Thursday, January 12, 2012

Community Collaboration Portal - Glasgow

For more than six years I've pointed to the Boston Innovation Hub as an example of a community portal that has the potential to connect all sectors of the community in problem solving that addresses each slice of the community interest pie. This is one article where I've done that.

I've been connecting with a network of innovators from around the world who are planning an international collaboration for next week. They call this JELLY WEEK. More than 30 countries and 170 teams are now involved.

This idea started in spring 2011 in Germany and has grown over the past six months. I'd love to have people building a Social Network Analysis map that shows this growth. I've set up a group to map the growth of the Tutor/Mentor Connection network which you can see here.

The value of this network is that it constantly adds new information to what we already know. Today the network introduced me to a site that does what the Boston Innovation Hub is doing, but perhaps with even better and more updated technology. Take a look. http://www.understandingglasgow.com/

There are still features that could be added to these hubs that would build a citywide understanding of organizations working to solve specific problems, which is what we do with the Tutor/Mentor Program Locator.

If we can build this information into hubs like the "Understanding Glasgow" hub, then the collective efforts of many people in the region could generate greater visibility for the entire sector of organizations working to solve a community-wide problem, and this can lead to more consistent flows of operating resources and talent to each neighborhood where the problem is high, and to the organizations already operating in these neighborhoods.

During the JELLY WEEK I'll be on-line with a group from Sweden and I'm working with another group from South America and Europe. If you'd like to help build our our maps and network analysis tools, join me in the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

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