Gliffy: Online Concept Mapping

Yesterday, while at a technology integrators meeting, one of my colleagues asked if there was a free version (Open Source) of something similar to Inspiration®. None of the people in the room knew of any open source application that was as simple to use or had the bells and whistles of the well-known visual learning tool. I did a little surfing around and stumbled upon FreeMind, which is an open source app for concept mapping. I downloaded it and played around with it for a little while. I found it to not be very user-friendly so I looked at what was next on my search list. I was really impressed with what I found next.

My next click sent me to Gliffy. Gliffy is an online diagramming tool. It feels like a desktop application that you download and use, but it isn't. You only need a web browser. It is FREE. You just need to spend all of about 30 seconds registering and you are ready to get started. Not only can you make several different types of diagrams, but you can post them online on a web page, a blog, or a wiki. You can also collaborate with other users. One only needs to email the link to the document to those who need access to it and they can work together. There was also a great little introductory movie about Gliffy that not only displayed what it could do, but was almost like a little tutorial. Let's put it this way, after watching the introductory movie, I was able to create a diagram myself without any further instruction. See image below:


Gliffy is a great example of a Web 2.0 application. Here are the reasons why:

• You do not need to download anything to use it.
• It's FREE
• It does not matter what operating system you use, you just need a computer that has a browser and has a connection to the Internet.
• Collaboration is not only possible but simple.
• Earlier versions of the work are accessible. Every time a diagram is saved, that version becomes available to view and work on.
• Publishing the work on a website, blog, or wiki is easy to do.
  
• It is simple to use.