Creative Mapping

Most people are familiar with the idea of maps as representations of geographical information, and making judgements about distances between places, climate, and maybe even cultures as a result of where they are on a map.

By reading particular map features - such as mountain ranges, uncrossable rivers, jungles and oceans - we also get an idea of how much effort might be involved in crossing a particular sort of terrain.

So how about using maps to tell a different sort of story, such as how close different businesses are in cultural terms?



Here's a 'regional' map...



Or how about this map of a city?



How effective are these maps at implicitly communicating some sort of story about what they depict? For example, how is DRM (Digital Rights Management) or Microsoft depicted in "The Web is Agreement"?

Each of these maps can be used to tell a story. For example, here's a walkthrough of a social entrepreneurship landscape:


The social entrepreneur landscape from David Wilcox on Vimeo.

How are geographical features used in the social entrepreneurship landscape to bring alive the relationship between, or roles played by, different social entrepreneurs and socially minded organisations?