Amplifying Local Voices

Central to the Cognitive Edge approach is the conviction that storytellers are best qualified to interpret what their own narratives mean. Snowden has devised a simple system that enables people to put their stories into context. For example, if people are sharing stories about justice in their community, they might be asked whether a specific example is more about retribution, restitution, or revenge. They show how their story relates to those three potentially intertwining meanings by placing a dot on a triangle.

Cognitive Edge’s proprietary software, called SenseMaker, then turns this raw information into data that can be visually represented and analyzed to reveal patterns. With large volumes of data, the result “is like a 3-D landscape,” Snowden says. “You are able to see patterns, attitudes, and belief systems,” as stories form clusters around particular topics. The data can be filtered according to the storyteller’s gender, age, or other variables.

Read more at Stanford Social Innovation Review

Story Tools for Community Organisations at Global Giving

This is a brief overview of the story-based method GlobalGiving piloted for monitoring a large network of community-based organizations...

• We gathered a large body of community stories that revealed what people in various communities believed they needed, what services they were getting, and what they would like to see happen in the future.

• We analyzed these narratives for patterns using SenseMaker®. The contextual questions associated with each story provide a perspective with both depth and breadth: Broad enough to inform a local organization’s strategic thinking about the root causes of complex problems Detailed enough to trigger specific action by local organizations

• We shared stories back with local organizations, thanked scribes and storytellers via SMS, and worked 1-on-1 to support learning from feedback. This part is still a work in progress.

We are sharing what we've learned from this pilot. We are enthusiastic about the potential of this method to inform learning and decision-making among implementing organizations, funding organizations, and communities. Here is an overview of the presentation we made at the American Evaluation Association conference.