DEAL Community Map

Open questions might also be the breeding grounds for tags that ensure we are covering interests that are synonymous: farmer, market farmer, agriculturalists, grower, regenerative rancher, soil conservationalist, carbon farmer may all share the same meta information which may argue for dynamic selection lists with an interactive other category which might feed the dynamic list?

Ensuring the analytics are in place that generates recommendations based upon common interests, joining node needed skills to nodes offering skills, location, joining new members to mentoring existing members, joining regional groups by developmental timelines, creating out of the blue world-wide connections.

being able to capture time series views, network growth over time, affinity connections over time, working group emergence over time. Also correlating activity to events, such as convergences or convenings, would also be instructive.

Would it be possible to provide local groups the ability to make their own local maps for their specific purposes and include outside partner groups in the area?

Another potential resource besides Network Weaver, https://networkweaver.com is SumAPP https://twitter.com/GreaterttSum/status/893488458689376261?s=20 Mapping Systems of Connection https://help.sum-app.net/portal/en/kb/articles/what-is-social-system-mapping with Christine Capra. Even though I am just beginning I know that they know each other. We are speaking of both mapping in the physical world on a geographical basis and mapping conceptually relationships between people and their stories. Another possible, though admittedly I have received some skepticism is PlaceKey https://www.placekey.io for connection to physical places and things for example those of a commons.

To the specific open questions, I do think that local groups and networks should be capable of being shown on the map if selected and the individuals within those networks or local groups should be displayed both within and independently as they choose. Also, think stories should be on the map, and when stories are told in a different format, it should lead to the place on the map and the people associated with that place. If people find inspiration, they can then see the place of context and connect with the people involved.

I think this is really important for building local communities and action - lots of Irish people on the DEAL site but not all of them have connected to national or local actions. If we can build communities by connecting them when they first engage and become a member of DEAL that would be helpful.

What a wonderful initiative! It would be great to create both local and content-driven groups and networks.

A good source of ideas on this subject is Network Weaver, https://networkweaver.com
Network Weaving is a concept that has been around for over a decade in a realization that it is the social connections of a project that are key to its success or failure. They have an excellent handbook on the process and have created an international cadre of facilitators. June Holley, the founder who coined the term Network Weaver has just stepped aside from running the effort and is writing a book on the subject. I know June personally and am sure that she would be very willing to share insights and lessons learned. juneholley@gmail.com

not just located, because this is already possible
more about where activities are going on (groups/networks/ single person who want to start) and which kind of activity and how to join (if possible); stories included, great!