Two Word Maps
February 8th, 2007 by mcg
With each of my previous blogs, my first post was always something simple. No manifestos. No vision statements. Just a casual example of something suited to the blog. In keeping with that tradition, I will share with you my fondness for mapping concepts. The following two illustrations are from the Visual Thesaurus.
There is nothing earth shattering in either of these, but they are certainly pretty.
Something that I like about both of them is the subtle range of meaning available to each one. That range of meaning is one of the things that fosters creativity, since slightly fuzzy concepts lead to unexpected connections being made in our minds. At the same time, that fuzziness also allows for false promises and sloppy thinking as well. Maps like this help us take advantage of the strengths of fuzziness while encouraging us to be disciplined when circumstances call for it.
Apropos of my work with civil society, I was delighted to see how many of the associated meanings of the word ‘community’ feel like they are very closely related to our fields. Collectively, more than business or government, we are the ones who concern ourselves with community.
The map for the word ‘connect’ illustrates rather vividly that not all links are equal. So called social networking sites are still struggling with this issue. There have been many attempts to create taxonomies of relationships, but I think in the end we will end up with a bottom up solution that mirrors the subtleties of real life. Then you and I can “touch base” but my neighbor and I might “run into” each other.
By the way, Visual Thesaurus is a fee based online service. If you know of any free equivalents or of any desktop equivalents, please let me know and I will be happy to post a followup about them.
The new blog looks great! Very usable design, and lots of white space. Also glad to see you’re using WordPress. It’s excellent. Look forward to reading more here.
It may be temporary, but Google’s personalized search screen now permits the inclusion of a wide variety of gadgets.
I too love knowledge maps of all sorts, and have had the “MapMyWord Dictionary” gadget on my Google screen for some time now.
See also - which is where it seems to be pulled from.
Cheers & best with this new venture.
You’ve peaked my interest….why ‘conspiracy’? That word map is a bit more sinister ;)
I hope you’ll continue to publish via other media, Michael, but it’s great to see you here as well. Looking forward to reading more.
Ed
Michael - You write:
“There have been many attempts to create taxonomies of relationships, but I think in the end we will end up with a bottom up solution that mirrors the subtleties of real life. Then you and I can “touch base” but my neighbor and I might “run into” each other.”
I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m sitting here in freezing cold northern Minnesota launching a set of experiments to touch exactly on issues of the nature of relationships and how organizations and individuals connect and in what ways using place based collaboration and appropriately scaled and applied Web 2.0. My only question is why you use the word ’solution.’ Are we looking for us. The ‘we’ being the larger we of course.
Marc
[...] In response to my opening post entitled Two Word Maps, in which I explored the words ‘connection” and ‘community’, Cheryl writes: You’ve [piqued] my interest… Why ‘conspiracy’? That word map is a bit more sinister. [...]