Ecosystem mapping app in 5 minutes

We talked last time about the importance of terminology. Ecosystem mapping is another key concept that requires more attention and clarity. In the Startup Commons world and in many ecosystems using the startup development phases framework, ecosystem mapping is a periodic process to be carried out at ecosystem level by the ecosystem operator/builder to understand the relationships and dependencies between the different support organisations and related existing supporting services that contribute to create a better startup journey experience within the ecosystem. 

We can talk about ecosystem mapping all day long, but we will keep it short and clear for you:

1. Ecosystem mapping exercise is still quite traditional and manual. It is comparable to the experience of searching information in the past
2. Ecosystem mapping as a one time project doesn't make sense. It is simply a static shot of a dynamic environment (new people, changing roles, startups, projects, activities, services, events, communities and more meeting and interacting every single week) and therefore it requires an almost real time approach
3. Static mapping doesn’t enable data sharing or analysis like What is happening? Why did it happen? What is happening now? What might happen? What is likely to happen? We don't know the performance of the service or what dimensions of the startup we want to influence and improve
4. Existing digital approaches require constant updating to maintain entrepreneurial journey information coming from multiple IT systems that use different standards, or no standards at all, which means that not all data can be easily linked and connected to provide better individual support services to the entrepreneur and collective support to the ecosystem

And now the solution for those that are ready to take action:  

Ecosystem mapping app, a digital service for startup ecosystems to aggregate and distribute ecosystem information in a standardized format, keeping updated and standardized inventory of the existing supporting services and related support organisations information available in the ecosystem and assisting to create more logical and effective relationships between services and therefore an improved journey experience for the startups.

• You can position, connect and visualise the startup supporting services in a logical order thanks to the startup development phases framework embedded in the application.
• You have filtering options to visualise the information that is more relevant for you
• You create services as a draft to be further validated and approved
• You can keep record of the service change history 
• Ecosystem mapping app has built-in GraphQL API to enable connectivity with other applications and digital services
• The data structure (data model schema) is based on a globally neutral open standard data model designed for innovation entrepreneurship service information already used by countless ecosystems around the world. You can also be part of contributors and/or governance parties of the global open standards, for innovation entrepreneurship ecosystem builders, operators, architects and developers globally.

From now on, you can repeat the ecosystem mapping process more cost-effectively in greater detail as needed by automating the mapping of ecosystem programmes and services and start standardising startup ecosystem information collection and continue towards being able to get close to a real-time situational understanding of your startup ecosystem without the need for periodical, time-consuming, non-scalable, project-based approaches. 

Let us know if you have any questions. I would imagine there being some for sure :)