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

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http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-home-for-last-software.html

Sketchup is an interesting 3d image rendering software program. It was recently acquired by Google. I think its worth a look at one of their summary tutorials to get an idea of what’s possible with the program.

What I find maybe more interesting about the program besides its obvious application for building designers/product designers etc. is that it might have some hidden or untapped potential as webdesign software. Picture the ability of a webdesigner to render a 3d world with the software and then code into a building an actual store, or coffee shop or meeting place.

There are other software programs designed for just this purpose, however the purchase by Google, combined with the ability already available to plug in with google maps converges on a concept that might allow the software to be expanded into the virtual world.

None-the-less the tutorial provides a glimpse of how the software could be used in a different context. So beware of the alternatives as you view it.

Technorati Tags: sketchup, sketchup 3D, Google’s sketchup 3D

Written by: Brett Bumeter, President

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

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There are two different products on the market today that attempt to address the consumer demand for intelligent shoes.

Maybe you didn’t realize it but your feet apparently filled out a user survey online saying I want smarter shoes, and inventors and engineers are beginning to step up to the challenge.

Make a Better Shoe for Running
Thus far it appears that two different groups are coming at this demand from two different directions. Addidas has attempted to address the question of how to make a better shoe with a computing or intelligence capability. They’ve developed a product that is supposed to detect your movements, running speeds etc and make adjustments in the shoe to decrease impact. Kind of like handling sensors in a car. The shoe is referred to as Addidas 1 and of course its already got an upgrade so its now Adidas 1 1.1. The shoe comes with a Microprocessor and ‘motor driven cable system’. Combined these are supposed to provide an optimum level of cushioning.
see shopadidas or if very patient w/ flash see Adidas_1 site

Make a Shoe that Does Everything - Convergence
Dada has taken the approach of attempting to converge the need to keep pesky MP3 players, altimeters, and cell phones out of our hands while we are exercising, playing basket ball, or hiking.

Personally, I hate it when I’m playing basketball, racing down the court, leaping through the air to slam dunk the ball, and have to pause to check my altimeter to get a reading on just how high up in the air I really am. Let’s face it, carrying gadgets on the court can be a nuisance!

Enter Dada’s new MP3 player CODE M System basketball shoes. The shoes come with a built in MP3 player, wireless headphones, and actual speakers built into the side of the shoe. Future versions could come with a GPS (verify whether or not you were out of bounds) and access to “other data”.

I think this could offer up a novelty buy to consumers that are into gadgets, music and sports, but on a scale of 1-10, 10 being practical and 1 being ridiculous. I’d give this a 2.5.

If I juxtapose the image of someone playing basketball with an MP3 player, I don’t come up with speakers in the shoes. Would a player have to stretch down and grab their ankles to get that stereo sound pumping? What about the rest of the team? Should they sync up and all it play at the same time?

As a parent and former teenager, kids, teenagers etc wear through shoes pretty quickly even when the style consciousness hasn’t kicked into overdrive. Where’s the practicality in buying shoes with an MP3 player that will get tossed out, when they become worn or their outgrown?

What happens if you step in a mud puddle or get kicked or stepped on? Convergence in shoes hasn’t seen the envelope pushed this far since “I’m gonna get you sucka” came out, with a pimp wearing platform shoes with gold fish swimming in the heals.

Technorati Tags: intelligent shoes, dada, Addidas

Written by: Brett Bumeter, President

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

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Brain-controlled device could help the disabled : Mail & Guardian Online

Brain interface: next best thing to telekinesis

Here are two great articles discussing very early versions of a device designed to allow a user to interface with their PC using brain waves.

People have been studying and developing new ways to interface with a PC since the mouse was brought into existence circa (1968-1972 Palo Alto Research Center). There have been joy sticks, track balls, touch pads, optical devices that watch the direction of focus of your retina, finger print readers, keyboards, split keyboards, tablets, pens, text readers etc.

All of these devices share the goal of allowing our brains intentions to be translated into action that records information in a computer interface. Ergo we’re trying to find a way to interface our bodies to the computer hardware, as it is our interface to that of the computer.

So at CeBIT a company has initiated some research to jump straight to the source, ergo the human central processing system and hard drive aka. The Brain.

The device is still in its very early stages, takes about an hour to get the EEG like cap on, and even then the computer interface must learn how to interpret an individuals brain waves, which is reminiscent of speech recognition software.

There are many obvious benefits, from helping the disabled, to increasing the speed of translating thought into digital copy, to helping EMT’s diagnose a patient or communicate with someone in a coma, or limit the liability and expense on corporations and insurance companies relating to repetitive motion injuries.

Its important to understand that this is currently only an input device, ergo your brain sends info to the computer but does not receive.

Given the speed at which voice recognition software has progressed, this might take a 5-10 years before it could ever make it to prime time and even then, The Gates Foundation might have to step in to fund it on the medical side to keep the ball rolling.

But this could move us one step forward towards establishing a capability for humans to literally perform a brain dump into their PC’s (For Harry Potter fans this would be the equivalent of a Pensive.)

If an output device could be structured, then we could all go full tilt on information overload.

Technorati Tags: EEG, EEG Mouse

Written by: Brett Bumeter, President

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

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