MindMeister – Mind mapping for the web for real-time collaboration and brainstorming sessions

Mind mapping is an interesting technique for note-taking during brainstorming, Wikipedia defines it as:

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.
The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information. Mind maps may also aid recall of existing memories.

The Web has embraced mind mapping and there are an interesting set of available tools. Collaboration on digital mind maps is another benefit of a cloud map.

We have been using MindMeister for our mind maps – and we are very pleased with the ease of use, sharing capabilities, and the actual flow. Check out a cool video describing MindMeister at the 2009 MacWorld: