Wik - Write the City

Wik is a platform for discovery - a tool that allows the user to view the unseen consciousness of the city. Using advanced speech recognition software, Wik compiles a meta-narrative based on input from all participating user’s devices. The user can then “read” this narrative which is essentially a city-wide dialogue map - a section of the city. Dialogue mapping is the process of diagramming group conversations in order to create a shared understanding of complex problems and facilitate constructive solutions to these problems. These once unsolvable and sometimes unrecognized problems, also called “wicked problems,” are identified and analyzed by the group using Wik.

The key to the success of dialogue mapping, and Wik, is the shared display. Wik leverages the shared display we carry in our pockets and purses every day. By viewing the narrative on the shared display, once individual perceptions will shift into a collaborative mode. The narrative and shared display also functions to compress time, allowing the group of users to better understand the problems, solutions and perceptions of the inhabitants of the city.