At Yostfish, we've created a unique cluster of conceptual tools that we call "participatory cartography." Participatory cartography involves bringing groups together and inviting them to participate in mapping out an experience that they're having as a community. This process can be done to various ends, depending on the outcome the community is trying to achieve. 

Some specific examples of participatory cartography include:

• Complexity Mapping: This is a problem and analysis technique that involves bringing groups together and, using software and some visual diagramming methods that we've developed, creating a visual diagram of how the community diagnoses the issues or constraints that it's experiencing. In addition to capturing issues and constraints, we also capture positive deviants or places in the system where specific people and/or organizations are succeeding despite working under the same constraints as those that are not succeeding. 

• Ripple Effect Mapping: This is an evaluative mapping technique that's typically used at the end of a project. Ripple effect mapping involves bringing together a group and having them tell you about how the work they've been doing has had an unforeseen effect. Where has the work impacted the community? Where has it affected other communities? How has the work had an unforeseen ripple effect on the behaviors, norms, and patterns of specific groups or people?

• Active Sensemaking: Active sensemaking, also known as Participatory Narrative Inquiry, involves communities using the power of narrative to understand their own system or develop design principles to launch a new project. We work with groups to co-design a sensor, which is an instrument that's used to provoke the community into telling stories. A sensor could be something like, "Tell me a story about a time when someone affirmed your gifts," or, "Tell me a story about a time when you interacted with a government official and you felt heard, seen, and respected." Once the sensor has been created, we begin collecting stories from community members. Then we'll run those stories through some software in order to generate data visualizations that depict patterns within those narratives. We then put those data visualizations back into the hands of the community and ask them, "What does this mean? What are you seeing as the meaning of the stories you're telling and the patterns that are emerging from those stories? And then from that, what wise action do you want to take moving forward?"  

It's important to note that the above examples are not an exhaustive list. There are many other examples of participatory cartography, including future mapping, social network mapping, counter-mapping, and more. We're also constantly developing new tools for use in participatory cartography.