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Show HN: New mind mapping tool for learners
- havlenao 7y agoAny feedback?
- stevesimmons 7y agoThe examples on the homescreen simply aren't compelling. Mindmaps get little traction imo because this first experience is usually dreadful: Simple examples (like you show) are just as well represented by a bulleted list. And complex examples need a really slick and intuitive UI, otherwise they are too painful to create. My take on it is Markdown in a private Github repo provides 90% of the benefits and a lot of other features, with none of the worry about being locked in to a new company whose product is immature and doesn't have an established track record. Finally, your posting those 20 free keys to the pro plan just reinforces in my mind the notion that the price-features balance isn't attractive.
- ondrejv1 7y agoThanks for the feedback. The idea here is to let user take notes in mark down, then with one click convert it to mind map to make a structure to the text. After that collaborate with others (colleagues, friends, family...) in real time in note or mind map mode.
- Hoasi 7y ago> The idea here is to let user take notes in mark down, then with one click convert it to mind map to make a structure to the text. An interesting idea, although a bit counter-intuitive: in principle, a mind map helps you to visualize ideas better, in a way that lets you restructure them, etc. This visual outlining process is a tool, not the end goal. You'd expect to start with a rough diagram of idea nodes, not with a list. That said, starting with text could be useful in some cases.
- havlenao 7y agoYeah, I agree. And the app works both way. You can start to create note or mind-map and then switch between both modes.
- brainioapp 7y agoDownload our desktop app or check out the cloud version. Desktop: https://brainio.com/#/download https://brainio.com/#/download Cloud: https://app.brainio.com https://app.brainio.com Mobile app (iOS, Android) is coming later. At first I need to verify, that the solution is working for users.
- havlenao 7y agoHere is 20 promo codes for 2-years Pro plan for free: W6F2C5 LFUUEK PD1R93 KQOH43 VH0C7G A3TLB3 5PD6UB QZ3FPH 02MT53 AFEZSZ Y9R2PA 2412RQ 39FEIO G39GWH CZEMCX VRHNJN 8VNGLT CDJHT0 TGLB1P 7NGB9K
- rkda 7y agoThanks for the promo codes! Used PD1R93
- havlenao 7y agoYou are welcome
- romseb 7y agoAll gone unfortunately, but thanks for sharing.
- havlenao 7y agoIf anyone wants promo code, please contact us at info@brainio.com. We will be glad to share it with you as the app is still in beta and we need feedback from early adopters.
- coolvision 7y agoConcept is nice. Name is too tacky, just can't take it seriously.
- ondrejv1 7y agoThanks for the feedback
- carrozo 7y agoI think it’s catchy/sticky and relevant to the value prop. Surprised it hasn’t been used already either tbh. Tool looks great too!
- havlenao 7y agoThanks
- unknownkadath 7y agoYou could call it "Cartomancy" Because the map IS the territory, in this case.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ykevinator 7y agoCool idea. Looks slick.
- ondrejv1 7y agoThanks
- gildainova 7y agoGreat idea. Definitely will try that.
- havlenao 7y agoThanks.
- zyconator 7y agoLooks promising.
- havlenao 7y agoThanks.
- jnurmine 7y agoInteresting! May I ask what, if any, features do you plan to add that supercede those of Freeplane? As background: whenever I need to grok a larger concept or chomp through a large collection of material, I fire up Freeplane. (It's a fork of Freemind, a desktop application written in Java, it's under GPL and runs fully locally, see freeplane.org) You already mentioned a Markdown to map input path. That is a good idea, since often things (at least for me) begin with a small list. Collaboration was another thing you mentioned. Does that mandate uploading the maps to your cloud backend or can it be self-hosted? I ask because for some people it is not an option to use "other people's computers", as the domain being mapped can be of sensitive nature (under NDAs, or other things).
- havlenao 7y agoWe are working on following features right now that are gonna be included in all plans: 1) Split view 2) Public ling sharing, embedded code 3) Kindle highlights sync (syncing the highlighted parts of yout books directly to the app) 4) AI for recommending online content (courses, books etc.) Free plan is just limited by number of documents and storage because we need to cover the server costs for cloud solution. Right now the solution is cloud based (but with SAML SSO and access provisioning for enterprises). It could be self-hosted it there is a demand for that.
- soulofmischief 7y agoAs another daily Freeplane user, anything not self-hosted and behind a firewall is a no-go for me. Sensitive or not, having someone over your shoulder kills the creative juices. None of the things you mentioned except for split view sounds like an improvement over Freeplane which is an open-source serverless app and great for the power-user. Perhaps a useful feature for someone like me would be the an online app where I could import a mind map from another program and then choose from a variety of presentation options, and be provided code for an interactive embedded mind map in a blog or website. That would be enticing to people who aren't ready to dump all the features they are used to, and that crowd is much more likely to jump on to something like this than the average person.
- rickdeveloper 7y agoThe lack of an iPhone app is killing it for me.
- havlenao 7y agoWe are aware of that. Nevertheless we need to make sure that the solution is working for users. Mobile app is in our road map for sure. So far you can use the cloud version (app.brainio.com) even on your mobile (Chrome, Safari, Firefox).
- kfk 7y agoSince we are on this topic, any good libraries to create diagrams? I have lots of python functions which one day would love to make available into an visual programming tool diagram type.
- noobiemcfoob 7y agoGraphviz and pygraphviz
- havlenao 7y agonot for diagrams but we are gonna use katex.org to support math formulas in the next release
- havlenao 7y agoFYI - at support.brainio.com you can request new features :)
- menacestudio 7y agoI like the simplicity but it's too buggy for me at the moment (at least the web version using mobile). It also keeps giving an invalid state which requires a hard refresh. It then jumbles the words and characters after a refresh which is super annoying.
- havlenao 7y agoYeah, we recommend to use desktop app. The mobile version is still buggy right now as it's in beta and we focused mainly on desktop version as the main device. Nevertheless we will fix that soon.
- rajesh-s 7y ago@OP pretty interesting work. Does it support markdown -> mindmap? i.e. Convert indented text to horizontal tree something like [this](https://github.com/dundalek/markmap https://github.com/dundalek/markmap)
- havlenao 7y agoYes. Based on mark down we visualise the mind map. So if you use headers, bullet points etc. then it's converted and structured into mind map hierarchy.
- drumandbass 7y agoI can't believe it! I wanted this for me and my software development team for so long! These are the mind maps Tony Buzan talked about in theory but this is a really practical way to apply them. Thanks.
- havlenao 7y agoWe would love to hear your feedback ;)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- notelonmusk 7y agoGood stuff. An in-browser demo would be neat and may drive more adoption.
- havlenao 7y agoThanks
- mvind 7y agoNice idea! If you dont mind sharing what technology stack have you used to develop this?
- havlenao 7y agoThe core is: electron, nestjs, sharedb, mongodb, angular, codemirror, aws and docker.
- sidcool 7y agoWhat's your tech stack?
- havlenao 7y agoFor collaboration we use a modified version of sharedb (https://github.com/share/sharedb https://github.com/share/sharedb). Its using the operational transformation algorithm (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_transformation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_transformation). We will be publishing an article about tech stack at out blog within few days :)
- havlenao 7y agoThe core is: electron, nestjs, sharedb, mongodb, angular, codemirror, aws and docker.
- tomerbd 7y agoAre you going to have a desktop downloaded app with one time payment no subscription with unlimited features?
- havlenao 7y agoIt’s not in our road map right now but if there is a demand for that we can add that. We are mainly focused on subscription based model as we provide cloud solution (so there are server and computing costs we need to cover). However if you do not need the app for some time you can cancel the subscription (we will return your money for the rest of the mont/year) and you can still access your files. Only thing is that you can edit just the number of documents that you have in free plan (10 by default but you can increase the quota by inviting people - 3 documents per invitation), other documents are read only and you can’t edit them until you start the subscription or increase your free quota of documents.
- havlenao 7y agoFYI - the Free plan is limited to 10 notes/mind maps. However you can increase that quota by inviting new users - 3 documents per invitation.
- to-too-two 7y agoWhy use this over Trello or a Google doc? Feel like I'd be paying for some pretty markdown text.
- havlenao 7y agoBecause we help you to organize and store your knowledge. The brain works better visually then verbally and that’s the reason we are combining the world of notes and mind maps together.