A perspective on information, knowledge and context

October 10th, 2008 Mind mapping as a tool to frame a problem

Information Overload Is a Filter Problem by Stephen E. Arnold

1-Sentence Summary*

"The final issue I have is that I don’t have an answer to this question: “When I don’t know what I need to answer my question, what do I filter in and out?”

Indeed, this is a critical question that kick starts the thinking process. A good starting point is to map out the problem and identify as many attributes and components of the question.

Mind mapping facilitates identification and organization of complex ideas into clearly defined concepts and ideas. Using mind mapping tools helps immensely to portray the problem by using keywords, short phrases, and pictures which all are interconnected.

The strength of this approach is its simplicity. Through associative thinking, brainstorming, any problem will reveal links with relevant concepts and relationships. In fact, visually mapping a problem serves as an effective filter to frame the issues and validate understanding of the problem. Once this is done it is much easier to search for answers.

* 1-Sentence Summary is done using Context Organizer.

Download Context Organizer today.

Tags: 1-Sentence Summary, Information Overload, mind mapping, mind maps
Posted by Henry at 10.10 | No Comments »

October 9th, 2008 Information overload is a misnomer

Using “R&D” Projects to Stop Information Overload by Andre Kibbe

1-Sentence Summary*

Anyone afflicted with information overload is preoccupied with information’s value rather than its relevance.

But when you’re engaged in a research project, begin with the end in mind and ask yourself from moment to moment, “What problem am I trying to solve?”, and confine yourself to looking up information that solves your immediate problem.

I may add that equally important is to evaluate your progress along the way. If you can review your goals systematically you’re that much better off. It boils down to keeping your objectives sharply focused in your mind and constantly prioritizing your information needs.

* 1-Sentence Summary is done using Context Organizer.

Download Context Organizer today.

Tags: 1-Sentence Summary, Information Overload
Posted by Henry at 10.9 | No Comments »

October 8th, 2008 Autumn Colors in Gatinaeu Park

Autumn in Gatineau Park - 2008-10-05

Gatineau Park is a magnificent nature reserve just 15 minutes from Ottawa. It is one of our favorite places to visit especially in the autumn. Have a look at the magnificent October colors.

Ottawa

84 photos

Posted by Henry at 10.8 | No Comments »

October 4th, 2008 It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure.

Clay Shirky emphasizes that when we get too much information than the question that needs to be asked is: what filters do I need to stop unwanted information?

At the recent Web 2.0 Expo Clay Shirky gave an insightful account about our contemporary challenge of managing information. In a common sense manner he says that the issue is not information overload but rather the failure of filtering systems.

Clay Shirky astutely observes that information overload has been around since the Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press.

In plain language and using entertaining examples he simply says that we need to filter for quality and relevancy of information and not quantity.

Please check out Clay’s keynote for yourself:

Clay Shirky emphasizes that when we get too much information than the question that needs to be asked is: what filters do I need to stop unwanted information?

I may add that the most effective filtering is done through context. It is context that defines our information needs and ultimately decides on the usability and value of information.

Download Context Organizer today.

Tags: Context, Information Overload
Posted by Henry at 10.4 | No Comments »

September 2nd, 2008 Summarization is an effective form of text mapping

With the Context Organizer for MindManager a text summary is instantly converted into a MindManager map without any loss of relevant text content.

The automatic map generation frees the user from tedious map charting while providing more opportunity to focus on shaping the visually mapped information.

Summaries lead the mind to focus on essential content. This enables faster evaluation and comprehension. While summarising, the reader effectively engages in efficient contextual comprehension by gaining both the big picture and the detail expressions.

Summarization reveals text structures, while contextual associations are clearly revealed through highlighted keywords.

The Context Organizer provides the reader with the most relevant keywords as a guide to the most significant statements within the body of text. The keywords work as quick filters enabling users to focus on the most relevant sentences of interest.

Further, the use of keywords navigates the reader through summarized content providing a superior visual format which is a more practical manager to rapid comprehension of content in context.

The advantage of using summarization for text mapping is that summarization provides the most accurate and direct text representation in the form of the most relevant keywords and sentences.

This direct approach by Context Organizer is superior to other graphical techniques which are abstract representations of text and always require further explanation. Information mapping is a record of the reader’s comprehension, or lack of it. It’s not uncommon for graphical mapping to have little to do with the text, and the formats often used make it difficult to interpret, leaving too much for the reader to extrapolate and/or reconstruct.

Graphic organizers indeed have their place, I do however believe that summarization as a text mapping technique, effectively complements graphic organizers, by bridging the gap between texts and corresponding abstracted diagramming.

A summary as a text map provides superior expression for creating accurate and complete visual maps. This is one of the reasons that Context Organizer integrates seamlessly with Mindjet MindManager.

With the Context Organizer for MindManager a text summary is instantly converted into a MindManager map without any loss of relevant text content. The automatic map generation frees the user from tedious map charting while providing more opportunity to focus on shaping the visually mapped information. This is a unique and valuable addition that significantly enhances MindManager’s effectiveness.

Download Context Organizer today.

Tags: Context, Context Organizer, Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Management, mind mapping, Mindjet, MindManager, Visualizaton
Posted by Henry at 9.2 | No Comments »

August 28th, 2008 A summary is worth a thousand of words

A summary is a shortened version of the original. The main purpose of such a simplification is to highlight the major points from the genuine (much longer) subject, e.g. a text, a film or an event. The aim is to help the audience get the gist in a short period of time. (Wikipedia)

The way we learn, remember and quickly recall has a strong relationship to the way we are able to process information without overloading our senses.

If our goal in understanding information is to quickly extract and convey meaning, then the use of summaries is essential. Summaries can be the key to understanding and reducing complex information to indispensable facts.

We can say that summaries are the bare models of thoughts and that summarized information represents the authorʼs best goals and intentions.

The act of instantly summarizing a web page can be an accelerator to quick understanding. By seeing the keywords in context, we, the readers, can quickly understand, connect and retain new information.

Summarization is relevant to all information workers, irrespective of their expertise. When we read, we always have to parse the text. We read and re-read to extract the main statements. We underline important ideas and arguments according to the main statement. We work hard to assemble all the pertinent facts in logical order. And once all of this is done we then check if the summary reflects the original conclusions.

All of these hard and time consuming tasks can be greatly facilitated with the use of Context Organizer. With the click of a button, the essential keywords, sentences and context are revealed and highlighted. The keywords serve as a back-of-the-book index to the key statements and facts.

You may think about the Context Organizer summaries as an instant help in making sense by focusing on the key facts and conclusions only.

Context Organizer summaries allow busy professionals to save time. It helps them to daily sift through copious amounts of information and rapidly review, compare and analyze information.

You can download and try out Context Organizer for free.

Tags: Context, Context Organizer, Information Overload, keywords, Knowledge Management, Learning, Summarization, Summary
Posted by Henry at 8.28 | No Comments »

August 26th, 2008 Increase personal productivity with Context Organizer

Individuals using Context Organizer software have found a way to dramatically reduce information overload by summarizing the web pages, emails, and documents they are reading.

The time wasted on searching, retrieving and analyzing information adds an often unexpected effort and price to our work.

From experience, we know that the costs of not finding information can be significant affecting collaboration, timely task completion, and decision-making.

Individuals using Context Organizer software have found a way to dramatically reduce information overload by summarizing the web pages, emails, and documents they are reading.

The Context Organizer dashboard allows you to quickly summarize information from anywhere, organize it in thematic collections, and easily share it with others.

The time savings occur on many levels. First, you get an instant summary of what you are reading with emphasis on the most relevant keywords and context of use. Also, your Google and Live Search searches are automatically summarized so your web search review is hugely accelerated.

You are always in control deciding how much information and what kind of information is displayed at any time by using smart filters. This helps you with focusing only on the information that matters most to you. The summaries are clearly presented in a compelling visual format for ease and speed of understanding

You can easily share with your colleagues what’s important in documents and spare their time and effort from ploughing through unnecessary content.

Summarizing with Context Organizer can offer a unique solution that not only allows you to gain exceptional control of information, it also improves the clarity of your thoughts.

You can download and try out Context Organizer for free.

Tags: Context Organizer, Information Overload, Productivity, Summarization
Posted by Henry at 8.26 | No Comments »

August 22nd, 2008 The Knowledge Discovery Challenge

Context Organizer summaries instantly show you the "big picture" enabling you to quickly and visually understand large amounts of information, organized by relevancy so you instantly get clear view of the essential content.

One of the challenges is that we always have far too much to read and research, and not enough time to do it. Whether we are studying, writing blogs, doing product research, competitive analysis, or searching the web, we always run out of time to tackle our enormous reading stacks.

Given the ever-increasing amounts of information we face today, it is necessary to find more effective methods for mining and discovering hidden knowledge.

The major obstacle we face is that too much content hides the relevant message; there is also a lack of context. Often, the content lacks clear structure, which makes reading and understanding more difficult.

Work Smarter with Context Organizer

Context Organizer summaries instantly show you the "big picture" enabling you to quickly and visually understand large amounts of information, organized by relevancy so you instantly get clear view of the essential content.

With Context Organizerʼs summaries you are making informed decisions in less time. And that is only the beginning. The summaries are also blueprints for action, enabling you to speed read, rapidly take notes, summarize Google search results, instantly generate MindManager mind maps, and filter information according to your interests.

Focus on results not the tool - Think Creatively

With its intuitive, highly interactive interface, Context Organizer summaries are created in a snap. The creation of summaries promotes quick understanding by focusing on the essential content only, while superfluous information is filtered out.

Context Organizer summaries increase your ability to text mine documents’ key ideas and facts; you achieve it quickly and effortlessly, leaving you more time for strategic and creative thinking.

Save Time

Context Organizer integrates with and complements existing desktop tools so you can immediately realize productivity gains without interruption or ramp up time. Using Context Organizer enhances the quality and speed of strategic thinking, accelerates research, learning, project and process planning, and increases personal and team productivity.

For ease of use, Context Organizer is seamlessly integrated with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Windows Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Mindjet MindManager.

In essence, whenever you read web pages, emails, and documents, you can simply just click a button to instantly spotlight the key ideas and facts; no more information overload.

You can download and try out Context Organizer for free.

Tags: Context Organizer, Google, Information Overload, Microsoft, MindManager, Productivity, Summarization, Visualization
Posted by Henry at 8.22 | No Comments »

August 20th, 2008 The Context Organizer Method

Context Organizer’s power to visualize critical information is akin to creating on the spot maps to help you effortlessly navigate through web pages. In an instant, large amounts of information are simplified and reduced to the most essential storyline, which is easy to understand and learn.

Context Organizer summaries simplify complex text into an organized, easy-to-understand visual format.

At a glance,you see the essential keywords and summaries. You do not need to read the full text of web pages, emails and documents in order to know what they contain.

Context Organizer summaries facilitate the rapid discovery of ideas, simplify complex content, inspire creativity, and save enormous amounts of time and effort. With a simple visual presentation, users can immediately focus on the critical information and make decisions.

Context Organizer’s powerful filters enable easy exposure of desired information. The Short Summary instantly spotlights the most important conclusions saving you time and effort by discovering critical findings and eliminating information overload.

Convenient note taking allows you to effortlessly text mine to rapidly create your own documents and notes. It is a handy tool for learning and studying.

Summarized Google search results save you time in reviewing and discovering the essential fragments hidden in web pages. With Context Organizer’s review and summarization of Google search results is very fast and effortless.

Speed reading with Context Organizer is as simple as clicking on a button. Summaries and keywords ranked by relevance are instantly discovered and presented to you for review and note taking.

MindManager mind mapping is completely automated with Context Organizer. With the simple click of a button, you can instantly create a MindManager map.

In conclusion, Context Organizer’s power to visualize critical information is akin to creating on the spot maps to help you effortlessly navigate through web pages. In an instant, large amounts of information are simplified and reduced to the most essential storyline, which is easy to understand and learn.

You can download and try out Context Organizer for free.

Tags: Context, Context Organizer, Google, Information Overload, mind mapping, mind maps, Mindjet, MindManager, note taking, speed reading, Summarization, Visualization
Posted by Henry at 8.20 | No Comments »

August 20th, 2008 How can Context Organizer help you with MindManager mind mapping?

With the click of a button Context Organizer quickly helps you understand the key concepts and discover the hidden patterns. Context Organizer reads documents, presents you with the key ideas, summaries and a MindManager map.

Answer: by simply clicking a button, Mindjetʼs MindManager maps are automatically generated by Context Organizer.

See a demo of Context Organizerʼs ability to generate Mindjet’s MindManager maps.

Context Organizer spotlights the most essential points by finding keywords and associated phrases. In an instant you have the list of Topics suitable for MindManager mind mapping. The Topics are linked to related summaries and presented in a typical MindManager map allowing you to instantly visualize and use the critical content of web pages, documents and emails.

Thanks to Context Organizer’s integration with MindManager, users can easily manipulate the results using all of MindManager’s capabilities.

Advantages

With Context Organizer, text visualization is easy and instantaneous. The keywords serve as powerful guides through the most important concepts. The related summaries provide the details and context in which the keywords are used.

The result is a quick and easy way of understanding key concepts and saving time even when examining lengthy web pages and documents. With the integration with Mindjet MindManager, mind maps are generated automatically saving users time and effort from manually drawing MindManager maps.

Instantly produce MindManager maps with Context Organizer

With the click of a button Context Organizer quickly helps you understand the key concepts and discover the hidden patterns. Context Organizer reads documents, presents you with the key ideas, summaries and a MindManager map.

This approach saves you precious time that would have been spent on reading and mind mapping every day. With Context Organizer you are able to quickly understand and map key concepts in a fraction of the time it takes by working using conventional methods.

See a demo of Context Organizerʼs ability to generate Mindjet’s MindManager maps.

You can explore the power of Context Organizer by trying it out for free.

Tags: mind mapping, mind maps, Mindjet, MindManager, Summarization, Visualizaton
Posted by Henry at 8.20 | No Comments »