Heart-Shaped Leafs Mind Map Project - open to bidding

Hello,

This is an art project intended to represent a human mind. The core concept is that of a mind map, yet I have not seen any off-the-shelf mind map softwares designed with all of these characteristics.

Thank you & happy holidays,

Sylvia

Mindmap characteristics:

1. accepts text, images, audio & video (the video could be a later criterion)

2. unlimited relationships possible between nodes (3D effect)

3. this concept must be capable of being translated via a customized graphic user interface (GUI)

4. analogy to human personality: we choice by controlling whom we share which information with; each person knows us slightly differently. In this mindmap, there ar different classes of user, with each class being defined by custom parameters. Each user has access to different content subsets (perceives the mindmap differently). Independent of these class parameters, the creator can invite others to view a specific node (invitation).

6) Users can contribute content, yet the map creator has the power to change where the content ultimately gets placed in the map. The creator can a) comment upon; b) edit; c) delete; d) move user-generated content to a different location.

7) Each node can be shared via social media (email, fb, twitter, etc., icons).

8) Content is exportable to another user’s map (whole sections of the map at a time or node by node).

9) The degree of correlation between different maps can be analysed, ideally through visual comparison.

10) Ideally, the mindmap could be developed offline.

Heart-Shaped Leafs Mindmap Project

Project Overview
Purpose:
To create a mindmap-structured website for the purpose of representing what I know about my mind & perception. Equal parts: archive, autobiography, repository of ongoing creative ideas, invitation to friends known & unknown to get to know me better, publisher (like twitter, fb, blog, etc.), vision board (import objects from twitter, fb, elsewhere on the web, etc.), & finally also a justification of the at times peculiar choices I’ve made on the basis of an experimental search for “Truth.” I like how the non-linear interface of a mindmap represents how seemingly divergent ideas can in fact connect.

Aesthetic/Visual Presentation:
Each node looks like a heart-shaped leaf (specifically, a stylized version of a philodendron vine). The nodes must accept multimedia (text, image, image-with-word (such as photographs of diaries), music/sound, and film) and reveal them as a still image (not an icon saying “there is an attachment here”…)
The user can easily ZOOM from the “whole map” view to parts of the map or a single node.
The map can accept a large volume of links between nodes (one node to many nodes, and overall number of links which, visually represented, create a type of 3D effect.)
The map is an environment with easy navigation, with the idea that a user will want to linger, as if she/he were reading a book: It’s a stand-alone creative artifact.

Node Behavior: Standard nodes are green; other colors serve to flag other types of node, such as user-generated nodes or nodes that (a) a user has generated (lilac); a user has generated but that the map creator either (b) does not “agree” with them but has left where they were placed (red); or (c) “agrees” with but has moved them to a different location in the map (orange) (Note that these node behaviors are from memory & may need to be reviewed before project initialisation.)
In the case of a node that a particular type of user is not entitled to view, it will be simply visible as a green heart-shaped leaf.

Privacy:
Sophisticated privacy parameters, as befits a system representing the mind of a complex human individual: what I share with whom, obviously, depends on who they are in relation to me & the type of data. In particular, one of my interests is multilingualism & multiculturalism, & how I simply AM (or behave) different depending on the cultural setting I am in.
Hence, although the site will be available to anyone, it is highly recommended that the user log in & answer a few basic questions about themselves, such as languages spoken & whether they are personal acquaintances (which I will then have the ability to confirm.)

Data Entry:
Data entry must be easy to use. I will be entering large amounts of data (e.g. scans from diaries or one-line poems, sometimes a series of one-line quotes), and the task of data entry must be able to become fairly automatic.
As I see it, it would be a specially-designed window, with boxes that I can ‘tab’ between without using the mouse.
Entries can finally be tagged with an auto-prompt for a tag name, which denotes the name of a branch. Entries with that tag join that branch automatically, placed according to a rule (such as date of data creation, date of data input, etc.) which changes how the entire map is viewed. A node can belong to multiple branches at the same time (many tags). (When dealing with a new tag, whose branch has not yet been created, there will be a rule for describing where it will go; a branch can also be created manually.)
(I hope all this is making sense & is achievable.)

Search Features:
The data can also be retrieved & displayed in a list, not a mind map, format. This is primarily for me in order to retrieve things & be able to work on them. Must be a powerful search engine.

Timeline:
I would like to begin data entry by February 1st, 2014. This does not mean that the whole project (incl. GUI) needs to be finished by then, just that I can start entering data (which means that the various phases need to be coordinated & the technology used compatible.)

Project Summary:
The Heart-Shaped Leaves Mindmap project is basically a website for cataloguing data. It could be a blog, were it not for the fact that it is DISPLAYED in a way that is non-linear, and that gives an OVERALL IMPRESSION of each “blog” page, and that these are revealed as SHAPES (hearts), not rectangles (the traditional shape of a blog window). Moreover, there is a ZOOM feature that I guess has to be pretty powerful, in order for the viewer to be able to smoothly go from one branch of the map to another without it being really slow or unwieldy or dizzy-making. In other words, the ZOOM feature has to be precise enough to handle the quantity of data that this website will carry.

How to Code It? How to decide how to code it?
Well I’m not a programmer… What I suggest is to hear back from people re: Plans (a kind of design competition, eg. re: programming language combinations)
Then I would suggest that people “face off” in terms of critiquing others’ plans & promoting their idea of how it should be done.
I feel I need to pay people honestly for the time they’ve put into considering this project & effectively giving me design advice. I feel it isn’t fair that this should be free.
So that would be Step 1.
Step 2 is to decide which plan to go with.
Step 3 is to award the project - possibly to 2 or more people, depending on the skills required.
I am new to Freelancer. It isn’t yet clear to me whether I can compensate designers without having gone with their proposal - the Step 1. Please feel free to give me feedback on this.

Cost:
Circumstances last November unfortunately called me to spend the money I had earmarked for this project (!). That said, I do have access to a credit card & a Canadian student budget. This is partly why I am open to staggering the project’s implementation into stages. It is more important to me that it be ‘done right’, than done quickly.


Mindmap Characteristics:
1. accepts text, images, audio & video
2. unlimited relationships possible between nodes (3D effect)
3. this concept must be capable of being translated via a customized graphic user interface (GUI)
4. analogy to human personality: we choose by controlling whom we share which information with; each person knows us slightly differently. In this mindmap, there are different classes of user, with each class being defined by custom parameters. Each user has access to different content subsets (perceives the map differently). Independent of these class parameters, the creator can invite others to view a specific node (invitation).
6) Users can contribute content, yet the map creator has the power to change where the content ultimately gets placed in the map. The creator can a) comment upon; b) edit; c) delete; d) move user-generated content to a different location.
7) Each node can be shared via social media (email, fb, twitter, etc., icons).
8) Content is exportable to another user’s map (whole sections of the map at a time or node by node).
9) The degree of correlation between different maps can be analysed, ideally through visual comparison.
10) Ideally, the mindmap could be worked on offline.

Project Design - Some Final Notes:
This has been the wording of the project in my own words. What would it be like in yours? How would you describe it? What features does it need to have? Do any stand out as particularly complex? Perhaps these would take the project to a different level of cost? Would it be worth trimming it down? If so, what aspects would go?

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Project ID: #5263353

About the project