Case Summary

Wiser Earth is a wiki website created by Paul Hawken and the National Capital Institute. Their mission is to connect non-governmental organizations and individuals who work on and share similar beliefs about issues like climate change, poverty, the environment, social justice, conservation and human rights.

Business Challenge

Wiser Earth was launched in April of 2007 in order to connect individuals and non-government organizations who shared similar beliefs regarding the environment and social justice. The website serves as a meeting ground for people wishing to "transform" the World. Before this website, getting like-minded non-government organizations and individuals in the realm of environment/social justice to network and create relationships would only take place at lectures or conferences. Wiser Earth provides a platform for users to share resources and information, build alliances and allow grassroots organizations to have a web presence.

Approach Taken

Wiser Earth (Wiser: World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility) is set up as a wiki, allowing users the ability to add or edit content. Information on the site is split up into specific categories, making it easy for the user to access the exact information they want. Users are able to search for information in the categories of organizations, groups, areas' of focus, people, resources, jobs, events and wikipages. The organizations category allows you to search for a specific organization by how recently its' been added to the site, by name or location. When you select an organization you receive a description of it, contact information, areas of focus and specifically where it's located by the help of a map showing you the exact street.

Areas of focus is meant to serve as a way to categorize or create a taxonomy for all the organizations, personal profiles (users), events, jobs, resources and groups. This caters to individuals who are interested in researching information in a particular field of interest.

A user also has the capability to create their own group on Wiser Earth which allows other users who agree with your group's mission to join and collaborate.

The advantage of the site being wiki generated is that events, descriptions for org.'s, job postings, resources and the wikipages can all be constantly updated.

The website also is capable of being translated in up to ten different languages. It also continues to seek ways on how to improve by offering user surveys and a feedback tab where you're able to report a problem or make a suggestion. A discussion forum used for a myriad of topics is also a place where questions and suggestions about the site are posted.

Results Achieved

According to Wiser Earth, there currently are:
109,016 Organizations in 243 different countries/territories
14,975 Personal profiles (people)
676 Groups
3,510 Resources
296 Events
533 Jobs

The website is supported by a combination of individuals and organizations. However, the National Capital Institute (NCI) built the database and platform that Wiser Earth currently uses, their motto is "helping society move towards a socially just and environmentally restorative existence".

Paul Hawken was the originator and creator of Wiser Earth.

Lessons Learned

The lesson learned was that collaborative technology like wikis' are a great tool in order to connect and build alliances/share resources from vast amounts of organizations who share similar beliefs.

I personally believe that by Wiser Earth being professionally created, with a great layout and being amazingly organized helped generate and sustain its' popularity.