Background
The impeachment hearings have generated thousands or articles and videos. But, people often tune out when presented with a deluge of information.
How can information can be shared in a timely, clear way so people can explore just what’s they’re interested in? At their own pace? On the device (phone/laptop) of their choice? On their preferred channel – website, Facebook or Twitter? Choose whether to skim content or dive in for details? How can the material be kept updated with new developments?
Kumu is a free application that helps make sense of a complex web of relations and motivations such as those exposed during the impeachments hearings. This visual display for instance includes 31 people, four political groups, five organizations and their relationships.
Check your knowledge?
1. How many times did President Trump meet with Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas?
2. How much did Alex Cranberg whose firm won lucrative drilling rights in Ukraine, donate to the Trump Victory Fund?
3. What did Lt. Col. Alex Vindman’s say about ‘Right being important’ in America?
Answers to all these questions can be easily found in the relationship map. Try it.
Visualize This
A relationship map shows elements (individuals and groups) as icons and their relationships as lines. Clicking on a person reveals more details while clicking on the line between two people explains their relationship. Details including text, images, videos and links to more details are shown in a separate window.
The map is a user-friendly dashboard to the underlying information. The visual design makes information manageable. Users can drill down to as much detail as they want with links to more info. They can also use the SEARCH BAR to find details on someone.
The map can be shared on social media with a link http://bit.ly/impeachmentweb
or embedded in a web site with just one line of code:
<iframe src=”https://DemLabsLLC.kumu.io/impeachment-web” width=”1024″ height=”576″ frameborder=”0″></iframe>
The map displays well automatically on phones, tablets and laptops.
The content can be continuously refreshed with new details from multiple sources, so readers always have the latest facts. This blog for instance contains details from yesterday’s (11/20) impeachment testimony which can be seen by clicking on Gordon Sondland. And clicking on Fiona Hill shows her testimony in the last hour while I wrote this blog.
Highlights
Customized information display
This is how the map looks like on a phone. Try it yourself by clicking on this link on a phone – or watch a 2 min video of a typical user phone session.
Takeaway
It’s vital to quickly get the facts in a understandable form to the pubic so that they can make informed decisions. Otherwise only powerful, vested interests dominate present their views through sound bites delivered through media they control and amplified with an army of bots.
Kumu democratizes information sharing – for free. Learn more on how to use Kumu here.
Deepak
Co-Founder, DemLabs
Please share this blog. DemLabs is a SF-based, progressive hub for ongoing technology and creative innovation. We focus on free and affordable apps. Donate here to support our work.
