested in exchanging stories, anecdotes, comments, opinions and suggestions about how new technological environments can support learning about identity and values."
David Hyerle has devoted a website to graphic organizers . [http://www.graphic.org/, Andrius Kulikauskas, 7/99]
The Brain by Natrificial Software Technologies is a system for creating and visualizing relations between items, called thoughts.
Mutlicentrix by Aw Kong Koy is a multicentric information mapping system, previously known as InfoMap.
I'm an investigator in Neuroscience and its relationship with the Accelerated Learning and I have created the discipline CMC, which in Spanish is Cartografia Mental Computarizada , and in English means Computerized Mind Mapping. A new tool is CMC for Accelerating Learning. It integrates Superlearning, MindMaps (Tony Buzan) and many, many software programs to study the brain and neurons, as well as the incredible software MindManager 3.5.5, including SuperMemo, Inspiration, AXON and other tools. All of these are integrated into a single body consisting of neurons and gliales. Eugenio Martinez , Investigator and President CMC [http://cartografiamental.com/, 8/99, Eugenio Martinez]
Mindmanager by MindJet is computer software for using the Mind Mapping method of Tony Buzan.
Pathmaker by Skymark is a toolkit for leaders and managers that includes the following capabilities:
KJ cards were developed by Japanese anthropologist Kawakita Jiro for archeological classifications and used extensively by businessmen in Japan.
Idons-for-Thinking is software by which one maps ideas to hexagonal shapes, then clusters related hexagons, and then establishes links between clusters. Apparently, the hexagonal shape is convenient for visualizing the synthesis of two ideas, so that an idea and an icon together yield an Idon. A magnetic kit for whiteboards is also available, along with a manual, Thinking with Hexagons . [http://www.idongroup.com/idonsoft/soft.htm, Andrius Kulikauskas, 7/99]
The Knowledge Systems Group has created CuttingTools to transform a standard web browser into a research tool that simplifies copying of information from HTML pages on the Web or on one's own computer. One adds a label and bibliographic information to the material copied and it becomes a card in a database. The content of the database is fully searchable. Cards can be organized hierarchically. A single click generates an outline made up of a card and all of cards below it in the hierarchy. Such an outline can be viewed as a finished product. The Knowledge Systems Group developed CuttingTools as an internal research tool to gather information its EducationCommunity.com web site for education policy makers. It plans to integrate CuttingTools into a web-based application program. CEO Kirk Knutsen, (702) 869-5242, [email protected] [AK 12/98, from the EducationCommunity.com [http://educationcommunity.com /u/Default.htm] Thanks, Jeff Remmel]
NoteCards is an idea-processing hypertext system developed in 1986 by Thomas P. Moran of the Xerox Corporation Palo Alto Research Center . Published papers about NoteCards include:
Inspiration Software Inc. offers Inspiration , a visual thinking tool which lets one display ideas both hierarchically and crossreferenced. The professional version contains symbols designed for diagramming, outlining, flowcharting, knowledge mapping, systems thinking and multimedia design. One can record and sort ideas generated in brainstorming. One can also draw concept maps and story webs to define or reveal the structure of ideas visually. A K-12 version is available for school teachers, as is a book, Classroom Ideas Using Inspiration: For Teachers By Teachers . Inspiration Software, Inc./ 7412 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy, Suite 102 / Portland, OR 97225-2167 USA Phone: (800) 877-4292, (503) 297-3004 Fax (503) 297-4676 [http://www.inspiration.com, 12/98, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Questmap by Group Decision Support Systems is organizational memory software for capturing informal knowledge. It offers a computer whiteboard for displaying messages, documents, and reference material for a project, and then exploring the graphical relationships to understand the history of the reasoning that lead to key decisions and plans. [http://www.gdss.com/OM.htm, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Iris Media Systems has created Xantippe , "the information structuring workbench", "a hypertext/hypergraphics authoring environment for Windows 3.x. Xantippe allows the author to easily organize bits of information into a hypertext document. Xantippe encapsulates bits of information into electronic index cards. These cards can be categorized into file boxes. Hyperlinks can be created between related topics. Keywords can be attached to each card. Xantippe gives the author all the tools to create electronic handbooks, help material, training material, and presentations in a hypermedia environment." IRIS Media Systems / 1684 Locust St. Suite #125 / Walnut Creek, CA 94596 / Tel: +1 925 256 4673 / Fax: +1 925 256 6353 Email: [email protected] / FTP: ftp.irismedia.com [http://www.irismedia.com/, 12/98, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Pad++ is a zoomable graphical sketchpad. It uses a two dimensional plane to represent hierarchical information and lets the kind of information shown change as one zooms in or zooms out. This is useful for file management, but also for creating atlases that reflect one's history of travel through hypertexts. Pad++ also supports hyperlinks. The software and a tremendous amount of information are available at the site of their Web tour (which you can figure out if you keep clicking). Current research directions being pursued include "creating Pad++ GUI components, developing an internet based distributed Pad++, performing Pad++ usability studies, developing Pad++ applications for understanding large datasets, porting Pad++ to Windows95/NT, developing easy to use authoring tools." The team currently working on Pad++ is lead by Benjamin Bederson , Allison Druin , and Tammara Combs of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, by James Hollan of the Distributed Cognition and Human Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, by Jason Stewart of the Computer Science Department at the University of New Mexico, and by Ken Perlin and Jonathan Meyer of the NYU Media Research Laboratory . Ken Perlin and David Fox's original versions of Pad, described in their 1993 paper, were supported in part by NYNEX and later the NSF. Ben Bederson and Jim Hollan designed Pad++ while working at Bellcore and later they both worked for some time at the University of New Mexico. Research is currently being supported in part by a DARPA grant. Sony Electronics Inc. licensed PAD++ software technology from both NYU and UNM in July 1998. For more information: [email protected] [AK 12/98, from the Pad++ tour [http://hci.ucsd.edu/zoom-hci/PadTour.html]]
Personal Information Managers (PIMs) are software tools typically used in business to keep track of tasks, contacts, and appointments. Sometimes they allow one to organize notes in a variety of ways for ongoing projects. Perhaps the best was Ecco Pro 4.0 from Netmanage , which PC Magazine rated as their Editor's choice for "the best approach that we've seen to manage random information effectively" , and CNET acknowledged to be "the most powerful PIM you can buy" (1/9/97). Ecco Pro 4.0 let you organize notecards with data in alphabetical sequence, in hierarchies with topics and subtopics, as well as crossreference them via folders. The product had a following, but was discontinued, perhaps because it was too much work to learn how to use. There is an Ecco user's group : [email protected] Phil Seeman, [email protected], president of Catalyst Innovations , develops third-party software for NetManage ECCO and posts information on the possible revival of ECCO . PC Magazine's August 1997 survey of contact and information managers also ranked Info Select 4.0 from Micro Logic Corp. as "excellent" in terms of its power as an information manager "for those who record fleeting thoughts and work with a random approach". A new Info Select 5.0 is out and Micro Logic is courting former Ecco users . Other free form information managers are Zoot by Tom Davis, AskSam , and Commence . Of these, only Commence was mentioned in the PC Magazine survey. The survey ranked Lotus Organizer 97 GS from Lotus as "excellent" in terms of its ease of use. Other PIMs reviewed included Microsoft Outlook 97, Office Talk 1.51 from Sareen Software , Sidekick 97 from Starfish Software , and Time and Chaos 32 5.2 from Isbister International . Organizer aide '98 from Ike-World Software is a personal information manager that includes a Note Tree for organizing notes in a hierarchy. [email protected] [AK 1/99, from PC Magazine Editor's Choice [http://www8.zdnet.com/ pcmag/features/infomanagers/ pcmg0145.htm], [http://www.zootsoftware.com/], and from Ike-World Software [http://www.mindworks.net/ Ike-World/fs_index.html] Thanks, David J. Kirsh]
James Fallows , [email protected], was The Atlantic Monthly's Washington editor from 1980 to 1996 and is an ardent booster of information management software. His many contributions to The Atlantic Monthly that broach this subject include Zoot! - August 1997 , Navigating the Galaxies - April 1996 , The Java Theory - March 1996 , and a 1992 article on Lotus Agenda. In his 1996 article for Inc, v 18, n 4, "Organizational Behavior", he notes the wide variety of personal management software and the lack of a breakthrough entry that would make clear what a PIM is supposed to be. He also expresses sadness that Lotus decided to abandon Agenda, and that no product has followed up on four key features: text parsing, filtered views, inheritance, and limitless customizability. Lotus Agenda was developed by Mitchell Kapor, Ed Belove and Jerry Kaplan, and more than 100,000 copies were sold, but Lotus had trouble explaining what the software was good for. Mitchell Kapor, the founder of Lotus, popularized the term "personal information manager" in the 1980s. In 1995, the New York City PC Users Group had a Special Interest Group on personal information managers which drew up a "PIM Power Users Manifesto". The manifesto presented a list of desired features and challenged the software industry to develop a software product incorporating them. The PIM SIG appears to have disbanded. Another booster of PIM technology is Sean Fosmire, [email protected], the author of the webpages Selected Internet Resources on Information Management (very useful!) and Free-form Information Managers . We also should mention our investigator Zigmas Bigelis ! [AK 12/99, from [http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/eresearch/reviews/ffim/]]
David Kirsh: Hi Andrius, I think you are now going about things the right way. You need to get on exactly such committees and then to push through your own projects. It's a good idea to have a PIM standard. I don'k know if you'd ever be able to sell it as a stand alone translator for much but companies might be willing to lease it from you. On the other hand, if you really want to be where the action is I'd suggest you think about using XML as your tagging language and then create a PIM in XML so that people could access their info anywhere in the world via the web. That's going to be a killer app (I want some credit or involvement when you make your millions on it :-). You'd have to deal with security issues, so keep that in mind early. [David Kirsh, [email protected], 1/99]
Shareware repository www.softseek.com has an extensive list of Information Organizers under its Business Productivity section. Editor's picks include replacements for the Cardfile program that comes with Windows (Card32 v2.0 and Jot+ Notes v2.3.0), free-form notes databases (InfoTree32 v3.5.4 and Zoot (16-bit) v3.1.86), productivity toolkits (FooBar v1.0.5), and portals for organizing and updating information from a variety of data sources. [http://www.softseek.com/Business_and_Productivity/Information_Organizers/, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Hypercard designed by Bill Atkinson provides many of hypermedia's functionalities. Hypercard in 1989, Toolbook in 1994, Authorware in 1991, and HM-Card (Mauner et al., 1995) made it easy to create links, buttons and hot spots. Hypercard was designed as an authoring tool. It has a simple graphical user interface that the computer user could identify with to handle graphics, video, sound and interactive links to other cards. It has a scripting language for more advanced users, OpenScript for incorporating buttons, sounds, etc.. [Based on Lennon 1997 , 8/99, George Jayaraj]
Guide is a hypertext system that was developed by Peter Brown at the University of Kent in 1986. It was commercially distributed as the first hypertext system. Files could be interchanged between Macintosh and IBM PC. An interesting feature are the text areas that consist of different cursor shapes. They indicate different classes of links. They can be created without scripting. Guide is an authoring and browsing tool. [Based on Lennon 1997 , 8/99, George Jayaraj]
Hypertext Editing System (HES) was built at Brown University by the team of Gross, T., Nelson, T., Rice, D., van Dam, A., and Carmody, S. in 1969. The team developed an alphanumeric keyboard and light pen for data entry. Simply called HES, it supports two types of links as well as annotations (tags). The HES screen consists of a scrollable text area followed by a tag and prompt area. HES does not impose hierarchies, the data segments are freely connected in text links and branchways. Users may jump within the segment or to another segment. Branches from a segment may be selected from a menu at the end of the segment. HES was sold to NASA to produce documentation for the Apollo program. Later it was distributed commercially as a file retrieval and editing system FRESS. It included color raster graphics and navigational aids. [Based on Lennon 1997 , 8/99, George Jayaraj]
Daily Notes by PrimaSoft PC is a straightforward software notebook for sorting notes by subject or by date, searching for text, and printing. [http://www.primasoft.com/dn.htm, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Note-It-All 2.1 by Nucois a straightforward note database that shows a list of notes, a short description, and a complete note (up to 30 KB). Along with each note there are boxes for subject, title, author, as well as an automatic last up date. Simple searches can be performed on the text. The website contains a list of fifty uses. [http://www.pcworld.com/top400/article/0,1361,11834,00.html, 9/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Staccato Notes by Cartoon Logic is an Internet-enabled utility for storing notes and sending them as e-mail messages. [http://www.cartoonlogic.com/staccato/, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Post-it Software Notes by 3M make it possible to jot down notes on the computer desktop. The notes can be organized and stored on customized Memoboards. Alarms can be set, and searches can be done on the notes. Other sticky notes programs are Magic Notes and Quick Notes. [http://www.3m.com/market/office/postit/com_prod/psnotes/index.html, 7/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Personal Knowledge System uses the hypertext model and date stamping for the collection and organization of information as it presents itself during the daily routine. 757-898-3873, 130 Lorna Doone Drive, Grafton, Virginia, 23692-3429, [email protected] [http://www.kwbsolutions.com/welcome.html, AK, 2/99]
DETEX Systems, Inc. makes eXpress , a software tool for hierarchically expressing information, typically for use in developing the design of a complex product. Elements of the hierarchy can include conceptual descriptions, complex symbols, graphic images, and there are capabilities for editing these objects directly. One can make use of a symbol library and create new symbols as well. [AK 12/98, from DETEX Systems, Inc. [http://home.earthlink.net/~detex/index.html]]
Programming tools for CASE (computer aided software engineering) include AxiomSys by Structured Technology Group, Inc , MacA&D and WinA&D by Excel Software , and ClearCase by Rational Software .
Professor Theodor Holm Nelson, Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan and Project Xanadu, Sausalito, California, are developing an OSMIC (Open System for Media InterConnection). "An Integrated Universal Format, especially for Text, Hypertext, Annotation, Versioning, and Intercomparison" Also see Xanadu Australia , Xanadu related links [email protected] [AK 12/98, from [ http://sericyb.com.au/xanadu/OSMIC ]]
R. H. Trigg, A Network-Based Approach to Text Handling for the Online Scientific Community, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, 1983. [Dennis Shasha]
D. E. Wojick, Trees: a new tool for writers June, 1979. Adams and Wojick, 5989 Battle Point Drive, Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110. [Dennis Shasha]
T. H. Nelson, Literary Machines, Box 128 Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 1983. [Dennis Shasha]
Related newsgroups include: alt.cyberspace, alt.hypertext, comp.infosystems, comp.infosystems.hyperg, comp.infosystems.interpedia, comp.os.research, comp.theory.info-retrieval
A proposal for a string to string mapping paradigm for computer networking is given by [email protected] Web Technology and Beyond - current and future Web technology This may simplify the mapping of one idea to another. [AK 12/98, from [http://www.base.com/gordoni/web.html]]
Peitho is a software tool, a generic argument design system that lets one construct templates to represent, support and examine critical thinking. Designed by Dr. Dave Goforth, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, [email protected] [http://print.cps.nl/calgary/15.html, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
D. Lowe, Cooperative Structuring of Information: the Representation of Reasoning and Debate, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies (to appear in 1985). [Dennis Shasha]
The Explanation Architecture Group at the MIT Media Lab develops and studies systems that help people formulate their understanding of how and why things work the way they appear to. Much of this work suggests what the classroom of the future may be like. For example, professor Brian K. Smith and Tara Rosenberger ([email protected]) are working to project virtual spaces onto a room, so that children can identify with the behavior of migrating wildebeests or nuclear particles. They would like to create projected computer worlds to the extent where students could develop and test simulation rules on themselves and other objects. Professor Brian K. Smith ([email protected])taught a class MAS 123: Tools for Thought . Here is the syllabus . The Explanation Architecture Group MIT Media Lab/20 Ames Street/Cambridge, MA 02139 Telephone: 617.253.0330/ FAX: 617.253.6215 [AK 12/98, from The Explanation Architecture Group [http://www.media.mit.edu/ MediaLab/Projects/ smith.html]]
Jon Barwise , a professor of philosophy, mathematics, and computer science at Indiana University in Bloomington, and John Etchemendy , a professor of philosophy and symbolic systems at Stanford University, have created several award-winning educational text/software packages published by the Center for the Study of Language and Information . Tarski's World lets one build three-dimensional worlds and describe them in first-order logic, and Hyperproof let's one construct and check proofs in an expanded language. Turing's World lets one build simple Turing machines. Check out groups related to the CSLI. Email: [email protected] / [email protected] [AK 12/98, from Logic Software from CSLI [http://csli-www.stanford.edu/hp/]]
H. Karlgren and D. E. Walker, The polytext system -- a new design for
a text retrieval system in Ferenc Kiefer (ed.),
Questions and Answers, pp. 273-294, by D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1983.
[Dennis Shasha]
T. K. Landauer, S. T. Dumais, L. M. Gomez, and G. W. Furnas, Human Factors in Data Access, The Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 61, no. 9 November 1982 pp. 2487-2509. [Dennis Shasha]
S. A. Weyer, Dynamic Book for Information Search, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, vol. 17, pp. 87-107, 1982. [Dennis Shasha]
Robert M. Akscyn and Donald L. McCracken, The Zog Approach to Database Management, CMU-CS-84-128, Department of Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1984. [Dennis Shasha]
Sending emails to myself. When I am at work (like right now), if can email a message to my home email address with the idea. [8/99, Charles Cave]
Index cards. Carrying a bundle of index cards is very useful, because each card can be used to record one idea. Then the cards can be categorised and filed under different subject areas. [...] I once created a Hypercard stack on my Apple Macintosh to capture ideas and later I saw a program called Thoughtpattern, but the system wasnt practical because I dont carry a Macintosh with me! The index card system is very flexible. [8/99, Charles Cave]
A5 size journal/notebook - this is my journal for carrying around for recording ideas, sketches, mind maps, etc. Unfortunately I dont carry it with me all the time and I should! [8/99, Charles Cave]
A4 size journal for "morning pages". I've gone through phases of writing three full pages in a journal - an exercise called morning pages as described in Julia Cameron's book THE ARTISTS WAY. These journals are fascinating reading long after the actual writing! [8/99, Charles Cave]
Dictaphone. I've taken a dictaphone with me when I go for long walks on the weekend. When I get an idea I can record it without breaking the rhythm of the walk. Later I transcribe the tape. [8/99, Charles Cave]
Robert Pirsig's book LILA describes a system of recording ideas and filing/sorting
them, and my friend Bill Paton in Canada gave me ideas for extending the
filing card system. Index cards or system cards as they are sometimes
called can be used to record inspiring quotations on creativity or success,
recipe cards of creativity techniques, idea prompters, checklists, etc....
[8/99, Charles Cave]
My favorite app for recording thoughts is NoteTab , a full-featured shareware Text/HTML editor by Eric Fookes. Notetab is fast and efficient and has a number of features I like, including an excellent tabbed interface and the ability to make 'links' between and within its own documents or to web pages. You can also use it to create simple 1 or 2 level outlines - although it is really not an outlining app... and all your data is still stored in basic ASCII text format so it can be easily searched, accessed or indexed by other apps or converted to other formats. [http://www.notetab.com/, 6/00, William Wagner]
Mind Tools offers psychological tools for thinking and high performance living. They also have software LifePlan v1.22 for planning an excellent life. There is an extensive list of related websites. [http://www.mindtools.com, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
The VanWrite method by Linda Vanderworld teaches how to write clearly by using color to show the strengths and weaknesses of sentences. [http://www.vanwrite.com/target-editing.htm, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Thinking Tools for Lawyers by Stephen J. Harhai, [email protected], illustrates the usefulness of using tools such as MindManager and The Brain to think through the facts of a law case. [http://www.aaml.org/thinking.htm, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
The Management Sofware Association was formed by twenty publishers of MBA-ware to promote MBA-ware as a distinct category of software. The administrator is Gregory F. Lane, (617) 232-4111, [email protected], www.tmsa.org The website is hosted by Vitadata, a technology service company that provides applications of information and telecommunication technologies for the biomedical research industries. [http://www.tmsa.org/, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Experience In Software produces Computer-Aided Thinking (CAT) software such as Project KickStart, The Idea Generator and The Art of Negotiating that guide business users through interactive questions and answers. Versions of all three products exist for the HP 100/200LX palmtop . They also have a Thinking Tools Store that offers tools from other vendors for project management (such as WBS Chart by Critical Tools), business planning, PIMs, negotiating, business diagrams (such as VisiMaps), and Internet Business Tools. Roy Nierenberg is founder and President.
The Software Development Forum is a center for education, connection and information for software developers. They have monthly meetings for Special Interest Groups in the San Francisco area. [email protected] [http://www.sdforum.org/, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
The Need for Tools by Roger Schank , schank@... of the Institute for the Learning Sciences describes six kinds of educational tools that he would like to work to develop as part of their program Engines for Education. They have developed five teaching architectures : simulation-based-learning-by-doing, incidental learning, learning by reflection, case-based teaching, and learning by exploring. Contact Beth Van Es, [email protected], for information on sponsorship and collaboration, and Heidi Levin, [email protected], for general information. [http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/nodes/NODE-294-pg.html, 12/99, Andrius Kulikauskas]
StructureBuilder by Tendril Software is for the enterprise Java developer. [http://www.tendril.com/content/sbhome.htm, 1/00, Andrius Kulikauskas]
Visual Thinking Tools by Peter Young, pm-young AT home.com, includes quotes by Csikszentmihalyi on the difficulty of manipulating symbolic systems and the exhiliration of playing with ideas. A definition is taken from Tools are divided into BrainStorming Webs that start with a single idea and generate more through associations (Rico clustering, Buzan mindmapping, Jacobs Interdisciplinary Concept Model), Task Specific Organizers for learning a particular skill such as reading or writing (Clarke backmapping, sorting trees, flowchart, Venn Diagrams, Martin and McClure 1985, Wandersee 1990), and Thinking-Process Maps to make thinking explicit (Thornburg 1998, Hyerle 1996, Thinking Maps, SemNet, Gaines 1995, Cognitive Task Analysis, Gordon 1993.) [http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/VisThinkTools/start.htm, 8/00, Andrius Kulikauskas]
MagicBrain http://ilovemusic.com/shareware.htm
Free Basic Creativity Software http://www.cul.co.uk/software/basic.htm
Imagination Engineering Software http://www.cul.co.uk/software/imeng.htm
The Concept Mapping Home Page http://www.to.utwente.nl/user/ism/lanzing/cm_home.htm
explains the difference between concept mapping and mind mapping, and includes
more tools.
More related sites http://web.singnet.com.sg/~axon2000/filelist.htm
HTML Authoring Tools http://www.davecentral.com/1994.html
http://www.notetab.com/
GnomeThink. An outliner.
Literary Machine. A cross between a mind mapper and a PIM.
http://sommestad.com/lm/htm
Skwyrul PIM http://www.asw.ndirect.co.uk
Jot+ www.kingstairs.com
Recently noted: Shannon Clark, February 22, 2001: Shannon suggests that we collaborate to collect links regarding tools for thinking. John Leppik, February 22: John wants the ability to work with 200 thoughts from his personal database with either an outliner or concept mapper. Thank you to our members for responding with valuable examples and experiences: Cmaps , Denham Grey: ExpertChoice , AliahThink , Inspiration , Wiki , Decision Explorer , Visio Nick Duffill: MindManager , Roy Roebuck: Userland Radio Outliner .