The ocean mapping protocol got me thinking about a form of mapping I’m more familiar with.
Wardley mapping, as a strategic planning tool, involves visualizing the value chain of a business or service to better understand the system’s components and their relationships. This process inherently includes algorithmic elements as it guides decision-making through a series of steps - determining user needs, mapping these needs onto a value chain, assessing different stages of evolution, and planning based on the positions of these elements.
If a formal “Wardley Mapping Protocol” we were to establish, it might standardize how Wardley maps are created, shared, and interpreted across different organizations or sectors. It’s what lies at the intersection that interests me most. This could potentially have been an interesting PIG
I recently funded an ocean mapping protocol that’s the opposite of this: small, new tech, bottoms-up. It will be interesting to track these two initiatives in parallel.
FWIW I think you need both: big, global standards coordination and small, emergent protocols.