Google, The Internet, Mind Maps and Tribes

Posted by Faizel Mohidin on Jul 24, 2010 in Mind Mapping | 1 comment

Learning in the Digital Age…

This week’s article starts with a quote of Chris Brogan, which summarises some aspects of learning in the Digital Age.

“You probably don’t give yourself credit for all you DO know about social media:

• You know about YouTube, that it’s more than dogs on skateboards.
• You know about Facebook, that it’s not just for kids any more.
• You know about blogs, and at least two places you can blog for free.
• You know the difference in mainstream news and social news.
• You know where to find tech advice, marketing advice, sales advice, what matters to you advice.
• You know what a wiki is, what a Flickr is, what a twitter is.
• You know lots, and have helped others around you understand even more.

Who are you teaching? Where are you laying down your knowledge?”

While this quote is about Social Media, it is very relevant to learning in the digital age.

There is a wonderful diagram in ‘Use your Head’ by Tony Buzan, the inventor of the Mind Map. It has a person at the centre and lots of various disciplines radiating out of the person.

This depicts the fact that every piece of knowledge is somehow related to every other piece of knowledge.

If you are a knowledge worker, you probably spend a lot of time on The Internet. There is probably not a topic under the sun that you can’t Google and get results.

But, what I want to highlight in this article is not the fact that you get so many results, as most topics will bring back millions of results if typed into Google.

Have you noticed sometimes that the results seem unrelated and that you sometimes end up on a completely ‘wrong’ page?

This is no fault of your own, because as you surf The Internet, you click from one page to another via links on the various sites that you come across. A few minutes later, you come to a site that is completely different to the subject that you started searching for.

It is even worse if you are in a corporate environment, where you have to watch where you are going.

This is what Tony Buzan’s diagram means to me. In my previous article on maintaining lifelong learning, I quoted Leonardo da Vinci’s expertise in many disciplines. Many see him as the greatest mind that ever lived.

Using Mind Maps in your learning program will enable you to manage your various interests but also allow you to explore them to the fullest. It is the perfect complement to the digital age.

Now, let’s explore the tribe concept a bit

I’ll use the example of a computer programmer, as one of my passions is Information Technology. No programmer, or developer, as they are often called today is worth his/her salt without Google and The Internet. It is just simply amazing how many ‘Bloggers’ out there are sharing detailed knowledge of their programming skills and tips. They are not doing it for the money, or the fame. They are simply doing it for the love of it and their sense of belonging to a community.

Humans have always been gregarious by nature. The need to belong to a group or tribe has been wonderfully described in Seth Godin’s ‘Tribes’ concept.

Tribes are easier to form today because of technology. Years ago families became clans and clans became tribes. This was geographically determined, as people need to be able to bond and communicate to be in a successful tribe. Even with limited mobility, people joined various tribes and some even belonged to more than one tribe.

Now let’s fastforward to the present day. New tribes are being formed every day, based on the same principles of ‘belonging’, communication and sharing common interests. The only difference is that these tribes are being formed online.

There are some people that just ‘don’t get it’. This does not alter the fact that the Facebooks, Blogs and Twitters of this world have somehow appealed to a deep rooted need of many people and have millions of followers. Like any tribe, there are scandals, squabbles but more importantly, there is also a lot of connection, fun and a sense of belonging.

This is largely true of my endeavours on The Internet around Mind Mapping, lifelong learning and Using Mind Maps in your daily life to get a competitive advantage.

Every tribe needs a leader. I happen to be the leader of my own tribe. The people that subscribe to my blog, my newsletter and even the Facebook and Twitter followers all belong to my tribe.

My role as leader is to keep the tribe happy by providing them with information around common interests, i.e. lifelong learning, Mind Maps and getting a competitive edge by being able to learn faster and easier.

Most of the information is given freely in a spirit of sharing and growing the tribe. Yes, I do sell our learning management program, but that is done after getting the confidence of the tribe. Most of the people that end up purchasing are people that have been around for a while and visit the site regularly. They have built up a sense of trust and feel that whatever they buy will benefit them.

I, on the other hand, as the leader of the tribe try to ensure that what they purchase is worth more than what is freely available. I do this by providing concise, practical guides that cut through all the clutter.

As I said at the beginning of this article, if you Google any topic, you could get back millions of results -  some related and some not.

By taking any subject and putting it into a MindMapTutor, I am able to give you what is needed, but also allow you to expand it in your own unique way.

In this way, I hope to build up a bigger group of followers that willingly follow me, thus increasing the size of the tribe.

The new ‘virtual’ tribes cannot be dictators. After all, leaving the tribe is just one click away!

To conclude, I’ve posted a wonderful video on our Facebook page, showing how kids learn in the Digital World. How are you engaging with them?