Mind Maps Merging in Collaborative Work

摘要

This paper discusses the problem of mind maps merging in the context of a collaborative Internet-based work. This problem is important, for example, when one of the users loses its Internet connection but keeps changing a mind map locally, just as his/her collaborators do. So, the Internet reconnection makes it necessary for the local and server copies to be merged. The problem is solved by means of the well-known 3DM algorithm of XML merging, which is modified to meet our specific requirements: (1) two modes are needed for conflict resolution (by default and user-defined); (2) changes in subtrees when resolving Update/Delete conflicts need to be maximally retained; (3) the trees are asymmetric, and the server copy is assumed to be of higher priority; (4) the original version requires an edit-script for retaining the history of changes; (5) nodes of merging trees have unique identifiers, i.e., a more simplified identification procedure can be used.