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A Social System Map isn’t just a product—it’s a practice. It grows with your network, deepening insight and supporting action.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Social System Mapping? Social System Mapping is an expanded version of Network Mapping that is emerging from the increased functionality of the combination of sumApp and Kumu. It’s a mash-up of system mapping, social network mapping, asset mapping,…

Networkism – The New Cultural Meme

In a March 2015 TED Talk, data visualization researcher Manual Lima explores what he calls the new cultural meme of ‘Networkism’, and a shift he sees in how we represent knowledge. We’re shifting, he claims from a core metaphor of the ‘Tree of…

The SenseMaking Mode

The SenseMaking Mode: An Ongoing Practice of Inquiry Social System Mapping opens access to a domain we’ve previously only been able to speculate about – the ecosystem just beyond our own ego-network horizons, the connective tissue linking our immediate relationships…

How to Start Mapping – Create a Pilot/Prototype Map

Social System Mapping means that: All of this makes it hard to know where to start! Without something to show people, they have a hard time seeing the point. But without buy-in, you don’t have anything to show people.  You…

Map Literacy – Example #1

Just to see what I mean by mapping being a ‘language’ – watch this one minute .gif At first it may see like there’s a lot going on – a lot of dots, lines, names, movement, a couple of colors,…

It’s a New Language That is Emerging

I like to say that Social System Mapping is one genre in a new visual language that’s emerging from the intersection of interactive online data visualization and graph theory. And because it’s new, because the media that use this language are not yet prevalent, because…

Planning for Kumu When Defining Field Types

Most surveys aren’t designed with complex data-visualization in mind, so even people are adept at making surveys sometimes overlook the fact that the mapping context is different. Defining survey questions and field types in the context of Social System Mapping…

The Three General Phases

Social System Mapping unfolds in three fluid, overlapping phases — Envisioning, Mapping, and SenseMaking — all woven together by Storytelling. This isn’t a linear path, but a living, iterative cycle that deepens over time.

What is Social System Mapping?

Social System Mapping is an expanded version of Network Mapping that is emerging from the increased functionality of the combination of sumApp and Kumu. It’s a mash-up of system mapping, social network mapping, asset mapping, stakeholder mapping and more. Human beings and their…

The Purpose of Social System Mapping

Social system mapping (SSM) is a new mapping practice that can present on the surface a sloppy mash-up of better-established and more-well-groomed methodologies.  It was not pre-conceived, pre-defined, pre-justified & pre-proven. Rather, it is emerging from the interaction between what Tim…

sumApp Member View | Connections Page | Filter by Segment

1. Click “Connections” to find members you want to add a connection

Steps to Manually Add a Segment in sumApp from ‘Manage Members’ Page

1. From ‘My Projects’, select the ‘Manage’ drop-down for

Manage Invitations

See a list of all members in your project. Send an invitation email to your memb

Use ‘Manage’ Button to Access All Your Project Pages

Click ‘Manage’ button to access your project management pages. Edit

Delete a Project

A project you no longer need can be: Deleted completely Deletion is not reversib

Manage Your Subscription

Cancel your subscription. Return to sumApp. Remove a payment method. Add a payme

Editing a Member Record

Once a member has joined your Social System Map, either the member can edit thei

Editing a Member Record as a Map Member from ‘My Preferences’

1. From your project profile, click ‘My preferences’. 2. Make change

sumApp Member View | My Preferences

Add Members

Placeholders – Unpublished Folder

The Storytelling Mode

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