For many years I've pointed to the Boston Innovation Hub as one of the best graphic doorways to draw people from throughout Boston to issues that affect all people in Boston, although some more than others. The pie chart graphic links to pages with information specific to each topic.

Now I'd like to point to another pie chart graphic, that represents a composit learning index, used by many community learning centers to mobilize people from throughout a community in life long learning and collaborative problem solving.  This is part of a wealth of information on the Canadian Council on Learning's web site.

The Composite Learning Index (CLI) is an annual measure of Canada’s progress in lifelong learning. It is based on statistical indicators that reflect the many ways Canadians learn, whether in school, in the home, at work or within the community. This seems like a valuable resource that leaders in any community might want to adopt to support learning and collaboration in their own communities. Visit these web sites to learn more.

How do you think such tools could be used to measure the learning done by people in a virtual community, who focus on the same issue, but in different geographic locations. For instance, people learning about AIDS or the Environment, might be from many locations, and my focus their efforts on many different locations.  Do you know of anyone applying tools like this to measure the learning in such communities?