Gigamaps: Their role as bridging artefacts and a new sense sharing model

SYSTEMIC DESIGN FOUNDATIONS

Birger Sevaldson

The role of the gigamaps as artefacts is constantly developing. This process has not been an intentional process but a process of discovery. By looking at some obvious roles of the gigamap closer, new concepts crystallize. This working paper reports on the rethinking of the gigamap as a tool to design a shared picture of complex systems for systemic design intervention. The role of the gigamap as a bridging device to detect and cover destructive ruptures in the design process is investigated closer. Investigating the ruptures leads to a better understanding of the qualitative features the maps depict and how these features can be shared. This leads, in the end, to a proposal for a sense-sharing model.

Keywords: sense sharing, gigamapping, complex systems, design tool

Gigamaps as artefacts—excerpts

Since the start of the research with Gigamaps it was clear that there was more to it than the facts only. This has lead to a long process of developing the insight about this form of mapping. This has developed through two steps of concept development. The first step was the realization and clarification of the Gigamap as a design artefact. This had implications on how the mapping process was seen, and on the relation between the map and the reality it first depicts and later redesigns. This realization did solve some off the qualitative questions the mapping raised. But there were still more tacitly sensed issues to it.

How to practice the Sense Sharing Model

This model is very new and we do not have yet a lot of experience leading to developed praxiologies for the model. But the steps forward would include creating sessions for each of the features where they are discussed through over and with the Gigamaps developed.

Simple tools will probably be developed for this, similar to the ZIP analyses, the threshold analyses and others developed within the praxiology of SOD.

Concluding remarks

This is a working paper in the midst of a development process that has quite central implications on how we look at the role of the Gigamap in SOD. As mentioned we need now to test the Sense Sharing Model and develop simple to use tools and guidelines for it. This will be hopefully developed and presented in the fully developed version of this paper.