I first heard about the Web 2.0 map in Nick Wilson’s Metaversed blog. Nick pointed me to George Kurtz, the mastermind and creator of what is possibly this lifetime and Second Life’s largest map, built in MindManager. Just how big is it? According to George, SL aka Butch Dae, the 3D version of the map in Second Life measures about 120 x 510 feet/ 40 x 160 meters – well over the size of a football field, and contains over 400 parent topics with over 3 gigabytes of references. The landmark for the map in Second Life is Quiricosta (228,87,108).
In a recent phone conversation, George and a small team in Second Life are working on what they describe as the Virtual Information Technology (VIT) World Project, an effort to stimulate development and promote collaboration within Second Life. They define VIT as “the computational hardware, software, and human systems that handle the ever-increasing amount of available data.” They have learned that the management, analysis, and interpretation of such massive streams of data demands a new perspective. George describes these changes as “a refresh in the way we work, interact, communicate, collaborate, and play.”
The VIT team uses MindManager to capture the enormous amount of information related to their project. George reports that by identifying all the components of Virtual Information Technology and developing the hierarchical structure of the information, he then can start seeing the trends that are developing, what’s working and what’s not. George said, “It’s like putting a puzzle together. If I don’t have all the pieces, I will not have a complete picture of what’s going on.”
George theorizes that today, no one invents anything completely new. He believes that what is new is the packaging of the components into a cohesive whole. “The components of a new idea are floating around out there somewhere, just waiting to be discovered. This is why the notion of building a “big picture” view is so important,” said George.
Developing a map helped George build the hierarchical structure of The Virtual Information Technologies Concept. “Using the map,” he said, “I can examine the relationship of all the components and by grouping the like components; I can identify the emerging patterns and sequences in today’s rapidly developing technologies.”
At a growth rate of about 25 parent topics a day, George may very well have the lead on the world’s largest map.
To download a copy of the Virtual Information Map, click here.
If you find this project interesting, please contact George Kurtz at gekurtz@comcast.net or go to their VIT World Group headquarters (landmark is Quiricosta 231,33,45) and ask for Butch Dae.