Learning, network building and innovation

Since March 2025 I've not added new links to the Tutor/Mentor library since the site was being upgraded. That work finished last week so I've added many links that I'd seen in the past few months. 

Below is a view of the VizDex website, which is a library of personal and independent blogs and newsletters dedicated to data visualization.   

I saw mention of this on one of my social media feeds and once I visited the site I asked if my MappingforJustice blog would qualify.  The answer was "yes" as you can see from the image I've posted.

I've now added that link to my own library.  For the past few years, as I've added new links, I notified viewers by putting that link on my "new additions" page.  Below you can see the "new links for 2025" page.

When you look at this list, note that under every listing is a "find in this section" statement, with a link to the section of the library where I added the link.

In this case, it points to a page where I've several dozen links to websites that demonstrate uses of concept maps and visualization. 

These are in alphabetical order so you need to scroll to the bottom of the list to find the VizDex site. As you do you'll find many more sites where you can learn ways to use concept maps and visualizations.

One of those you'll see is this Power Mapping article on a website named "The Commons: Social Change Library". 

This article is particularly relevant because it describes my own vision of using concept maps to "know the network, then nudge the network".  And it's part of a much larger library of social change information managed by The Commons. 

Below is a page from a visual essay where I describe how the links I point to are experts in specific topics and often host libraries of their own.  Thus, I don't need to have "everything" in my own library if I can point to others who have greater depth of specific topics than I have.

I've posted several articles on the Tutor/Mentor library showing how my library was intended to stimulate innovation and constant improvement within the youth/workforce development ecosystem. In this article I included this statement.

I started building a library of research and peer tutor/mentor program information in the 1970s, to stimulate the thinking and innovation of volunteers working with me to build the tutor/mentor program I was leading at the Montgomery Ward Corporation in Chicago. As I created my library, began sharing it with peers, leading other programs. I formalized this information collection/sharing in 1993 when I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Now I host an extensive web library of information, with links to more than 2000 other web sites, that anyone in Chicago, or the world, can dig into to find "carrots" that inspire their own innovation and constant improvement.

I was pleased that the VizDex leaders added this blog to their list. I wish more were doing the same and that we were working collectively toward motivating more people to use the libraries for on-going learning and problem solving.  Furthermore, I'd love to find people using the Power Mapping ideas who are building maps showing the ecosystem needed to change policy and make more, and better, long-term youth development, learning and career development resources available in every area with concentrations of persistent poverty.  

We need to be connected and working collectively to draw attention to the resources we are sharing.

Thanks for reading.  I hope you'll connect with me on LinkedIn, BlueSky, Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon and other platforms and share links to your own libraries and blogs.  

I also ask that you consider making a contribution to help me fund the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC so I can continue to keep the library on-line and freely available to the world.  Click here to learn more.