Mind mapping web style

Trying to organise your thoughts or brainstorm? Why not use mind maps to visually represent your options or ideas? Web 2.o now has seen the growth of a range of services that will help you to create online mindmaps and allow you to share and collaborate.

Bubbl.us is a free service that allow you to quickly set and manage your mindmaps. It also allows you to share them online and to invite others to participate.

Mindomo also allows you to create and share mind maps that are very visual in nature.

There are other mind map services out there that you can use. If you have a favourite that we haven’t mentioned, why not let us know?

Diarmuid

Building it your way.

Want to see your ideas in 3D? The web now offers a variety of ways of allowing this to happen.

Google SketchUp is a free download, that offers an easy-to-use interface for creating 3D models. When you have created your masterpiece, you can then place it in the world by placing it in Google Earth.

Floorplanner, does exactly what the name implies, it creates floor plans. It is a web 2.0 application, that simplifies the whole process. It comes with objects such as furniture and plants that you can manipulate on the screen for the perfect plan.

Diarmuid

Annotate the web

Have you ever come across an interesting web page and wanted to make some notes? Now you can do it live on the web thanks to a range of new services designed to let you do just that.

Sharedcopy allows you to insert notes, mark up parts of a page and draw simple objects on a page. You can share these musings with others as well.

JumpKnowledge also allows you to insert comments to any website. You can also add comments to multiple websites if you are comparing across a variety of sources. If you are doing research and come across  web pages which you fear may not last long, annotating them with JumpKnowledge will help preserve them.

MyStickies allows you to place a sticky note on any web page you visit. When you come back to the page, your sticky note is still there.

Diarmuid

Snippy your cut and paste friend

Ever needed to quickly cut and paste from your screen to a document or e-mail? If so then you may find Snippy useful. This freeware utility allows cutting and pasting by freehand or in squares or rectangles and is dead easy to use. Try it and see

Stewart

Presentations for free

Don’t have access to Powerpoint or want to make your presentation easily available on the web? What can you do?

Thanks to the ever increasing power of web 2.0 you now have access to free alternatives on the web. Why not try some of the following.

 Thinkfree is one of a new breed of Microsoft Office replacement services on the web and they include a presentation module

 Thumbstacks is a new service that concentrates solely on offering presentations on the web. 

  Zoho is another web based alternative to Microsoft Office.

In all cases your presentations can be viewed online. They all have somewhat differing capabilities, in some cases you can upload existing Powerpoint presentations and some allow you to download presentations to your computer.

Diarmuid