The Catalyst MAP

There are over 20 million organizations working to improve life on this planet. For the most part, these organizations are not involved in any collaborative effort. This project seeks to change this. We are building a Map Action Platform (MAP) to coordinate the organizations working towards a sustainable world. Combining leading edge data harvesting tools with state of the art user experience design, the Catalyst MAP will be open source collaboration platform and evolving data resource. Drawing on the motivational strategies of organizations like Linux and Wikipedia, the platform will harness user’s intrinsic desires for self-actualization and meaning. The goal is to catalyze collaboration about the ‘three pillars’ of sustainable development identified by the United Nations: environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
We intend to build the system in three steps

Step: Aggregate projects and initiatives, events, tools, people, and goals.
Step: Install navigation and algorithms to filter, sort, categorize, combine, network, and browse all of the constituents from part 1.
Step: Connect all data-sets from part 1 and 2 to a tracking system that produces crowd funded opportunities, transparent data visualization modules, and widgets to share.

The system will be a mash-up of Google APIs including Maps, Earth, Google+ and Calender. Users will be able to sort, filter, or turn on or off the layered features of the MAP [seehttp://cotw.cc/wiki/CatalystMAP]. User generated ‘quests’ will pair skills with projects that need them. The completed system will connect data on challenges and projects to a tracking system that produces transparent data visualization modules.

Please see the following:

1.http://thefreshclassics.com/Infographic_02_R01_V02_small.jpg
2.http://thefreshclassics.com/Infographic_R01_V02_Small.jpg

Example:

We propose three problems/challenges: You are not limited to our proposals.

Problem 1: Users need to be able to add projects, events and personal profiles to the MAP. Our Proposed Challenge: Hack G+ profiles overlap on Google maps/earth API. With G+, allow users the ability to submit project overview details that will then be represented on the MAP. See design view for a guide: http://thefreshclassics.com/CS_02_ProjectShort.jpg When users click on project overviews they are brought to this project profile created in G+, displaying the layers of the project and individuals involved. See design view: http://thefreshclassics.com/CS_03_Projectlong.jpg

Problem 2: When users click on ‘MAP FEATURES’ they need to be presented with faceted options to sort, filter, or turn on or off the featured layers associated to the MAP. Our Proposed Challenge: Create a feature to sort/filter/facet groups/friends and how they appear on the MAP. See design view for guide: http://thefreshclassics.com/CS_04_CatalystFilterMembers.jpg

Problem 3: We need a way to allow users to establish additional attributes to their profile, including skills, interests and passions within profile data. This information will be used to program algorithms that pair people to projects that need their unique skills interests and passions. Our Proposed Challenge: Introduce the data output layers for profiles. See ‘Project View’ and the items below - Profile / Overview / Network / Questing / Tools. See design view: http://thefreshclassics.com/CS_03_Projectlong.jpg

User Stories:

The US Peace Corps could use the system to add projects and engage those eager to become involved so that they can contribute their unique skill sets.
Volunteers of America: by incorporating this system, VoA would more easily crowd source volunteers and action teams. It would also provide users useful GIS information in locating nearby vehicle donation centers for tax breaks.
Religious Communities: the system would allow communities to coordinate efforts and resources with other communities/organizations who are pursuing similar efforts.
As a community leader, I want to identify the green issues that matter most to people in my area. The Catalyst System makes them visible.
As a climate scientist I want to work with a designer/developer to translate my collected data into a fun and interactive graphic/interface so that when I showcase my work to the laymen they have a clearer understanding of what this data means.
As a small business owner in a region prone to flooding, I want to know how to flood-proof my premises so that they are secure from wild weather.
As an organic farmer, I want to work with others to help define changing patterns of drought and flooding in my region.
As a health conscious vegetarian, I want to support good health for myself and my community by finding a local organic store so that local farming lives long and prospers.
As a doctor, I want to help track the spread of malaria in the Nairobi area.

Constraints:

Similar Projects and Resources:

We are starting with the site Fragile Oasis and the projects there. http://www.fragileoasis.org/
We have the source code for UMovement, a site with similar ideas that is a good starting place. http://www.umovement.org/
The Colaboration Project team is a key part, working to add creative communication and chat capabilities that will allow everyone to connect and change the world together. http://www.rhok.org/node/18701

Next Steps and Sustainability:

The beta phase of the Catalyst MAP will be launched at the Rio +20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, in June 2012. We will populate the MAP with projects associated with this event. This will result in the population of regional centres on the MAP with geo-located sustainability challenges and a set of visible projects and networks addressing them. These flagship projects will enable us to beta-test the usability and effectiveness of the MAP.

In terms of users, the MAP will foster a stronger sense of local community amongst participants. By giving visibility to sustainability challenges and the groups working to resolve them, the MAP highlights the grassroots democratic energies of local communities, motivating participation and fostering community pride.
Looking further ahead, we aim to promote the the Catalyst MAP as a tool for governmental and non-governmental organizations, with applications in business, academia, and research. As the society evolves so will this platform. The MAP offers a holistic approach to problems, reflecting the social, economic, environmental, cultural and spiritual needs of the full range of stakeholder groups in countries concerned. The system is designed to freely scale and evolve to acquire additional sustainability challenges as the needs of society change.
Our vision draws on insights into what makes open source collaborations work. The success of Wikipedia and Linux bear out that people will collaborate when they are able to self-actualize while participating on a world changing project. The key is to provide people with the opportunity to participate in a world changing project (eg, 'the world's first crowd-sourced encyclopedia' or 'the world's first open source operating system') by self-actualizing that is, inputting the skills and capacities that they are most fond of using (‘my specialist knowledge on hydraulic systems or my understanding of UNIX code').

Qualitative Impact:

The Catalyst MAP will provide an open-access informational resource on geo-located challenges and enable a higher degree of coordination between sustainability partners globally. It will catalyze awareness of sustainability challenges and motivate participation to address them.

Quantitative Impact:

Every day vast quantities of information flow across the planet. The Catalyst MAP will tap into that river and provide new lenses to visualize, sort, and understand the passing data. These new layers and tool sets will provide new ways to collaboratively engage common challenges. The Catalyst MAP will also track the success of quests. The system will measure the quantitative impact of quests relative to sustainability metrics established by the UN.

Problem Definition Category: