The week after our “snowpocolypse”, I had the pleasure of attending Mappers 2011, a conference in Houston about Information Mapping. This gathering of professionals was aimed at indoctrinating new Mappers as well as updating those who have previously learned, applied, and taught the method.
The conference was sponsored and led by Information Mapping USA and its parent company Information Mapping International to revive the Information Mapping culture and promote their Information Mapping software, FSPro 4.1. FSPro is an add-on tool used to help Mappers easily create documents using the Information Mapping philosophy.
The roots of Information Mapping date back to the 70’s and come from a body of publications which many Technical Communicators are familiar with. Publications in the fields of Psychology, Instructional Design, Writing, Learning and so forth by revered names such as Ben Schneiderman, George A. Miller, and, of course, the founder of Information Mapping, R. E. Horn.
When was the last time you got something for nothing? How about a free professional course, workshop, or training session? Okay, you do have to give something to get a little help with professional development: you have to submit an application. That's it. No, really.