The 24 year old software that is still going strong
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Blog on
To be honest with you, I really cannot think of many pieces of software that could still be thought of as usable some 24 years after the first version hit the desktop. Even MS Windows can only claim a 22 year history, with Windows 1.0 hitting the streets in 1985. Yet November 30th 2007 was, indeed, the official 24th birthday of BrainStorm.
Obviously the software has moved forwards over the years, indeed a new version was announced as a kind of birthday present to the many loyal users, but while the look and feel may have changed the basic principles have not. BrainStorm remains a knowledge organiser at heart, aptly enough embracing another even older concept: mind mapping.
Hands up all you children of the sixties who recall pop psychologist Tony Buzan? He was the chap who came up with the idea of mind mapping in the seventies, bringing left and right sides of the brain together in order to create cognitive map. Think a dynamic table of contents that folds and link in a totally non-linear fashion, merging the logical analysis of the left and the creative colourings of the right hemispheres inside your head.
So why has BrainStorm survived the decades when just about every other mind mapping incarnation has crashed and burned along the software road to hell? Dare I say it could be because the programmers behind the thing, David Tebbutt and Marck Pearlstone, understood back in 1983 and have continued to appreciate the importance of keeping it simple even within the confines of complex thought planning software? I think so. Whereas just about every other bit of mind mapping software has taken a highly graphical approach to the concept, BrainStorm has stuck to its text only guns. As a result you end up with something which the Burzan purists will, no doubt, cry is not mind mapping at all. They could be right, but it doesn’t matter a jot because what it is happens to be even better: a combination of mind mapper and outliner which takes a more cerebral rather than visual approach to problem solving and knowledge planning.
Keep it simple works for me, certainly when anything related to my brainpower is concerned. A belated happy 24th birthday, then, to the grand old man of the software world…
Rated: 80% (4 votes)
Loading ...Comment by David Tebbutt - December 2, 2007 on 3:23 pm
If you were anything other than a man, I’d kiss you. Thanks for putting things so well.
If we run into each other, please claim several large beers (or whatever).
Comment by Davey Winder - December 2, 2007 on 3:45 pm
Hmmm, but if you were to buy me several large beers the kissing would become an ever increasing danger.
Seriously though, congrats on reaching that 24 year landmark with BrainStorm. It really is something of an achievement, and I would be interested to know if any readers can think of any other software which is older yet remains at the top of its genre today?
Comment by Dick Hamilton - December 24, 2007 on 1:24 am
Davey,
given you used his graphical methods to support your case, you might have bothered to get Tony BUZAN’s name right.
Comment by Davey Winder - December 24, 2007 on 10:49 am
Whoops, typo and nothing more. Now corrected, thanks for letting me know…
Comment by Nick Kotarski - April 2, 2008 on 5:37 pm
Curious. BrainStorm itself claims 1981 - 2008 which by my calculations should be 27 years or 26 when you made the post. So where did the lost years go?
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