iMindMap Goes Online
The Straits Times (Singapore and Asia), 7th May 2007
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Since creating the first Mind Map in the 1960s, the father of Mind Mapping, Tony Buzan, reaches another milestone
with the launch of new computer software.
It is now easier to do Mind Mapping with the launch of computer software, Buzan’s iMindMap™ (www.iMindMap.com).
Using the conventional pen and paper, you have to bear with the hassle of erasing and printing pages after pages of the
maps. Now, with the software, you can make changes to your Mind Map without having to print out pages all the time. You
can also create Mind Maps that are more extensive and complicated on your computer screen.
Learning guru Tony Buzan, also known as the father of Mind Mapping, is evidently proud of this development, which he
says took over 40 years to perfect.
Mr Buzan, who was in Singapore to launch the iMindMap™ and conduct courses at the Singapore Institute of Management
(SIM) last month, explains: “In the 1960s, the computer system wasn’t that sophisticated yet. The challenge being the
computer has a linear and robotic way of processing information, which is different from the way our brain thinks and
how human beings process information. Hence, it was a complicated process to develop the software.”
He adds that he picked Singapore as the place to launch the software for a special reason. "It is appropriate to
launch the first-ever thinking software in a thinking nation,” says Mr Buzan, whose Buzan Centre Asia is headquartered
here.
He hopes that the software will encourage more people to pick up Mind Mapping, which he likens to the Swiss army knife
of the brain. He elaborates: “The Mind Map is a representation on the page of the way in which thoughts are arranged inside
your head. In the same way that a city map starts at the centre of the city and radiates out with the main roads and then
the sub-roads, the Mind Map starts in the centre with the main focus of your idea and then radiates out with the main
themes and sub-themes. The Mind Map is based on the memory principles of imagination and association. It uses all the left
or right brain skills, including keywords, colours, codes, numbers, images and associative or connecting tools such as
arrows and symbols.”
Mr Buzan, 65, founded Mind Maps when he was an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia in Canada, after
figuring out that images helped improve his learning and memory. He has since published over 80 books which are sold in
more than 100 countries. Some are translated into 30 languages.
According to him, Mind Mapping has great potential in the workplace. He says: “Mind Mapping helps us all to do
thinking and work tasks better and more efficiently because, simply, it is more ‘brain-friendly’. For example, the brain
remembers the keywords and not the sentences. Keywords and their images occur approximately only 10 per cent of the time
in sentences. A Mind Map, therefore, saves you 90 per cent of your time in note-taking and a further 90 per cent of the
time in reviewing what you have noted.
This added efficiency is particularly useful in areas such as project management, planning, decision-making, speed
communication, creativity and knowledge management. As Mind Maps both give a detailed view and a helicopter view of the
topic or issue, it is an indispensable tool for someone in a management position. The fresh graduate entering the workforce
will be able to use Mind Maps to learn the ropes of the trade faster.
“And for the working professional who wants a fatter bonus at the end of the year, Mind Mapping can help him to be
efficient, creative, structured, directed and in control of his knowledge and ability to use that knowledge.”
Mr Buzan, who has been teaching at the SIM for the past 15 years, has also worked with several local organisations
such as the Civil Service College, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Manpower. He has trained some 5,000 people in
Singapore on Mind Mapping. Elsewhere, he has given guidance to companies such as General Motors, Microsoft and Barclays
International.