| Tool |
Description |
Representation |
Audience |
| Athena |
Argument mapper from Blekinge Institue of Technology and CERTEC, Sweden. |
Simplified Toulmin |
Education |
| ArgMAP |
Argument mapper |
Simplified Toulmin |
Research |
| ArguMed |
Argument mapper based on DEFLog |
DEFLog (Toulmin extension) |
Research |
| Argutect |
Argument mapping-like "thought-processor" from Knosis, Pittburgh. |
Thought tree (tree of questions and answers, can be used as simplified Toulmin) |
Productivity, Education |
| Araucaria |
Argument mapper from Univeristy of Dundee, UK. |
simplified Toulmin |
Education |
| Belvedere |
Collaborative concept mapper and evidence matrix originally developed by D. Suthers at LRDC, Pittsburgh, now at LILT, University of Hawai'i at Manoa. |
Inquiry / Evidence Maps and Matrices (links between claims and supporting data) |
Education |
| Causality Lab |
Allows students to solve social science problems by building hypotheses, collecting data and making causal inferences. |
Causal diagram and data charts |
Education |
| Carneades (.pdf) |
Toulmin based mathematical model for legal argumentation |
Toulmin |
Law |
ClaimMaker/
ClaimFinder/
ClaimMapper |
Concept mapping of knowledge claims from S. Buckingham Shum's Scholarly Ontologies Project, KMI, Open University, UK. |
Concept map with semiformal ontology for argumentation |
Research |
| Compendium |
IBIS mapping tool orginially developed by Verizon Reserach Labs and associated with CogNexus Institue and KMI, Open University. |
Dialogue map (concept map with ontology: nodes can represent issues, ideas, pro, con, and notes) |
Ill-structured problems |
| Convince Me |
Creates diagramatic representations of hypothesis and evidence |
Evidence map |
Education |
| Debatabase |
"Debatabase is the world's most useful resource for student debaters. Inside you will find arguments for and against hundreds of debating Topics, written by expert debaters, judges and coaches." |
Communal, simplified Toulmin |
Education |
| DebateMapper |
"currently offline" |
Toulmin (and more) |
|
| Debatepedia |
"Debatepedia is the new free wiki encyclopedia of arguments and debates" |
Communal, simplified Toulmin |
Civic |
| Explanation Constructor |
B. Sandoval's explanation template that encourages students to support their claims with evidence. Part of the BGuILE project at letus center, Chicago. |
Evidence map template (causal explanation prompts with links to data) |
Education |
| Genie |
Software toolkit for creating decision theoretic models from University of Pittsburgh. |
Bayesian networks |
Research |
| Media Matrix |
Allows students to collect audio and video references off the internet and annotate them for later use in writing |
Communal media annotation |
Education |
| Oyez |
Datbase of supreme course transcripts linked to audio. |
media annotation |
Law |
| Philoctopus |
Argument mapper |
Simplified Toulmin |
Research |
| QuestMap |
J. Conklin's IBIS predecessor to Compendium, from CogNexus, Napa, CA. |
Dialogue map (concept map with ontology: nodes can represent issues, ideas, pro, con, and notes) |
Ill-structured problems |
| Reason!Able (Research) |
van Gelder and Bulka's popular argument mapping software from University of Melbourne. |
Simplified Toulmin |
Education |
| Rationale |
The 2006 heir to Reason!Able argument mapping tool. |
Simplified Toulmin |
Commercial, Education |
| Structured Evidential Argumentation System |
Project of John Lowrance at SRI to help organize and conduct collaborative argumentation by "intelligence monitors" by looking for evidence on the web, or in news reports, to fill in argument structure. |
Communal explanation template linked to evidence supplied and gathered users. |
Intelligence, productivity |
| Sensemaker |
P. Bell's nested concept mapper for classroom debate. Part of the KIE project, University of Berkeley (see also WISE for the Java port). |
Concept map |
Education |
| Stella |
Commercial systems (stock and flow) diagramming tool. |
Stock and flow (causal) |
Commercial, Education |
| Theseus |
Heir to Argutect |
Thought tree (tree of questions and answers, can be used as simplified Toulmin) |
Education |
| Truth Mapper |
A collaborative argument mapping site |
Simplified Toulmin |
Social |
| Wigmore diagram (.pdf) |
A diagram language used for legal reasoning (described here the Araucaria folk and their translaion to Toulmin diagrams). |
Wigmore |
Law |
WISE
SAIL / Pas |
The latest incarnation of the original Sensemaker project with nested concept mapper for classroom debate. |
Concept map |
Education |
Diagramming tools
General purpose diagramming tools do not limit the type of representation you can make, and can thus be used to create argument maps. Because they are general purpose tools, they do not necessarily provide any capabilities that would make it easier to represent arguments over other kinds of diagrams. Here are some popular/interesting tools. |
| Tool |
Description |
Representation |
Audience |
| Gliffy |
Diagramming plugin for Confluence wiki |
Diagram |
Productivity |
| Omnigraffle |
Diagramming tool for Mac OS |
Diagram |
Productivity |
| Visio |
Diagramming tool for Windows |
Diagram |
Social |
Concept mapping tools
Concept mapping tools are generalized box and link diagramming tools where links can be labeled, and nodes can have mulitple links. Concept maps, are a more generalized representation than a Toulmin style argument maps, so while arguments can be represented in concept maps, concept maps do not necessisarily facilitate argument mapping. For an extenive list of concept mapping tools, see mind-mapping.org |
| Tool |
Description |
Representation |
Audience |
| CMap Tools |
Concept mapper from IHMC a university affiliated research institute in Florida. |
Concept map |
Education |
| Free mind |
Open-source concept mapping tool |
Concept map |
Productivity |
| Inspiration |
Commercial concept mapping tool from Inspritaion Software, Portland OR. |
Concept map |
Education |
Mind mapping & Outliner tools
Mind maps usually take the form of hierarchical mind-maps where the links between nodes are unlabelled, i.e. a graphical, sometimes illustrated version of an outline. Because the links often don't have labels, mind maps are not often used to represent arguments. For a more extensive list of mind maps and outliners, see mind-mapping.org |
| Tool |
Description |
Representation |
Audience |
| Mind Manager |
Commercial concept mapper from Mind manager. |
Mind map |
Productivity |
| Mind map |
Commercial concept mapper from Buzan. |
Mind map |
Productivity |
| Omni Outliner |
Commercial outliner |
Outliner |
Productivity |
Semantic Web
The following tools allow users to create notes, or peices of information with with specific fields (schema), and link notes to each other, or to notes created by other people. These applications are essentially concept maps that focus on the type of information inside the node, and sharing/connecting it with other's. |
| Tool |
Description |
Representation |
Audience |
| CSILE/Knowledge Forum |
Collaborative concept mapping environment invented by Scardamalia & Bereiter at OISE/University of Toronto. |
Communal notes with explanation templates |
Education |
| Haystack |
M.I.T. project |
Communal notes with user-defined schema |
Social, productivity |
| HiveLive |
from CMU's John Kembel |
Communal notes with user-defined schema |
Social, productivity |
