Boston Maps

Photo by PlanetEye

A recent article in the New York Times by Alice Rawsthorn highlights the role of visualizing community information for the benefit of sociological research. However the article was not looking at a contemporary example, instead it featured an example from 1886. Charles Booth of London created a series of maps from 1886 to 1903 that featured a color coding system to visualize the different socioeconomic situations of residents in the city. The article points out that these maps helped to draw attention to the growing problem of poverty in London.

The article celebrates Booth’s work as an example of effective information design where large amounts of information where placed into a structure that made it easy for the user to navigate and process.

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A great list from onthecommons.org about recent events that indicate movement towards a Commons Based Economy.

One of my favorites on the list was number 5

The Complete Streets Movement

For most of human history, everyone shared the streets. They were a commons where kids played and neighbors chatted.

Today, legally speaking, the streets still belong to us all; but in reality they have become the exclusive property of motorists. And when traffic proliferates, streetlife disappears and our lives suffer, too-crime rises, pollution increases, social connections decline and we have fewer transportation options.

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Photo by Eric Perrone

In Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s recent book, “CommonWealth” the authors focus on the idea of the city as a location where the disenfranchised are able to organize and take what they have to contend their marginalized position. In other words, the authors look at the common resources available to people and how, when individuals come together,they can leverage their “common wealth” to overcome obstacles.

Referring to this common wealth as the Commons, the authors note that it refers not only to what 18th century European social theorists saw as commonly held land and other physical resources, but also to the brain power or services that individuals are able to provide. For the authors, what makes the Commons visible between individuals is what they call the Felicitous Encounter, or the moment when two individuals come together and because of their interaction, combine their mutual resources to the benefit of a common good. This idea of of the Felicitous Encounter is what Hardt and Negri say is the “great wealth” of the city.

“The great wealth of the metropolis is revealed when the felicitous encounter results in a new production of the common—when, for instance, people communicate their different knowledge’s, different capacities to form cooperatively something new. The felicitous encounter, in effect, produces a new social body that is more capable than either of the single bodies was alone.” (Hardt & Negri, 2010, p. 254)

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Image by Wonderlane

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting  Michael Nilan, a professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. I spoke to him about my interests in local community focused websites and what role they played in helping residents find information on local resources. Immediately he challenged me to throw away the notion of information as something that people find, and instead think of it as the product of conversations.

In their 2007 article “In the Spirit of Collaborating”, Nilan and D’Eredita point out that in the study of cognitive behavior, the moments when people contend with problems or situations are seen as ” a “chunk” of time/space about which people collaborate/communicate.” This chunk of  time/space is what Nilan and D’Eredita say informs system designs where people converge to “share and create meaning to address their situations/solve their problems through access to resources (information/data; computing functionalities; links to others, e.g., experts). “

Taking this concept outside the realm of cognitive science, the authors apply the idea to their definition of community, which “refers to the (direct and vicarious) communicating among individuals engaging with or involved in addressing uncertainty in one or more problems/situations.”

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Picture by Grzegorz Łobiński

We all live with maps. In our mind we have our environments charted out. Daily practice, daily interactions, everything we do is a mixture of difference and repetition and we are constantly redrawing our maps to expand or adjust our knowledge of the world. These maps inform our decisions in times of need, and the content of the map determines a large part of our future. If, in a time of need, someone is unaware of a resource that could have helped them, we must ask what could have been done to improve the visibility of this resource.

The notion of mapping as it relates to community development has to do with taking stock of what a community has to offer its residents. When we improve the visibility of commonly accessible resources, we promote a convivial society where people are empowered to take on the challenges in their lives.

The interests of Bostonmaps.org exist at an ever expanding intersection of critical theory, information communication technology, urban design, architecture, and community development. Boston is the focus but the discussion should be informed by examples from around the world.

The quote by Mel King and Mitch Resnick on the about page is the inspiration for this conversation:

“There is no such thing as a poor community. Even neighborhoods without much money have substantial human resources. Often, however, the human resources are not appreciated or utilized, partly because people do not have information about one another and about what their neighborhood has to offer. For example, a family whose oil heater is broken may go cold for lack of knowledge that someone just down the block knows how to fix it”