Mapping event participation

A few weeks ago I created the concept map shown below to help people find some of the articles I've posted about network building, network analysis, social capital, and community building.  

I included it in this March 2025 article titled, "Mapping ideas, information and networks".  

I follow the KUMU.IO account on LinkedIn and see regular updates where they share new projects. 

This week I saw one that really resonated with me.  It was a map showing participation in the February 2025 SOWTH conference.  The image below of one slide, shows how participation in the event expanded the network for many attendees. 

The SOWTH conference was a gathering in Atlanta, Georgia of more than 1,200 regional producers and food actors.  Over three days, the group "recommitted themselves to sowing a stronger, more sustainable agricultural movement across the U.S. South".  Visit this page and read Kumu's description of the project and find the link to the full Kumu Presentation. 

Since the mid 2000s I've been trying to develop tools that would visualize and map participation in Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences that I hosted every six months from May 1994 to May 2015, to demonstrate that they should receive financial support, and to convince others to use the same network analysis process in their own events.

In 2010 a graduate of DePaul University created some maps and blog-articles showing participation in 2008 and 2009 conferences. You can see her articles here.

In 2015 a team of students from different parts of the country adopted the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC as their client in an Information Visualization MOOC (#IVMOOC) hosted by Indiana University. Here's the final report from the work they were able to do in such a short period of time. On this page you can see how goals for this project were communicated.

I shared the data for the all 42 conferences with the IVMOOC team while at the same time inviting students/faculty from universities anywhere in the world to also work with this data. As the analysis of the 2008-09 conferences shows, you can look at this information in many different ways and create quite a few articles making sense of the visualizations.

The IVMOOC team looked at this data from a spatial perspective, using GIS mapping applications, as well as from a social network analysis perspective. This demonstrates a wide range of opportunities for future researchers and writers.

My goal is that as you do this you will convince others who host conferences and large gatherings that focus on poverty, race, inequality, workforce development, health disparities, etc. to apply these tools for their own events. Furthermore, instead of looking for organizers in Chicago, look for organizers in your own city.

Imagine a web site where maps like these from New York, London, LA, Houston, Paris and many other cities who struggle with these same issues are aggregated, so that people who attend different events in each city can easily connect with each other, or can connect with people and ideas from different cities.

While I've not made any progress since 2015 on mapping the events I hosted I've continued to share this idea via several blog articles which you can find here, here and here. You'll find many more in the network building, network analysis and networking collections. 

One idea I want to emphasize is that we need to use this data to not only know who participated, but who was missing.  The concept map below is included in this article.  

Planners need to use maps like this to determine what talents and networks need to be included in their events and conversations.  For instance, talking about building a new playground is good, but if donors and/or policy-makers are not in the conversation, it may be more difficult to find the money needed to pay for the project.  If participation maps don't show these people involved, then an effort needs to be targeted to enlist them.    I'm not sure if I've seen any examples of maps used this way. 

If you visit the resource section of the Tutor/Mentor library you'll find links to more than 2000 organizations and individuals.  Imagine having all of these people connected in active, on-going, learning and innovation networks aimed at helping kids from every high poverty area in the world move safely through school and into adult lives, with jobs and careers where they can raise their own kids free of poverty and systemic racism. 

Read this article and see the eLearning goals that I first posted in the early 2000s.  While I've not held the conferences since 2015 this is still my goal.

Now, Kumu and others are beginning to introduce me to a new generation of technologists, who are spending time collecting information and creating maps that share what they are learning.  I point to their work for the same reason I point to lists of Chicago and national youth serving organizations.  They can learn from each other. They can help each other.  And, they can share the work each is doing so more people find it and use it.

I encourage you to follow the Kumu "Project of the Week" posts on LinkedIn.  Visit their website and view the Gallery of Kumu projects.   And visit this section and this section of the Tutor/Mentor library where I point to many articles about concept mapping and visualization. 

My work with mapping was highlighted in this October 2015 Chicago Tribune article.   

I'd love to see dozens of future articles writing about how mapping event participation led to stronger, on-going networks, learning from each other and innovating solutions to the complex problems facing the U.S. and the world in 2025.

Thanks for reading. Please share this with your networks and connect with me on social media (see links here). 

And, if you're able, visit this page and make a contribution to my "Fund T/MI" campaign.  

 

See new links added to Tutor/Mentor library

Below is a view of the home page of the www.tutormentorexchange.net website.

I started a "new links added" page in 2022 to make it easier for people to find new links that I was regularly adding to the resource library on the website.  Since then I've added a new links page for 2023, 2024 and 2025.

If you view this today, 8-7-2025, you'll see these as the most recent additions:

8-7-2025 - HISTORY OF THE WEB - INNOVATIVE DESIGNS OF 1995
https://thehistoryoftheweb.com/the-innovative-designs-of-1995/
This article looks back to 1995 and the beginning of the www internet.  
Find in this section

8-7-2025 - WHAT HAPPENED? TWITTER,COVID, REMOTE WORK, & LOSS
https://new.express.adobe.com/webpage/iHtGUPNYnZx06
This article is a reflection about how changes at Twitter, and caused by Covid, affected to learning communities and relationships of one person, and how he is now rebuilding.  It shows roles anyone can take to build a network of peers and friends. 
Find in this section

8-6-2025 - UNDERSTANDING THE MAGA MOVEMENT - JAMES GREENBERG ARTICLES
https://jamesbgreenberg.substack.com/p/the-authority-rebellion
This link points to a James Greenberg article on Substack, titled "The Authority Rebellion".  It's one of a series of articles worth reading to understand how the USA got to where we are in 2025 and ways to try to undo the harm and create a brighter future. 
Find in this section

8-5-2025 - ELECTECH - A LOT OF STUFF AND NONSENSE - IMAGINE CREATING SITE LIKE THIS WITH YOUR STUDENTS
https://eclectech.co.uk/
Take a tour through the electech website, which is an archive of "things" created over the past 20 years by the author. Open the sections of "silly images, animated GIFs, photos, animation & video and playthings".  As you do, imagine helping students create similar similar things, and host them on their own website, or a shared site.  Lots of inspiration, and enjoyment, on this site.
Find in this section

7-31-2025 - IN THESE TIMES
https://inthesetimes.com/
From the website: "In These Times is an independent, nonprofit magazine dedicated to advancing democracy and economic justice, informing movements for a more humane world, and providing an accessible forum for debate about the policies that shape our future."
Find in this section

7-30-2025 - PARTNERSHIP FOR STUDENT SUCCESS AT JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org 
From the website: "Based at the Johns Hopkins University Everyone Graduates Center, The Partnership for Student Success supports a nationwide effort in local and state communities across the country to bring evidence-based and people-powered support to all students. We bring together experts and practitioners in education, national service, and youth development to support locally-driven implementation of tutoring, mentoring, student success coaching, postsecondary transition coaching, wraparound/integrated student supports, and other evidence-based practices that support children and youth."   Visit the RESOURCES page and find an extensive library.
Find in this section

These are just a few of the links added thus far in 2025.  See the list at this link. 

Beneath each description is a "Find in this section" line, with a link to the page where that link, and many like it, can be found.

If you did a Google search for this information, you might be able to build as comprehensive a list as I have, but it would take you a lot of time.  I'm not sure asking AI to create a list for you will be any more effective.  

But, that's why I created this library over 25 years ago.  It saves you time and expands your options. 

Prior to 2020, I hosted the library on the www.tutormentorconnection.org website, which was built for me by a team at IUPUI in 2006.  That site was much more interactive than the current site. 
 

Unfortunately, the site began to attract too much spam and had to be shut down. That's why I moved all the listings to the www.tutormentorexchange.net site.   As the video shows, the former site had some robust search features to help people find specific information.  

The current site also has a search feature, but it only takes you to the page where the link is part of a list, organized in alphabetical order.  If the name starts with a "w" you'd need to scroll to the bottom of the list to find it.

It's not ideal. But it works.

For the past few years I've ended my blog articles by encouraging others to adopt the work I've been doing.  Imagine a university, funded with an endowment from someone like MacKenzie Scott, hosting an on-campus Tutor/Mentor Connection, where students, faculty and alumni were doing everything I've been doing, hosting the web library, and drawing attention to it, and building support for youth-serving programs in their community.  

Everything that's now an archive could be rebuilt, making it better than before, reaching more people, and doing more to help people living in areas of persistent poverty.

If  you share my articles with people in your network, and they share it in their network, the message might reach receptive ears.  Give it a try.

In the meantime, share your own ideas and networks with me on social media. And, visit this page and send a contribution so I can continue to keep the current site and library available to you and the world.

Thank you.

Knowledge Based Problem Solving in Era of Government Chaos

Since I started leading a tutor/mentor program in 1975 I've searched for ideas that I could learn from to constantly improve my own efforts. I began to build a library of program reports, newsletters and research, that I shared with volunteers, to help them expand their own efforts. In 1993 when I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection, I dramatically expanded this library, and in 1998 when I launched my first website, I expanded it even more. I still add new links every week.

I've learned that while our focus is on connecting kids and volunteers, there are a massive web of other issues that affect each student's future, and our own.  Below are two graphics that illustrate this.

Birth to Work Challenges concept map - click here to open

 

This shows that while a tutor/mentor program must overcome an on-going series of challenges to keep a student participating as they move from first grade through 12th grade (which could be in more than one program) the student, family and school face many more challenges caused by poverty and systemic racism in the United States.   If you open the concept map and look at the far right, you'll see that one of these challenges is "poor elected leaders".  

Below is a different graphic, created to show many of the challenges we face. I included it in this "Can't drain the swamp" article. 

Note at the far left I've highlighted "Democracy under Attack".  This was the third version of the climate change graphic created since 2019.  It was created in 2021 following the January 6th attack on Congress. 

Now that Trump and Project 2025 are now back in the White House, and many states are in the control of ultra conservative forces, the magnitude of this problem is much, much greater. Even our courts have been compromised. 

I created the graphic below many years ago to visualize the need for daily, on-going outreach to attract visitors to my library, my list of tutor/mentor programs, and to the programs themselves. 

I think a similar graphic could be created to show the on-going effort needed to draw attention and resources to each of the issues I show on the top two graphics.  

My challenge now, in mid 2025, is how do I keep this attention focused, knowing that without continuous help kids fall behind in school, and in life, so that volunteer-based tutor, mentor and learning programs find the support they need to stay available to kids.

Yet, how do I also call attention to the terrible things being done to vulnerable people in this country. How do I help keep the United States from becoming a new Nazi Germany?  

When I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 the mission was to "gather and organize all that was known about successful non-school tutor/mentor programs and to apply that knowledge to expand the availability and effectiveness of these services to children throughout the Chicago region". Read it here.

I've often tried to explain the purpose of the information I collect, by using the analogy of a "hospital operating room" where the operation is performed in an amphitheater where hundreds of others are watching. I found this graphic in a Wall Street Journal ad, and it communicates the idea visually.

I hope you'll follow this progression of thinking, because it applies to helping cities like Chicago solve complex problems.  It also may help solve the problems facing democracy and our planet, too.

1) At the start of the "operation" two people are bent over a patient (a problem like violence?). As long as the expertise they both have is enough to do the operation, they continue. (This photo is from an improvisation workshop in spring 1993, during the first year operations of the Cabrini Connections program I founded and led until 2011.)

2) However, as usually is the case, something occurs where the two doctors on the floor, don't know the answer. They say to the audience, "Do any of you know how to solve this problem?" Someone says "I do" and they join the two on the floor. As this continues to happen, new ideas are brought to the operation and the group on the floor grows.

3) At some point, no one in the amphitheater knows the answer. However, someone says, "I know someone who does know the answer. I'll find them and invite them to join the group." Once that happens, the operation continues.

4) Eventually, a problem will arise that no one knows the answer, or knows anyone else who has ever dealt with that particular problem. Someone high in the gallery says, "I'm starting a PhD course at the local university. I'll look into this and when I find an answer I'll bring it to the group." Several people, in universities, or in business, could be doing research on that problem.

I've been looking for people with experiences and information that could help people in Chicago build systems of support that help youth in high poverty areas move through school and into jobs since I launched the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993. I'd been doing this informally since I started leading a tutor/mentor program at the Montgomery Ward Headquarters in Chicago back in 1975. 

My library and social media network now represents thousand of organizations and tens of thousands of people.  

Those people, IF connected physically and virtually, represent the wide range of people who need to be in the "operating room" looking for solutions to the problems we face.  

Below is a map of the information in my "knowledge" library.

This information has been growing for 30 years. It's been available to leaders in Chicago and other cities for that long. It went on the Internet in 1998. Yet, too few seem to value the role information has to support innovation and problem solving. That means when I go to events where people are gathering to "solve the problem" of education, violence, workforce development, health disparities, etc, few are even aware that my library exists.

The process does not effectively capture the knowledge of everyone in the room, or of others who may be in other cities and countries. Yet anyone could be building a web library, with links to ideas and resources they find valuable, and with links to other web libraries. This concept is outlined in the PDF showing the goal of a "Tutor/Mentor Learning Network" which I've been trying to build since 1993.

The critical idea in this PDF is that since few of us have advertising dollars, we need to take daily actions that draw attention to everyone in the network of information and ideas, not just to our own organization, no matter how powerful we are. As speakers have emphasized over, and over, "No one can solve this problem by themselves."

I've devoted one entire section of the library to collaboration, knowledge management, visualization, innovation, etc. You can enter it via this map. This section could be curriculum for school, or non-school, youth programs, where volunteers from business and universities help youth learn these skills, and learn to apply them in their own efforts.  It can also be a training resource for organizers working on other issues.

I've devoted another concept map to social justice, race, poverty and inequality issues.  

That concept map points to maps like this, and, another section that focuses on political issues, and reforms, asking what is causing people to accept what Trump and Project 2025 are doing?,  and what strategies might reverse this? 

One set of blog articles that I point to focuses on "online learning, cMOOCs, etc." The ideas in these sections can help enhance the information-sharing process any group is using to solve local-global problems, regardless of if they connect with me or not.

Below is another visualization that I've created to illustrate the role knowledge, or work done by others, can take in supporting the constant improvement of work everyone is doing to help youth born in poverty move through school and into jobs and careers.

Using Ideas to Stimulate Competition and Process Improvement - Concept Paper by Daniel F. Bassill

I think my role is to aggregate information that others can learn from, and to use my social media and email newsletter to draw attention to the library while trying to motivate others to share it.

And to motivate volunteers and donors to visit program websites and be proactive in offering support, without waiting for an "ask" or a "grant proposal".

In some posts I'll be calling attention to Chicago tutor/mentor programs and in others I'll be boosting posts by others who focus on broader issues, including stopping the movement toward fascism, and, not just rebuilding democratic structures, but making them do more to improve the quality of life for every person in the USA and the world.  

I'll do this every day. 

You can help.  And, I hope I'm helping you.

Connect with me on social media (find links on this page) and share my posts with your own network. 

Find time to browse my library and get familiar with what it includes. Use the ideas to expand your own efforts, to help kids and tutor/mentor programs, and to help fix our broken government. 

Thanks for reading.  If you're able, visit this page and make a contribution to help me pay the bills.

Athletes doing good. What's the game plan?

I have used this graphic since the 1990s to visualize a role athletes and celebrities might take to support the growth of on-going, volunteer-based, tutor, mentor and learning programs in every high poverty area of the cities where they play, or where they grew up.  You can find it in this article.

Another graphic that I've used since the late 2000s is one showing two teams on a football field, along with fans, owners and media in the stands surrounding the field.  This graphic aims to motivate sports supporters to become youth development supporters, too. See it in this article.

In February 2024 as I watched the National Football League's (NFL) Man of the Year Award ceremony, I began to wonder if anyone was creating lists showing all of the good deeds athletes were doing, and sorting that by geography, and by cause. I wondered if anyone was using concept maps to show this information.   I shared those thoughts in this article and in this article.

I was reminded of this again a few weeks ago while watching the Major League Baseball (MLB) All Star Game, which profiled many players doing good deeds in their communities.   Below is a graphic from the home page of the MLB Together website.

Since no one has responded to my posts about sports involvement in support of youth tutor, mentor programs, I decided to search the Internet and see what I could find.

In less than an hour I found 16 websites that showed causes MLB and NFL athletes support.  What these show is that there is a massive amount of sports-related marketing of charitable causes.  And that some websites are doing some interesting work in aggregating and sharing this information.

Some of those are listed below:

My Cause My Cleats - this is an official NFL event and the website shows what causes players from each team are supporting - https://www.nfl.com/causes/my-cause-my-cleats/2024/

My Cause. My Cleats - Philadelphia Eagles - https://www.nfl.com/causes/my-cause-my-cleats/2024/eagles  They have this for every NFL team.

NFL charities Inspire Change campaign - https://www.nfl.com/causes/inspire-change/    This site shows Education, Economic Advancement, Police-Community Relations, and Criminal Justice Reform as the issues they support.

Athletes for a Causes - https://auprosports.com/athlete-causes/  This site has a list of causes, with a drop-down menu showing athletes who support each cause.

MLB Together - https://www.mlb.com/mlb-together

MLB Charities - https://mlbcharities.auctions.mlb.com/

MLB Players Trust Charity Auctions - https://mlbcharities.auctions.mlb.com/  The left side of this site lists teams and shows player involvement.

MLB Players Trust - supports player initiatives -  https://www.trust.mlbplayers.com/

Baseball charities - https://probaseballinsider.com/baseball-charities/  This site has list of player foundations and shows geographic area of focus for each. 

Big League Impact - https://bigleagueimpact.org/players/  This site features a few players and has a lists of players involved in past years. On this page causes are shown, with a list of charities that benefitted. 

MLB Together - list of causes https://auprosports.com/athlete-causes/  There is a list of teams/causes on this site

Stores about sports marketing

Causes players support - https://nielsensports.com/sports-fans-are-looking-to-sports-leagues-and-athletes-to-support-social-causes/

Exploring charitable work of MLB players - https://sportstars.blog/real-mvps-exploring-charitable-work-of-mlb-players/

Sports media - https://www.sportpositive.org/reports/

I posted this list on this page in the Tutor/Mentor library.

It's not the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC's intention to be the most comprehensive resource for athletes and celebrities supporting causes. Instead, I seek to point to websites that are aggregating and/or mapping this type of information. If you feel your site should be on this list please introduce yourself to Dan Bassill on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Twitter and/or Facebook.  I'd be happy to add your link to this list and feature it in future blog articles. 

What's missing?  The maps.  

The links I've aggregated show that many athletes are doing important work.  However, I only found one site (Inspire Change) with any type of map showing all the places athletes support, or of the causes athletes support in specific places.   

The map below is from an article I posted in 2017 following a "Sports and Violence in Chicago" series of articles in Chicago papers.  The article focused on Orr High School's basketball team, so I mapped the location of the high school and showed non-school tutor/mentor programs in the same area. 

In my article I emphasized the need to provide support to all of the existing tutor/mentor and learning programs in the area, for many years, and to help new ones grow where more are needed. I showed a map-based tutor/mentor program locator that my organization built in the 2000s to help people do this analysis and find individual programs in specific areas.   

View this visual essay to see the layers of information that were built into the program locator (which is now only available as an archive). Imagine being able to create a map showing athletes and/or foundations that supported youth programs in specific places.  If someone were aggregating and sharing the data, that might be possible.

Below is another graphic that I've used since the 1990s.  It shows that violence-prevention and youth development should be part of one long-term strategy, that reaches kids in early years before they get involved with negative habits, but also provides support to those same youth if they become part of the 16-34 age group of "out of school, no job, often gang involved" youth.   I used it in this article. 

There are hundreds of articles on this blog with similar graphics, posted for the same purpose. 

When I post a story, a few people might see it, and maybe one or two will share it.  If the same story is posted by a professional athlete, thousands will see it, many will share it, and some will get involved in solutions.  What if every college and professional athlete were the "you" in this graphic?

In the late 2000s we had several professional football players involved with the tutor/mentor program I was leading.  They came to the program site and talked to the kids and were speakers at conferences I organized. That was good for our program, and the people who met them at our conferences, but did little to support other programs in Chicago. 

So I created a visual essay showing a goal of athletes supporting entire neighborhoods of programs, while they also support favored single programs.

I'm sharing these because I want the ideas to be adopted, duplicated and improve upon, by athletes and teams in every sport, throughout the world.  The primary challenge nonprofit organizations face of attracting attention and retaining donors can be greatly reduced if high-profile people are connecting those they influence with lists of youth programs in neighborhoods and/or cities that they adopt.

Such videos and social media posts could be featured on team websites and during special events, like All-Star games and championships. 

If you click on the map at the top of the page and enlarge it, you'll see this text in the lower left corner, showing how the "Adopt-a-Neighborhood Program" would work.

Imagine star athletes getting awards and bragging about all the ways they drew attention and resources to tutor, mentor, learning and workforce development programs in the neighborhood they had adopted.  Imagine this information being collected and aggregated and made available as "game plans" that other athletes could use to "win" recognition in future years.

That never happened, but it's not too late for someone to see this idea and make it a reality.  PS. while you're thinking about this, take a look at the "Business School Connection" idea posted on the Tutor/Mentor wiki. 

Combine these two ideas and grow them over a 10 to 20 year period and see how much impact that has on reducing violence while providing opportunities. 

Furthermore, this may influence donors to support researchers to do a systematic process of collecting, sorting, categorizing and mapping this information, providing a wealth of knowledge, a game plan, and play books, that the world can use to help those who need extra help for a long time.

Thanks for reading. Think of this article as a "coaches clinic".  Use the ideas to build and sustain long-term strategies that help reduce poverty by providing paths to opportunity.

Connect with me on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Mastodon, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to share links to the work you're doing.  See my social media links on this page.

Finally, if these ideas appeal to you, consider making a contribution to help me keep doing this work.  click here.

What's your problem-solving process look like?

While I've tagged over 130 article on this blog with #planning, probably most of the one-thousand plus articles posted here since 2005 focus on the planning needed to help great, on-going, mentor-rich programs reach K-12 youth in all areas of persistent poverty. 

I show planning steps and information mapping below.  Do you have visualizations like these to show your problem-solving process? 

This concept map highlights steps in an on-going planning process which aims to influence what resource providers, businesses and policy-makers do, not just what kids, educators, program leaders and parents do.  click here to open

Below is another version of this planning process. click here to open

On both concept maps you'll see geographic maps used at the beginning of the planning process.  Unless you define what places you want to help, using a map, you could get a lot of people together, spend a lot of money, and still miss a lot of the places that need help the most.

On both concept maps I show a next step, of gathering available information about the problem, who's already working to solve it, who should be involved in planning and action steps, etc. 

Using that information the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) began creating maps to show locations of non school, volunteer-based tutoring and/or mentoring programs in 1993 and to follow media stories about shootings, gangs, or poorly performing schools, with map stories that talked about the availability (or lack) of tutor/mentor programs in the area surrounding the incident.  

My goal has been that maps and the library of programs and research be used by leaders in business, government, colleges, hospitals, faith groups and government to fill high poverty neighborhoods with a wide range of  youth development and workforce development based tutor and mentor programs.
(Read more in this article)

The map below is another example of my use of maps. 

I used these maps in this article. It shows how maps can be used in planning, to identify stakeholders who should be involved in the process.  It should lead to questions such as, "Do we invest in helping existing programs grow?  or, "Do we invest in new start-ups?"  The planning process should provide answers.

Here's another article, titled "Use Maps for Understanding and Serving Areas of Need."

In the concept maps at the top of the page I include links to the research section of the Tutor/Mentor library. It's shown in the map below. click here to open

The small boxes at the bottom of each node contain links to external websites and pages of my library, and to additional concept maps.

My goal has been to expand the information planners had available when developing new solutions to persistent problems.  A research team could dig into my library and the websites I point to when starting a planning process.  Ideally they already would have spent many hours learning what's in the library, so when a grant opportunity or new policy initiative is being discussed, they already know where they can find large amounts of information.

Concept maps can help people navigate this vast library.  Here's one of many articles I've written showing uses of concept map. 

I added two new resources to the research section of the library today.  Below is a view of one page from an extensive "Poverty & Wealth  Inequality" project created by Gene Bellinger, a systems thinking pro who I've learned from for more than a dozen years.  You can see his influence in the planning map shown at the top of this article.  

Open this link to start your journey.  Gene has used AI to create a series of stories and relationship maps, that show a not-to-distant future where the rich and powerful have taken full control. His stories show how people have built a resistance that ultimately overthrows that government and replaces it with one more fully committed to the welfare of all people and the planet. Open the link to start reading the stories and open more and more pages.   

You won't see the interactive graphic shown above until you open the html file that Gene points to in the upper right of the page.   If you open that file you'll find an interactive map. That means you can zoom in to look more closely at different elements. You can click on nodes to read the text. You can create and share your own versions, as I'm doing. 

There's a load of information.  When you open the link to start your journey you'll see a list on the left side of your screen, which I show below.  

Each link on this page opens to a story, with additional maps.  As my #CLMOOC friend Terry Elliot would say, it's like "going down a rabbit hole" of learning. You just keep going deeper and deeper.

View this short video to see Gene Bellinger's introduction to AI Modeling.

Which leads me to the map shown below.  At the top of the third column from the left is a "Project 2025" link.  Click here to open that page. 

If you don't go any further you'll be lost because the concept map shown with the article has so many nodes that it's impossible to read.  However, if you open the html version, as I did, you can zoom in to look more closely at the elements on the map.  For those concerned with the direction the USA is going, this is a valuable map. 

Last week I wrote an article titled "Solving problems? Know the Network."  I pointed to a Power Mapping article that provides steps for learning who you should be connecting with to be able to solve the problem you're trying to solve (or to build the business you're building).  The Project 2025 map is an example of Power Mapping. 

All of this is just part of the first stage of a planning process.  It's really on-going because problem solving is cyclical. As you solve the first problem you face new problems, which require new information, and new people and resources.   Furthermore, this process is at different stages in thousands of places where people are trying to solve the same problem.  If information showing what each group is doing is available in web libraries, planners should be able to learn from each other, and not be constantly "reinventing-the-wheel". 

One of your challenges will be to build this network, then sustain and expand it over many years.  That's Step 1 in the concept map shown below. 

However, it's Step 2 and Step 3 that are more difficult.  Step 2 focuses on generating on-going attention that draws a growing number of people to the library and blogs like mine.  Step 3 focuses on helping people find what they are looking for, understand what they find, and apply what they learn in actions that help solve the problem you're focused on.

If the process works, it leads to Step 4, where planners find lists of organizations to support, or tools to fill voids where new organizations are needed.  The public awareness generated in Step 2 aims to motivate people to volunteer time, talent and dollars supporting youth serving programs in the area planners are focused.  In my case, that's been the Chicago region since 1993.  My list of tutor/mentor programs can be found here. 

I've never had much money for any of this, particularly Steps 2 and 3.  So I've focused on motivating other people to share the message and help build understanding.  It's what faith leaders have done for over 2000 years.  

How might athletes and celebrities support this process?  In February 2024 I wrote this article after watching the NFL annual awards presentation.  I wrote this article in 2023.  These show how athletes in major sports and many celebrities could go beyond the individual charity efforts they support to call greater on-going attention to the needs of entire neighborhoods and cities.  I wondered if anyone was aggregating information about all the foundations and causes athletes and celebrities support, so a  library and Power Map could be created that planners could use to better understand who is, or is not, being served, and who might be able to help draw greater attention to specific issues.   

Is anyone doing this?

7-23-2025 update - read this post by Dave Snowden and you'll see the same thinking as in my planning maps.

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Solving problems? Know the Network.

Below is a graphic that I shared in my July newsletter, and in my library.

This article is part of an on-line library hosted by an organization called, "The Commons".  Its title is "Power Mapping to Design a Winning Campaign Strategy".  Read it here. 

In its introduction, the article says, "To win a campaign, you need to correctly identify who has the power to fix the problem you want fixed. Then you need to pressure them to make the right decision. Power mapping is a tool to not only identify who holds that power, but, crucially, who holds influence over that person, and, therefore, who to target with your direct actions and campaign activities."

This is a strategy that I've followed, and shared, for more than 45 years.  The graphic below is a page from a visual essay showing the "operating principles" I followed in leading volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago from 1975 to 2011.

This lists nine skills/abilities needed in planning and leadership teams to operate an effective program.  I used this to try to find volunteers to help me lead a program that grew from 100 pairs of youth/students in 1975 to over 400 pairs by June 1992.   Initially I used an Excel spreadsheet to list all my volunteers, their jobs and where they worked, then used this to sort for skills I was looking for. I could choose from three or four names based on where they worked, and how this might impact that company's support for us if the volunteer took on a leadership role.

In the 1990s I started using a FileMaker Pro database to collect information that I used to support my print and email campaigns, and used to invite people to networking conferences that I held in Chicago every six months from May 1994 to May 2015. That grew to about 13,000 people by 2003.  That's when we were forced to stop sending print newsletters due to lack of money.

I continued to use the database to recruit volunteers and donors for Cabrini Connections until I left in 2011. And, I used it to invite people to conferences until the last one in May 2015.  However, it did not translate very well to our email campaigns that began in the early 2000s. I estimate that we lost regular contact with more than half of the people we'd been sending print newsletters to. 

It still has contact information for tutor/mentor programs in Chicago that I host on the Tutor/Mentor website.   I still have it if anyone would like to do an analysis of the range of organizations I was sharing information with.

After forming the Tutor/Mentor Connection in 1993 I began to attend a number of meetings focused on reducing violence and improving schools.  I often thought to myself, "Who else should be in this conversation?" and "What other information should they be looking at?"   Those two thoughts have driven my thinking about network analysis for over 30 years.

In the 1990s I created the graphic that I show below.  It shows the design of a mentor-rich program, with volunteers coming from many different backgrounds and kids getting involved at one grade level and staying through high school graduation.  Our goal was that those connections would continue after kids graduated.  Today I saw a note on Facebook from one former student to a volunteer, celebrating the volunteer's birthday.  It shows that what we hoped would happen is really happening, at least for some former students and volunteers.

Another version of that is in this second graphic.  This shows how I share information via a website, blogs, social media, e-Mail newsletters and one-on-one conversations that I hope will be passed on to other people. Each spoke of the wheel represents someone who could be sharing information with his/her network.

Both graphics visualize the wide range of people who need to be involved in helping kids in areas of persistent poverty move through school and into jobs and careers.  In this visual essay, titled "Total Quality Mentoring" I use these graphics and show the role of leaders in mobilizing volunteers to support youth serving programs in every high poverty area of Chicago, not just the most visible areas.

Here's a graphic I created in the late 1990s that shows an application of this thinking.

The people in the first ring of your network may not be able to influence change.  However, if they share posts like mine in their networks, a lager circle of people are exposed to these ideas.  Ultimately, this can reach the "super hero" who has the most power and can be a "tipping point" in an organization's growth and ability to have an impact.  

Understanding who is participating.

By tracking attendance at the Tutor/Mentor Conferences I was able to create maps like the one below, showing who attended.  You can see maps from the 1998 and 2008 conferences on this page.  These show a good representation from tutor/mentor programs, but low participation from key people who need to be strategic in supporting these programs, such as business, philanthropy, government, research and media.

In the mid 2000s I began to learn about social network analysis (SNA). One of the leading thinkers was (and still is) Valdis Krebs.  In 2009 I wrote this article, titled "Nudge the Net: - how do we mobilize personal network to solve problems of inner city violence?"  I followed up with this article.  In both, I featured Krebs' work. 

In 2010 Valdis Krebs donated software to the Tutor/Mentor Connection and presented a "how to" workshop to interns who I recruited to do an analysis of conference participation.  Below is a map from a blog article created by one of those interns, showing participation in the November 2008 and May and November 2009 conferences.

Unfortunately these interns were only able to help me for a short period of time and I've not found anyone to continue this work since then.  Thus, I was not able to map more of the conferences and move to the next stage of understanding "Who is missing?" and "How do we get them involved?"

Around this time I created the concept map shown below, showing "talent needed" in any successful organization.  A parallel map shows "networks needed". 

These maps build upon what I was doing in the 1970s and 80s.  In many articles I've suggested that people use these as planning tools for building their own organization, making sure that someone has each of the talents highlighted.  And I've suggested to researchers that instead of just mapping "who participated", use concept maps like mine to show "Who needs to be involved".  Then compare the participation maps to the "aspirational" maps, to learn "Who's missing?"

In 2012 I created a network analysis map showing my Facebook followers. You can see the analysis in this PDF essay.   

I've written about network building and network analysis often since starting this blog in 2005. Here's a 2009 article that uses the concept map shown above.  And here's an article from 2023.

Are you doing this type of analysis? 

How can we apply ideas in the Power Mapping article to better understand who is part of the ecosystem of people and organizations that need to be working collectively toward building and sustaining programs and policies that address all of the challenges shown on the concept map below?

This map shows many of the issues progressives want to address and that the current administration seems to want to make worse for immigrants, people of color, people living in high poverty areas, and people with special needs. 

Using concept maps like I show above, researchers could build a database showing all the different people and organizations who need to be included in on-going learning and problem solving, for many years.  

I'm still connected to the boy I first tutored in 1973. He attended college and has to sons who have graduated from college.  

As you read the above, one thing you may, or may not, be thinking about is, "How does an individual, or an organization, do all of this network building, mapping and analysis?" How do they keep doing it for 20-30 years? Where do they find the money?"

Read some of my articles about having universities adopt my work, with it funded by wealthy donors.   

Become the "YOU" in the graphics shown above and share this article.  Maybe you, or someone you know, will use the Power Mapping ideas to identify one or more people who will move these ideas forward.

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