As the “digital convergence” continues along its path, I see more opportunities for researchers online. If you’ve ever “felt my pain,” this blog’s for you. I wanted to share some of the resources I and other colleagues have found to be most effective for combining the research process with the speed and accessibility of modern global connectivity and tools. Some are targeted specifically at researchers, but many are general purpose tools that have significant advantages when applied to the research process.

Click the + at the end of each branch of the mind map below to reveal more information. If you have other resources that have been invaluable to your own research process, drop me a line and tell me why I should include it in this map. Hopefully we will make life just a little easier for researchers everywhere.

http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/39513233/research-tools

* Special thanks to Marilyn Price-Mitchell for contributing to this map.

Like her I am working as a consultant while PhD-ifying myself, and I’m at this juncture of looking for my “next assignment.” Not working is not an option as this program is a fair chunk of annual change.

As a natural systemic thinker, I am interested (and have some expertise) in a wide variety of subject areas. In fact I’ve interviewed for a couple of jobs lately and find that bringing my systemic outlook into the formal interview conversation can make people a bit nervous! I suppose if you’re not used to connecting a wide variety of dots into a more coherent whole picture on a regular basis, interviewing someone who does could make you wonder if this person has the ability to focus on the task at hand.

Unlike Dorianne, I’ve been a consultant and entrepreneur all of my professional life. I’ve worked with startups and Fortune 100 companies on such a wide variety of projects that my breadth of experience appears suspicious to some in the corporate hiring arena. I don’t mean to brag, I’m talking about the challenge I face in communicating my full value to an audience that is holding a limited perspective of what they want and need. While their perspective is absolutely valid, my value add is seeing what other people don’t usually see, helping to identify and fill in the gaps before they become crises. Here’s a story to illustrate the consequences of not thinking systemically:

Yesterday I received a piece of mail from the Rocky Mountain Institute. Enclosed was a transcript of a brief speech given by Amory Lovins, one of RMI’s founders. In the transcript he tells the story of the perils of addressing complex systemic issues via non-systemic solutions.

In the 1950s, there was a malaria outbreak in parts of Borneo. The World Health Organization leapt into action, sending planes to spray the entire region with DDT. The DDT was intended to kill mosquitoes, thus halting the malaria outbreak, which it did. Shortly thereafter, peoples’ roofs started caving in. Perplexed, the colonial government decided to address the problem by providing villagers with tin roofs for their huts. Once the roofs were installed, people began to report that they couldn’t sleep. The sound of the rain on the metal roofs was so loud it kept them awake at night. It turns out that the DDT, in addition to killing mosquitoes, had also killed parasitic wasps and other insects. The wasps were in a symbiotic relationship with thatch-eating caterpillars. Since there were no wasps, the caterpillar population soared, and thatch roofs were a readily available food source. Meanwhile, geckoes were eating insects that were treated with DDT. The DDT built up in the bodies of the geckoes, who were then eaten by cats. The cats received such a dose of DDT that they began to die off. As that happened, the rat population began to rise. Pretty soon, the World Health Organization was concerned that there would be a typhus or plague outbreak. So they again leapt into action, working with the Royal Air Force of Singapore to initiate “Operation Cat Drop.” Imagine the sight of cats parachuting down from airplanes — commando cats sent to control the rat population.

Wish I had a picture of that.