Volunteer for Librivox Map

kri · Post by **kri** » March 6th, 2006, 12:03 pm

I was playing with a program called FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/) and created a little visual map of the various ways you can volunteer for Librivox. It has links to the appropriate places for each bubble. I don't have any clue if this will be of any use in any way, but I was just playing around. What do you think?

The FreeMind file...
http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/volunteerforlibrivox.mm

For those without FreeMind...
http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/volunteerforlibrivox.html

Its export to html is interesting, and kind of clunky. I had to change the code around a bit so the links in the image map went to the actual LINKS, instead of the hierarchical tree below.

kayray · Post by **kayray** » March 6th, 2006, 3:31 pm

Kri, I looked at the html version and I think it's terrific! It's such a simple, visual way for people to get started. I do wish it was laid out in a more vertical fashion.. my monitor is pretty wide and I still have to scroll from side to side to see the whole thing. Is there any way to tweak that? Even if there's not, I think it would be great to link to that page from the wiki... or the forums... or the front page... or somewhere... :)

Gesine · Post by **Gesine** » March 6th, 2006, 3:44 pm

Nice, Kri. Don't you just love FreeMind? I use it for absolutely everything.

Post by **hugh** » March 6th, 2006, 4:35 pm

ooohhh very cool.

need to add revoxer & catalog projects there...probably other things. will look "later" and give some comments. But I love it.

kri · Post by **kri** » March 6th, 2006, 9:03 pm

Ohh yeah I forgot about Revoxer and the catalog project.

One unfortunate thing about FreeMind is that as far as I can tell it doesn't allow you to create a more vertical map.

RobertG · Post by **RobertG** » March 6th, 2006, 9:51 pm

Mind-mapping is a very powerful way of organizing thought. I use the commercial product MindManager because I needed a more robust tool but I've also used FreeMind in the past and it certainly does the job. And it's of course... free!

If you've never thought about mind mapping your projects, writing ideas, programming jobs, etc. - you'll find it is superior to traditional charting or outlining.

Tony Buzan made a huge industry out of mind-mapping but its roots go back further than that.

Check out Wikpedia as a starting point for info.

kri · Post by **kri** » March 7th, 2006, 8:07 am

My interest in mind-mapping is more educational than anything. Honestly I prefer to make lists or outlines when I'm organizing my thoughts. I get better ideas when I can see things in one column/line. Things tend to be too scattered with those mindmaps. However, they are great for visual representations of things, and some people brainstorm better using those than my more linear methods.

kri · Post by **kri** » March 7th, 2006, 11:47 am

What should I put for a link to the database project?

kri · Post by **kri** » March 7th, 2006, 12:00 pm

Updated it, removed a level of the map so it's not quite so wide, and added the database project and revoxer.

http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/volunteerforlibrivox.mm

For those without FreeMind...
http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/volunteerforlibrivox.png

I didn't bother with the HTML one yet, until I think it's complete.

Do you think this would be a useful thing to put on the wiki perhaps?

kri · Post by **kri** » March 7th, 2006, 12:01 pm

You know, I'm really happy that I did this. I know we've been telling all sorts of new people that you don't have to just record to help volunteer for Librivox. Seeing this map really reiterates this to me, and shows just how much work we do other than record. In fact, the recording part is just a small piece of this map, albeit it's a large piece of what we do.

kri · Post by **kri** » March 13th, 2006, 12:59 pm

I think I have my final, cleaned up version. I put it on the how to volunteer page on the Wiki because I think it's a nice quick visual way to see how to volunteer.

http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/volunteerforlibrivox.html

http://www.greenkri.com/librivox/volunteerforlibrivox.mm

Oh yeah, and I took out the part about adding links to Wikipedia, considering the unsure status of that.