Here's an update on Networked City development, and what's next. David Wilcox

• Background to the Networked City exploration 2017-18
• Blog posts and reports
• Sign up for updates

Networked City is a loose framework for people and projects aiming to learn about and apply ways to help build local communities and networks using maps, apps, storytelling and other methods. We've explored how to do this over the past 18 months - sparked by the cuts in traditional civil society support systems and the need to complement top-down plans for a resource hub with more networked approaches.

Here's some background on the London context, with links to blog posts:

• London funders have urged the Mayor to give more recognition to community needs, following an open City Hall meeting in February.
• The Hub for London is recruiting its chief executive and will shortly advertise other posts.
• Smart City has launched a listening exercise. So far there isn’t much on civil society and communities. That could be an opportunity
• I blogged that I don’t see much joining up of the different plans.

• Connecting Londoners and JustMap organised an event with Matt Scott, hosted by Newspeak House on March 27 2018 around the theme of Smart City meets Networked City. We ran afternoon workshop discussions about learning, engagement, organising, data, networks and mapping. In the evening we heard about Smart London, and discussed ideas for a community of practice.
• Report here on the March event
• On March 28 Nicolas Fonty, Barbara Brayshay, Drew Mackie and I presented at an event at Space4, Outlandish on Mapping for Social and Political Change

Nicolas Fonty and Barbara Brayshay have an article in the Journal of Peer Production on Metropolitan Civic Mappers: how can they cooperate to include the participation of the general public into the citizens platforms they promote?

In the London and Paris metropolises, coalitions are forming to promote and enable community-led planning and other community-led initiatives. For organising their network under construction, they are in demand for digital platforms, particularly cartographic ones to use as tools for community participation, place making and information gathering.

Thanks to editors Barbara and Nicolas, Drew Mackie and I have an article in Living Maps Review on Mapping Networks.

One of the most overused words in the discussion of communities and the agencies that serve them is network. At workshops, conferences, and informal networking sessions of all sorts the term crops up constantly –‘He’s got a really good network of contacts’ –‘She’s part of the xx network’ and so on. Acting in a ‘networky’ way is generally approved, as is the strengthening of networks through the use of social media. Yet, when you probe deeper, it becomes apparent that the knowledge of whatnetworks are and how they work is limited.

In recruiting people for the event, and developing our plans to map a network, we relied heavy on the work of Nicolas Fonty and Barbara Brayshay of Justmap. Here's a blog post by Nicolas that explains how we structured the workshop discussions around their thinking.

Before the event on March 27 we began mapping those attending, and others interested in Networked City ideas. Drew Mackie sent out a survey using Sumapp, linked to a network map automatically generated online in Kumu. We invited people to fill in a profile about their interests and skills, and also to indicate their collaborative connections.

The map is here - password protected, so that details are confidential to those who contributed.

However Drew has produced a detailed report about the process.

The aim of the survey and map is two-fold:

• Help people find others they might wish to connect with
• Provide the basis for a learning network or community of practice, as we outline here

If you would like to be on the map, email Drew Mackie Thanks to Daniel J Wilcox for the map embed site

Some 40 people indicated during mapping that they would like to be members of a network, and we have a range of other contacts who are interested too. Our idea now is to practice the ideas that we are promoting, and use network mapping as the basis for developing the network and Community of Practice.

If you would like to stay in touch please signup to our low-volume mailing list below. If you would like to be involved in the network contact David Wilcox

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