I decided to add a little content to my evolving mind-map on Web 2.0 by collecting some references: books, Websites, articles, etc. Interestingly, Amazon shows only one book that’s directly and exclusively focused on the subject of Web 2.0 — and it was published back in 2002 (which, in these fast-moving times, seems like ancient history). However, there are lots of good books on Ajax and Ruby; and I also added a couple of entries on such related topics as Wiki and the Long Tail.

You can download the latest two-page PDF of my Web 2.0 mind-map by visiting my Web 2.0 website here.

I’ve also been thinking about the best way to give presentations to computer-savvy audiences in these modern times. While you can create arbitrarily complex and sophisticated presentations with good ole’ PowerPoint, it’s almost impossible to resist the age-old habit of creating page after sequential page of text-only bullet points. The mind-maps that I ‘m now using are more of a visual, right-brain alternative, and that’s a good start; and for several years, I’ve also devoted a lot of energy to incorporating hyperlinks right into the material. (Of course, that’s only useful to the audience if you provide them with the electronic version of the presentation, since it’s not very productive for them to double-click a hyperlink on a hard-copy printout of the presentation.)

But I’m now thinking of going one step further, by making the entire presentation a series of “live” references to relevant pages and images on the Internet. After all, most presentations consist of collecting, synthesizing, organizing, and emphasizing information that already exists — and which has already been uploaded and published on the Web, albeit sprinkled around in a bunch of apparently unrelated sites and corners of the Internet. So why download a bunch of images and textual information that’s already up on the Internet, and create redundant copies (or even worse, hard-copy printouts) of stuff the audience can view and/or download on their own? Why not organize the presentation as a simple mind-map illustrating the main themes or topics, with the detailed “branches” of the mind-map consisting of URL’s to the relevant Web pages? The presenter can then show the actual “source material” to the audience, while preserving the hyperlinks in a PDF-export of the mind-map, so they can go back to review the source material at their leisure.

Of course, this requires that the presenter have a reliable, high-speed Internet connection at the podium, while he’s making his presentation. Duh, obviously, and that’s universally available, right? Well, no, not quite: I’ve attended several conferences in recent months that feel like underground, lead-lined bomb shelters: no wireless Internet connection provided by the conference facility, and no signal from the Verizon high-speed EVDO network that I normally use when traveling. So it requires checking with the conference organizer in advance, and then testing the signal when you arrive at the conference.

Anyway, that’s the plan … I’ll have a chance to test it next month, at a keynote presentation in Chicago. We’ll see how it works…