Goal of Maps Created by T/MC; A Bridge Too Far

I created the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) in 1993 to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago. One strategy to accomplish this goal was to create map-stories that would show locations where news media had focused full or half-page attention to a negative news story. Below is an example from the 1990s.

We were using donated ESRI software at that time.  As you know, maps are layers of information, drawn from spreadsheet data.  In the graphic above, you can see the newspaper story we were focusing on, and you can see a map, color coded to show high poverty areas. You can also see what section of the city this was in.  

If you click on the image and enlarge it you can see that on the map we have icons showing known non school tutoring and/or mentoring programs in the map area, plus locations of poorly performing schools in the area, and assets (businesses, faith groups, hospitals).

Below is another example, showing how map stories can be created following news stories that focus on the tragedy, but seldom on strategies to prevent future occurrences of the same bad news.

On an interactive map you'd be able to look at these tables, but with maps created on a desk top set up, we needed to print the tables and post them with the maps, as shown here. View this slide show to see several other map-stories from 1990s, with data tables included.

To create these map required people with special GIS map making talent. I depended on volunteers to do this work between 1994-2008, except for a few intern hours I was able to fund in 1994-1995.  I could never find foundations who'd provide the funds to do this work.

It was not until 2008 that we found funds, via an anonymous donor who gave a one time gift of $50,000,  to re-create our desk top mapping as an interactive program locator that went live in 2009.  This map has the same layers of information as the one above.  You can zoom into different sections of the city and add layers of data to create map views, like shown below. You can mouse over icons and see who the organization is. You can double click on green stars and go directly to the web site of organizations on the map.

Unfortunately we ran out of money to finish developing this in 2009 and the financial crisis that started in 2007 ultimately caused the non profit that created the T/MC to discontinue support for this strategy. Not only was I not able to finish developing the platform, I've not been able to update it since 2011 and since 2013 several parts are no longer working.

Thus, I was never able to build in the features that would enable users to pull up data tables for the map areas shown, which is a common feature for sophisticated GIS map platforms. I was also not able to build layers showing Chicago political wards, or, police, library and fire stations.

Nor was I able to market this extensively and teach youth organizations, media, donors and policy-makers to use it.

At the peak of our service between 2008 and 2011 we were creating map stories using our desk-top ARC GIS software, donated by ESRI, and also creating map stories using the interactive map.  Visit this map gallery to see maps and stories created using the desk top. View this section of the Tutor/Mentor blog to see map stories created using the Interactive Program Locator.

However, this was still not the final goal. The graphic below shows what had been created, but also points to functions that are still on the drawing board.  The goal of the T/MC was to help programs grow, which meant helping them get the dollars needed to grow.

If you look at this page on the Tutor/Mentor Planning wiki, you can see a vision for using a map platform to attract donors to programs shown on the map, using map-stories and quarterly events to attract donor attention and point it to different neighborhoods.  Our goal was to have donations made via a special overlay, so that we could capture donation amounts per year, for each organization, and aggregate that data for each zip code or community area.  

Thus, we'd be able to show what neighborhoods were less funded than other neighborhoods and attempt to motivate additional funding by sharing this information.  In doing so, we could increase the flow of needed operating dollars to tutor/mentor and learning programs in all high poverty neighborhoods of Chicago, meaning more kids would get the extra help they need to move through school and into jobs.

Furthermore, by not being able to get this model fully functioning in Chicago, we've not been able to share it, or lease it, to other cities, and we've not been able to create version that would focus on other supports needed in each high poverty neighborhood.

All of this is still possible. It just takes the commitment of one or two benefactors/investors/partners and the talent of one or two web developers.  When working, the model could apply to any city.

Why I Attend Chicago Hack Night events

I've been attending Chicago Hack Night events for at least 2 years and I'm writing this article to help celebrate their 200th weekly gathering.  This image is from this week's event, where the Heartland Alliance presented information. You can see me in the middle, sitting by the wall. That's my usual spot. Helps me see better.

So why do I attend?

First, I'm not a technologist. I've been using technology as a tool to work smarter, think better, share ideas and network with others since the early 1980s.  I attend Hack Night meetings because I'm inspired by the ideas shared by speakers. I'm inspired by the talent and the work being done by people who are attending. I'm also  hoping to share from my own knowledge and experiences, while finding volunteers to help with my own work.

Here's a few highlights from my journey through technology and innovation, starting in 1980, when I was one of the first people at the Montgomery Ward Corporate Office in Chicago to have an Apple Lisa on their desk.  Ron Mantegna and Ken Novak, peers in the Retail Advertising department, were the catalysts who suggested that using the computer to create ad diagrams and update them would be more time efficient that doing them by hand, since the company changed ad plans so frequently.  At first, pepole laughed at me sitting at the computer, and called it a toy. By 1990 the entire multi million dollar ad planning and development process at Montgomery Ward was computerized based on the work we started in the early 1980s.

I tell this story because it has repeated over and over for the past 30 years. Others with better knowledge of how computers and the Internet work have prodded me to adopt new ideas and have supplied the tech talent to help me implement those ideas.  In the early 1980s it was Ken Novak who introduced me to Excel and helped me create a forecasting system that was used in the advertising planning process and generated millions of dollars of benefit. Later it was Ken who introduced new versions of technology, and this idea called "email".

As I applied these tools for my retail advertising job, I also applied them in my role as the volunteer leader of the tutoring program at Montgomery Ward.  While we spent millions on mass communications to draw people to 400 stores around the country, I spent time and talent to create mass communications (starting with duplicating machines) that told our 200-300 volunteers what to expect each week at the tutoring sessions.

In 1997 my first web site was created by the brother of one of our volunteers. Then, in 1998, Matt Mead, another one of our volunteers, said "I understand you're trying to build a web site. I can do that for you."

When Matt and I started talking I said "We'll need people with different talents to help us."  So, he created this graphic as the home page for the www.tutormentorconnection.org site that he built for me, using a technology called 'revista' which enabled me to edit text on the site. In 2005 this site was rebuilt using dot.net.nuke, by a team from IUPUI in Indianapolis. 

I've used this hub and spoke design over and over since then to communicate how I was trying to connect others to myself, and each other, in a constantly growing community of people and ideas focused on helping inner-city kids have the extra support they each need to move through school and into jobs.

In 1999, Steve Roussos, who was then a PhD student at the university of Kansas, used power point to create this visualization to describe the work I was doing. He called it a "Tutor/Mentor Learning Network", and drafted this paper to describe it to donors. I've built hundreds of power point presentations since then, inspired by Steve's work, including this PDF.  Steve was also the creator of the www.tutormentorexchange.net web site in 1998, which now is the home site for the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC. In 2000-2001, he also created an on-line documentation system called OHATS (Organizational History and Tracking System), modeled after work being done from the University of Kansas.


While I started collecting information about Chicago tutor/mentor programs in 1993, I did not have an idea of how to display that information until the librarian at the United Way/Crusade of Mercy showed me a geography magazine, and one of my volunteers at IBM introduced me to GIS mapping, and to the Metro Chicago Information Center in 1993.

I started mapping the database of programs in 1994 and published the first Chicago Tutor/Mentor Programs Directory in 1995, with contact information and address for more than 120 different youth serving organizations, along with dozens of more organizations who were working in some way to improve the life-outcomes for kids in poverty.

When I started the T/MC web site in 1998 this list of other organizations became the core of a web library that now points to more than 2000 other web sites, including Chicago Hack Night and similar data networking groups.  If you look at the link to the web library, you'll see it's outlined  using a concept map (CMAP tools), which was introduced to me by a former Peace Corps worker in 2005. I've created a whole library of concept maps since then.

In 2004 an intern from IIT and India recognized my goal of sharing this information on the Internet, and created a searchable program locator that duplicated what was in the printed Directory. This enabled users to search by zip code, type of program and age group served, to produce a map showing that program, and others in the same zip code.

In 2007 another volunteer from India, added an interactive map feature to the program locator, enabling us to zoom into neighborhoods to not only find organizations based on age group, type of program and time of day, but to also see indicators showing where the programs are most needed, and what assets were in that area who could be collaborating to help sustain existing programs or build new programs.

Now (when this is working properly) users can create their own neighborhood map view, to help bring others together to help support existing program or build new ones to fill voids.  This PDF describes how to make your own map using this program locator, or other data maps that now are available on the internet. Browse this blog, and the Tutor/Mentor blog, and you'll find many examples of this type of map-story.

In 2009 Valdis Krebs, one of the world's foremost experts on Social Network Analysis, spoke at the Tutor/Mentor Conference that I hosted in Chicago, then donated software that interns could  use to create maps showing participation in Tutor/Mentor Conferences.  This blog shows maps created in 2010. This article shows how I'm still trying to find interns and volunteers to create maps and visualizations that show how networks grow as a result of the work I and other innovators do.

When I attend Chicago Hack Night and similar gatherings of tech and data visualization people, I'm trying to connect with talented people who will help me continue to build tools and visualizations that bring people and ideas together and focus actions on places where time, talent and dollars will be needed for many, many years. I'm also sharing ideas from my own experiences and library, that others can apply in their own work.

The Chicago Hack Night has a tradition of letting everyone introduce themselves at the beginning of each week's gathering. As I do this, I am posting my intro on Twitter, as I did this week.

#chihacknight intros. I'm Dan. Search Tutor Mentor on Google. My Web sites in first 10. View images; see my use of #maps, #visualizations

— Daniel Bassill (@tutormentorteam) March 29, 2016

Last September I saw a Tweet with a network analysis map like this. I followed it and introduced myself to Marc Smith, who then pointed me to information that I could use to learn about NodeXL, and how I could ask him to create similar maps for me.  I created this tutorial so others could learn from my own journey.   

If every participant of a networking event, or conference, hosted by someone in Chicago or another city, were to post a tweet with #chihacknight , etc. maps using NODEXL could show who was participating and how they are connected to each other. Such maps can demonstrate the impact event organizers are having, while also helping participants expand their own networks and find talent and sponsors who will  help them with the work they are doing.

I really appreciate Chicago Hack Night and it's organizers and sponsors for creating a space where I can be inspired by the work of others, where I can share ideas that any of the participants might apply in their own work, and where I might find people who will volunteer time, talent and dollars to help me keep doing what I've been trying to do for the past 20 years.

I encourage anyone who has read this far to go to this site and see the many ways Chicago Hack Night is supporting technology innovation in Chicago.

Thus, I'm not a data scientist, or coder, and I depend on the talent of other people to create and maintain the technology platforms that share my ideas and bring people together to help youth in high poverty areas of Chicago. The examples posted on this blog are just a few showing how others have helped me in the past, and can help me again in the future.

They also may serve as inspiration for a project someone in Chicago, or elsewhere in the world, will develop and apply in the future.

While I'm not able to stay each week and contribute on the many projects in process, I'm available to connect between sessions to offer suggestions and/or point people to some of the resources and ideas I share.  Just Tweet me @tutormentorteam or introduce yourself in the comment section below.

Solving Poverty. Who Needs to Be Involved?

If you're trying to build a team to solve a problem, you need to attract people who have the talent and skills needed, or who can recruit others who have needed skills. I've created concept maps and visualizations such as the one at the left to serve as a worksheet that I and others can use to recruit needed talent.

Building this team requires a constant process of invitation, via social media, newsletters, one-on-one networking, etc. Unless you are able to fill key talent roles, you end up doing necessary work on your own. If you don't have needed talents, you struggle.

I've hosted Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conferences in Chicago, every six months since May 1994. The goal is to attract people with talent, skills and civic reach who will help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs grow in all high poverty neighborhoods, as part of their own commitment to reduce poverty, improve opportunity, fill workforce needs, etc. See how maps can be used by reading other articles on this blog.

In an effort to help people who attend connect with each other I launched an on-line attendee list in 2007. I started using GIS maps a couple of years ago to show where people came from, and what group they were part of (business, philanthropy, programs, etc.) In 2010 an intern from DePaul University use a Social Network Analysis (SNA) tool to create maps showing participation in 2008 and 2009 conferences. You can read her map-stories here.

I've not had consistent talent to do this work so was delighted when invited to be a client for a 2015 Information Visualization MOOC hosted by Indiana University.

The team has finished their work and this is one visualization that was created. You can see it and other visualizations in this final report. I encourage you to visit this page on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum to learn more of this project and see work that was done.

Why is this important? As a nation we are not very good at pulling people together and building a long-term focus on solving complex problems. Read more.

While my organization has always been small, it's even smaller since 2011. Thus, the few people I can gather at Tutor/Mentor Conferences are a small sample of the talent and networks who need to be supporting the growth of mentor rich programs in all poverty neighborhoods of the Chicago region (or other cities), and helping kids in these programs move through school and into jobs.

My goal is that organizers of other events focused on the same issues begin to follow my example, and create maps that show who's participating, what neighborhoods are represented, and who else needs to be involved. If you're already doing this, share your maps; connect your network. By mapping participation over many years, which is what I'm trying to show since I've been hosting conferences since 1994, we should be able to show if people are staying involved, or if involvement grows over time. This information should lead to more support for those who do this well, and more lessons for others who need to do it well.

My next conference is Friday, May 8 and it will have a small turnout.. unless readers share this and encourage others to attend. If you'd like to work with the same data the IVMOOC students were working with, and create more maps and analysis of the Tutor/Mentor Conferences, please contact me.

Visit the Tutor/Mentor Institute Blog and read more about network building, complex problem solving, etc.

Talent and Leadership Needed to Achieve Goals

While this blog focuses on ways maps and visualizations can be used to communicate holistic strategies that reach more youth, in more places, with comprehensive, long-term support, the Tutor/Mentor Blog has a wide range of articles focused on recruiting talent and leaders to make such programs available in Chicago and other cities.

I've been showing a variety of concept maps since last October, which illustrate goals, strategy and information I collect and share. Below is a "talent map", showing the different talents needed to help me do this work.

I think this map could be used as a team building tool by any organization, or intermediary. The center of the graphic, or hub, is the organization and its mission. The spokes in yellow, numbered from 1 to 7, represent key talents that are essential to organizational strength and mission success. In small organizations the leader may have many of these talents, but usually not all. As the organization grows, finding people who share the mission goals and passion, but fill specific talent roles, is one of the greatest challenges.

Each of the talent areas highlighted in yellow, may have several sub-talents. For instance I feel technology talent is critical to the work I do. However, while some people might be able to build a web site, they may not have the skills to build data visualizations, concept maps, or geographic maps, which are key tools to use to communicate holistic strategies. In the Public Awareness spoke there may be some who are good working with traditional media, some who are good at writing stories, some good in creating video stories, and others good in using social media to expand the reach of your message. However, few people have all these skills and most non profits have few people with the time to do this work consistently, or the talent. Thus recruiting talent to fill these roles is another huge challenge for social purpose organization leaders....including myself.

Another version of the Talent Map focuses on the network, or organizational background, talent comes from. The graphic at the right illustrates how people who share the mission, vision, need to help recruit talent and financial support for the organization. Recruiting people who have connections and civic reach within key industry, media, political sectors makes it more likely they have relationships that can draw the on-going support an organization needs.

While I've been creating these visualizations and writing blog articles to share them, I've had help from interns from different universities. Visit this page and this page to see visualizations done by interns. Consider doing some of this work yourself to support organizations you're involved with.

Or offer your talent to fill these roles with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.