Communication within Social System Maps

Communication within Social System Maps

One other question I raised in the last On-Ramp Zoom call was about how to support communication and collaboration among people on a map. Can we hope for a lot of self-organised peer-to-peer discussion, or is that most likely to be facilitated by map managers or network weavers?
In London Drew Mackie and I are working with four equalities networks to map their internal connections, and their cross-network connections. The focus is upon enabling collaboration between the networks on campaigns and other projects, and ideally between grassroots community groups in the networks. I'm keen to get a sense of what may be realistic. I'm not a master mapper, so please excuse if naive -:)
I can see how we can set up a map to enable people to search for others with similar interests, wants or offers, and for that to reveal clusters for potential collaboration. Is it then realistic to expect conversations to follow? If people reveal their email or social media details, might someone copy those into a list and initiate a discussion?
I can see that a map manager or network weaver might analyse the map for shared interests, or for ways to broker mutual support. They might wish to develop a campaign or other project, then identify and connect with people who might be interested.
The practical issues in my mind are:
  1. if we hope for peer-to-peer communication, do we rely on people using standard email or social media, or do we need a unifying communications platform? 
  2. If we rely on the role of the network manager and weavers, what early work is needed to explore how they will work, and what skills and systems they will need?
  3. Is it realistic to lead with map-and-connect ... or is it better to undertake network weaving by a variety of methods, so people are keen to explore how to add mapping to the mix?
I would expect that context is hugely important. Mapping and connecting within an organisation may be very different from mapping previously unconnected people and individuals. Even so, any general insights? Are these useful questions?
Either way thanks Christine for creating this CoP.


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