Grassroots: Supporting the Knowledge Work of Everyday Life

Amy Diehl, Jeffrey T. Grabill, and William Hart-DavidsonMichigan State University

Vishal Iyer. AOL

Teddi Johnson and Val Henley, Presenters

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Audience: Individuals and community groups

Location: Online

MSU Unit/Partners: College of Arts and Letters at MSUFor more information:Jeff GrabillEmail: grabill@msu.eduWeb: http://www.wide.msu.edu/about

Web: http://grassroots.wide.msu.edu

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WRITING EDUCATION: Grassroots: Asset-Based Mapping Software ProgramDescription: MSU's WIDE Research Center in the College of Arts and Letters offers Grassroots: Asset-Based Mapping for Community Change, a community writing software program born out of the need for community members to be able to make compelling visual arguments, such as asset maps, to promote community change. In response to that need, the center created a mapping tool that allows individuals and community groups to create maps highlighting the assets they perceive as valuable to their communities. Using Grassroots, users can create maps showing important features of their community; save and share the maps they create with others; create new, specialized maps by starting with any map that is already shared; and find maps by searching by geographic region, users, groups, or tags that identify a map's purpose, features, or other characteristics. Work on Grassroots is ongoing as WIDE finds new uses for the software, receives user feedback, and learns of new community needs.

What is Grassroots?• Grassroots is an asset-based mapping tool

made possible by the Web 2.0 movement, a movement which allows for the creation of more adaptable interfaces by making data and underlying database structures more openly available via syndication and open source software.

• Grassroots is a simple tool.• Grassroots is writing software.

Three Arguments Forwarded in the Article

Argument 1• . An argument about the nature of the

knowledge work of everyday life or about the complex technological and rhetorical tasks necessary to solve commonplace problems through writing.

Argument 2• Argument about specific technologies and

genres of community-based knowledge work, about why making maps is such an essential genre, and about why making

asset maps is potentially transformative.

Argument 3• An argument about the making of Grassroots

itself; a statement about how we should best express, test, and verify our theories about

writing and knowledge work.

Knowledge Work

• A key focus of the WIDE Research Center at MSU has been an effort to understand

knowledge work; more precisely, to understand writing as knowledge work.

What is Knowledge Work?A concept with considerable

cultural capital right now.

Analytical activity requiring problem solving and abstract

reasoning particularly with and through acts of writing.

Symbolic production (Johnson-Eilola, 2005) or the making of

largely discursive performances that literally do work.

Capital Area Community Information (CACI) project

• CACI is a project focused on designing with users information communication technologies that will support their knowledge work in communities.

Steps of the CACI Study

The CACI study established baseline data

on local information technology capacity and

use and identified potential usablity

problems with CACVoices

Researchers conducted a formal usability test

evaluation of CACVoices. They developed a new version of CACVoices.

They ran another iteration of our usability

evaluation on a redesigned CACVoices. Then spent 3 months

following how two community-based

organizations wrote and training people to work with the new system.

Year One Year Two Year Three

Arguments in Making Grassroots• The focus in this article is on the development of a specialized writing tool

that the writers think supports some aspects of knowledge work in communities. They call the tool Grassroots.

Arguments• 1. The argument about the nature of the knowledge work of everyday life,

or an argument about the complex technological and rhetorical tasks necessary to solve commonplace problems through writing.

• 2. The argument about specific technologies and genres of community-based knowledge work, about why making maps is such an essential genre, and about why making asset maps is potentially transformative.

• 3. The argument about the act of making Grassroots itself; a statement about how we should best express, test, and verify our theories about writing and knowledge work.

The Rhetoric of Maps and Mapmaking

• Intersection of writing and civic activity

Writing

Civi

c ac

tivity

The powerful rhetorical implications of creating visual arguments and constructions of realitythrough maps have long been known (Propen, 2007; Monmonier, 1996; Barton & Barton, 1993; Wood, 1992).

The power of visual and spatial analysisthrough mapping techniques can guide decision making on issues ranging from the location of parcels and property lines, to the environmental impact of proposed developments, and to the worth or recognition of objects based on whether they are viewed as relevant enough to be mapped (Wood, 1992; Scott, 1998).

Problems with Mapping Use in Communities

• …the groups know that the most significant challenge they face in pursuit of their goals is persuading people to consider walking. Therefore, the maps are far more than data displays or guides. They are primarily arguments. They are visions of a different way of living.

Continued Work for Grassroots• The writers maintain that they will pursue the

following work: • 1) Explore how and why community members

use and value a tool such as Grassroots. • 2) Examine the rhetorical nature of asset

maps, and • 3) Assist users to become producers of maps

“Grassroots: Supporting the Knowledge Work of Everyday Life”

Discussion Questions

• 1. What is the basic definition of “Knowledge Work” ? How do the researchers of this article define it? Compare their definition with that of Johnson and Eilola.

• 2. Explain the CACI project and how it relates to this article. What is CACVoices? What types of information were established in the three years during which the study was conducted?

• 3. What are the 3 arguments forwarded in this article?• 4. In what ways can maps be used as argument pieces? How might we

explain the “rhetoric” of mapping?• 5. Define “Grassroots” as discussed in this article.• 6. What is asset mapping? What are the 3 approaches to asset mapping that

the authors hope “Grassroots” will support? Give a brief description of each.• 7. Discuss the Web 2.0 movement and how “Grassroots” fits into this

framework. Knowledge