What is a Mind Map? In a nutshell, it's a way to organize ideas. Wikipedia says the following:
A mind map (or mind-map) is a diagram used to represent words and ideas linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, and decision making. Click here for more information.
It's great for taking meeting minutes, for brainstorming, for describing a complex idea or system and in general for communicating complexity in a logical way. There are lots of different tools available, but my personal preference is MindManager from MindJet Software. It works on Windows and recently on the Mac.
These tools are not drawing tools, they are for organizing ideas. One can, however format diagrams in some nice ways. Here's an example showing a recent version of the SWEBOK, the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge.
