Building & Sustaining Networks
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Digital systems mapping tool?
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Digital systems mapping tool?
Hi Network Stewards, has anyone used a digital systems mapping tool? We are looking to display an ecosystem map of stakeholders and policy (and more) in our region’s farm to early childcare. I’ve worked a bit with Kumu.io, but it seems there are other platforms out there, and would love to hear folks’ experiences. Thanks! — Sarah
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5 Replies
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Hi Sarah,
I have a small food systems mapping project funded by the the Cooperative Development Institute/USDA RD, where we’re using sumApp (https://greaterthanthesum.com/sumapp/) as the rolling online survey tool in conjunction with Kumu (as one potential visualization tool). One advantage of sumApp is that as a “social systems mapping” tool, it is designed to measure and map actual relationships as they change over time, not just snapshots of the geographic location of people, orgs, or activities. With the “dual elements” features you can also assess connections between people, between orgs, and between orgs and people.
We’re still developing the survey so don’t have an actual map to share yet. But I’d be happy to chat with you about this work, and perhaps even collaborate (especially given our overlapping Northeast geographies and networks). I have worked with FSNE in the past and am friends with some of your members, including Curtis Ogden and Dorn Cox
Cheers, Jeff
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Hi Jeff, Wow, that sounds so interesting. So you’re collecting network connections directly from the people themselves? It looks like sumApp is a paid service – would you feel comfortable sharing what they’re charging you? Maybe we could schedule a call for you to describe your project (to me and anyone else on this forum who might be interested) – I have loads of questions! I’m at sarah@farmtoinstitution.org if you want to connect directly…
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I am very interested in this conversation as well if you have a call on this.
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Hi Sarah/all,
Yes, sumApp allows network members to add/update their info and connections over time. But you can also preload data about individual people and orgs, to help seed the database/map. For this project we’re drawing in part on census data collected by the Cooperative Development Institute, accessible through the https://find.coop site the Data Commons Coop maintains (I’m a former Board member of DCC). At the moment we have a “Tier IV” subscription to sumApp (rates here: https://help.sum-app.net/portal/en/kb/articles/sumapp-features-by-tier).
I’ve actually been both fascinated and vexed by food systems mapping for decades. I see developing and maintaining these kinds of systems as part of what June Holley calls a “Network Guardian” role. Christine Capra, one of the developers of sumApp, even describes herself in that way (https://networkweaver.com/christine-capra-2/). More formally, I’ve supported geospatial mapping systems and services at Cornell’s Mann Library for over 20 years, including the CUGIR data repository (https://cugir.library.cornell.edu/).
I’ve also helped catalyze and lead community and regional food systems projects which had a mapping component, including the “Northeast Food Knowledge Ecosystem” (NEFKE) pilot project which involved multiple partners and resources. I’ve attached some images illustrating how we created a shared data repository to support things like a shared calendar and F2I “value chain mapper” using Drupal.
One hard lesson I’ve learned over the years is how impossible it is for non-profits (or any individual org) to properly build and maintain/update network directories and maps, and the underlying infrastructure required. I’ve come to the conclusion that a collaborative, multi-level “socio-technical stack” is needed, with different people and orgs contributing to different elements. I created an animation to help visualize some aspects of that in regard to informal learning networks in the attached pptx file.
I’d be happy to share more about my learning journey on a call or Zoom, and how it led me to my current focus on tools like sumApp, platform cooperatives, and “socio-technical ecosystems” in support of solidarity food systems. I’ve been documenting some of my research and learning about that on Zotero here: https://www.zotero.org/groups/4284229/socio-technical_ecosystems_and_solidarity_food_systems/.
Cheers, Jeff
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Hi Sarah,
This isn’t exactly a mapping tool, but I came across this page with lots of resources for network analysis today and thought it might be helpful- https://visiblenetworklabs.com/network-science-101/.
I’ll be following to see what other mapping tools come up!
Andrew
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