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I read a line in a blog by Kwande Kefentse (CreativeClass.com) that stunned me... "cultural mapping and planning is one of the most important tools for creating prosperity out of space."

What does that really mean? That blog didn't have much further to say about "cultural mapping" so I went to the Internet.

Cultural mapping has been recognized by UNESCO as a crucial tool and technique in preserving the world's intangible and tangible cultural assets. ... www.unescobkk.org/culture/cltmapping

Cultural Mapping
In simple terms cultural mapping is a treasure hunt, or an asset audit, of a cultural entity, to find cultural capital. For more explanation. ...www.culturalmapping.com/

Cultural Mapping
Presentation delivered by Sam Coghlan, Chief Executive Officer, Stratford Public Library, Municipal Cultural Planning Pa. www.slideshare.net/erobson/cultural-mapping

The blog, www.culturalmapping.com/ seems to address this topic in the most depth.

"Your cultural capital is your strength - find it - use it - and prosper!"

In summary - cultural mapping is the process of identifying, recording, and investigating cultural assets, your strengths - that are either tangible or intangible and that make up the elements of that culture. These assets could be organisational, human, social, tribal, corporate, natural or built environments.

Cultural mapping is a participatory action method facilitated to identify your strengths, greatly enhanced through the use of our Cultural Mapping Software.

Cultural Mapping is an opportunity for organisations and individuals to collaborate, build relationships and map their history for sustainable success. To assist in creating tools to help understand each others value in working together, to create better [ valuable ] outcomes - With two way respect and understanding it is always a win/win situation. Creating less risk to the projects investment.

Founded by Jennifer Joi Field in 2006, Cultural Mapping was established in Australia as an independent socially responsible venture to provide clients with a way to identify and make the most of their strengths with a focus on: Creating joint value and Linking cultural development methodology with social entrepreneurship goals.

In the past Cultural Mapping has been used as a technique by some professionals in the 'Community Development' sector as a way of 'Mapping' community assets. How it was undertaken was largely dependent on who was doing it and why, most commonly it was used as a tool to identify the resources of communities and was referred to as 'Community Mapping'.

If one were to ask what is Cultural Mapping we would firstly have to say that it involves mapping the Culture of who or what you are, be it a tribe, organisation, community, group, school, association, business or an individual - to find your unique assets or strengths. Culture can in this case be defined as your intellectual property, your special way of being or doing, the purpose of your existence, the business you are in (or would like to be) or the special story that you alone have to tell.

Many small busiensses serve local needs...with local solutions.  But which solutions are most central to the heart of sustainable families and sustainable communities?  The Census Bureau has found that money isn't everything.  There are more tangible ways to measure standards of living and small businesses are in a great position to identify solutions that meet these basic human needs.

The living standards of U.S. households are traditionally measured by income.

This report takes a different approach.

Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

It measures living standards in terms of extended measures of well-being of households tracked in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to help deepen our knowledge about household conditions in ways not captured by money alone.

Some aspects of well-being, such as fear of crime or quality of local public services, may be only loosely connected with money. Other measures are more closely related to income but can also be effected by factors such as the cost of living, age, disability status, and sudden changes in circumstances.

Extended measures of well-being provide a more complete and detailed picture of household living conditions in the United States than income alone provides.

Well-being Metrics

The U.S. Census Bureau tracks extended measures of well-being in the SIPP.2.  The SIPP's "Extended Measures of Well-Being" topical module, on which this report is based, covers five broad domains:

(1) appliances and electronic goods, such as possession of refrigerators, landline and cellular telephones, and computers;

(2) housing conditions, including level of satisfaction with overall home repair, adequate living space, and sufficient privacy;

(3) neighborhood conditions and community services, such as: road conditions and the presence of abandoned buildings; satisfactory police, fire, and medical services; and attitudes towards local schools;

(4) meeting basic needs, including the ability to pay bills in full, to avoid eviction, and to have sufficient food; and

(5) the expectation of help, should need arise, from friends, family, and the community.

For this report, extended measures of well-being are used to describe living conditions in the United States for the time period 1992-2003.

Surveys by Boston-based Aberdeen and Dayton, OH-based NCR Corp., show that retailers describe technology as a tool that can help struggling businesses survive the downturn and give them a competitive edge. Aberdeen surveyed about 200 retailers in November and December 2008 about the state of business and technology.

Four out of five retailers are grappling with historically higher cost of goods and low consumer confidence, according to Aberdeen

And shoppers are skittish, NCR found, focused on sales and discounts and willing to switch stores to find them.

Retailers shifted their value chain priorities and IT investments in the last six months of 2008 compared to the first six.

In the second half of the year, "technology and process spending was geared towards accelerated product campaigns, door busters, and promotions--in terms of price discounts and frequency, customer loyalty programs, precision merchandizing, and lean inventory management."

These strategies were designed to minimize business risks such as store closings, working capital squeeze, depleted customer satisfaction due to staff cuts, and low margin attainment.

Anand says the main concerns for 2009 are customer-facing and retail optimization applications that directly affect the bottom-line, greater application integration and hosted application delivery models. 

To attract and retain customers is the goal -- a task NCR suggests will be easiest for retailers who make their businesses most convenient for consumers.

Bargain conscious Americans are spending more time evaluating less familiar brands, switching stores to capitalize on deals and scheduling shopping trips to coincide with the arrival of paychecks, according to a survey of US consumers commissioned by NCR.

The NCR research found:

• 72% of consumers are more likely to shop with a retailer offering the flexibility of online, mobile and kiosk self-service channels;
• Nearly half think kiosks that show them where to find products in stores would be convenient;
• 43% believe receiving discount offerings and product information on large screens in store would be convenient;
• 39% want self-return solutions for processing returns quickly.

READ MORE HERE