Edgeryders partners up with CATALYST to test tools for network intelligence!

Workspaces Software (SSNA)
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A while ago the Edgeryders organisation applied to an open call asking communities to come forward and test some new tools for making sense of large scale conversations. The rationale is: the better we are at this, the more we can facilitate crowd-driven social innovation.

CATALYST, the network running the initiative, is itself a collaboration developed under CAPS (Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation), a topic funded in FP7 and Horizon2020 European research programmes. @Alberto was already involved as a member in Wikitalia (Catalyst partner), and helped develop one of the tools.

Given Edgeryders track record, we were given a small grant to look into two tools in the upcoming months: Edgesense and Assembl, both free web based tools with a mission to help knowledge creation for the public good. The outcome of the project will be a report to better inform how these tools, beyond their technological capabilities, can actually live in communities.

Some of the questions I personally would like to see answered are:

  • Would real communities use them, and if so, for what concrete purposes?
  • What are the benefits and challenges in adopting these tools, as opposed to others that are out there? Also some notes on interoperability with web platforms.
  • What is required from community builders and practitioners to facilitate adoption of such tools?

About Edgesense

It is a simple software for real-time, interactive network analysis of online communities. Seems useful for mapping relationships in conversations, which could be interesting for community managers.

Developed by Wikitalia.

About Assembl

It helps organise unstructured content from around the web and facilitates new, more targeted conversations after syntheses and key insights are drawn. At a first glance, seems like it could be interesting for content curators, storytellers, engagers out there.

Developed by Imagination for People.

If you’re interested, here are all the other tools these guys developed over the last years.

At Edgeryders we’re putting together a small team to work on this project, to join keep an eye on the group page and upcoming calls.

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Interested

Hi, this is very interesting. Please contact me to if you need any help. I started looking at a similar tool for building a meshwork.

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Welcome to Edgeryders!

Hi @sgroenendal, good to meet you! Any of the above looking interesting for you? What’s the tool you are working with, anything we might heard of…? In the next week we’ll go ahead and launch an open call with specific tasks to familiarize ourselves with Assembl and Edgesense, and test them on content from this platform.

If you need help, or would like to let us know more about your work (perhaps you might enjoy some feedback or help?) don’t hesitate to introduce yourself at length, creating a post in Arrivals is a good start.

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Catalyst Response to Noemi

Hi Noemi,

The tool I have been studying is Gaiasoft. We are looking to use such a tool to build a meshwork of all the initiatives in the Netherlands in the field of intelligent traffic systems (ITS) including driver behavior and effect studies. That is why I’m very interested. Did not know there were other tools until I saw a post on Facebook or Twitter that led me to Edgeryders. My work is in renewal direction and focus for business, knowledge instituten and/or government preferably together in an eco system. I also do business development for a software company in civil military air traffic management.

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Different licenses

Hi, I looked up Gaiasoft but unlike these two tools above, it is a commercial software offered by a commercial enterprise. I think there are many such tools, the difference is for what purpose are they being used, and how the data & results are handled. Edgesense and Assembl are free to use, designed to empower communities at large (even though Assembl does ask for a fee from businesses).

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Hello from the Assembl team!

Just wanted to say hi! My name is Laura and I’m part of the team developing Assembl. I’m happy to answer any questions anyone may have! You can also learn more about the software program at www.assembl.org. The interface has changed quite a bit since the posted video above so you can see updated screenshots there as well.

Don’t hesitate to reach out! We’re very excited about the implications of this application for a variety of sectors. The evolution from unstructured to structured discussion has yielded some fascinating results so far and eliminates many of the frustrations large groups encounter when working together online.

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How can we access it?

Hi Laura, thanks for joining.

Our goal in the following months is to access Assembl and play with it, so to speak, then build a report around the questions I outlined, and others which will be coming in… Who should we contact in your team to help us install it or access it online? Perhaps we’ll need to meet in an online call to agree on the specifics, what do you think?