The Eiderdown Project

This chapter tells the story of the “Eiderdown project”, a graphical twodimensional map exploring the evolution of Organization and Information Systems, that Marco promoted and distributed with a group of friends, evolving it from a playful sensemaking tool to a smart interdisciplinary means of connecting people and generating ideas. The first release of Eiderdown appeared as a gigantic white-background table, and was therefore named “Lenzuolo” (= bedsheet). After several additions, the bedsheet grew in content and size, earning the name of “Eiderdown” (= duvet, continental quilt). The story is structured in four sections: 1) the reasons and background of the project, the founding group and its first objectives; 2) the underlying structure and principles; 3) the evolution and the contributions collected over time; 4) the final outcome, its use and some paths for further evolution