Podcast/Story rec: "Re:Sound" podcast

One of the many things I learned at the recent public radio conference I attended was the existence of a podcast called "Re:Sound". It's run by the Third Coast Festival, which is the biggest public radio conference out there, in the US if not the world, and its mission is to collect exceptional stories from radio and online into an anthology series that showcases them all in one place.

For once I was commuting instead of working form home this morning and didn't have my bike handy, so I took the opportunity to listen to an episode over breakfast and on my way into work. I'm only through two of the three stories in their latest episode, which is all stories on the theme of "Enemies to Friends". You should listen to it.

As many of you know I'm a big believer in the power of real-life stories. I think the stories of others are maybe the single most powerful force for bridging the gap of their otherness, for which so much evil in the world is to blame. I'm also a sucker for stories of redemption, so this ep was basically designed to punch me in the gut.

The first story in the show is steeped in those themes (though whether it truly counts as redemption or just effort made in that direction is debatable), and includes acts bravery and selflessness that border on stupidity; the kind of acts that I was raised to call "Christ-like", but... well, the story is called "The Rabbi and the KKK", so you can probably imagine why that label might not be appreciated here. ;) If that title sounds familiar, it previously ran on Snap Judgement, so if you're a Snappa you might have already heard it. If you don't listen to Snap Judgement, do so!

The second story is the thing that's moved me to write this post before even finishing the episode. "Two Enemies, One Heart", is the story of two soldiers, one Iranian and one Iraqi, who were at the same battle when their countries were at war. It spans about 20 years and is now the story I will point to to illustrate the principle that truth is stranger than fiction. In fact, I wouldn't feel right posting this without adding that I still can't quite believe that everything could have happened exactly as reported, but that didn't stop me from nearly breaking down crying in the middle of Kendall Square (fortunately I made it to a bathroom at work first).

Listen. And remember: stories are good for the soul.

Software advice: visualization tools for complex relationships?

There is a kind of software I'm looking for, but I don't know if it exists.

I guess you could think of it as a cross between a mindmapping tool and a diagramming tool like dia. I guess you could also think of it as a sort of digital whiteboard with some very specific feature needs.

See, I've got this extremely complex network of services, each of which plays a different part in an extremely complex process. I need to be able to explain this network and this process to people. I think the best way to do this from a teaching perspective is to start with the Big Picture, zoom in on each bit when it's time to provide more detail, and then zoom out again to the Big Picture to reinforce what the things we've learned mean in context.

The problem is that the Big Picture is so big it can be hard for me to wrap my head around it, especially when there are gaps in my knowledge that I still need to identify and fill in.

So, here's what I want to be able to do:

1) Create a set of visual objects that represent components of the Big Picture. Ideally each object could have an arbitrary icon, color, etc associated with it, but most essential would be the ability to attach HTML (or similar) formatted text to it to store all of my notes and commentary.

2) I want to be able to add annotations and connections to illustrate how objects interact with one another. So far, what I'm describing is basically nodes in a mind map, but...

3) I don't want a structured tree of objects. I want to be able to drag them around wherever, group them however, and create multiple sets of connections between them. This requires more flexibility than the structure of a mindmap would allow.

4) Bonus points for the ability to hide or collapse annotations, and super mega bonus points for the ability to export as an interactive HTML5 or (less ideally) Flash page that I can then integrate into the courseware.

Has anyone heard of such a beast? I can't be the first person to deal with a problem like this... right?