Introduction

The reasoning used when selecting Areas of Focus (AoF) for an organization, resource, event, job or person will depend on the user. This discussion will answer some of the more common questions related to AoF selection with the goal of optimizing the accuracy and relevancy to improve usefulness.

Basics of Selection

How to select an Area of Focus

The process for selecting an AoF for an organization, resource, event, job or person is the same: find the Area of Focus subsection and select from the entire list or perform a keyword filter to select from a subset of areas. Also, the Area of Focus definition is visible and should be read to ensure accuracy.

Selecting Accurate Areas of Focus

To be useful to future WiserEarth users, the AoF used to tag an entry must accurately reflect the mission statement of the entity. In the case of resources, the content of the resource should also be considered when making a selection.

Using a project list to improve accuracy

Frequently an organization's mission statement is brief or vague and it is difficult to decide on a keyword to filter the list of Areas of Focus. In such cases, it can be useful to select AoF by viewing the projects the organization has worked on. A drawback to this technique is the temporary nature of some projects that can result in the AoF becoming inaccurate over time.

Example: Improving Accuracy

The Area of Focus taxonomy has evolved during the course of the project and many organizations were entered before the current taxonomy was selected (Note: The Area of Focus must go through a discussion and review process to be updated, but modifications are always possible based on the demands of the community). Therefore, many organizations would benefit from a careful reexamination of the mission statement and Area of Focus. The mission below has been copied from another WiserEarth entry with key phrases for Area of Focus selection put in bold.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund [CELDF ] was launched in 1995 to provide free and affordable legal services to grassroots, community-based environmental groups, and rural municipal governments. The Legal Defense Fund currently hosts four Program Areas:

The Grassroots Litigation Support Program - Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund assists groups and individuals to litigate without a lawyer in County, State, and Federal Courts on selected issues. In addition, the Legal Defense Fund agrees to represent groups and individuals directly on issues of public importance, and maintains a legal referral directory of low cost legal assistance.

The Grassroots Administrative and Technical Support Program: Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund provides incorporation and IRS 501[c][3] processing services for groups, provides general legal research, responds to general legal inquiries, and assists organizations with fundraising.

The Corporations and Democracy Program: Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund drafts Ordinances for local governments and assists organizations to assert direct, local, and democratic control over corporations.

The Sustainable Communities Program: Through this Program, the Legal Defense Fund has created the Franklin County Coalition - an association of diverse community-based organizations in Franklin County, Pennsylvania seeking to build a sustainable County in South-Central Pennsylvania. The Legal Defense Fund is working to replicate that County-based model in other areas of Pennsylvania.

Since 1995, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund [CELDF] has provided legal assistance to over three hundred organizations in seventeen states, and has assisted over seventy rural, local governments in four states.

The current Area of Focus selected for this organization are:

Community Participation
Fundraising
Legal Services and Representation
Sustainable Communities

Many of these are okay, but after reading the mission statement I don't feel their mission really includes 'Community Participation' and the heart of this organization is about the democratic process. The follow AoF would improve the relevancy of a user's search:

Democracy and Civil Society
Democracy Education
Democratic Participation
Democratic Reform
Fundraising
Legal Services and Representation
Nonprofit Law
Sustainable Communities

Accuracy and Relevancy

Using an accurate AoF selection process by carefully reading the mission statement or projects is important to improving the relevancy of searches. No organization can work effectively in every Area of Focus. While it might be tempting to select two or three dozen Areas of Focus to improve visibility of an organization, job, event or resource, the added visibility will result in other users having irrelevant search results. It is recommended that most organizations have 6 - 10 very accurate Areas of Focus, instead of 20+ tangentially connected Areas.