Helpful arrows?

October 5, 2010 by
Filed under: Social Economy 

I map for clarity. My mind works through arrows: possibly through my musical education, with its hairpin crescendo and diminuendos, my notes have always been notated both mathematically and musically. Employment ↓, as inflation ↑. Neoliberalism → to an < in soup kitchens. Economic growth ≠ socio-economic development. I do not think in a linear fashion, so these small arrows then become cross-referenced by the type of ↘ and { that would cause word to have a hissyfit and then die.

At the RSA I am social network analysis ‘champion’, trying to mainstream my love of sociograms and graphs across the whole organisation. These visual maps of people’s social ties and information flows allow us to ‘unpeel’ the community, laying hidden links and structural weaknesses bare.

Yesterday I was thrown an interesting challenge. If I map out all the civic actors in a given place, do I make it easier and more efficient for them to act, or do I merely make it easier for the most powerful to co-opt what they are doing, all in the name of the Big Society? In an era of open information, but unequal access, who does the democratisation of information actually benefit? In a recent blog Thomas Neumark directed us to a report that showed that computerising all land records in Bangalore had lead to increased monopoly and far more targeted corruption.

If information is power, how do we stop this open-source informational power disproportionately benefiting those who already pull the strings?

This all → the question. How can our mapping for clarity be targeted at those who need such clarity most? Finding that postmen and dustbin men (people?) are hidden reserves of connectivity is fascinating and sheds new light on how we view those links that make community. Yet using this information to re-brand badly paid public servants as big society information outlets would be exploitative and probably achieve the opposite of its intended outcomes. Highlighting community organisers can make volunteering more effective and far-reaching; yet we do not want those who live to organise and do, to become next years’ unpaid social service providers. If information is power, how do we stop this open-source informational power disproportionately benefiting those who already pull the strings?

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Comments

  • http://shawn.du-mmett.com Shawn Du’Mmett

    By going all the way … →
    Once the idea of openness breaches the walls of those who have power then it will begin to take apart the very means by which power is achieved. Full openness allows full equality and collaboration.
    When I enter into these discussions I do tend to go on forever but this is a process I dream of seeing in the future – imagine if you will combining open source 100% with the ideas of government or corporation.

  • http://shawn.du-mmett.com Shawn Du’Mmett

    By going all the way … →
    Once the idea of openness breaches the walls of those who have power then it will begin to take apart the very means by which power is achieved. Full openness allows full equality and collaboration.
    When I enter into these discussions I do tend to go on forever but this is a process I dream of seeing in the future – imagine if you will combining open source 100% with the ideas of government or corporation.

  • Thomas Neumark

    :)

  • Thomas Neumark

    :)

  • davidg

    wow that Prezi site is awesome. my mind has been craving something like that.
    But now comes the hard part, how to start siphoning aspects of my abstracted mind in to a Prezi.

    • Gaia Marcus

      It is awesome!
      I have used it to work out papers and the like: stick down all the various abstracted peices of thought, and then go crazy on the arrows.

      If you do it too quickly you make your audience dizzy however :)

  • davidg

    wow that Prezi site is awesome. my mind has been craving something like that.
    But now comes the hard part, how to start siphoning aspects of my abstracted mind in to a Prezi.

    • Gaia Marcus

      It is awesome!
      I have used it to work out papers and the like: stick down all the various abstracted peices of thought, and then go crazy on the arrows.

      If you do it too quickly you make your audience dizzy however :)

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