Michael, you are correct that several things are currently lacking at a technical level with Metamaps.cc in order for it to serve as an efficient and comprehensive taxonomy multi-tool. But, it is a great workspace I think to explore semantic design for information systems, which is why I see it as useful for some aspects of what I understand Transformap project to be doing right now.

I should say that I personally have a sense that such information design is shifting away from a singular, standardized meta-model towards something where individuals and groups can approach the same information ecology through their own customized semantic frames and contexts. Thus, an interface like Metamaps which is designed to allow easy 'forking' and adaptation of ontological structures while maintaining the links and metadata established by peers to that content, seems prescient. It is more of an emergent, or 'folksontology' approach, with some basic conventions around data types and rules.

I certainly wish to further this discussion, and learn more about both Transformap on the whole as well as MindForest and other related initiatives. Perhaps on the discourse forum here http://discourse.transformap.co/c/technology and also in metamaps google+ group if you'd like to engage a few more people from our project network: https://plus.google.com/communities/115060009262157699234

I should note that my role in metamaps is more on design, organization, outreach / business, versus on deep technical level, but I am familiar with many of these matters as well and have my own ideas for taking it in a direction quite aligned with Transformap, relating to two other projects villagelab.info and browsearth.org

Thanks for the interest, it's good to connect and share some possibilities!

Ben

On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 7:05 AM, ART-ist : Michael A. Vesely mi@art-ist.cc wrote:

*Hi Ben,*

I have had a brief glimpse at *metamaps*.

Looks excellent!

For utilization as a taxonomy(+) editing and translation tool I was missing some features (that maybe are there anyway ;).

I am in development of an own tool, MindForest, which is used now as a taxonomy editor and translation tool and is already used by the SiteCollector in development by me and a couple of others.

Comparing those two I was missing a couple of features on metamaps (esp. NOT related to concept maps). On the other hand UI development is much further than what we have in MindForest (wich is at a much earlier state yet). The two projects share a very similar data model, values and our paths for future plans align very much.

*I’d be excited to get into a closer discussion* of joining efforts on those projects.

We can definitely share ideas, maybe even integrate or combine the projects.

Best

*Michael*

*Von:* maps-bounces@list.allmende.io [mailto:maps-bounces@list.allmende.io] *Im Auftrag **von *Vital Systems *Gesendet:* Freitag, 09. Jänner 2015 19:43 *An:* maps@list.allmende.io; silke.helfrich@gmx.de *Betreff:* [maps] Metamaps

Silke et al,

I'm involved closely with Metamaps project, and am particularly interested in utilizing it as a taxonomy / ontology development and translation tool.

I think it could be quite valuable to explore in the context of Transformap, as a way of surfacing key concepts and relations and defining metadata structures for mapping systems - also potentially down the road as an interface for editing and customizing these structures for various use cases within a larger info-cology.

Metamaps project operates as an open source open value network, and we are interested in partnering / collaborating with peers, projects, and organizations that present mutual development opportunities. Would be glad to discuss in more detail.. Currently, most public interaction is on G+ here:

https://plus.google.com/communities/115060009262157699234

Best,

Ben

Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 19:33:58 +0100 From: Silke Helfrich silke.helfrich@gmx.de To: COMMONING LIste engl commoning@lists.commons-institut.org, 14mmm temporär maps@list.allmende.io Subject: [maps] Metamaps Message-ID: 54AECD96.3060109@gmx.de Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed

Dear all,

does anyone - especially from the education-communities (some commoning-list members are acknowledged)- knows this, is in touch, knows about the prospects/ dynamics or has any concrete experience in using meta-map tools for mapping? http://metamaps.cc/

Please let me know.

Btw; I love their icons @ Transformappers; this could be interesting for us. https://twitter.com/metamapps/status/540921942149038080/photo/1

All the best Silke

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Indeed, many different flavors and options! We started a spreadsheet to compare features of several different platforms which are related to Metamaps in terms of basic functionality and use cases:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/144nXOdaGsRJmQfQBNcPLfQMm386VCWlrLymw...

I will harvest from this thread here into a thread on transformap discourse so that we can track further additions - it is an interesting area of development these days, bridging communities of practice into the semantic web :)

Regards,

Ben

On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 3:33 PM, Franz Nahrada f.nahrada@reflex.at wrote:

Ben, Michael, Silke:

I also joined metamaps and it has some really nice features regarding the way you can include and exploit external links.

I recently started a conceptual mapping sprint in Vienna, but we postponed it after one day because we are still looking for the best way to integrate the features of dynamic mindmapper, database with tag & key fields and html links to wikis

I would really appreciate if we could have a good comparison between conceptual mapping tools in this respect. The one in Wikipedia is very general... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concept-_and_mind-mapping_software shareable has a nice review: http://mashable.com/2013/09/25/mind-mapping-tools/

I noted some links here: http://www.dorfwiki.org/wiki.cgi?Mapping (sorry, in German) but its only scratching on the surface. Nevertheless I was totally surprised by the plethora of collective conceptual mapping efforts available!

Franz