What sumApp IS and ISN’T

It\’s understandable. It can be a little confusing. What exactly IS sumApp and what do you do with it? It\’s confusing because it\’s different, because the language we use often means other things to most people (but without inventing whole new words, we\’ve got nothing better to work with), because it\’s a mash-up of a number of intentions and kinds of interfaces, and because it only serves one part of the whole necessary to create Social System Maps. And then we go and mash all the separate parts together in a way that makes them SEEM like they\’re all the same thing, but they\’re actually not. And if you\’re mapping, you need to understand the difference. Of course you already know – sumApp gathers data, other tools (generally Kumu) visualize the data gathered. But even that\’s a little vague, so let\’s take a moment to clarify: What sumApp DOES: Outputs data from sumApp in such a way that it is ready to load into Kumu, or other network graph visualization tools. Requires only a single SOMEONE (such as a network coordinator, consultant, or guardian) to set up a sumApp account – one per network/mapping project. (no-one else has to have an account to be included in the survey). Enables that SOMEONE (let\’s call this person the \’sumApp Admin\’) to: Create an interface to gather information from a SPECIFIC group of people – sort of like how a survey-person sets up a survey tool (such as Survey Monkey) to gather data. Ask questions about relationships between people or organizations or other groups – directly from those involved (this is what normal survey tools do a terrible job of. You can ask, but the data output is impossible to work with) Keep adding more names over time Make it easier for