Argument Diagramming Tools

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http://www.phil.cmu.edu/projects/argument_mapping/

Argument diagramming tools
There are hundreds of diagramming tools currently available. Tools vary primarily by the type of information they try to represent, and the tradeoff they make between expressiveness and usability (in Buckingham-Shum's words). Most of the tools below can, or are designed to, be used for argumentation or evidence-based reasoning. Toulmin-based argument diagramming tools are less expressive, (because they only represent arguments), but possibly more usable (because boxes and arrows are always interpreted in a specific way). Concept maps are more expressive (because they can represent anything, including arguments) but less usable (because the meaning of boxes and arrows are not consistent and have to be explicitly labeled). Other tools like ClaiMaker and Compendium are somewhere in-between--essentially concept maps but with limits on the types of meanings boxes and arrows can have.

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