You are hereMapping the Knowledge Society
Mapping the Knowledge Society
As part of my work and research as a Google sponsored fellow at the Reuters Digital Vision program at Stanford University, and in cooperation with several colleagues from the private and social sectors and international organizations, we have developed a series of visual representations of processes, frameworks and ecosystems supporting the Knowledge Society and Human Development through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT4Dev).
In putting together these conceptual maps, I have to acknowledge and thank the collaboration, feedback and suggestions from my Digital Vision friends and colleagues, in particular Steven Ketchpel, Margarita Quihuis, José Arocha, Mans Olof-Ors, and Sham Bathija.
I hope these "maps" are of interest to others and can be put to use in the formulation of strategies for a significant impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the Sustainable Human Development processes and the construction of an equitave Knowledge Society.
I
am releasing them under the Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike 2.5 License. Which means basically that they can be copied, reproduced and distributed freely for non-commercial use and that they can be modified and enhanced or changed by others as long as the results are shared with the public in a similar fashion and that the original source is acknowledged.
Please, add your comments and suggestions on how to improve the maps. I will be adding detailed textual explanation of each map soon...
Hi Carlos,
These are fascinating and very useful diagrams. Thank you for making them available - I will certainly make reference to them in my own work.
I was wondering how you would respond to a critique of such diagrams by Marc Edelman. He says:
"Unlike electrical engineering diagrams, which typically indicate resistance to flows, formal network organigrams imply agile and unobstructed movement of information between nodes or focal points. The network’s representation of itself erases political, historical and personal forces that might, in practice, impede the networking process." (Edelman 2003, 6)
This quote is from “When Networks Don’t Work: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Civil Society Initiatives in Central America.” Presented at 2003 Latin American Studies Association, Dallas Taxes, March 27-29, 2003b. http://136.142.158.105/Lasa2003/EdelmanMarc.pdf
While I know not all of your diagrams are organigrams, I think the quote encourages us to think about how these types of abstractions function when embedded in reality. In other words, we need to bridge the gap between positivism and ethnography.
You should also check out Analisa Riles' book, The Network Inside Out (2000), which is an anthropological study of the participation of Fijian women's groups in the Beijing women's forum.
I'm also anxious to see how you actually define all the terms you use in these charts. What exactly do you mean by human development?
Thanks for this intriguing think piece! :)
Katherine Reilly
I believe the world of changemaking we need to collaborate around if sustainability of all is to be our compound future outcome, let alone our uniting goal, needs change at many systemic levels micro<>inter<>macro
Almost the most pivotal practice in transparency of social networking around transformation is "show me your map". I need a visual to see connections, interactions the way someone else maps the world. The linearity of language is not enough. Also my map may be looking at a different resolution- (or lifetime experience of crisis priorities) so finding a way that I can first get onto any map that is vital to your world-changemaker view and vice versa is important if we are not to talk across purposes as 2 people or as 2 gateways to our whole social networks interactions. If those who love maps cannot linkin maps, what chance have we of inviting those who do not yet feel maps are systemic to world-change's practice, permission degrees of separation and open sourcing consequences
I would love to understand your maps better- is there a first one to get onto as each has a heck of a lot of combinatorial flows? Meanwhile I have a different type of map which looks at every which way round connecting between 9 places or space which I will put up at my blog in this community http://fellows.rdvp.org/chrismacrae/blog
Its about what's the most unique gift to the world of inconvenient truth (sustainability transformation against urgent deadlines to turn round conflict aspects of globalisation) that different regions in the world can bring to the micro<>inter<>macro table- does West Coast America (where internet software maps happen first) bring a different piece or peace to East Coast America (where social entrepreneurship mentoring is epicentred) to UK(where public world service media can ask the questions powers that be or teachers that educate have no transparent answers to because the world is changing! ) to Africa to India to Bangladesh (3 regions where all change needs to be grounded if it is actually to save lives and be contextually sustainable) - and if so how do we connect where we each come from
chris http://worldentrepreneur.net