Transforming Governance and Engaging Communities Through Collaborative MapStorytelling
Dec 15, 2015
MapStory is a new dimension to the global data commons which
empowers people to organize what they know about the world
spatially and temporally, rather than encyclopedically, the way
Wikipedia already empowers us to.
To understand the challenges of today and tomorrow, you must understand the past.
We must self consciously think about change over time, and demand that all data be spatio-temporally enabled.
To understand the value of the data from the crowd, you must understand its lineage and the social context of its production.
We must self consciously construct a “high attribution” social platform that enables “structured dispute resolution.”
To understand the world, people use more than just an ordered accumulation of facts. They tell stories.
We must self consciously empower everyone to compose and spatio-temporally enable narratives.
Tribes, Clans and Nomadic Peoples
Villages, Towns, Cities and Slums
Armed Groups Empires, Kingdoms and Dynasties
Slavery, Diasporas and Remittances
Wars, Battles, Treaties, and Borders
Crops, Domesticated Animals and Trades
Genocide, Human Rights Abuses, and Human Trafficking
Hydrography, Waterways, and Transportation
Energy, Natural Resource Energy, Natural Resource Extraction and ProcessingExtraction and Processing
Finance, Manufacturing and Trade
Biological Stress, Extinction, and Invasive Species
State Failure
Empowering Participation
• tools.mapstory.org
• Versioned editing
• Temporal raster upload
• Enhanced narrative capabilities
• Continued investment in social features
• …and on and on and on and on and on…
Passionate Communities• 5000 years of evolving political
boundaries, globally• MapStory Local of many communities• Historical sequences of aerial imagery
and raster maps• Complex humanitarian processes (e.g.,
LRA, human trafficking, etc.)• Historical wars and battles• Longitudinal gazetteer• Evolving social networks• …and on and on and on and on and on…
Final Points
Global data commons and the collaborative platforms that support them help unleash the dark matter of the universe represented by the global cognitive surplus that we enjoy.
Change over time, in place, is the thing that can inspire future generations from every passionate information community
Every information community struggles with our rich past, complex present and uncertain future.
Final Points
Final Points
Storytelling is a preternatural human impulse, and it is inherently communal.
Empowering people to tell their stories, in place and time, and making MapStorytelling a collaborative and even communal process, will empower our global community to better wrestle with our complex present and uncertain future.
TellYourStory!Christopher Tucker | [email protected] | @MapStory | 703-981-9373