CAM, Mind maps and XML Schema

The new release of the CAM editor toolkit includes the ability to generate mind maps of XML structures.

This opens up some nice possibilities - such as documenting tool menu and functional capabilities - as this example shows. To do this you just create a simple XML hierarchy and load it into the CAM editor - then view it in the Freemind mind map viewer.

Alternatively if you have an existing XML Schema then you can import that into the CAM editor, then map that.  Again here is an example for the HAVE - Hospital Availability - schema from OASIS.

Interestingly there is also academic work on this topic and overall approach - see these couple of links:

• Using Mind Maps to Model Semistructured Documents, Springer, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2010, Volume 6273/2010
• Developing a Formal Model for Mind Maps, March 2011, Corfu, Greece

Overall this provides an intuitive way of visualizing hierarchical relationships and XML information exchanges. More importantly it can improve your ability to design optimal information exchanges by making it possible to see the "big picture" from a business functional perspective.