I am a visual learner. When taking notes growing up, I was forever creating boxes to hold the ideas and draw arrows to connect the ideas that were forged in classroom lectures and conversations. It is for this reason that I loved Inspiration when I first saw it back in 1990. A great program to begin to visually brainstorm and think.

Inspiration is limited in that it does not allow for site licensing and you cannot collaborate on a document or easily share it with others. Enter Gliffy (gliffy.com), a web 2.0 application which allows you to create concept or mind maps via a web browser, allow others to collaborate, and share the results with other users. Like many web 2.0 applications, you can take view and revert to older versions of the document if someone makes changes that you do not like. It allows you to create floor plans, flow charts, and use basic symbols.

Gliffy does not have the wide range of symbols and icons. It does not have a rapid fire mode which is great for group brainstorming. It also does not have the ability to turn your diagram into an outline. However for the value ($0 vs. $45 per license), the ability to run it on any computer with Internet access, and the ability to collaborate, it is a viable alternative to consider.