User Guide SDGs ‐ Ecosystem Network Maps
The Ecosystem Network Map is a way to review the Organisations attached to a Transition Card or SDGs Alignment Card that are working on a problem in a place. The map provide users with 3 key insights:
- the number of connections between organisations;
- the structure of the network - it's pattern of connectivity; and
- which organisations can most effectively disseminate information.
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Select Transition Cards or SDGs Alignment Cards from the left-hand side menu bar
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Click on the Transition Card or SDGs Alignment Card from the list that you wish to view
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Select the Ecosystem Map tab in the top left-hand side on this new window
- When viewing the Ecosystem Map, the Labels and Legend can be toggled on and off by using the buttons in the top right-hand side.
- The Legend explains the different colours used to represent the Stakeholder types allocated to each Organisation (ie. Business, Local government, Not for profit, etc). The app comes with a standard list of Stakeholder types to use. This list can be customised by modifying, adding to, or deleting Stakeholder types. To learn how to edit the list of Stakeholder types click here
- Toggling on Labels will show all the names of the Organisations next to their node
Users can see how an Organisation (node) is connected to other Organisations via the Initiatives they are partnering on. Each Organisation is colour coded to show what type of stakeholder they represent. Users can see patterns such as:
- Hubs - where there are Organisations partnering with more Organisations than average
- Unconnected Nodes – where Organisations are not partnering on any Initiatives and are unconnected in the ecosystem map
- Connected Components – where nodes (Organisations) can be reached from one another through their partnering relationships
- Connecting Nodes – where a node (Organisation) acts as a connection between separate connecting components of the network map.
These insights enable users to understand how Organisations are connected across the ecosystem, what types of stakeholders these are, and who needs to be better engaged to increase the solution ecosystems robustness and resilience.
To see how an Organisation is connected to the rest of the Network, you can click and drag the node representing the Organisation
Clicking on an individual node on the Ecosystem Map will create a pop up box that will supply more information about the connectivity of that specific Organisation.
- The name of the Organisation and the Sector of business it belongs to
- Partnering Initiatives
- Partnering Organisations
- Metrics
- Number of connections
- Betweenness
This metric shows the number of connections an Organisation has to the other Organisations within a solution ecosystem – the number of Organisations it is partnering with.
This metric shows users how critical a node (Organisation) is in the solution ecosystem for information dissemination. The metric is called a Betweenness Centrality Metric and it quantifies the number of times an organisation acts as a bridge between other nodes (organisations). An organisation with a higher Betweenness Centrality Metric has more paths passing through it and therefore more information is able to pass through that organisation.
