"I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's," William Blake The Mind Map of The Colorist blog was posted a week ago Monday, and you may wish to do this exercise for your own blog. My goal in doing a mind map was to clean up my busy sidebar and sort out what kinds of data I may want for the new Blogger tabs.
The following describes how I did my mind map.
detail - center of the mind map
I began with the identified subject in the center of the blank page, and drew radii with subjects that I found easy to describe based on what I like to write about in the blog. The broad subjects included Art essays, Art History, My Art, The Art Blogging Community, Casey Klahn (it is my newsletter), etc.
I skipped the rule about using color (go figure!). I think in color when I draw, though - that's part of my whole job description. A rule I will follow next time is that one should pose the subject as a thesis statement or as a question, not just, "The Colorist." I should have written: "what are the components of The Colorist?"
Next, I consulted my labels, and then I described the sub-branches by associations of content with the main branches. For instance, "My Art" has several sub branches such as abstract and landscape genres. Also, the broad category of "Art Content" broke down into the associated subjects of "art philosophy" and "education."
The finding of links between the broad subjects, or a systems analysis of how subjects connect, was illustrated by double ended arrows running between the main branches. This is the most problematic area, and I think the worst represented by mind mapping. Systems are more complex than this 2 dimensional scheme, and they have multiple associations, not just those that are easily illustrated by an arrow. Anyway, the object was to get some systems identified, and to find groupings that will help me pull together types of content for my tabs and my sidebar widgets.
Below, I drew a pop-out that attempted to scheme some broad concerns of the blog. I want to keep my blog focused on ideas, and not so much on myself - people get bored with that. That's why I drew the overlap as a little bit of the artist's self, a better amount of content (ideas) and a whole lot of action (painting and drawing). The outside influences of culture and others I described as "world."
Like with the Borg, all ideas can be assimilated, but when you get the crew of the star ship Enterprise involved, all bets are off. I would say the same thing applies to the artistic mind. Artists are (or should be) the most individual souls on Earth. Systems that artists work within may not function for other offices. Create your own sets of ideas and make your artist's blog a "Mind Map" of your own personality.
Mind Map of The Colorist Blog. Click on the image to read in a larger format.
Cue the Twilight Zone Theme. We are going to mind map The Colorist.
Here is the theme music for this post (Right Click to open a new tab).
The reason for this exercise is that Blogger has introduced tabs. You know the ones that make Wordpress blogs function so well? They take you to static pages that live (as I understand it) within your blog and I assume they accrue to your blog's statistical performance. I already use Google Page Creator (soon to be replaced by Google Sites) to direct readers to static pages, and the links have been via badges or icons that I place on the sidebar.
The mind map is my way of gathering the cluttered strings of this parachute that is my blog. I am trying to discover what sorts of things are interconnected. Which subjects would function better if found via tabs? Which want to be found via badges in the sidebar?
In addition to the mind map, I also listed my sidebar items by function. I look forward to reducing my sidebar to a more manageable affair. My plan is to use sidebar badges or icons to link to certain content, and tabs for other types. Now I just need one more important thing: some time.
Hoquiam River Bright 
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