Thread by @swardley

X : Is mapping a cult where you pay to get access to hidden knowledge of the inner circle?
Me : My work is research. I use mapping. I occassionaly teach it. Mapping is all creative commons. #MapCamp is as low cost as we can make it (this year we managed to make it free) ...

... mapping doesn't help everyone, I emphasise how it's imperfect, it's a model and hence it's wrong but it seems to be useful. I've spent a lot of time helping others. Yes,I charge for workshops because that takes me away from research but I do an awful lot of community work ...

... I think it's not unreasonable to say that the value the community has gained from mapping vastly exceeds the few workshops I might have given to large corporate by factors of hundred of thousands or more ...

... so by all means call me a cult leader, that's fine. Just remember at the heart of this cult is an ethics of care - care for others, helping others and creative commons. It's not a transactional culture trying to squeeze money out of anyone - UK Gov or otherwise ...

... and I've seen cults in tech, the tyranny of Agile - it wasn't appropriate, it didn't help.

Mapping may not be your thing, and that's fine because nothing is universally useful. There's no dogma with maps ... there is doctrine but that's my lousy word choices.

So, if there is a motto I have then it's give vastly more than you take. I feel that I have lived that my whole life. I suppose that's why I feel hurt being described as a cult leader of some extractive community ... that's not mapping, never was, never will be.

But, I won't shy away from the fact that it could become that. This is a reasonable challenge. Which is why, after talking with @jacquitaylorfb (and thank you for that) ... I need to move mapping itself into some form of open source and community driven foundation.

So even thought the comments caused hurt, it indirectly lead to a conversation with others (e.g. Jacqui) which itself has led to something positive.

So, I suppose I should say thank you for calling me an extractive cult leader. It has lead to what I consider a positive outcome.

X : Would the foundation govern standards of maps?
Me : No. I'm not considering that. I'm looking at a way of consolidating and promoting the values i.e. the community nature, the sharing etc.

What I am concerned over is the potential for an extractive nature to emerge, for it to become an orthodoxy ... I would like to further embed sharing, challenge and learning in the heart of mapping. This is why the cult leader challenge was important and timely.

I suppose this will also be another experiment. A first outing in anger for my map of culture ... how to use what I know to enable and reinforce values of sharing, of learning, of community, of challenge within a collective. We will need to start that "Me" vs "We" discussion ...

... because any foundation needs to come from the community, to be owned by the community, to represent the values within the community.

Some have said, shouldn't you be the beneficial dictator ... to which the answer is no. That just reinforces any cult like aspect either now or in the future (if the collective survives). I'll start this journey by a more radical path, sortition will govern.