Maps, Mapping and What's Possible

Charles, thanks for hosting this discussion. I hope we can share some inspiration and ideas that leads to benefit for us, and many others in many places. I'm going to use my Twitter and Facebook to see if I can attract some people from my own network to join us. I hope others will do the same.

If you've followed the news recently, you've seen that Warren Buffett is encouraging billionaires to donate half of their wealth to charity. http://www.theatlanticwire.com/[…]/

We need a few of those people joining us in these discussions.

For those who are new to Social Edge, Charles and I met several years ago. As a result of my sharing ideas in groups he was facilitating, he began to look deeper into the T/MC web sites, and grew his own understanding of what we're trying to do. This led him to be a speaker at the conference we held in May 2010.

This is the handout that he presented. I encourage you to read it because it shows how our relationship has grown over many years and how this network on Social Edge can expand to embrace many more people, including those who have wealth but don't know where they want to use it. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/[…]/tmc_socialedge.pdf

This is a graphic, that shows other organizations who also attended the Tutor/Mentor Conference. It's an example of how T/MC is trying to map networks of people we're connecting to. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/[…]/may2010conference_sna.pdf

Our use of maps created using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, is intended to focus people from throughout the Chicago region, on our web sites, and the information we host on those web site, and then on the different neighborhoods where volunteers, donors, technology and talent will be needed for many years if we're to overcome the poverty, and sense of hopelessness, that is breeding the violence we see today.

If you read the essays in the Tutor/Mentor Institute, http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/library , you'll see that collecting and hosting information is just one part of the T/MC strategy. We're also trying to increase the number of people who look at the informtion, understand it, then act in one or more ways to help a tutor/mentor program connect with a youth in one of the high poverty areas shown on the map.

This pdf illustrates this goal of connecting people who can help with programs in different sections of the city. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/[…]/networkrole.pdf

We share this information on our web sites, and in forums like this, so others can borrow the ideas and use them in their own communities, and so some people will use their own time, talent and dollars to help us provide these resources.

If you spend a little time browsing the web sites, now, and in the future, you'll know more about what Charles has learned about the T/MC, and begin to see ways these ideas might be useful to you in your own projects and communities.

If you're using maps and graphics like this to outline your ideas and strategies, please share them. The goal is to learn and collaborate with each other, not just learn from one or two sources.

I look forward to sharing our ideas as you respond to some of the questions Charles has listed in his introduction.

Thanks as always for your input, Daniel.

I think you get to the heart of what I was trying to say with your paragraoh:

QUOTE: Our use of maps created using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, is intended to focus people from throughout the Chicago region, on our web sites, and the information we host on those web site, and then on the different neighborhoods where volunteers, donors, technology and talent will be needed for many years if we're to overcome the poverty, and sense of hopelessness, that is breeding the violence we see today. :UNQUOTE

To get back to Einstein, it's not just a matter of space (geography) or time (the present, the unfolding future) but some combination of the two (space-time: in this case, areas where kids are in need, and the time required to mentor them to the point where they have jobs) that matters. It's easy to think in terms of geography, easy to think in terms of the future -- but keeping the ,long term in mind while addressing local variations is quite a trick!

And as you say, getting and retaining sponsorship and funding is also key.

Keep up the good work, I hope to read more of you here as this event unfolds!

Since we're talking about Einstein, I'd like to introduce a forumla that I've developed over many years.

R&D + F&L = success

Recruit and Delegate. Follow up and Lead. Any leader must be able to recruit many other people to help. He must be able to delegate responsibility. However, since volunteers have many higher priorities than the non profit they might be involved in, there must be follow up to help them be successful. A volunteers who fails in the assignment he/she takes on soon disappears. However, one who succeeds, often takes on greater responsibility.

The "Lead" part is you out in front of the organization, learning from others in forums like this, and creating a vision that constantly pushes the organization to further achievement. If this happens in an ongoing basis non profits can grow to do great things.

This is part of an Operating Principles PDF posted at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/[…]/operating_principles08.pdf

Hey Daniel, in showing the destination and the best way to get there you know what Albert Einstein said about mapping, 'only two things are decidedly infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.' He had said, 'it's a good thing, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible... (because) the most beautiful experience we can have, is with the mysterious.'

What do you think about that? Because 'relativity teaches us the connection between different descriptions of one and the same reality' (for multiple responses) it's all one and the same. How have you found that, with your own mapping experience?

Hi Charles, what about mapping the intangible? Einstein's also quoted as saying, 'if I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem, and 5 minutes finding the solution' (the answer - knowing the problem before you start, defines the quality of the response and in challenging assumptions) - it's all about visual thinking.

Hi Jo,

I'm not as brilliant as Einstein. However, I do know that the map of the Chicago region is the same for all 7 million people in the region. We're drawing from the same census data and school performance data that anyone else can draw from. The only think we have on our map, that is not available to most others, is the information about non-school volunteer-based tutoring/mentoring programs. Since our mission is to help these programs become available in more poverty neighborhoods, and to help each get on-going resources that enable them to constantly improve their impact, this is what we focus on.

A geographic map is just one type of visualization. Our goal is to help kids in poor neighborhoods get more of the support they need from adults that would result in them being in jobs/careers by age 25. So our thinking focuses on how best to do this, and who should be involved. We've used concept maps to show our thinking. If you view this Strategy map, you can click to many additional maps, and see what we're thinking, and what information we're looking at. Because this is on-line, anyone can look at the same information, and use it in any way they want. http://tinyurl.com/tmc-strategy-map

Our purpose is to show a) kids need the same range of help in many different neighborhoods; and b) kids who are just starting school, will need on-going help for about 20 years. Thus, donors, policy makers, volunteers, faith communities, or any one in Chicago who wants to end poverty, or wants to improve the quality of the future workforce, could be using this information.

Furthermore, anyone can create their own concept map, showing their ideas for reaching these goals, and share it on their own web site, and in forums like this. We encourage that so we can learn from each other, and align where it makes sense.

However, there is a huge cost in creating and maintaining a Geographic Information Systems map. We'd like to encourage some donors to support the T/MC map, rather than starting from scratch in building their own.

Hi Jo:

Daniel has already responded to you, I see, so I can safely focus in on your question " what about mapping the intangible?" That pretty much gets to the heart of the Qualit and/or Quant issue that we discussed here a while back, and it's precisely the reason I invented my HipBone Games, which are based on the imaginary "Glass Bead Game" played in Hermann Hesse's book, *Magister Ludi*.

TS Eliot once referred to poetry as a "raid on the inarticulate" -- I think we're in a time of quantitative mapping, but that mapping of ideas and emotions will surely follow. I also happen to believe that "saying( and by analogy, mapping) the unsayable" -- getting up past the snowline where words no longer reach, and returning to tell the tale -- is a crucial part of our growing up as a civilization. I think we need to understand our minds and emotions as well as we understand our world and our neighborhoods, if we are to get to grips with the manifold problems that face us. But that's getting into my personal beliefs, and far from the practicalities of Daniel's situation in Chicago.

Here, what we need is social entrepreneurs studying the maps and other tools that Dan provides, borrowing, adapting and sharing them -- and funders seeing the impact, and making sure his efforts are sustained over the longer haul.

Speaking of TS Eliot Charles I agree, 'it's strange that words are so inadequate' I love this from him: 'What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other.' That's what you have in mind with the HipBone games yeah, mapping ideas and emotions sounds cool. And it's true what TS Eliot said about mapping too, 'the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.'

what TS Eliot and Einstein had in common too was an understanding of the role of combinatory play in arriving at solutions, or in new combinations, with depth dimensions, as a 'synchronic reading' or as you say Charles, in 'a marriage of passion and tight structure' it's the driving force (behind mapping and problem-solving) that is the link between ideas. In the push-you-pull-me scenarios of problem-solving, rarely is anything achieved without some kind of combinatory play.

In combining different ways of thinking to produce new results, it's Einstein's idea that 'combinatory play is the essential feature in productive thought' and combine that with what TS said, (it's no secret) 'love is the driving force behind all experience' - it's synthesis, is the essence of creativity.

I like what you said (in your musings, do we need a new myth) 'humans understand themselves by the story they tell about themselves'... what we need to do is take a longer glimpse over the horizon...and redefine ourselves.

A concept map is a nifty idea Daniel, good luck with that.

Hi Danial, Linda Nowakowski sent me this link from your posting on Ned.

As we have discussed elsewhere, mapping is about identifying needs and resources and it is useful to the extent that it results in actual new connections delivering those resources to meet those needs.

My own view is that there are resources in neighborhoods besides businesses and churches and non-profits. There are the people themselves who, for what ever reason (unemployment, disability, care giver responsibilities), are not employing their skills - and there is the biological potential of the front yards and vacant lots. (See: organiclandscapedesign.org).

We are thinking in terms of identifying skills and needs on a street by street basis to match skills and needs such as child care, home maintenance, cooking, auto repair and urban agriculture. I think of it as developing the "know how to organize ourselves to provide for ourselves" or "Community Sufficiency Technology."

David,

Take a look at what I wrote in response to Jo. Since the focus of my organization is helping kids to careers, I've put some of the assets that could be involved, on our maps. We received $50,000 in the fall of 2007 to rebuild our map capacity. Half was spent on hiring a part time GIS map maker, and creating in-house desk top service, using donated ESRI software. At http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com you can see maps created with this.

A GIS system consists of layers of information. Thus, demographics is one layer. School information is another. Tutor/mentor programs is another. Banks is another, and so forth. Our map maker had to collect this information from a variety of sources to build the maps he shows on his blog.

Then, in the middle of 2008 we hired a consultant from Baltimore, who had done a volunteer project for us the previous year, to build the on-line program locator, using the same data and logic as we use in the office GIS. This went live in March 2009, but by that time we ran out of money. We're barely keeping our in-hours staff with us, but have no money, or volunteers to be adding features, or even updating info, on the on-line.

You're correct that a wide variety of information could be collected, and added as layers of information on our maps, or those used by others, for other purposes. However, for that to happen, we'd need to find the resources to manage that, or others would need to find a way to create their own GIS platform.

Through this forum I hope we're attracting people from various cities, and various causes, who see ways maps could be used in their own city, and their own cause. If we're also attracting investors/benefactors, then if someone in LA says, I want to duplicate T/MC, but don't want to start from scratch, the donor can say "how can I help make that happen."

Of course funding for programs is always a problem. That is one of the reasons we are looking at transferring the skills to the neighborhood level. Here in Colorado we are working with the "Transition" people who are concerned with preparing for peak oil and climate change http://transitioncolorado.ning.com/, and with the local business alliance http://milehighbusinessalliance.org/.

The key, I think, is in finding ways to create feed back loops in which help in organizing neighborhood productivity feeds back into the purposes of these other organizations (lower energy footprints - more support for local business) and then, continuing the loop, more resources for skill development in the neighborhoods.

David,

Your network would be ideal users of a map based information system. You could use it to help businesses in the same zip code, or block area, to connect around mutually beneficial communications efforts, political action, or social benefit activities. You also would benefit from some of the network analysis work being done by Valdis Krebs at http://www.orgnet.com/cases.html

You could also use a map system for the same goal we do, to identify high poverty, poorly performing school areas, and use the collaboration of your business network to generate more ideas, and more commitment toward actions that help kids stay in school and move to jobs. The result could be a reduction of crime in some areas, an improvement in workforce availability, and more interest and loyalty of current employees because they work for forward thinking companies.

I've been trying to do some network mapping, beyond what we're doing with GIS maps. David do you remember when you went to http://www.tutormentorconnection.org a few years ago and added your location to the Guest Map on our site. If you look at that map, and scroll over the comments of others who have posted their locations, it represents many people who express positive thoughts for the Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy. So far we've not been able to tell how often these people visit and use the information on our sites, or the maps, (due to lack of manpower), but this guest map is just another way that organizations can capture information about who's interested in working together.

Found my way here via ned.com as well.

I think what Dan is going with maps is fantastic.

Other interesting happenings and development in mapping

CivicApps in Portland, Oregon: http://www.civicapps.org/

Ushahidi: http://www.ushahidi.com/

What I love so much about Dan’s Tutor Mentor mapping and org, is that it is so tied into real world actions and outcomes.

Maps and mapping, computers, software, the web, like so many different things, is simply just a tool. People can get so caught up in talking about the tool, they totally miss the point of making things happen. Clearly Dan drives people to action, and I’ve seen this myself (online) for years now. Maps into Action. Map Action. Maction. Now I’ve just had too much coffee, I’ll go bother someone else.

Thanks, Mark:

I also see that the new Echoing Green fellows have been announced, and at least one of them -- Nick Ehrmann of Blue Engine -- appears ton be working on closely related issues to those that concern Dan: "Providing “High Dose” Tutors for Low-income High School Students".

http://2010fellows.echoinggreen.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watc[…]amp;feature=player_embedded

Excellent.

Hi Charles,

This looks similar to Teach for America, http://www.teachforamerica.org/, which has gained great fame for getting high profile college graduates to teach in inner city schools for a few years. Another version would be AmeriCorps, which recruits high school, college and older people to do a year of service.

All focus on poverty, and helping kids, and each represents an "entry point", just like Cabrini Connections, and other tutor/mentor programs, into a lifetime of service.

We should all be working together, and looking at the same maps, so we're trying to make sure that we not only have entry level teachers, tutors, and other volunteers in all high poverty neighborhoods, so that we're educating those folks to stay involved as leaders, donors and volunteers in longer-term support systems, well after the few years that these young people stay directly involved.

I'd like to find a place, such as Social Edge,or http://firesidelearning.ning.com, where volunteers and leaders from each of the organizations who are recruiting college students to work with kids in poverty, where we're all able to talk with each other, and build coalitions, based on what city we're in, or what zip code we're in.

Hi Mark,

I'm glad you pointed to these projects and added the "map action". I can't tell what action the sites you provided are trying to stimulate, other than aggregating information about things going on in a particular region.

The T/MC map is just a tool. It's intended to help volunteers and donors and parents connect with existing programs, or see where new programs are needed because none exist.

In the four part strategy we point to at http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/[…]30250&partName=htmltext the maps are just one part of the information we collect in what we refer to as "step one".

"Step two" is "increase public awareness, or the number of people who look at the information

"Step three" is help people understand it, and develop personal, corporate, or organizational strategies based on understanding the information, and using the maps

"Step four" is the do something. Be a volunteer. Be a donor, Get your kid enrolled. Build a strategy at your company, like the www.lawyerslendahand.org strategy, which raises money and volunteers from the legal community to fund different tutor/mentor programs shown on the map

If we can drive more consistent resources to existing tutor/mentor programs, we help them build organizational experience, human capital, which makes them more effective in recruiting youth and volunteers and keeping them connected long enough to have an impact.

We've been building these strategies with a very small pool of inconsistent dollars, and help from a variety of volunteers. Thus our the impact we have in each of these areas is much less than it needs to be.

Thus, we do what we can with what we have, and keep trying to find ways to do more. That's why we're in on-line forums like this. Other people who want the same goals as we do, and have different abilities and resources could help us.

As a pilot I rely on mapping, instrumentation, visual acuity, and experience to provide essential information about my environment. I'm intrigued by the idea of social mapping and using map overlays in the way described by Daniel at TMC. But I'm wondering if too much emphasis is being placed on the technology and not enough on the evidence that reveals the actual value.

I can see from the descriptions that mapping provides much information and helps previously disparate parts connect to each other, but like the data collected by the US Census, so what? What evidence is there that such information has actually made a difference? What actual impact has this mapping had on improving the health, education, welfare of any community. Please note that I'm not saying it doesn't help, but so far this discussion has focused on the glee associated with the technology and not the actual impact on people's lives.

Fran, I encourage you to take a look at our logic model. As a pilot, I'm sure you know the value of a flight plan. You also know to make sure you have enough gas to get to your destination, with a little extra in case you're in a weather delay. The logic model shows what we're trying to do. We've never had enough gas to get even a fraction of the way toward our destination. That does not meant the logic is poor, or the concept for using maps is poor. It means we don't have as much gas as we need.

http://tutormentorexchange.net/[…]/T_MC%20Logic%20Steps.pdf

When you say "what have we accomplished" I respond that myself and six other volunteers, with no money, decided to create the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 at the same time as we were launching our own Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program.

We knew no one had a master database of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, thus, no one could lead any consistent marketing intended to make such programs available to kids in every poverty neighborhood. So we decided to try to fill the void. What you see at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org is what we've created in the years since then. None of this would exist if not for our efforts. We've not seen anything as comprehensive in its intent, in any other city, although we know of many city and state mentoring partnerships that are operating on much higher revenue streams than we are.

This chart is an attempt to demonstrate some of the impacts the T/MC has had. http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/[…]46198&partName=htmltext

Take a look at some of the videos from the Cabrini Connections year-end dinner to see direct impact we've had on kids in the one program that we operate in Chicago. http://www.cabriniconnections.net/dinner

Fran, I encourage you to take a look at our logic model. As a pilot, I'm sure you know the value of a flight plan. You also know to make sure you have enough gas to get to your destination, with a little extra in case you're in a weather delay. The logic model shows what we're trying to do. We've never had enough gas to get even a fraction of the way toward our destination. That does not meant the logic is poor, or the concept for using maps is poor. It means we don't have as much gas as we need.

http://tutormentorexchange.net/[…]/T_MC%20Logic%20Steps.pdf

When you say "what have we accomplished" I respond that myself and six other volunteers, with no money, decided to create the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 at the same time as we were launching our own Cabrini Connections tutor/mentor program.

We knew no one had a master database of tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, thus, no one could lead any consistent marketing intended to make such programs available to kids in every poverty neighborhood. So we decided to try to fill the void. What you see at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org is what we've created in the years since then. None of this would exist if not for our efforts. We've not seen anything as comprehensive in its intent, in any other city, although we know of many city and state mentoring partnerships that are operating on much higher revenue streams than we are.

This chart is an attempt to demonstrate some of the impacts the T/MC has had. http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/[…]46198&partName=htmltext

Take a look at some of the videos from the Cabrini Connections year-end dinner to see direct impact we've had on kids in the one program that we operate in Chicago. http://www.cabriniconnections.net/dinner

Innovators in social mapping and crisis mapping convened in Chicago in May to cross-pollinate tools, techniques and combinations of data aggregation "in the cloud" and interventions on the ground.

See video from Patrick Meier of Ushahidi, Gary Slutkin of Cease Fire Chicago, and Laura Kurgan, director of the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University. http://poptech.org/[…]/visualizing_data_to_drive_social_change

We did some real-time visualizations of the conversation in the form of graphic recording here: http://www.alphachimp.com/w[…]-mapping-social-change.html

Hi Peter:

And thanks for posting! I'm hoping Dan Bassill will respond in greater detail to your post, but wanted to say quickly that the Tutor/Mentor site contains a link to CeaseFire in its Links Library:

http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/[…]/Default.aspx

and that I hope you and Gary and Daniel will all meet up soon, to figure out how to build on your mutual concerns and passions.

Two of the keynote speakers at the May conference, Professor James Garbarino of Loyola, and Dr. Deana Wilkerson of Ohio State University, focused on issues of violence and prevention. Deanna introduced me to Tio Hardiman, of Cease Fire, last March and we met and I showed him the T/MC maps, and how they could be used by Cease Fire organizers to mobilize resources in different neighborhoods to help tutor/mentor programs grow.

You can see the conference agenda and links to presenter web sites at
http://www.tutormentorconference.org/agenda.asp

A short video with Dr. Garbarino is at http://www.vimeo.com/12784631

As a result of this discussion I was contacted on Facebook by a Social Edge follower who is doing crime mapping in Chicago. Here's his blog. http://chicagocrime.wordpress.com/

Hi Daniel,
Reading this jogged my memory of a school project described by Professor Stephen Heppell (http://www.heppell.net/). A group of UK students mapped the crime scenes of their area, visited the streets and picked up Google etc, information - and presented both their findings and suggestions for reducing crime (ighting, access, use of space I can't remember the detail.) to the local council and police. Result: suggestions implemented, crime stats down, students affirmed.

This looks like it might be relevant, too:

*Knight News Challenge: TileMapping wants to bring the mashup mentality to local maps*
By Megan Garber / today / 10 a.m.
http://www.niemanlab.org/[…]/

Two primary concerns when it comes to news innovation have to do with information itself: harnessing it and investing communities in it. One of this year’s Knight News Challenge winners wants to tackle both of those concerns — at the same time, through the same platform.

Tilemapping aims to empower residents of local communities to explore those communities through mapping. “A lot of great stories can be told using maps and some of the new data that’s become available,” says Eric Gunderson, the project’s coordinator.

[ more ... ]

Ian, thanks for sharing this. As you know, my comments in http://firesidelearning.ning.com have aimed to inspire teachers to enlist students as people who collect and share this information so more people get involved in all of the places on the map where help is needed.

This article shows what a group from DePaul University in Chicago did last fall. They plan to repeat this with a new group of students this coming fall. http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/[…]/voices-of-depaul-students.html

Laura Kurgan's video demonstrates how maps can be used to show where problems persist, and to make a case for reinvestment. She talked about mapping assets, but this particular video did not focus on an analysis of asset availability.

The challenge she, and the rest of us face, is not just showing where the problem is, but mapping solutions, and business plans to achieve those solutions over many years. Even that is only a beginning, because we must find ways to get millions of people to view this information every day, think about it, talk about it with others, then act in one or more ways, to make the solution a reality.

I've been reaching out to universities, and businesses, that work with informatics and design. This is a Ning group where interns from the University of Michigan have been working with us on projects that help create greater understanding of the issues we're talking about. http://tutormentorconnectio[…]chiganschoolofinformation09

This page ( http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/[…]/ideasanimation ) includes about 10 animations showing some of the ideas we have for building the public awareness, and flow of resources, that are essential parts of any strategy for breaking the cycle of prison re-entry, or of building a system of birth to work supports so that fewer young people take the prison detour on the route to becoming an adult.

In our Tutor/Mentor Connection strategy we say we want to "collect all that is known about tutor/mentor programs, where they are needed, why they are needed, and how they can grow in more places, and do more to help kids to careers".

As we've done this we've shared the information with others who are trying to solve the same problems. However, we've also tried to organize the information in various ways, and we've tried to create a chart showing all of the age-appropriate supports that kids in high poverty areas need as they grow up, which are already in areas with greater affluence.

This concept map is an example. http://tinyurl.com/TMC-K-Career-Mentoring

It shows that kids in elementary school need a range of supports for them to succeed in school. As those kids move to middle school, they need a similar range of supports, and as they move to high school, the same. In our view, the volunteers in non-school tutor/mentor programs can help kids access some of these needed supports, which is why we advocate for the growth of tutor/mentor programs in high poverty areas.

We only show locations of tutor/mentor programs. We don't show other needed assets. We could, or other could. However, once we've mapped what assets are available throughout the city, we can build year-round, and long-term, marketing plans, that support the operations and constant improvement of existing service providers, and help new ones develop in areas where there are voids. Without a map you could have a long list of providers and still be missing many of the neighborhoods where services are most needed.

By creating this information, we're trying to take another role. Most non profits who provide services in high poverty neighborhoods, are inconsistently funded, and not equally able to do all they need to get the resources that are essential for building constantly improving programs. This leads to less quality services, and to organizations going out of business.

That's fine in a business concept, where competition eleminates the weak, but if we want great services in all of the high poverty neighborhoods, we've got to find ways to help weak organizations become strong, and then stay strong.

Anyone in the entire region can look at the T/MC map, and build leadership strategies that support the growth of tutor/mentor programs in any neighborhood or the entire neighborhood. We suggest some of these strategies here. http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/leadership-strategies

As more leaders in the Chicago region take this role, more kids in poverty areas will get extra support to keep them in school. If leaders in other cities apply the same thinking, and have a map/directory of assets that they can use for their planning and social involvement, then those cities can have the same benefit, and depending on leadership, can quickly have a greater impact than what we're having in Chicago.

If we collect information showing what leaders in different cities are doing, and share it in discussions like this, business groups in different cities might begin to borrow ideas from each other, and "compete" to see which can do the most to help kids in their communities.

I'd like to learn about efforts by other organizations, or communities, intended to push needed resources through the maps, to all of the service organizations in their communities. Creating awareness of the problem is non enough.

Building and sustaining strong service providers in all of the places where they are needed, based on the research and the maps, is the goal.

Charles, I really appreciate you and Social Edge hosting this discussion this week. Yesterday in Chicago I was a feature presenter at a meeting of a group called Sound ConneXtions, http://www.newcommunityvision.coop/[…]/

On the page I'm pointing to is a statement that says "Where your passion to make a difference can come alive!"

How many of us were part of the Omidyar.net experience a few years ago where a similar statement, and the potential support of the Omidyar Foundation, drew thousands of people. Some of us are still connected, such as David and Mark, who posted comments in this week's discussion.

Yet, most of those who shared ideas on Omidyar.net, and so far on Social Edge, have not been rewarded with investors or benefactors reaching out to learn more about our work, and to offer their support.

You are one of the few people who I know that have really dug deeper into the information I posted from Tutor/Mentor Connection, and thus, have gotten to know us as well, or better, than some of the people in my own organization.

So as we go to week two of this discussion, how do we expand on your vision of a network or network-builders, which includes "those who can help" as a greater part of the mix.

Hi Dan:

I realize that I sometimes "ponder" my responses to events here for long enough that I seem to have disappeared -- so thia is really just a quick note to say that I appreciate your question, and I'm still pondering.

I also want to introduce the idea of "network mapping" (and your use of it at T/MC) in a little more detail this week, but that will have to wait for a second, longer post. It would be great if Valdis Krebs could join us...

There are many groups across the USA who are doing similar work, there is a countrywide partnership called the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (http://www2.urban.org/nnip/) that is hosted at the Urban Institute in DC, made up of 33 cities who are involved in data warehousing and mapping community indicators of success, problems and strategies. In Chicago the local partner is MCIC, in other cities the member orgs are a mix of academia, local government and social justice nonprofits like ours in Oakland.

We're a fairly large research team within a larger nonprofit with several skilled GIS analysts and researchers which is an amazing resource locally. We maintain a data warehouse to source and publish/share many hard to obtain government datasets from foreclosures, crime, health stats, school performance, local clinics, community surveys through to probation and parolee populations. Our map gallery below gives you some brief overview of the types of projects we then apply these datasets to. We work towards the democratization of data as one of our main goals and regularly are the only parties in local processes who have access to data/maps to support data driven, transparent decisions in our communities.

http://www.urbanstrategies.org/[…]/mapgallery.php

One of the biggest challenges for any group looking to map community features, assets or problems is the ground truthing of the data- often folks in meetings will raise concerns about the quality of administrative datasets that don't reflect their reality- a map of liquor stores and crimes may be misleading when a store that is highlighted is actually a good store with fresh fruit and veg available and shuts its doors at an early hour, so we need to then go back and alter our "authoritative" datasets to reflect community input. Likewise a map showing how great access to fruit/veg is can get you in trouble when folks recognize a store you highlight as being a grocery store that in fact has no fresh food at all, again more reality checks make better data and in turn better decisions.

peace

Spike

Steve,

Thanks for joining the discussion and sharing the links. The Tutor/Mentor Connection actually got its start in mapping with the help of MCIC in Chicago. In 1993 and 1994 they produced maps for us on a fee basis. By 1995 we realized that creating a map-view was an art, and passing information back and forth from us to the consultant with a couple day turn around for each pass through, just did not give us the responsiveness we needed. That's why we created our own in-house GIS. We have a section of links to map-based organizations at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/[…]/Default.aspx and I'll add your links too.

My question to you is what process is in place in the 33 cities to call attention to the maps on a daily basis, build understanding of the process, then push public and private resources to community based organizations or other service providers, who are needed in the neighborhoods that the map points to has needing help?

There are great map resources at MCIC and some of the universities in Chicago. However, the leadership and "purpose" of using these maps as a intermediary tool, connecting those who can help, with places where help is needed, is harder to find.

If you follow our http://tutormentor.blogspot.com and http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com articles you'll see part of what we're doing to get more people to look at the maps, then provide resources to the tutor/mentor programs in those neighborhoods.

Is this something that is part of the urban.org strategy?

Daniel,

this is very much a part of the core function of many of the members of NNIP yes. The overall NNIP group serves as a fantastic peer learning network to share best practices, to develop better ways to engage communities with and through data/maps and to keep a wide range of folks informed on new technologies, new strategies to use data for information and change in our cities.

The organizing groups that are part of NNIP do the best job of regularly engaging folks with relevant maps on community issues/change however some of the university partners are incredibly connected and engaged with resident groups- doing windshield surveys and then capacity building to help people take, manage and use their data for local projects.

I'd say that many organizations struggle to get the use of maps and information out front and center in their work- for us we have a large programmatic team that gets most of the spotlight with the research work used to back their strategy/planning. Part of this is publicity and marketing as you have alluded to, it's important for people to know that orgs do have mapping/data analysis capacity and that they have access to these skills, so I'm making more effort to market our research arm and to help folks see the utility of quality spatial information in their work. I'm actually giving a lightning talk at the ESRI UC next month on something similar- disengaged decisions: how a lot of folks get maps made and then take them and use them in ways the makers have no control over and no chance to guide/advise. I've seen a lot of good map products being misused and decisions being made with maps that people clearly don't have a grasp of the content/purpose. So more and more I'm trying to get our researchers into the process as a more integral part- not just do this map job and then let us run with it, more like help us map what we need and then work with us to make sure we use it wisely and to its highest impact.

Good challenges.

Spike

It's conversations and connections like this that have the capacity to interweave our skills and passions -- so I'd like to ask each of you, and all our readers here:

what can you borrow or learn from each other -- and what does each of you have to teach or share? How can this contact between you bear maximal fruit?

*

But I'd also like to move our conversation into a bit of a new mode, so I'll stop at this point and write up a new post...

Spike brings up a good point that there are qualitative parts of the "reality" of a community that simply can't be mapped, such as quality and relevance of neighborhood businesses/resources (i.e. is there a porn shop located across from an elementary school?). Looking at resources from a high level, birds-eye view is definitely a great way to start to look at the complexities that occur in our communities but first hand analysis and feedback from the communities will also be vital to consider in order to ensure that programs will endure.

As I said in a comment above, I'd like to move our conversation into a bit of a new mode, and add into the pot the question: what use does each of you make of *social network mapping*?

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One of the things that became very clear in my discussions with Dan the other day was his insistence that every task involves a variety of skill-sets, and that one of the key requirements for success, accordingly, is to map the skills required and the people who have them -- and see what skills are needed, but lack the person who could provide them.

In your own network, it's very possible that there's a "missing skill" that might crop up in my network, and vice versa -- how can we (a) become aware of what's missing in the way of essential skills in a given community, and (b)n reach out into the wider network to meet the people who have and can provide those skills?

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More generally -- what use are you making of social network analysis, and the work of people like Valdis Krebs of orgnet.com?

Let's add "social network mapping" into our discussion...

One of our funders recently had a group compile a social network of the organizations attending a racial justice movement day, it portrayed a very interesting set of connections and reliance amongst the groups present, but only connected orgs being funded by that one foundation, hence it missed a huge part of the picture for most of us- many key partners were not on the network diagram thus reducing its utility significantly. To gain from that exercise I'd say it is worth ensuring you have the full universe before presenting such models, perhaps color coding relevant networks, say orgs being funded by a large foundation, but never just displaying the limited scope.

With the NNIP we are looking to develop a skills portfolio as part of our new CMS based website, the goal here is exactly what you mention Charles- to allow a range of partners/community to see who knows an issue/technology or problem best and to tap into their poo of knowledge. Many partners have strong skills in some areas that we all need to know about, but there needs to be an open, easy system to find those people and those skills. It's a complex network we operate in now, I'm not sure how effective our efforts will be to connect across some of those barriers but it's an important focus. Again visibility is key to so much of what we all do!

ciao

Spike

The technology to understand our networks is rapidly changing. Take a look at this map of my Twitter network. http://apps.asterisq.com/mentionmap/#user-tutormentorteam

Put in your own Twitter address and see who you're connected to.

You can click on each node and learn about the networks of other people and use this to build connections, however, ALL OF THIS TAKES TIME.

We've got to find ways to expand the manpower, or create more intermediaries like Charles who are making an effort to connect different nodes in a network with each other.

I'd love to have this technology available to my own purpose, but I don't have the money to buy it, and I don't have the staff, volunteers, or interns, to mine it.

And this is just one of thousands of new tools that are emerging to help us do our work better.

That's encouraging to hear!

Thanks, Spike.

Concept maps, and social network analysis maps can be as important to mission success as GIS maps. Let me explain what I mean, without using Tutor/Mentor Connection as the example.

Let’s say I believe that making mosquito nets available in every sub-tropical home, in every community which has a high incidence rate of malaria, would be a good idea. So I set out to do that.

If I were to map the steps, working backwards, I’d first need to

    a) map places where there is high incidence of Malaria

    b) determine number of people, in order to estimate number of nets I’d need to purchase/build and distribute

    c) determine some method of distribution, from the manufacturer(s) to local distributors who make sure they get in the hands of families, and that they teach families how to use them

Then, I’d also need to

a) build a team of people to help me raise money for my idea, build the distribution system, and the training programs
b) find manufacturers, shipping companies, and local transportation to the places where needed

Once I started to distribute kits, I’d need some way of knowing what coverage, or market share, I reached after one year. Knowing the number of kits distributed is one measure, but using GIS maps to show where these kits were landing, and what percentage of a community (up to 100%) had received, and was using the kids, would be really important.

Since the number who might need these is in the 10s of millions, and my resources are limited, at the end of the first year I would have succeeded in reaching xx percent of total people, and based on the map, xx percent of places where the nets were needed.

If I was able to keep my donors interested, I could build on this in year 2, 3, and so forth, to the point where I reached 100%.

But wait. These things wear out, and people move. I’d also need to be building in a replacement net strategy, to back fill in communities where more nets were needed.

You can see that this project, is linear in scope, both in terms of building to 100% coverage, and being sustained over many years. It’s also spatial, needing to reach many places each year, not just one or two.

I don’t have the talent to do all of this, so I need other people to help me. I suspect this is true for the person who wants to distribute the mosquito nets, too.

So concept maps like these, might show the type of talent needed, as well as the networks from which this talent needs to come.

http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/[…]45913&partName=htmltext

http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/[…]45909&partName=htmltext

With social network analysis tools, such as what Valdis has donated to us, we can map our existing network to better understand which people have those skills, and which people know someone in their own network who has those skills and who might help us, if introduced.

Many people want to end poverty. However, poverty is in many places, and is like a prism. It has many different faces. It will take many years of effort, and funding, by many people, working in many places, to have an impact on poverty reduction.

Providing tutors/mentors to inner city kids, is only one part of ending poverty, but it can be an important part, because it gets people who don’t live in poverty personally involved. I use concept maps to try to illustrate this impact to people who are not thinking along the same lines as I am. As they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Of course, we need to get more people looking at our pictures!

Making mosquito nets available to people in areas with high rates of Malaria is important, but I suspect there are other contributing factors that contribute to the poverty, and well-being of people, in these areas. Mapping this complex problem would be one step toward building the marketing strategies that deliver solutions to all of these places.

Charles, you asked how others can help me.

Until I put names in the boxes on my “skills” and “network” box, of people who understand what I’m trying to do, and share my commitment to doing this work, and who help me do this work for many years, I won’t have anywhere near the impact I need. So you and people who come to forums like this can help me, or introduce others to me who might fill these roles.

However, I also have something to offer. The thinking on process and uses of maps and volunteers is something I’ve acquired over 35 years of work, with backgrounds in advertising, military intelligence, history, and leadership of a volunteer-based tutor/mentor program. I might be a valuable addition to the brainstorming of many other groups, and the tools I’ve developed might be shared freely, if I were secure in my own base, doing the work I’m focused on doing.

At a minimum, I feel what we’re doing in Chicago could be used in every other urban area where there are high concentrations of youth living in high poverty neighborhoods. I’m not sure how many cities have a business-plan mentality, intended to grow the market-share of organizations providing age-appropriate mentoring/tutoring and learning supports to their youth. Our ideas could contribute to what is happening in those cities, and the talent and dollars from these cities could fuel our own efforts in Chicago.

NOTE: I'm not even able to get attention of key decision makers in Chicago. The Mayor just announced a $25 million program to provide mentors to a small group of high risk youth. But he has no comprehensive strategy to provide mentoring, tutoring and non-school learning and jobs programs to K-12 youth who will become these at-risk youth in the future!

I think there are many talented people who are unable to share their ideas and talents with others because they don’t have the money and resources to cover the expenses in their own organizations, or put food on their own family table. There are many people with great ideas who are "not included" when planning is being done.

If we can attract some of those billionaires that Warren Buffett is trying to motivate to give half their wealthy to charity, and endow some of the organizations where innovative thinking is taking place, we can free these thinkers to share their ideas in a more communal give an take than what is now possible.

Finding ways to map and visualize this discussion, and finding people who will carry it to other people in their own networks, is absolutely essential.

Here's an article someone @socialedge using Twitter sent out this morning. http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/

It has a great deal of meaning to the discussion we're having and the vision of a connected network of learners, and friends, that Charles has describe.

It's an interesting article, Dan -- particularly given the audience it was originally shaped for.

Somehow our urgency needs to include an urgent requirement for contemplation, while our contemplation needs to induce an appropriate sense of urgency...

Here's how I shared the same idea in another forum that I'm part of: http://firesidelearning.nin[…]d=1786468%3AComment%3A63509

As you've said in the past, I take a long view of this. We need to build a pipeline of new leaders. We need to start yesterday.

Hopefully over the long holiday weekend a few people will read the ideas we've shared in the past two weeks and add their own ideas, or point to where we keep this discussion going.

I encourage anyone who is interested in working with Tutor/Mentor Connection to join the discussion at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and if you're in the US, you enjoyed the extra day of holiday. I spent some of that time in my network. As I did this, I decided to create a map, showing some of the places I visit regularly.

You can see that at http://tutormentor.blogspot[…]ork-nudge-your-network.html

We don't know how many people have visited this discussion over the past two weeks, or who will visit in the future. However, if you are interested in these ideas, why not build your own network map, showing those places where you might share ideas like this, with a goal of enlisting more people to be involved, and to be investors.

I was intrigued to notice this "tweet" from Beth Kanter yesterday evening:

Have you ever mapped your network to find hubs and who is missing? Find out how in the book the Networked Nonprofit.

*

What success have you had with this sort of approach? What questions do you have about trying it?

Hi Charles,

I've been trying to find a way to map our network, and to teach others to do this, for a long time, and for the same reasons Beth mentioned. If you visit our Ning site you'll see some efforts we're making on this. http://tutormentorconnectio[…]nswithtutormentorconnection

Biggest issue is manpower, or lack of time/talent, to do this work. I don't have the time, and I've not found interns, volunteers and/or donors to help consistently. My network map would show open boxes in these categories.

This is the final week that this discussion will be listed on the home page of Social Edge, but we've just begun what I hope will be a long-term and growing involvement of many people.

If you want to keep talking about this I encourage you to join the map discussion at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/group/tmcuseofgismaps or suggest another forum where people are gathering to talk about what we've been talking about here.

I'd like to thank Dan for his contributions, both in terms of the Tutor/Mentor program in general and specifically for his participantion here, and to say thanks to all who have visited this event -- and echo Dan's invitation to the TMC Ning forum.

Let's keep weaving this web of conversation, understanding and friendship in pursuit of common goals and cooperative effort.

Thanks again...