Community Mapping: Who to engage, where, and how to keep track (OLS Seeds to Systems 2026)

Developed for OLS Seeds to Systems Pilot Cohort (2026) Abstract: Communities are made of people, so designing for them means knowing who they are. This session offers a practical framework for mapping a research community around four questions: who is in it, where the connections are, whose engagement to prioritise, and how to manage the data. We start from the purpose of the community, whether a collaborative ecosystem or a market tool, and what “healthy” looks like for that purpose. We then look at how mapping people and organisations can show the difference between connections created by organisational structure and those created by real collaboration. We use interest and influence to choose how to engage different groups, and discuss the consent, privacy and data practices that make this work responsible. Examples of our mapping practice are provided for from four research communities, showing how visualisation informed strategy in each. The session closes with signposting to RCM-CRM, an open-source, zero-cost reproducible mapping toolkit built on Baserow and Kumu, and a take-home exercise to start mapping your own community.