Bubbl.us, Brainstorming Made Easy

Kirill Edelman and Levon Amelyan, the creators of Bubbl.us inform us that it is “…a free website to help you brainstorm and organize ideas online.” “In traditional brainstorming, or “mind mapping”, one writes a central idea on a piece of paper, draws a circle around it and starts branching off with new ideas, creating a free form diagram.”

While Bubbl.us is not the in-depth equivalent of Mind Map or even Free Mind, which requires you to install Java 1.4, Bubbl.us, on the other hand, does require a Macromedia / Adobe Flash browser plug-in installed and like Free Mind, it is free. In addition, while Bubbl.us does allow you to create multiple mind maps without a membership, you must create an account to access such functions as print and save. Present and future additions will include online collaboration, the ability for a site wide search sharing capability, auto save and real time collaboration.

It is interesting to note the seemingly fresh and honest approach of both Kirill and Levon who make no bones about the delays in the progression and debugging of Bubbl.us, as noted in their Tricks and Tips section where Kirill has this to say,”…I’d like to put up some tips on using Bubbl.us. We don’t have a complete help system yet (reason being me having a full time job), so until we get to finishing up the in-editor help we’ll have to do with this (Tricks and Tips).”

The boys do try to keep everyone abreast as well of the development of Bubbl.us in their Announcements sector including the fact that they had been hacked. Talk about open-ended honesty.

Conclusion

I will be the first to admit that while I personally realize the value in mind mapping I am one of those individuals who struggles to project ideas into either personal or collaborative working presentations due to what I term my shotgun process of thought. I think faster then I can physically create and often work on numerous projects at the same time. Bubbl.us may just be the answer to rectify the process of a quick and effective option to personally brainstorm and keep a record of ideas for individuals such as myself. By offering the necessary basics without a dramatic learning curve that can cut drastically into production I have the options to make a productive map of ideas quick and move on without, it seems, missing a beat. Bubbl.us needs to be experienced first hand to appreciate the effort Kirill and Levon put into this program.