WISER (World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility) serves the people who are transforming the world. It is a collaboratively written, free content, networking platform that links NGOs, funders, business, government, social entrepreneurs, students, organizers, academics, activists, scientists, and citizens. WISER creates the space for civil society, the private sector, and government to collaboratively define, address, and solve social and environmental problems. There are more than one million organizations and one hundred million individuals who actively work toward ecological sustainability, economic justice, human rights, and political accountability - issues that are systemically interconnected and intertwined.

Currently, their effectiveness to prevent harm and institute positive change is undermined by the lack of a collective awareness, along with duplicative efforts, and poor connectivity. But we are moving from a world that is shaped by privilege to one created by community. This massive change in the loci of power calls for a new system of awareness, support, communication, and collaboration. That is WISER's purpose.

WISER, which is being incubated at Natural Capital Institute, is currently being applied to non-profits via this website (WiserEarth).

WISER is a hybrid that seeks to break down silos and bring people, programs, organizations, and sectors together. The WISER projects are individually unique, but when combined, WISER will help connect the three sectors of nonprofits, business, and the government in new and powerful ways.

The WISER Platform is the technology that makes the collective awareness, support, and communication possible. The software and information generated by WISER is created under open source license as governed by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), which makes the code and the application freely available for the good of the community. It allows for certain terms, which allow modification and further redistribution of the code and software without payment, but restrict users from selling it. Any and all iterative improvements made to the code by subsequent users are available to all users. The theory of open source is simple: when code is subject to modification and change by many programmers, it rapidly evolves and improves. It is the same principle that informs all of WISER. If we can provide a means to freely exchange information and communicate ideas, it will vastly accelerate understanding, social evolution, and adaptation. As of April 3rd, 2008, WiserEarth posted an open source version of its platform code for the community, freely availabe at http://sourceforge.net/projects/wiserplatform/.

The Wiser Platform opensource project was made possible in part by the financial contribution of The Biomimicry Institute.

The interest inspired by WISER is beginning to spawn several sister projects. The most developed sister project is WiserCommons, a member-centric, control-free zone of activity in which members agree to cooperate in the creation of public goods to be freely used by all members of society. Roots of Change Fund is building a web portal called the Sustainable Food System Portal based on the WISER platform and repurposing the WISER data. These are just two examples of growing interest from people and organizations wanting to use the WISER platform.