New ways to visualize information make the research so much more interesting.  And, so it is very appealing to see what the Palm Center at U.C. Santa Barbara does for the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell debate.

“Using the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC)‘s Public concept mapping or Cmap Tools, the Palm Center’s Research Director, Dr. Jeanne Scheper and the Palm Center’s Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Nathaniel Frank are collaborating on mapping the key arguments related to the gays in the military debate.”

These “Argument Maps” cover a wide range of topics related to gays in the military, from privacy to health to foreign militaries.  These very useful charts will soon be fully interactive according to the site.

If you visit the site, you’ll find other useful (and traditional) resources on this topic, too.  They recently posted a legal memo outlining the Pentagon options in dealing with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  They also have a blog, a short bibliography, a list of web resources and more.