The Road Ahead

How 'intelligent agents' and mind-mappers are taking our information democracy to the next stage.

By Bill Gates Newsweek

Issues 2006 - It's hard to say exactly when it happened, but at some point in the last 20 years the word "knowledge" became an adjective.

As intellectual property became increasingly important to businesses, and personal computers started appearing on every desktop, employees morphed into knowledge workers, companies began to focus on knowledge management and key information was stored in knowledge bases connected? in theory? via knowledge networks.

The result was the knowledge economy, a phenomenon that has transformed the business of business and helped entire emerging economies to compete globally.
But this is only the beginning. Most of the "knowledge" on which the knowledge economy is built is actually just information? data, facts and basic business intelligence.
Knowledge itself is more profound. As management guru Tom Davenport once put it, "Knowledge is information combined with experience, context, interpretation, and reflection."

It's the knowledge derived from information that gives you a competitive edge.

Most of us now live in an "information democracy"? if you have access to a PC and the Internet, you can tap into almost all the information that is publicly available worldwide.

Advanced software and Web services can help trace, slice and dice the information in ways that were impossible only a decade ago.

But while we've gone a long way toward optimizing how we use information, we haven't yet done the same for knowledge.

This is a vast growth opportunity, and a surprisingly tough challenge. While information wants to be free, knowledge is much "stickier"? harder to communicate, more subjective, less easy to define. For instance, the knowledge you accumulate throughout your career? the "tacit" knowledge, rather than the "explicit" knowledge found in, say, manuals or textbooks? defines your value to the organization you work for.

Your ability to combine it with the knowledge of co-workers, partners and customers can make the difference between success and failure? for you and your employer.
Yet today, even locating sources of knowledge within complex organizations can be daunting.

But as software gets smarter about how people think and work, it's starting to help them synthesize and manage knowledge, too. Some of this technology is deceptively simple.
Software such as our own OneNote helps people take and organize their typed and sketched notes using a "pen and paper" approach that is more abstract than text-based word processors.

On another level, One Note and a new generation of "mind-mapping" software can also be used as a digital "blank slate" to help connect and synthesize ideas and data? and ultimately create new knowledge.

Researchers at Microsoft and elsewhere are developing technology that can unobtrusively "watch" you working, then make suggestions about related subjects or ideas. Interestingly, even if the software makes a bad guess, it can still be valuable in helping spark new ideas.
Computer scientists are also making progress against a long-held dream of "intelligent agents" that anticipate your needs and provide just-in-time information that's relevant to the work you're doing.

Experimental programs known as reasoning engines can test your ideas against common-sense logic, spotting flaws in hypotheses and acting as "virtual subject experts" to help guide your thinking.

These technologies promote consilience? literally, the "jumping together" of knowledge from different disciplines.

They help people combine their own ideas with at least some existing knowledge far more efficiently than was previously possible.

But they also leave a key problem unsolved: how to unearth all the new ideas that are being generated around the world.

Today's search engines are good at locating tidbits of information in an ocean of data, and even at finding answers to simple questions.

The next step is pattern-recognition engines and mental models to help people mine and assess the value of all that information, and technologies that infuse online data with meaning and context.

None of this is science fiction: the technologies that make it possible already exist.
The power they hold is hard to exaggerate. Inventor Robert Metcalfe theorized that the value of a network is roughly equal to the square of the number of people using it. "Metcalfe's Law" applies equally to knowledge: being able to tap into the world's finest thinkers as easily as we can now search the Web for information will revolutionize business, science and education. It will literally transform how we think? and help us finally realize the potential of a truly global knowledge economy.

Gates is the chairman of Microsoft. © 2006 MSNBC.com

For further information on MindMapping or to download a full evaluation of MindMapper the leading MindMapping software on the market today be sure to drop by our website: www.EssentialMindMapping.com

Until Next time...Take Care,
Kind Regards and Happy Mapping!
Paul Urban, CEO
Essential MindMapping Email: admin@essentialmindmapping.com
Tel: 61 2 90189305
Web: www.EssentialMindMapping.com
"Explode Your Productivity & Profits Through Smarter Planning"

Getting Things Done

How using David Allen's www.davidco.com getting things done methods andMindMapper can help you create visual lists and help you record and memorize critical, useful and fun events, tasks and calendar dates.

We at Essential MindMapping have recently been introduced the concepts ofDavid Allen's website "getting things done" where you can download andreceive valuable information on managing your time, resources and projects.

We recommend you drop by David's website and download some valuable freeResources for your everyday use: www.davidco.com

MindMapper is not only great for visual planning, projects andpresentations...We have received many comments from clients who use MindMapper andDavid Allen's
"getting things done" principles for remembering useful andimportant information they can reference in one central map.

(source David Allen www.davidco.com )

Cool/Convenient Maps to have:

There are critical reminder-type lists that we all need to let our brainrelax (re: outcomes and actions).

There are other lists, though, that canbeuseful, fun, and interesting, that fit in the area of "reference" or"support."

Account and $ numbers- credit card #s, PIN #s, etc. (if you're using a Palmyou can put these in Tel/Add, make them "private", and turn off the Privateview so that you only can see those entries when you turn it on with yourpassword.)

don't forget MindMapper allows you to protect all this personal informationas you can assign password protection to your MindMaps!

Affirmations- personal self-talk scripts for positive internal programming
Create your MindMap add Branches with your favorite script title thensimplyadd notes with Your script!

Basic personal numbers (self and family members)- drivers license, socialsecurity, insurance policies, Whatever you may need for yourself and otherswhen filling out formsBirthdays- group by date, as reviewable (those during a month, put intickler for that month, etc.)

Break your MindMap into months add simply add branches to the birthday.
Even add a link to the website to where you have seen tha special gift forthem!

Checklists- Travel, Take sailing..., Personal New Habits to Create, etc.Gifts- organized by people and/or a general list of neat things to buy forothers (fresh maple syrup from Vermont , styluses for Palms, etc.... andwhere to get them.) Great for birthdays, ad-hoc niceness, and Christmastime.

Add links to your favorite shopping websites within your MindMap

Ideas I don't know what to do with, now that I've had them...- we all havethem, and they don't fit anywhere except in an "they don't fit anywhere"list.

You'll soon find links to other maps where you can reference these andaction them!

Jokes- the current ones that you'd like to get some more mileage out of(but damn! they disappear out of our brain so fast.)

Might "wanna buy"...- could be one mega-Map , or (more commonly) grouped bythe type of thing it is: cds, cigars, wines, books, videos or where fromlinks.

Might "wanna do" when...- possibilities when you're in a certain locationordoing a certain activity. By city, country, or region (things to do/thinkabout when I'm in Napa Valley , London , Santiago .) Or by activity (Websurfing places to visit.)

Might wanna do with...- if you're into any animate or inanimate objects: mykids, my spouse, my dogs, my piano, my woodcarving tools, my garden, mycomputer,Previous addresses and
employers- keep at least your last three. (What apain when you have to supply them and you don't have them!)

Quotes- "Cool Quotes - where I can jot down quotations I come across that Ilike." (Joel Millican)

Restaurants- for business or pleasure, to review for ideas instead ofsame-old same-old.

Style or product numbers I may need when I'm buying things- oil filter, vacuum cleaner bags, labeler cassettes, etc.Tips/Shortcuts- speed-key codes, shortcut codes for new systems (voicemail,answering machine, pager, software apps, new Palm III, etc.)

Any new skillset you're learning can have a remind-me-about list specific to itsfeaturesand activities until they are habitual and under your belt.Vacation things to do- those things that you might like to do if you areinto seriously doing nothing (take pictures, hike, hotels to stay in for anight, spa treatments, places to explore, etc.)

David Allen has been a leader in the field of Time Management and business processes for many years, for more information on "getting things done" whynot drop by David's website for other Free Resources and work processinformation: www.davidco.com

For further information on MindMapping or to download a full evaluation ofMindMapper the leading MindMapping software on the market today be sure todrop by our website: www.EssentialMindMapping.com