Social Media Information Flow - The Complexity of the Web 2.0 World

This may be a bit more extreme than the average person's social media information flow, but I created a diagram (using MindManager) showing how the information I create flows through the online world.

In the current version (v0.1 see end of post for latest version info) there are 12+ different types and sources of content from events to photos to comments and more. All this content can be re-used using either RSS or APIs. Therefore I can re-channel information from many sources into, among others, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo Pulse, Spock, my Skype mood and onto my website (using a Plaxo Pulse widget). This enables me to use the 'best tool for the job' for each type of content, but ensure that it is also made available on the platforms that the majority of my friends and connections are using. (Making it convenient for them of course greatly increases the chance they will actually see it).

Profilactic deserves a special mention for being the tool that aggregates all the RSS feeds into one, although most content can also be pulled into Facebook directly using applications. It's also better to add feeds directly to Plaxo Pulse rather than just pulling in the Profilactic feed so that Plaxo knows what type of information it is dealin with. Twitterfeed is the tool that takes the Profilactic feed and pumps it into Twitter, which then automatically updates my Facebook status. Twype is the magic that takes my latest Twitters and changes my Skype mood.

This is the first version and I wouldn't call it final. Some of the relationships have been omitted or simplified (the yellow nodes), as the chart just got too complicated with all the direct relationships. There is a lot more to be added. I also need to go and check I haven't missed any major types of content and do a bit of tidying up to make it easier to read.

I tried quite a few tools before deciding on MindManager, an d overall I was very pleased with the way it worked. The nodes are all linked and the favicons are pulled in automatically. For the next version I may use less floating topics and turn them into subtopics so hopefully the auto layout will work a bit better.

Overall, it was very helpful to see an overview of how my online information flows. I managed to get rid of some redundant channels along the way and am in a good position to consolidate and make sensible decisions about how to share information from now on. It does show the complexity consumers are dealing with in the Web 2.0 world, and it will be interesting to see how the leading services help us deal with this. Facebook is of course the best example to date.

You can download the file as a pdf, png (graphic), mmap, or xmmap xml file. (For the mmap file, you may have to right-click-save. If you want any other versions that MindManager exports to, let me know).

Updates

Jan. 8 2008 - v0.3.1 upload. Important changes include:

• Used MindManager's RSS map part functionality to start to import feed content directly into the map. Just two examples added and shown at the moment - del.icio.us and CoComment. These sub topics cover other parts of the map (which is good otherwise the map would repaginate too much) but the branches can be open and closed as necessary.
• Added a sub-map and for sites that don't import the content, but do link to my profiles on other sites. Added link relationships for sites that do import content and also link back to it.
• Started to create map parts so that I can easily add new formatted sections to the map. Was previously using the format painter. Also added some more icons and gave names to these icons. MindManager has great filtering functionality, so if I mark up the map well I will easily be able to hide and display different parts as required.
• Add a 'To Do' section. Still lots of things to add. Also wondering whether I could use this map to create an APML profile for myself.

Jan. 7 2008 - I uploaded version 0.2 which has a few small additions but most importantly a mobile layer.

Comments

[Bernardo]

Amazing diagram. Nice job.

[John McCrea]

Wow! Blew my mind. Great stuff.

John McCrea
vp of marketing, plaxo

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

ReadWriteWeb wrote a great report and expanding the thinking on my social media information flow map: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/visualizing_social_media_fatigue.php

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

You can also Digg the article if you like here :-) http://digg.com/tech_news/Visualizing_Social_Media_Fatigue

Whatever happened to trackbacks? Surely, I shouldn't have to be adding all the references to this post manually. Was honored to see John McCrea, VP of Marketing for Plaxo also commenting on his blog here.

I've said for a while that Plaxo was doing something unique and is an a great position.

2007/03 - Contact Management - The next big thing"
2007/05 - Plaxo going from Strength to Stregth

Partial excerpt from the March 2007 post:

"So what do I think Plaxo should do? (Keep in mind this is the view of a 'play around on the web and just want things to work heavy user' opinion, and not a developer, industry expert or Plaxo investor one). They should implement a framework that allows all the SNS services to plug into their solution. www.ziggs.com, www.linkedin.com, www.ecademy.com, www.xing.com, www.myspace.com and the 10s if not 100s of others out there. Users are not going to - they simply can't - spend time managing their contacts in multiple services, yet all these services offer different value-adds. A universal sync solution is necessary and Plaxo is the only company I see that is in a position to offer this. Come on Plaxo!"

Techmeme also has the article linked:

http://www.techmeme.com/080208/p77#a080208p77

Thanks to my friend Robert Sanzalone for blogging about the post and also starting talk of a 'meme'.

http://www.pacificit.ca/article/560

[Takuya Misawa]

What a great work! And congrats for being featured on ReadWriteWeb. Japanese bloggers are also talking about this great work, too!

[jansegers]

Usage as a publicity...

If this article doesn't get to increase the number of users of MindManager I may be damned.

I'm always watching out to find out about services on the internet. The best services are those demonstrated by real users in real usage situations.

[Andrew Wilcox]

Great map Andrew Who said MindManager could not deal with complexity.

I downloaded the mmap file in Firefox. There was no right click save option. I saved the raw file that downloaded in a new Firefox tab to my desktop and then opened it with MindManager. Which worked.

Then I noticed Firefox's Download Manager had opened with the file listed.

It might help to add
"AddType application/vnd.mindjet.mindmanager .mmp .mmap .mmpt .mmat .mmmp .mmas"

to the .htaccess file in the root directory of your blog or where your .mmap files are stored.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Htaccess

Takuya - Thanks for the comment. I'm glad to hear people are talking about it in the Japanese blog world too!

jansegers - I hope that MindManager does do well out of this. And it would be great to see computer based mind mapping in general become more widespread. (I also run www.themindmapwatch.com although don't update it as much as I would like to). I've been a user of MindManager for years and they have always provided a good service and a good product. A very solid company. They do have evangelists on the staff who actually picked up on the map very early on and kindly contacted me to say 'well done'.

Andrew W. - many thanks for taking the time to send the tip. I'm using Typepad to host the blog and it seems I can't edit the .htaccess file. I'll mail support to see if they can do anything to help.

[Julia Roy]

That diagrahm totally dipicts my entire digital day. Well done.

[John Robey]

I am interested in how you classified the redundant channels. I know the division is slightly arbitrary, but was it more subjective (like "Why was I interested in that?") or more objective and functional (like there wasn't enough connectors on the diagram or functionality in the site/app itself)?

The diagram deserves a medal btw.

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

@John: Thanks for the question. The map is just a map of what I'm personally using so it is completely subjective. I just don't do much with music etc. at the moment. I would like to create a generic template at some point.

[Jan Michael]

Hi Andrew,

when I try to open either the mmap or the xmmap in Mindjets Mindmanager 7 (latest patched) version it keeps constantly crashing on my Intel Mac.

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

@Jan: Mmmm. I'll report to MindJet and see what they say.

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

@Jan: Can I confirm you are opening it on Mac OS and not Windows running on a Mac machine.

[Billy Waters]

I can concur. This map kills mindmanager on my Intel MBP. I updated Mindmanager but this didnt work either

[rema]

Hi, I am still learning to use MindManager and was interested to see how you use it. Right clicking on the mmap link, allowed me to save andrew_shuttleworth_online_information_flow.zip, not an mmap file. I would like to look at the file in MindManager. I have the software and use Windows Vista. thanks

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

Hi Rema - Not sure what is happening there. It's downloading as an mmap file for me. I'll send the mmap file to you by email.

[Andrew Shuttleworth]

It seems that creating a 'social map' became quite popular over the last few months. Here's a blog post that lists some other people who've attempted the task in different ways: http://lifestreamblog.com/my-social-map-and-tips-for-creating-yours/

[Ian Kennedy]

Holy Crap! It's a circuit board diagram for your life! Where's the fuzzy logic unit in there that'll help simplify this?