{
  "schema_version": "1.0",
  "canonical_url": "https://transduction.systems/entries/tool_sensemaker/",
  "release": "0.35",
  "citation": "Taylor, B. P. (2026). SenseMaker. The Necessary Tangle, release 0.35. https://transduction.systems/entries/tool_sensemaker/",
  "licence": "CC BY-SA 4.0 for original atlas text and data; linked works retain their own terms",
  "entry": {
    "id": "tool_sensemaker",
    "label": "SenseMaker",
    "entity_type": "tool",
    "description": "Research and decision-support environment for collecting self-interpreted micro-narratives and making distributed patterns available for inquiry and action.",
    "aliases": [
      "SenseMaker®"
    ],
    "boundary_ring": "0",
    "inclusion_reason": "snowden_cynefin_canonical_sources_release_0_14",
    "status": "accepted",
    "source_ids": [
      "src_cynefin_sensemaker_official_2026",
      "src_cynefin_dave_profile_2026"
    ],
    "set_tags": [
      "complexity",
      "sensemaking",
      "expertise",
      "release_0_14",
      "practice"
    ],
    "espoused_labels": [],
    "observed_clusters": [],
    "canonical_definition": "Research and decision-support environment for collecting self-interpreted micro-narratives and making distributed patterns available for inquiry and action.",
    "valid_from": "",
    "valid_to": "",
    "external_ids": "{}",
    "geographies": [],
    "licence": "",
    "review_status": "curator_checked_public_sources",
    "reviewed_by": "Benjamin P Taylor",
    "reviewed_at": "2026-08-11",
    "x": 0.48,
    "y": -0.24,
    "canonical_id": "tool_sensemaker",
    "public_visibility": "public",
    "publication_level": "profile",
    "public_stub_text": "",
    "public_source_count": 2,
    "no_public_link_count": 0
  },
  "profile": {
    "node_id": "tool_sensemaker",
    "title": "SenseMaker",
    "profile_status": "curator_checked_public_sources",
    "canonical_definition": "Research and decision-support environment for collecting self-interpreted micro-narratives and making distributed patterns available for inquiry and action.",
    "summary": "SenseMaker supports distributed capture and self-interpretation of micro-narratives so that patterns can be explored without reducing all meaning to an external coding scheme.",
    "why_it_matters": "It links narrative and quantitative pattern exploration while retaining participants' own interpretation. Claims about a tool's design should remain distinct from evidence about what it achieved in a particular intervention.",
    "key_distinctions": [
      "self-signification vs researcher coding alone",
      "micro-narrative vs survey response",
      "pattern exploration vs predictive certainty",
      "tool capability vs project outcome"
    ],
    "historical_lineage": [
      "narrative knowledge management",
      "distributed ethnography",
      "Cynefin"
    ],
    "logical_antecedents": [
      "narrative",
      "distributed participation",
      "interpretation",
      "pattern"
    ],
    "dependent_subsequents": [
      "narrative landscapes",
      "participative monitoring",
      "weak-signal inquiry"
    ],
    "practice_connections": [
      "evaluation",
      "community research",
      "strategy",
      "monitoring",
      "organisational listening"
    ],
    "espoused_lineages": [],
    "observed_clusters": [],
    "common_misreadings": [
      "software removes interpretation",
      "large narrative collections are automatically representative",
      "visual patterns explain themselves"
    ],
    "open_checks": [
      "add technical and methodological documentation",
      "include independent evaluations",
      "map ethical and data-governance questions"
    ],
    "source_ids": [
      "src_cynefin_sensemaker_official_2026",
      "src_cynefin_dave_profile_2026"
    ],
    "evidence_ids": [],
    "last_researched": "2026-08-11",
    "review_status": "curator_checked_public_sources",
    "reviewed_by": "Benjamin P Taylor",
    "reviewed_at": "2026-08-11",
    "editorial_note": "Developed from public primary, institutional, publisher and project sources. First-party source roles and independent evidential limits are stated explicitly."
  },
  "connections": [
    {
      "id": "e_14_company_sensemaker",
      "source": "organisation_the_cynefin_company",
      "target": "tool_sensemaker",
      "relation_type": "maintains",
      "relation_family": "documentary",
      "directed": "true",
      "dependency_kind": "",
      "confidence": "0.88",
      "claim_status": "accepted",
      "source_ids": [
        "src_cynefin_company_home_2026",
        "src_cynefin_sensemaker_official_2026"
      ],
      "evidence_ids": [],
      "source_locator": "Release 0.14 public primary, official, institutional and publisher sources",
      "valid_from": "",
      "valid_to": "",
      "scope_conditions": "The statement is limited to the named sources and their evidential role. First-party definition, authorship, historical development, application and independent evaluation remain distinct claims.",
      "assertion_mode": "asserted",
      "inference_method": "curatorial synthesis of public sources",
      "claim_id": "",
      "reviewed_by": "Benjamin P Taylor",
      "reviewed_at": "2026-08-11",
      "notes": "SenseMaker is presented and supported by The Cynefin Company.",
      "plain_phrase": "develops and maintains",
      "public_review_label": "supported working statement"
    },
    {
      "id": "e_14_dave_sensemaker",
      "source": "person_dave_snowden",
      "target": "tool_sensemaker",
      "relation_type": "developed",
      "relation_family": "historical",
      "directed": "true",
      "dependency_kind": "",
      "confidence": "0.88",
      "claim_status": "accepted",
      "source_ids": [
        "src_cynefin_dave_profile_2026",
        "src_cynefin_sensemaker_official_2026"
      ],
      "evidence_ids": [],
      "source_locator": "Release 0.14 public primary, official, institutional and publisher sources",
      "valid_from": "",
      "valid_to": "",
      "scope_conditions": "The statement is limited to the named sources and their evidential role. First-party definition, authorship, historical development, application and independent evaluation remain distinct claims.",
      "assertion_mode": "asserted",
      "inference_method": "curatorial synthesis of public sources",
      "claim_id": "",
      "reviewed_by": "Benjamin P Taylor",
      "reviewed_at": "2026-08-11",
      "notes": "The official profile says Snowden originated SenseMaker's design.",
      "plain_phrase": "originated",
      "public_review_label": "supported working statement"
    },
    {
      "id": "e_14_naturalising_sensemaker",
      "source": "approach_family_naturalising_sense_making",
      "target": "tool_sensemaker",
      "relation_type": "includes",
      "relation_family": "classification",
      "directed": "true",
      "dependency_kind": "",
      "confidence": "0.88",
      "claim_status": "accepted",
      "source_ids": [
        "src_cynefin_io_naturalising_2026"
      ],
      "evidence_ids": [],
      "source_locator": "Release 0.14 public primary, official, institutional and publisher sources",
      "valid_from": "",
      "valid_to": "",
      "scope_conditions": "The statement is limited to the named sources and their evidential role. First-party definition, authorship, historical development, application and independent evaluation remain distinct claims.",
      "assertion_mode": "asserted",
      "inference_method": "curatorial synthesis of public sources",
      "claim_id": "",
      "reviewed_by": "Benjamin P Taylor",
      "reviewed_at": "2026-08-11",
      "notes": "The project places SenseMaker within naturalising sense-making practice.",
      "plain_phrase": "includes",
      "public_review_label": "supported working statement"
    },
    {
      "id": "e_14_sensemaker_ethnography",
      "source": "tool_sensemaker",
      "target": "method_or_methodology_distributed_ethnography",
      "relation_type": "operationalises",
      "relation_family": "practice",
      "directed": "true",
      "dependency_kind": "",
      "confidence": "0.88",
      "claim_status": "accepted",
      "source_ids": [
        "src_cynefin_dave_profile_2026",
        "src_cynefin_sensemaker_official_2026"
      ],
      "evidence_ids": [],
      "source_locator": "Release 0.14 public primary, official, institutional and publisher sources",
      "valid_from": "",
      "valid_to": "",
      "scope_conditions": "The statement is limited to the named sources and their evidential role. First-party definition, authorship, historical development, application and independent evaluation remain distinct claims.",
      "assertion_mode": "asserted",
      "inference_method": "curatorial synthesis of public sources",
      "claim_id": "",
      "reviewed_by": "Benjamin P Taylor",
      "reviewed_at": "2026-08-11",
      "notes": "The official profile describes SenseMaker as a distributed ethnography tool.",
      "plain_phrase": "supports",
      "public_review_label": "supported working statement"
    }
  ],
  "claims": [],
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "src_cynefin_sensemaker_official_2026",
      "title": "SenseMaker — The Cynefin Company",
      "source_type": "official_product_and_method_page",
      "quality_tier": "A",
      "access": "public",
      "url": "https://thecynefin.co/sensemaker/",
      "date": "current; checked 2026-08-11",
      "notes": "Canonical first-party description of SenseMaker and its use of self-interpreted micro-narratives. Use project reports and independent evaluations for claims about results in particular settings.",
      "creators": [
        "The Cynefin Company"
      ],
      "doi": "",
      "isbn": "",
      "publisher": "The Cynefin Company",
      "licence": "site_terms",
      "archived_url": "",
      "content_hash": "",
      "review_status": "checked",
      "last_checked": "2026-08-11",
      "public_link_status": "public_link"
    },
    {
      "id": "src_cynefin_dave_profile_2026",
      "title": "Dave Snowden — The Cynefin Company profile",
      "source_type": "official_professional_profile",
      "quality_tier": "A",
      "access": "public",
      "url": "https://thecynefin.co/team/dave-snowden/",
      "date": "current; checked 2026-08-11",
      "notes": "Canonical first-party source for Dave Snowden's present roles and the organisation's own account of his creation of Cynefin and origination of SenseMaker. It does not independently establish influence, efficacy or priority beyond those declared facts.",
      "creators": [
        "The Cynefin Company"
      ],
      "doi": "",
      "isbn": "",
      "publisher": "The Cynefin Company",
      "licence": "site_terms",
      "archived_url": "",
      "content_hash": "",
      "review_status": "checked",
      "last_checked": "2026-08-11",
      "public_link_status": "public_link"
    },
    {
      "id": "src_cynefin_company_home_2026",
      "title": "The Cynefin Company",
      "source_type": "official_organisation_site",
      "quality_tier": "A",
      "access": "public",
      "url": "https://thecynefin.co/",
      "date": "current; checked 2026-08-11",
      "notes": "Canonical first-party source for the organisation's current identity, offers and public library. Use independent sources for evaluative claims about impact or standing.",
      "creators": [
        "The Cynefin Company"
      ],
      "doi": "",
      "isbn": "",
      "publisher": "The Cynefin Company",
      "licence": "site_terms",
      "archived_url": "",
      "content_hash": "",
      "review_status": "checked",
      "last_checked": "2026-08-11",
      "public_link_status": "public_link"
    },
    {
      "id": "src_cynefin_io_naturalising_2026",
      "title": "Naturalising sense-making — Cynefin.io",
      "source_type": "official_collaborative_wiki_page",
      "quality_tier": "B",
      "access": "public",
      "url": "https://cynefin.io/index.php/Naturalising_sense-making",
      "date": "current page; checked 2026-08-11",
      "notes": "First-party maintained definition of naturalising sense-making, including its use of natural science as a constraint and its links to Cynefin, SenseMaker and anthro-complexity.",
      "creators": [
        "Cynefin.io contributors"
      ],
      "doi": "",
      "isbn": "",
      "publisher": "Cynefin.io",
      "licence": "CC BY-SA unless otherwise indicated",
      "archived_url": "",
      "content_hash": "",
      "review_status": "checked",
      "last_checked": "2026-08-11",
      "public_link_status": "public_link"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_locators": [],
  "reuse_note": "Preserve source attribution, scope, and review status. Source documents and evidence excerpts are excluded."
}