Introducing a network obsessive
Hi everyone - I'm Drew Mackie, based in Scotland but working all over the UK with occasional sallies into wider Europe and the US. I've been mapping networks digitally for around 10 years but have been interested in the network interactions of agencies and communities over 50 years (OK - I'm an old guy). A lot of this interest was connected with the design of large scale negotiation games for corporate and government clients - I'm a past Chair of the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA). Inevitably these games revealed complex networks of interaction.
Recently I've worked on several network mapping projects:
* a 2 year program to map networks of human rights organisations across London as part of a wider Big Lottery funded project. This will use both sumApp and Kumu.
* creating a netmap of Health and Wellbeing organisations in Kingston, London
* over the last 2 years or so managing a map of people interested in netmapping, mainly in the UK but with members from other countries
* working with a team of 'cultural mappers' to map the association between designer / makers and place for the Irish Crafts Council
The focus of all this work is to identify the main influencers in the delivery of community based projects. I have worked for over 30 years with communities of all sorts all over the UK, helping them prepare plans for the future of their area. Over the long term these have often become derailed by the inability of contributing agencies - who had been fully involved in the initial process - to achieve the complex collaborations needed to deliver the project. So my main interest is in *delivery* networks.
Largely my role is to provide awareness and training in netmapping and analysis. I won't be the person that is managing the map in the long-term. I suppose at one time or another I've tried on all the hats - Visionary, Technician and Sense-maker. They just come into prominence at different stages of the process.
What I hope to get from this community is a sense that I'm not operating alone. NetMapping is not as common in the UK as it is in the US. There is plenty of research based stuff going on in universities but this is pretty theoretical, based purely on network structure (SNA) and doesn't use apps like Kumu, Graph Commons or Polinode to combine and compare structure with content. What I can offer is some experience in using netmapping to gain insights that feed into wider policy or projects.
I've always been excited and fascinated by networks as a way of seeing things. sumApp and Kumu extend that excitement by providing really useful research, visualisation and analysis tools - the exploration continues!
In sum, networks have been a hobby, a thinking framework, some might say an obsession of mine for 50 years - I'm not stopping now!
Recently I've worked on several network mapping projects:
* a 2 year program to map networks of human rights organisations across London as part of a wider Big Lottery funded project. This will use both sumApp and Kumu.
* creating a netmap of Health and Wellbeing organisations in Kingston, London
* over the last 2 years or so managing a map of people interested in netmapping, mainly in the UK but with members from other countries
* working with a team of 'cultural mappers' to map the association between designer / makers and place for the Irish Crafts Council
The focus of all this work is to identify the main influencers in the delivery of community based projects. I have worked for over 30 years with communities of all sorts all over the UK, helping them prepare plans for the future of their area. Over the long term these have often become derailed by the inability of contributing agencies - who had been fully involved in the initial process - to achieve the complex collaborations needed to deliver the project. So my main interest is in *delivery* networks.
Largely my role is to provide awareness and training in netmapping and analysis. I won't be the person that is managing the map in the long-term. I suppose at one time or another I've tried on all the hats - Visionary, Technician and Sense-maker. They just come into prominence at different stages of the process.
What I hope to get from this community is a sense that I'm not operating alone. NetMapping is not as common in the UK as it is in the US. There is plenty of research based stuff going on in universities but this is pretty theoretical, based purely on network structure (SNA) and doesn't use apps like Kumu, Graph Commons or Polinode to combine and compare structure with content. What I can offer is some experience in using netmapping to gain insights that feed into wider policy or projects.
I've always been excited and fascinated by networks as a way of seeing things. sumApp and Kumu extend that excitement by providing really useful research, visualisation and analysis tools - the exploration continues!
In sum, networks have been a hobby, a thinking framework, some might say an obsession of mine for 50 years - I'm not stopping now!
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Welcome to the Greater than the Sum community! We're all about visualizing the currently invisible dynamics in systems that can enable transformation. We're about collectively making a real and lasting difference. We prioritize equity and regenerating our natural systems. And in service to those higher purposes, we're here help one another learn Social System Mapping, from: Sharing the vision and catalyzing a project, to Using sumApp, Kumu, and other data visualization tools to create Social System