A Pattern Language for Social Innovation– looking for an ontology

I’ll be touring Europe this summer with the intention of learning the secrets of success in social innovation from experienced practitioners.

I’ve decided to harvest the stories, wisdom and insight that I learn along the way into an attractive deck of cards, such that the key concepts are easily digestible and can be assembled into mind maps.

I’m wondering how these cards could be incorporated into art of hosting/harvesting so that as new wisdom emerges, it can be crystallized into card form and added to the body of knowledge.

Key to the success of such a deck would be the template design into which the content would be placed. There needs to be enough flexibility to allow for a wide diversity of ideas, solutions, stories, etc but also enough order such that the cards can be organized into comprehensible mind-maps.

So I’m looking for the right categorization structure. Perhaps the Chaordic Stepping Stones would work well? What other ontologies have you found to be useful for organizing thinking about social innovation?

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