"A picture is worth a thousand words" - Mind Maps

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Don't think there are too many people who have not heard the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". As I see it, a mind map is probably just a pictorial representation of the thoughts in the mind. Our mind uses maps and links to remember most of the information we know. For example, if I were to just examine how I would remember a route to a place not many times do I use a take left, take right approach but use some landmarks as links.

Capturing thoughts in the form of mind maps would definitely do away with a whole lot of superflous information that we might have otherwise needed to transfer a thought onto paper. I have been attempting to use mind maps for a few weeks now - currently using a free mind mapping software to capture thoughts, ideas and action items at office (Details on Freemind can be obtained at - http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

It has been quite difficult to capture the thoughts in our mind on a map. So, I would rather capture the line items (or probably the leaf nodes in the map) and then let the mind do the rest of the mapping internally.

Although I have'nt used maps much, at this juncture I seem to feel that we need to strike a right balance between the level of detail that goes into a mind map format and what goes as a simple linear format. For me there appear to be advantages in both approaches to do away with either method

As we go forward,

1. Need for agreement on using Mindmaps as a acceptable format - possibilities to embed mind maps in wiki pages for instance (Google/JotSpot - listening guys ?)

2. As mind maps start moving towards a more wider accepted usage, it may be necessary to arrive at a standardized format for mind maps (standardization usually further fuels growth)