Smart New Site for A Wiser Earth
A revolutionary new website was launched earlier this month, www.wiserearth.com, an open-source network for global social and climate change, and the first of its kind. The website is the brainchild of a two-year collaboration between the National Capital Institute and longtime environmental activist, researcher, filmmaker, and author, Paul Hawken.
WiserEarth is designed as a networking forum and international community directory that links thousands of people and organizations located across the globe that are committed to issues affecting social justice, the environment, hunger and poverty, climate change, and peacemaking.
WiserEarth links students with activists, journalists with policy-makers, researchers and social entrepreneurs with grass-roots organizations in a common effort by providing the tools and the platform of a community-editable international directory. Some of what the website provides is a directory of organizations and individuals—with detailed descriptions and computer-generated maps of their locations—events-listings, job postings, and discussion forums.
The site is highly navigable and user-friendly. Anyone can join by providing a username and basic information (city, interest, and occupation). Organizations and information are categorized into “Areas of Focus,” everything from land, air, and water issues; agriculture and farming; animalia; media and the arts; business and economics; community development and cultural heritage; and policy-making, among hundreds of others.
When you join—whether as an organization or as a personal volunteer—you are asked to list your areas of interest, which ensures opportunity and visibility, as well as providing organizations on WiserEarth a broader pool of prospective talent.
What is so revolutionary about WiserEarth is that now that it has been launched, it is up to those organizations and individuals who join to keep it active. One of its core principles is that it remains community-driven.
You can find out more information about the Natural Capital Institute at www.naturalcapital.org, and about Paul Hawken at www.paulhawken.com
Posted by: Liz | May 18, 2007 at 02:50 PM