Review calls 3D TopicScape "an extremely effective mind mapper"

3D Topicscape is a program that takes visual mapping into compelling new territory. It displays your ideas and data in a 3D workspace that resembles a series of mountain peaks, and enables you to "fly through" 3D space to view your information from different perspectives. Recently, Chris from the RevolutionCalling blog posted an interesting review of 3D Topicscape, calling it "an extremely effective mind mapper."

One of the program's key strengths, as Chris sees it, is that 3D Topicscape can do a better job of visually representing complex relationships between topics/items than a 2D mind mapping software program can. Also, in 3D Topicscape, each topic or node can actually be a collection of information concerning that topic, including such things as Outlook messages, contacts and more. He also believes that it does a better job of handling complexity than a conventional mind map, which gets harder to read and navigate as the number of topics and subtopics increases.

On the downside, Chris acknowledges that 3D Topicscape has a significant learning curve. Its user interface and conventions for performing specific operations also take some getting used to. Overall, he gives it a "guardedly positive" vote.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that 3D Topicscape doesn't really fit into the category of mind mapping software. It's a powerful tool for visualizing information, but I wouldn't classify it as a mind mapping application. What do you think? Please post your opinions in the comments section of this blog post.