Knowledge Mapping for Open Sensemaking CommunitiesSimon Buckingham Shum & Alexandra Okada

OpenLearn 2007 Conference, Milton Keynes, UK, 30-31 Oct. 2007

Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, UK

Overview

Stepping out of Gutenberg’s shadow

Spatial maps

Knowledge Maps

Sensemaking infrastructure for structured discourse

In Gutenberg’s shadow (or standing on his shoulders)

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of LondonMarch 1665

Le Journal des SçavansJanuary 1665

Newspapers + Invisible Colleges = Scholarly Journals

We want to change cognition

The most reproduced photo in the world (?). Transformed how we saw ourselves.

We want to change cognition One way to do this is through visualizations of

thinking

Computer-supported knowledge mapping is one way to slow people down and get them to reflect on what they are thinking and saying

The power of maps (1)

http://flickr.com/photos/hooly/473301482/

Aesthetic appeal

Use of landmarks for shared orientation

Selective hiding and highlighting of detail for a specific purpose

The power of maps (2)

http://flickr.com/photos/revdancatt/40617383/

User-controlled views and detail

Context + focus (Shneiderman)

The power of maps (3)

http://flickr.com/photos/wttw/14763924/

Multiple points of entry

Topography not geography

A platform for collaboration in the digital world

Geographical maps help… transcend the limitations of private, individual

representations of terrain in order to augment group planning, reasoning and memory

open new possibilities for collective attention, re-living the past, envisaging new scenarios, coordinating actions and making decisions

mediate the inner mental world and outer physical world

make sense of the universe at different scales, by overlaying meanings onto that world

remember what is important, and explore possible configurations of the unknown

Open Sensemaking Communities OPEN to…

people and perspectives

SENSEMAKING… Interpreting, patterning, redressing surprise,

externalising understanding, constructing plausible narratives about the world (Karl Weick, 1995)

COMMUNITIES learners and ‘professional’ analysts predefined communities or emergent

Knowledge maps (1)

“Foundational concept, fragmented thinking, line of argument, blue skies research, peripheral work”…

…we spatialise the world of ideas all the time

Maps can be used to make such configurations tangible, whether sketched on a napkin or modelled in software

The challenge What sensemaking infrastructure

will enable us to do something like this…

…for intellectual landscapes over OERs?

Q2: Previous Q2: Previous hot topic?hot topic?

Q3: Turning Q3: Turning point?point?

Q4: Q4: Transition Transition

path?path?

Q1: Current Q1: Current hot topic?hot topic?

Chaomei Chen: visualization of trends in a literature (terrorism)

Knowledge maps (2)

information visualization: representing spatially, intellectual worlds that have no intrinsic spatial properties

mapping as an intrinsic part of personal and collective sensemaking

mapping the structure of physical phenomena (e.g. a biological process) intellectual artifacts (e.g. a curriculum) intellectual processes of inquiry (e.g. a meeting

discussion, or a scientific or public debate).

Knowledge mapping as sensemaking

Clarify the intellectual moves and commitments at different levels.

Incorporate further contributions from others, whether in agreement or not.

Provoke, mediate, capture and improve constructive discourse.

Maps are narratives

Web maps

Web Map about mapping tools with Nestor Web Cartographer

Mindmaps

Mind Map created with Buzan’s iMindmap

Concept maps

Concept Map created with CMap Tools

Evidence maps

Using SEAS to map the strength of evidential support for an answer to a question

Argument maps (Reason!Able)

Argument maps (Rationale)

www.austhink.com

Literatures as discourse networks:Don’t try this in Google…

Don’t try this in Google…

What if we could get search results like this?…

One of seven maps in the Mapping Great Debates: Can Computers Think? Series.

MacroVU Press. www.macrovu.com (Horn, 2003; Yoshimi, 2006)

Horn (zoomed in)

MacroVU Press. www.macrovu.com

Argument mapping

Detailed argument map of an author’s article

Detailed argument map of an author’s article

www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/compendium/iraqwww.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/compendium/iraq

Dialogue maps

Dialogue Map created in Compendium (OpenLearn’s knowledge mapping tool)

Dialogue maps: JSB’s keynote

http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/sbs/news

Dialogue maps: JSB’s keynote

http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/sbs/news

Real time mapping to scaffold learning conversations…

(e-PhD mentoring video)

KM Tool 1: Compendium

Desktop Java application, with active user community: CompendiumInstitute.org

Publishes read only HTML maps + XML to the OER web environment (Moodle)

Moodle PHP open source code to manage Compendium maps

Compendium + Moodle

Compendium + Moodle

Compendium + Moodle Compendium software downloads:

encouraging

Compendium + Moodle XML downloads: small (not the same as just viewing a

map)

Compendium + Moodle Compendium map uploads: very small

Recent map upload stats

Example maps

Cameron Esslemont: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/2825/kmap/1183035112/Trachoma.html

Example maps

Alan Farrar: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/file.php/1646/kmap/1189665565/Natural%20Selection.html

Knowledge Maps by f-f Educators Student assignments: lecture classes +

homework UC Berkeley example:

Knowledge Maps by f-f Educators Student assignments: lecture classes +

homework UC Berkeley example:

Knowledge Maps by f-f Educators Planning a new course on Corporate Social

Responsibility (Mark Aakhus, Rutgers University)

Knowledge Maps by f-f Educators A professor dialogue maps the concept of a

‘disagreement space’ in conversation with a student (Mark Aakhus, Rutgers University)

Knowledge Maps for Educators Learning Design Patterns: mapping the

learner’s workflow in e-learning activities (see OpenLearn’07 paper by Gráinne Conole, IET, Open University)

Knowledge Maps for Educators Learning Design Patterns: mapping the

learner’s workflow in e-learning activities (Gráinne Conole, IET, Open University)

Next steps…

Web Compendium initiatives

EU Project CoPe_it! has implemented a web-centric IBIS tool, interoperable with Compendium (see left)

http://copeit.cti.gr

Also…

Conzilla now supports Dialogue Mapping

GlaxoSmithKline have piloted a web-centric extension to Compendium

Rutgers University is experimenting with Citrix to provide shared web access to Compendium

KM Tool 2: Web tool for connecting

‘Ideas’ “From tag clouds to tag

webs” Generate maps from

personal and the world’s connections

Embed maps in other websites

RSS feeds and URLs cohereweb.net

Cohere Idea cloud Created by the user, possibly seeded by a

bookmark RSS feed (e.g. del.icio.us, CiteULike, etc.)

Editing a connection Forging links between ideas

Cohere Connection Net Self-organising graph generated from personal, or world’s, connections Controls for adjusting scale, link-length and gravity Click Ideas and Connections to edit Can be filtered and searched by keyword, or connection structure on user-

specified links

Click target icon to view Knowledge MapClick target icon to view Knowledge Map

http://cohereweb.net/x/y/zhttp://cohereweb.net/x/y/z <iframe>xyz</iframe><iframe>xyz</iframe>

Full Screen Knowledge MapFull Screen Knowledge Map

Get URLGet URL Get Snippet CodeGet Snippet Code

Cohere snippetsEmbedding Ideas/Maps in other websites for viral spread

< >

8

Knowledge Cartography Due 2008 (Springer)

Leading researchers and practitioners in mapping intellectual worlds

Shared focus on mapping as sensemaking

Conceptual foundations and practical tools with vibrant user communities

Conclusions

Knowledge mapping has a central role to play in weaving narrative connections between OERs

Moreover, we currently lack infrastructures for large scale, structured discourse and visualization

We are working towards a social-semantic web environment for learners and other analysts to weave and contest the connections between ideas

To know more…

KMi’s scholarly software R&D

Hypermedia Discourse project www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/hyperdiscourse

Open Sensemaking Communities project www.kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/osc