Extracting Key Points From Bulky Documents
Situation: You Have To Plow Through Dense Documentation Every Day of Your Life. MindSystems Theme Reader scans through your favorite Word document and presents you with a visual "Cliff's Notes" version in the form of a MindMap. This isnt just creating an outline from the table of contents - like you have in the standard MindManager setup. This tool uses Artificial Intelligence to really draw out themes, ideas, and keywords and drop them into a hierarchy. Here's how they say it works... What makes this different to search engine technology? This technology uses a type of intelligent scanning that is able to accurately detect natural patterns in information and apply a interpretation in a way a human researcher would. Standard search engine technology provides a powerful indexing system, but even the largest search engines can't control the relevance of the information returned by a search. This is controlled by the content and how or where keywords appear in a document.  I gave it a try using the free 21 day trial, running it against a fairly obscure 16 page doc I found on the web (The Darknet and the Future of Content Distribution). This is one of those documents that I think I might like to read, but as I get into it ----- well, not so much.Themereader actually helped a great deal more than I thought it would, extracting a lot of information into a mindmap that really gave me a view of what the paper said without reading it. I'm sure its not flawless, but I think its helpful (click on the JPEG to see a larger picture of the MMP). |
Posted on: July 22, 2007 09:29 PM
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How Does One Become An Expert?
Situation: You Need to Get People to Practice Being "More Perfect". Harvard Business Review is great. I never read it when I have a subscription, but I buy it every month at the airport. In the July 2007 issue, The Making of An Expert goes over what gives a person that title. The article refutes claims that people are born leaders, presenters, etc. It presents some great arguments that say - if you want to be an expert, just spend a decade practicing in a way that promotes progress. They also touch on the importance of practicing well. The author argues that you can spend decades golfing, but if you never aim you won't get any better. I think this could be a really cool part of a career management plan. Every person should have the equivalent of a "trade" that they can rely on for future marketability. There are some simple business skills, today's "presenter" or "writer" = yesterday's "blacksmith" -- ensuring a better job no matter what the future holds. |
Posted on: July 22, 2007 09:08 PM
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Crowd Around the Project Campfire
Situation: You Need to a Robust Group Chat Environment.  I picked this one up from comment in the posting before last. Campfire is a sophisticated group chat application, from the same people who brought you basecamp. There's not a lot to it: - upload files and graphics - discuss ...and that's pretty much it. |
Posted on: July 17, 2007 03:53 PM
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Manage to the Beat of Your Own Drum
Categories:
Time Killers
Categories: Time Killers
Situation: You Need to Snap People Out of Their Daze...  ... or maybe create a Pavlovian response. Hearing a drum beat might make them want to hit you hard on the chin. The Finger Drum Mousepad is a cute little office toy that will either make people laugh or irritate the hell out of them. It also makes a great gift for your favorite developer. |
Posted on: July 17, 2007 12:16 PM
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Short-term, Virtual, Collaborative Projects...
Situation: You Need a Lightly Structured Way to Collaborate Virtually --- and Temporarily. Sometimes you need to work with a group of contractors for a short time period. Let's say its an important project, but its happening with people outside of your organization with whom you might never work again. Huddle gives you a quick way to make that happen.It's great for: - brainstorming, using a whiteboard application. - broadcast communications (using blogging tools) - assigning and tracking tasks (via a group calendar and individual task lists) |
Posted on: July 15, 2007 12:58 PM
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