Vithanco Concept Maps - An Editor for Concept Maps

I created a little tool that will help you creating Concept maps. It is available at the Mac App Store. Vithanco stands for "Visual Thinking and Communication".

Concept Maps are one of my standard artefacts of projects or whenever I need to understand a new area. They help to define the vocabulary by setting all relevant terms into relation to each other.

Such a way of defining a vocabulary is (to my experience) superior to a traditional dictionary where you find a paragraph regarding the meaning of a word. Why? Simply because I have never seen anyone reading a 10 page document of definitions without the mind wandering off. A Concept Map in contrast is something that everyone can concentrate on. And by creating verifiable sentences you can double-check each relationship in a simple and constructive way. Just create a set of concept maps and take every new project member through each relationship. You will be able to align the meaning of the terms. What if the other person disagrees on a sentence? Great! You just hit a misalignment that might become problematic at a later stage. Align on how to use the terms. As I said, it's a communication tool.

Look here if you are interested in learning more about Concept Maps.