Mapping Conference Participation - IVMOOC Project

On this page I've shared the Network Mapping tool created by a team of Indiana University students in the Fall 2025 Information Visualization (IVMOOC) class. 

This week I received the final report from a second IVMOOC team, who used the same Tutor/Mentor Conference history, to visualize participation.  Below is the interactive map-based visualization that they created.

Open the interactive map at this link.  Across the top of the map are dates of the 1994-2015 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences, held in Chicago.  For each conference the IVMOOC team created a zip code map, with shaded areas showing where conference participants came from.

You won't find the text that I show with the map on the actual interactive version.  I had to read the Final Report to see their description of the information on the map, how to view the four classifications which you can view, using the drop down menu at the top left.  

I'm sharing some of that below.

---  beginning of text from the report ----

Dashboard Walkthrough
 

In addition to static figures, an interactive dashboard was developed using Plotly to provide a more flexible view of participation trends. The dashboard displays ZIP codes shaded by intensity, where darker colors represent higher levels of activity. Users can explore the data dynamically through a dropdown menu that switches between four key metrics:

Total Participation: Shows the overall number of participants from each ZIP code. This view highlights the most active regions and provides a baseline for geographic engagement.

Change in Participation: Displays year‐to‐year changes in participation by ZIP code. Areas shaded in stronger colors indicate growth, while lighter or negative values highlight declines. This view is useful for spotting emerging regions or places where engagement has tapered off.

New Members: Focuses on participants attending for the first time. This metric helps identify ZIP codes that are contributing fresh engagement and expanding the community base.

Recurring Members: Highlights ZIP codes with participants who attended multiple times.

Then they provided this Data Analysis.

The data included thousands of individual entries. Most participants came from Illinois, with a strong cluster centered in Chicago and nearby cities such as Evanston, Oak Park, and Cicero. Outside Illinois, several states, including Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, showed consistent participation across multiple years.

The total participant count increased gradually from the 1990s through the early 2010s, suggesting a steady growth in engagement. However, the participation rate dropped slightly in the final years, likely due to changes in outreach or available data coverage. (Note - this was largely due to less funding available to host and market the conferences following the 2011 decision of the Board of Directors to discontinue support of the Tutor/Mentor Connection part of the Cabrini Connections nonprofit, that was launched in late 1992. While I formed the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC to keep this strategy available to Chicago, I never found significant funding due to no longer operating as a 501-c-3 non profit.)

Geographic concentration: Participation spanned 616 ZIP codes across 45 states, but Illinois dominated with about 66% of all participants. Chicago alone accounted for over 5,500 entries, underscoring its role as the central hub. After 2005, participation gradually expanded into nearby states such as Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, reflecting regional growth. (This also reflected the growing use of the Internet since the early 2000s).

Organizational diversity: More than 1,532 unique organizations were represented. Nonprofit and education-related groups contributed the majority of attendees, while donor and policy-focused organizations made up a smaller share, highlighting a sector imbalance.

Temporal trends: Yearly participation fluctuated, peaking in the late 1990s and early 2000s, followed by a gradual decline after 2010. This suggests that outreach strategies or conference accessibility may have shifted in later years. (As noted above, there were less funds available after 2011.  However, there also was growing competition as others hosted their own networking events.  And with the Internet, there were fewer reasons for people to attend face-to-face events.)

The report concluded with this INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

Our analysis has shown strong participation from nonprofits and educators, but limited involvement from donors and policymakers. This imbalance suggests that the conferences primarily served as spaces for practitioners and community‐based organizations rather than funding institutions. While this helped strengthen grassroots connections, it also limited opportunities for broader institutional influence and resource mobilization. 

The interactive dashboard provides a clearer picture of how participation evolved across ZIP codes and years. By toggling between metrics such as total participation, change in participation, new members, and recurring members, several patterns emerge:

● Community clusters: The dashboard shows that nonprofit and education‐related ZIP codes consistently appear with high intensity, especially in Illinois. Many of these areas also show strong recurring member counts, reinforcing the persistence of local and regional communities over time. (Note. if you view many of the maps on this blog you'll see where poverty is concentrated in the Chicago region. If there were a demographic overlay to the IVMOOC map it would show most of the participating organizations came from these high poverty areas. That was our goal.)

● Peripheral actors: When switching to the “new members” view, donor and policy‐related ZIP codes appear less frequently and with weaker intensity. Their limited presence suggests missed opportunities to expand engagement beyond practitioner and educator communities.

● Regional hubs: Chicago and surrounding Illinois ZIP codes dominate across all dashboard views, acting as central hubs of participation. After 2005, the dashboard highlights new activity in Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, showing geographic expansion and gradual integration of neighboring states into the conference network.

● Retention vs. outreach: The dropdown comparison between recurring members and new members reveals a balance between retention and outreach. Some ZIP codes show strong recurring participation, indicating long‐term commitment, while others contribute more new members, highlighting successful outreach into fresh regions. Together, these dashboard insights suggest that while the conferences were highly effective at sustaining nonprofit and education networks, future outreach could focus on strengthening donor and policy participation and leveraging regional growth beyond Illinois.

--- end of text from the report ----

The report reinforces what I recognized since launching the conferences in 1994.  We were attracting many of the volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in the Chicago region, along with some of the university programs and researchers involved in doing this work.  Occasionally we had participation from foundations, business, universities and local media.  However, we never were able to attract a large and consistent following of business, philanthropy and policy representatives.

This concept map visualizes the long-term goal of bringing people from every sector together in an on-going effort to learn where youth need extra help, how volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs can expand networks and learning opportunities, and ways business, philanthropy and public policy need to support programs in every high poverty neighborhood, not just a few.

Open this page and view a second concept map that visualizes the different networks who we were trying to connect via the conferences, our website library and on-going social media efforts. 

As long as donors, business and policy makers live in silos, disconnected from organizations doing the work and people being served, there will be too few resources distributed consistently and in too few places.

The 2025 IVMOOC team report shows that we were not very successful at this. Had I had the report in the mid 2000s I might have been able to recruit leaders to help.  However, part of the reason I never was able to accomplish all that we were trying to do was the loss of major donors in 2000 when Montgomery Ward went out of business, and the dot-com bubble burst, then 2001 to 2003 following the 9/11 attack.  We were just recovering in 2007 and 2008 and had earned several grants of $50,000 or more, when the financial crisis began, causing us to lose major supporters like HSBC North America, and ultimately in mid 2011 causing the Board of Directors to decide to focus only on the direct service part of the organization.

As you look at this report, visit this page and look at the Network Mapping tool created by a second 2025 IVMOOC team.   These show two ways of looking at participation in an event, or network, and of understanding "who's participating" and "who's missing".   Until those who are missing are involved, the network will continue to struggle to achieve significant impact.

Thank you to the students who created both of the 2025 IVMOOC visualizations and reports. I look forward to being part of the Spring 2026 project cycle.  I also look forward to hearing from readers how they are using this information.  Just share in the comments, or reach out to me on LinkedIn. 

Using Concept Maps to Understand Systems

 While most of the articles on this blog focus on the use of GIS maps, which I started doing in 1993 as I formed the Tutor/Mentor Connection,  I've used a few articles to show my use of concept maps.  Visit this section and this section of the Tutor/Mentor blog and you'll find many more.

Today I found another example of concept maps being used to help understand complex systems.  I'll show a few screen shots below, then I encourage you to go to the site and do your own exploring.

Open this link and you'll be introduced to a Child Care Systems map that "explores the current reality of the childcare system in low to middle income communities in India, Bangladesh, Viet Nam, South Africa and Kenya.  

On most KUMU maps the explanation of each node is shown on a left hand sidebar.  That's true on this map, too.  In this case, there's an in-depth explanation of what the map is trying to show.  All of the nodes on the map are shown in the above graphic.

At the top of the map are labels, such as "deep structure", "family and community", "gender equity", #policies and resources, and "social and economic development".

At the lower left is a legend that shows what category of information each color represents. You can click on any of these and get a view that only shows nodes of that category. 

Click on "deep structure" and you'll get this view. 

What I really like about this map is that while information can be seen on the left, this map includes clarifying information directly on the map.  Click any node and a "pop up" text box appears. Even the "orange arrows" surrounding some nodes have text boxes.

Click on "gender equity" and you'll see this view.

Click on "policies and resources" and see this view.

Click on "social and economic development" and see this view.

In this article on the Tutor/Mentor blog I showed slides from a Global Futures Society Network Map.

This map shows "who" is involved and how they are connected to each other.  If used in combination with a map like the Child Care Systems map, it seems that there could be a robust, on-going conversation that might lead to fixing some of the problems addressed on the Child Care Systems map.

In this article, titled "Mapping Event Participation" I show my own efforts since the late 2000s to map participation in conferences that I hosted, with a goal of connecting those who attended with each other, and building an analysis of "who's there" and "who's missing".  

These are powerful tools, if used in on-going planning, network building and capacity building.  

In this article I wrote about mapping assets within universities and of creating an on-campus Tutor/Mentor Connection, where students, faculty and alumni would do the work I've done for the past 30 years, and the work that I'm now showing about the use of concept maps.

If you've read this article, please share it with people in your network who have the wealth that could lead to funding a university-based Tutor/Mentor Connection, based on the ideas I've shared.  Share it with students who might want to do this work as independent study, or for information visualization courses, like the IVMOOC course offered at Indiana University.

Maybe someone in your network will be the 'tipping point' that make this a reality.

Thanks for reading. Please connect with me on one or more of the social media platforms that I show on this page.

If you're able please contribute to my December 19th 79th birthday campaign, or my Fund T/MI campaign.  

Cook County (IL) Digital Equity Map

I'm always looking for websites showing uses of maps to focus attention and resources on many locations where people need extra help.  Below is the Cook County Digital Equity Map.

You can find the map here.  Click here to find information about how the IMPACT Small Grants Program is providing funding and storytelling support to local nonprofits, media organizations and libraries throughout Cook County.   

Join in the on-line Chicago Hack Night presentation this coming Tuesday (Nov 4, 2025) at 7pm and learn more about this program and an IMPACT Small Grants Program.  If you can't make the live presentation all Chicago Hack Night events are recorded so you can watch them later.

City Bureau is partnering with the Cook County Board on this IMPACT Small Grants Program. 

As you look at the Cook County map, look at this visual essay that I created in 2015 to show ways to use maps to focus attention and resources on EVERY high poverty area of Chicago and its suburbs. 

In this presentation I show maps of Cook County Commissioner districts, along with other political districts, like Chicago Aldermanic Wards and Illinois State Legislative districts.

Below I show maps of Cook County Commission Districts 2 and 3, and shootings that took place in their districts. 

I did not see a feature on the Digital Equity map that sorts the information by district.  How can Commissioners be held accountable if voters can't see where people need help, and where help is going?

I'd love to see maps on websites of every elected official that mirror the thinking I share in this visual essay.  It shows a collaboration across districts, focusing on shared geography, and shared commitment to helping people who need extra help.

Maybe this is being done somewhere. If you know of such sites, please share the link.  If not, share my presentation with elected officials and encourage them to build a platform with this functionality.

Thanks for reading.  

I've been sharing this message for over 30 years, but far too few people have seen it and thus, too few are applying the ideas. You can help, just by sharing my posts.

Connect with me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, BlueSky, Twitter and other platforms. Find links on this page.

If you value what I'm sharing, please chip in to help me pay the bills. Visit this page. 

New example of using maps in planning

Below are two maps from an interactive tool created by Kindred Futures, that maps pathways to building collective Black wealth in the Southeast part of the USA.

 

These two maps are part of a set of maps that you can find at this page.  While the story features Atlanta, the interactive platform enables you to create map stories for any part of the states shown on the map.  If enough of these stories are created and shared, they can attract more interest, volunteers and investors to support the goals stated on the website.

If you browse through articles I've posted on this blog, and the Tutor/Mentor blog you'll see that I've encouraged people to create map-platforms that provide information that informs and can be used in planning.  

What's next?

My only hope is that the developers will take a further step and collect information about existing youth tutor, mentor and learning programs and plot that on maps, the way I've done for many years.  This article highlights 30 years of using maps. 

In this article you can see how I share maps created by others and show how they might be improved by adding some of the features that were put into our mapping  platforms between 2004 and 2008. 

In total, these articles are intended to stimulate thinking and innovation in how intermediaries collect data and share it on interactive platforms, with the goal of drawing resources directly to youth serving programs shown on the map, or to help leaders see where more programs need to be built.

If you're creating a platform like the ones I'm showing, post a link to your site in the comment section. Then connect with me on one of these social media channels. 

I found this 2014 interview today on Mastodon

Below is a post that I found on Mastodon.social today when I did a search for #youthdevelopment.

This is an interview of me (Dan Bassill) recorded by Phil Shapiro in 2014.  You can listen to it here. Note. This is a platform called "MakerTube" not "YouTube".  

I hope you'll take time to listen to it. Phil is a librarian from the Washington, DC area.  It shows how Phil and I met in an Internet discussion group in the early 2000s and have stayed connected through constantly changing Internet platforms in the years since then.  While the interview is from 2014, Phil shared it in August 2025.  Wow.

During the interview I pointed Phil to a series of article about my use of concept maps, that I wrote in late 2014 and 2015.  You can find the collection at this link. 

If you listen to the entire interview (about 32 minutes) you'll see that I end with the goal that alumni of the programs I led will some day take my place leading this effort.  That was 10 years ago. It's still my goal, only I'm now a lot older.

Since doing the interview in 2014 I've moved my library of concept maps to this page on my Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC website.  And, you can find 93 articles that feature concept maps on the Tutor/Mentor blog. 

Thanks Phil for doing the interview in 2014 and sharing it on Mastodon.  Maybe a few more people will take a look.

This was not the first time Phil boosted my work.  Take a look at this 2009 article that Phil posted in PCWorld, titled "Crowdsourcing the MacArthur Awards". 

Thanks for reading.  You can find me on LinkedIn, Mastodon, BlueSky, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and a few other places. (see links on this page).

If you value what I'm doing and can help,  please visit this page and make a contribution to help fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. 

Explore the maps. Create your own stories.

I've been using maps since 1994 to show where Chicago area kids need extra help based on the level of poverty and inequality in the areas where they live. This blog was created in 2008 to show maps my organization was creating. Since 2011 the blog has shared maps created using our interactive map-based Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator. 

The Program Locator has only been available as an archive since around 2017, so the blog has been used to show data platforms hosted by others.  Below is a concept map showing some of the platforms found in this section of the Tutor/Mentor library.

On this concept map I've circled one node, titled "Education data".  Click on the small box at the bottom of the node and you see three links.  I opened the one titled "Education Opportunity Map".

This is the "Education Opportunity Project at Stanford University".  This page shows three projects. I chose the "Segregation Tracking Project" and opened the map shown below.

In the lower right is a legend. The green shading shows the level of White-Black Segregation between schools in each state, with the dark green being the most segregated.   The orange shading shows the percent of White Students in individual schools, with the darker Orange being the highest.

I zoomed in to the Chicago region, to the map-view shown below.  This map shows the level of segregation in individual schools.  Just click on any of the dots and a pop-up will show the name of the school and level of segregation.

I zoomed in as far as the site would allow.  The map below shows the South Side of Chicago.

The dark green background shows that this is a highly segregated area and the white dots showing individual schools, confirms that.

I've written about segregation several times in past years.  Open this link to find articles on this site, and open this link to find articles on the Tutor/Mentor blog. 

Now create your own map stories. 

Explore the data platforms shown on the concept map at the top of this article. Zoom into your own city, state and/or neighborhood.  Learn about needs and opportunities. 

Then brows my blog and use my articles as templates, to see how you might embed maps in articles and/or videos intended to draw more people to information about race, segregation and inequality, and to draw more people to organizations working with youth and families living in areas of persistent poverty.

Students in middle school, high school and college can learn to do this. At some point in the future every city should have at least one blog like this one, sharing datamaps and stories created by others, and drawing attention to places where people need extra help.

I've created many visual essays that show how maps and map-stories, created by many people, can have a huge impact on changing public policy and influencing the flow of needed resources into high poverty, highly segregated neighborhoods.  Here' one example. 

Find more like that in this collection. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you'll share this, and your own work.  Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky and Mastodon (see links here). 

I depend on help from a small group of donors to fund the work I'm doing.  Please visit this page and add your own support.