The Shape of Polyamory

Hello, our names are Anna and Michael. We are not researchers. We are not associated with any institution. This is not part of an academic or professional project. What this is, or hopes to be, is a community project by people who are interested in what shape a poly community takes.



The Poly Mapping Project aims to take a snapshot of Polyamory in the Bay Area (and beyond). The map itself will be a visual representation of the network of relationships that make up the community, somewhat like the map above. Utmost care will be taken to protect participants' anonymity. Only those working for the project will have any access to data with personally identifying information.


If a participant chooses to use a pseudonym, we ask them to make sure all of their partners know what it is; without consistent names we will be unable to 'line up' all of the relationships. Aside from mapping relationships, we're also noting marriages and people who are living together, including non-romantic living arrangements if the roommates are poly and wish to be included.


If we are blessed enough to gather sufficient information, we will show what we have at OpenSF. No names or other personally identifying information will appear on the map. The usage of names as far as the project is concerned, is to ensure accurate matchings. We look forward to seeing the many forms poly takes, and the overall interconnectedness and shape of the community.



At the onset, we won't be tracking relationships that pass outside of California. If a CA resident has an out of state partner, we're happy to include them, but for the time being we do not want to follow those connections any further out.

Monday, April 30, 2012

The How To

So after all that fiddly business about how we're not creepy or scamming you, the question remains:
How DO you participate?

Send an email to polymapping@gmail.com with some (or all) of the following information:


At the very least:
  • your name 
  • the names of your partners
  • let us know if a partner is currently not seeing anyone else (so we know to mark them as an endpoint instead of incomplete)

Additional stuff that would be nice:
  • if you are married (and to whom)
  • if you are cohabiting with anyone who is polyamorous, even if you are not in a relationship with them
  • contact information for partners we have incomplete data for

Advanced techniques:

People have had a lot of luck with choosing someone to coordinate for their social group.  This person gathers all of the relevant data about partners and metamours, and acts as a single point of contact (should we require any clarification).  It helps us by packing a large amount of data into a cohesive form and it helps you keep your story straight.


Tips and tricks:

All personally identifying information sent to the Poly Mapping Project will remain confidential.  Still, always get permission from your loved ones before sharing their information with us.  (reassure them that no names will be released)

Pass it on.  We won't succeed at this without your help.  This project is about community, and only through that community will we achieve any of what we hope to accomplish.


Thank you:

We're doing our best to keep this massive undertaking as addressable as possible. Crowdsourcing puts this within reach, but we still have a lot of ground to cover if we intend to create something of interest. Thank you for your help in getting us there.
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