Developed by the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute, LiteMap is a Web tool for mapping out visually the content of online debates across different forums and Websites. With LiteMap users can harvest issues, ideas, pros and cons of public debates and connect them in meaningful network graphs. LiteMap supports web annotation and visual summarisation to trigger reflection, promote deeper understanding and improve engagement with online debates.

Features

• A bookmarklet to harvest and annotate content while browsing the Web
• 2-D mapping canvases to connect ideas and build argument maps.
• A Community Website to collaboratively create and share maps.
• A Visualisation Dashboard to support sensemaking and reflection.

Description

Online discussions on issues of public concern are often dispersed across different Websites and Social Media environments. This makes it difficult for stakeholders to make sense of the state and progress of a public debate.

LiteMap is a tool to support sensemaking and summarization of public debates across Web forums and discussion media. By allowing easy markup and annotation through any Web browser, LiteMap enables users to grasp clips of text from an online conversation and make them objects of further reflection and discussion. Within LiteMap content from previously disconnected online conversations and debates can be connected in new meaningful ways. Visual maps can be built by single users or groups to make a point or better communicate ideas and results to others. LiteMap is designed to help both community managers.

Community managers can use LiteMap to organise contributions to the debate, reduce idea duplication, and support content analysis and summarisation.

Community members can use LiteMap for sensemaking and self-reflection: to build a visual representation of their own view of a topic or debate; to communicate personal ideas to others; and to point the community’s attention to important issues.

LiteMap is one of the Catalyst’s ecosystem of Collective Intelligence Tools to improve community deliberation of complex societal challenges.