This is an informal description of an informal idea, currently taking shape, and possibly changing radically. In fact, it's inevitable that things will change. However, here are answers to some of the questions you may have.

What is the project?

Here are some initial thoughts:

Things have been refined and expanded since then, but the basic outline has survived. There are many, many more details taking shape.

How does this compare with other projects?

This is intended to complement things like the USA's Common Core and the UK's National Curriculum. They are targeted - rightly - at being able to provide students with the skills necessary to pass exams, and, if they are well designed, the skills they will need in life and work.

This project is intended to provide a map of topics in mathematics, and the connections (and possibly influences and dependencies) between them. It is envisaged that whatever system we end up with will also allow other sites to be linked from the topics, providing resources for those that need them.

How many people in the team?

There isn't really a team. There are a few people who have expressed interest, and who have said they're happy to comment on early ideas as and when they emerge. They may also contribute when asked, if they've time. I'm intending that even early versions will be of some use.

What are you working on right now?

Currently we're sporadically working on three fronts.

Firstly, to create a list of topics and brief description for each one. This list is currently in the form of a wiki, which you can find here:

In fact, this page is on that wiki, so you can start clicking around already to see both the chaos, and the content.

Secondly, we're playing with visualisations and presentations of that emerging network. An early idea is shown in the table at the top of each page, such as here:

Thirdly, we're occasionally extracting the network, and people can suggest which topics are dependent on which others. You can "vote" on that sort of thing here:

The result of that is then represented in diagrams such as the one here:

Clearly that has weaknesses, but it demonstrates the principle because it's auto-generated from the underlying data, and the data are being added to. We can then experiment with alternate ways to visualise and navigate that underlying data.

In particular, early visualisations are clearly showing limitations of the existing approach, and suggesting new ways to navigate the network.

How do you collaborate your efforts?

Currently email, twitter, the wiki, and here:

We will soon be extracting the text from that, correlating it will the email and twitter conversations, and creating a discussion sub-network on the wiki.

What's the end goal?

A facility for people to investigate how to explore the parts they're interested in, what topics will support what they're trying to learn, and from which we can link resources and possibly discussion. That is no doubt going to change, but it's a start.

All this is subject to change as we explore the possibilities and needs of teachers and others, but it's an outline. We expect that contributions would be repaid immediately by early usage, which can then shape the development.

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Local neighbourhood - D3

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