Discovery Infrastructure: Data Source Analysis

An assessment of existing ecosystem maps, directories, and categorization schemas as candidate sources that Discovery Infrastructure drivers could read, organized by how valuable and accessible each is.

Ecosystem Maps, Data Sources, and Categorization Schemas

This page assesses existing ecosystem maps, directories, and categorization schemas as candidate data sources for Discovery Infrastructure, the proposal for a federated way to index, search, and map knowledge across many independently run sources. The drivers that proposal describes would read sources like these. Listing a source here does not mean its producers are partners, have been consulted, or endorse anything on this page.

The following analysis organizes the 60+ items in the directory into categories and evaluates each data source for its usefulness, access method, and relevance to Discovery Infrastructure. Items that are purely directories of other maps, or that are primarily illustrative rather than data-rich, are noted but deprioritized. Note that the directory contains additional information and links to the respective websites for each.

Tier 1 — High-Value Data Sources

These sources contain substantial structured or semi-structured data directly relevant to one or more of the situations described in Why Decentralized Architecture. They should be prioritized for early integration.

Source Producer Entity Types Access Method
Second Renaissance Ecosystem Map Life Itself People, Orgs, Projects, Media Airtable API or CSV export (underlying platform); Cohere embed JSON
Meta-Crisis Meta-Resource Sloww People, Orgs, Projects, Media Static HTML scrape (Obsidian-published vault, consistent structure)
Healthy Democracy Ecosystem Map National Civic League Orgs, Political entities, Land-based Web scrape + partnership outreach; NCL publishes structured reports
P2P Foundation Wiki Michel Bauwens People, Orgs, Projects, Tech, Conceptual MediaWiki API (api.php endpoint, openly licensed)
Hylo Terran Collective People, Orgs, Projects, Land-based GraphQL API (open source, documented)
Weavers Social Trust Map Weavers People, Projects, Land-based, Political Kumu JSON export (public embed URL)
Big Map to Save the Future Jon Schull People, Orgs, Projects, Land-based Web scrape + possible direct data partnership
Conscious Change Collective The Garrison Institute and Circles for Conscious Change Orgs, Worldviews Kumu JSON export (public embed URL)
Catalist Catalist People, Orgs, Projects, Frameworks Platform API (partner inquiry needed)
Civic Tech Guide Civic Hall People, Projects, Tech, Political entities Structured HTML scrape

Tier 2 — Specialized or Domain-Specific Sources

These sources are valuable for specific domains or use cases but are not broad enough or accessible enough to be first-priority integrations.

Source Producer Domain Access Method
Restor Restor Land-based projects, bioregions Public API (documented)
One Earth Bioregion Map One Earth Land-based, bioregions Mapbox data layers (public)
Planetary Portal Berggruen Institute Organizations (global governance) Web scrape
NooNAO Brad de Graf People, Orgs, Projects, Bioregions Partnership (WWW working group connection)
Thaumazo Community Mycelium Daniel Lindenberger People, Orgs, Projects, Bioregions Partnership outreach
Web3 Meta-Crisis Wiki Benjamin Life Technologies Static HTML scrape (GitHub Pages)
Decentralized Tech Ecosystem Map Christina Bowen Technologies Kumu JSON export
ReFi Ecosystem ReFi DAO People, Orgs, Projects Web scrape / possible API
Gaianet Ecosystem Gaianet People, Orgs, Projects, Tech, Media Web scrape
SuperConnector MIT People, Projects API (automation-capable per directory)
Global Ecovillage Map Kosha Joubert People, Orgs, Land-based Web scrape (GEN map platform)
Standingwave Bioregional NooNAO / Standingwave Land-based, bioregions Mapbox embed + partnership
ICmatch Ardell Broadbent Connecting IC cofounders for land-based projects Partnership outreach and FB marketing to IC groups

Categorization Schemas

These items do not contribute entity data but provide taxonomic frameworks that can be applied to classify existing entities. A driver could apply them while interpreting a source, to classify the entities it finds.

Schema Producer What It Classifies Application
The Social Change Map Deepa Iyer Organizations, people (by movement role) Apply to all org/person entities — assign roles: builder, disruptor, healer, weaver, etc.
Mapping an Ecology of Integrative Approaches Nørgaard, Hedlund, Meglin (IAM) Organizations, projects (by integrative approach) Apply to liminal web and metacrisis-oriented entities — provides nuanced categorization aligned with IAM ecosystem
Wisdom Age Roote Worldviews Tag entities by worldview affiliation or orientation
Healthy Democracy Ecosystem Map schema National Civic League Civic organizations Classify civic orgs into NCL’s healthy democracy taxonomy
Planetary Portal schema Berggruen Institute Global governance organizations Classify orgs operating at global/institutional scale
Context (IAM) Institute of Applied Metatheory Conceptual frameworks and interconnections Apply IAM’s framework taxonomy to conceptual entities; potential for AI-assisted classification
Connectioning J. Friday Organizations / network actors Categorization schema with automation support — evaluate for use in relationship typing
Conscious Change Collective The Garrison Institute and Circles for Conscious Change Social issues, types of communities served, inner work modalities, faiths, organization role Offer connections between organizations doing conscious change work and organizations doing complementary work in other domains such as regen agriculture, infrastructure development, community organizing, etc.

References

Citation-style references for the maps, directories, and schemas assessed above. URLs are given where openly accessible.