Below are important documents that need (or may need) to be ammended or created to anticipate the inclusion of for-profits and public agencies in WiserEarth. Please feel free to contribute your edits and comments for each document.

 

Editing and commenting instruction:

• This "drafts" page contains the most recent version of each draft.
• To manage collaborative editing and discussion of these drafts, a separate wikipage for each draft has been provided.
• Discuss each draft in each wikipage's comment section and edit further there.
• Upon saving your edits in each wikipage, copy the edited version back to this page.so the most recent version will be avalable here.

If you wish to stay updated on most recent edits and comments, add this page and the following wikipages to your watchlist.

 

1. WiserEarth Principles (v2 draft) .................................. ( view  |  discuss and edit )

2. WiserEarth Content Standards (v2 draft) .................. ( view  |  discuss and edit )

3. WiserEarth Community Guidelines (v2 draft) ........... ( view  |  discuss and edit )

4. WiserEarth Community Roles (v2 draft) .................... ( view  |  discuss and edit )

5. WiserEarth Editorial Policy (v1 draft) .......................... ( view  |  discuss and edit )

6. FAQ Section entitled "What does WiserEarth do"


The site creates the first global database and platform for civil society organizations working on the environment, social justice, and indigenous issues.

7.

 

Note: the discussion of the editorial policy was originally carried out in a WiserEarth Editors group discussion forum sometime ago.

 

 

 

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Principles

WiserEarth is based upon fundamental principles that are applied to everything we do:

Transparency
WiserEarth is open to full public scrutiny. Likewise, users who edit and add content are asked to fully identify and make themselves known to the community. WiserEarth offers an open source version of its platform code for the community to download and develop, available at SourceForge. WiserEarth does not charge fees or accept advertising.

Respect
WiserEarth honors the uniqueness of each individual and organization with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, and religious beliefs.

Community
WiserEarth is community-driven and is not centralized, bureaucratic, or turf-based. WiserEarth is about understanding each other, building bridges, creating friendships, and celebrating the rich dimensions contained within the global community.

Networking
WiserEarth enables connectivity and networking, the exchange of services or information between different individuals, groups, companies, or institutions. From a technical perspective, it means that WiserEarth will provide for all types of connections so that low-bandwidth Internet users can also access the information and tools provided on the portal.

Collaboration
WiserEarth brings people together to share information across the global non-profit community, and help create alliances. By working together, we can work smarter, and use our resources more efficiently and effectively.

Visibility
WiserEarth enables small organizations to become more visible, as well as the entire network itself — only by holding such a "mirror" up, can the movement recognize its value and power.

 

 

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2. WiserEarth Content Standards (v2 draft)

 

Which Organizations are included in the WiserEarth Directory?

 

These guidelines include information about the basic requirements required for inclusion in the WiserEarth directory. Please feel free to add your thoughts or comments about these guidelines in the comment area below. 

If you are new to the WiserEarth community, you may want to learn more about the history and background of this website.

Which organizations are included in the WiserEarth directory?

WiserEarth's online directory of organizations focuses only on those organizations that are part of sustainable civil society. These organizations can be non-governmental, governmental or for-profit and also have additional characteristics (based on their mission statement) for overcoming inequality and environmental harm. The metrics for determining these characteristics have never been defined, and as a result, deciding on the appropriateness of an organization can be difficult. The information below will help you decide whether an organization meets the qualifications for a sustainable civil society.

 

 

Organizations included in WiserEarth

• All Non-profit and Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), government entitites, and businesses that address poverty, social justice and the environment – contributing to a sustainable world
• Faith-based organizations doing non-denominational work that do not require an acceptance of their faith to participate in the organization or to carry out their work
• Health-related organizations that work on environmental health, human rights and health, and equity issues
• Research Institutes working on sustainability or social justice issues
• Schools/Universities with a sustainability or social justice focus
• United Nations organizations working on sustainability issues
• Foundations addressing sustainability issues
• Organizations working on Human Rights
• Organizations working on Social Justice and Equity
• Organizations working on Environmental Protection and Environmental Sustainability

Organizations that do not qualify for inclusion

 

• Labor Unions
• Trade Associations
• Political Parties
• Faith-based organizations that require acceptance of their religion, or are performing missionary / proselytizing work
• Museums / Aquariums / Libraries / Zoos
• Orphanages
• Hospitals
• Organizations that are purely health-related

While browsing through the site you may see organization profiles that are flagged Out of Scope. This means that an organization's mission does not fit within the parameters provided above.

 

 

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3. WiserEarth Community Guidelines (v2 draft)

 

These guidelines are the courtesy and interaction code for all WiserEarth users. If you have any questions or would like to add to these guidelines, please post your comments at the bottom of this page.

 

Collaborate and Share your Knowledge

WiserEarth shares information across geography, culture, and language. We encourage individuals and groups from different parts of the world to contribute their knowledge to the WiserEarth 'digital commons' (WISER Platform) and to work together so that we can become more intelligent and humane in our practices and more effective in our use of resources.

Be Polite and Civil

Remember that the WiserEarth community consists of people from all over the world with different native languages and varying degrees of technical knowledge. Please be polite and civil with other people and assume good faith at all times.

Question

We encourage active discussion around any subject that may be of interest to you. We also support any questions and discussions relating to the organizations, resources, events, and activities featured on WiserEarth.

 

Embrace Diversity and Transparency

WiserEarth comprises a myriad of individuals and groups working on many different issues relating to ecological and social restoration. Should somebody else have motivations that conflict with your values or ideals, please do not attack them. While we have different motivations and agendas, overall we share similar principles about the necessity for fairness and equity for all partaking of the Earth's systems.

Do Not Infringe Copyright

WiserEarth is a free, community-driven website based on open source software protocols which means that anyone can use or modify the content and resources included on the site. Submitting resources (beyond reference) or content which are not yours will infringe copyright and may incur legal problems. It will also limit our ability to share and redistribute content and features across the community.

Build Community and Visibility

The success of WiserEarth is based on an active user community. Encourage your friends, colleagues, and associates to become involved, network with others, and help us build awareness and visibility of this amazing movement. You can do so by linking back to the site. Give feedback whenever you can.

Write From a Neutral Point of View

Write from a neutral point of view. This means that there must be no incentivized or 'paid for' content on WiserEarth. This includes buzz marketing or other artificial marketing activities. Neutral does not mean 'without feeling'; you may feel very strongly about a particular cause, but your writings must not be incentivized in any way.

 

 

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4. WiserEarth Community Roles (v2 draft)

Introduction

Since WiserEarth is a community-driven site, its success depends on the participation of its community of users. This page includes a description of the 4 different types of roles that are available: Guest, User, Editor, and Administrator.

Guest

Anyone visiting the WiserEarth site has Guest status until they log on or create a personal profile. A Guest cannot edit but can browse and search through all content.

 

User

Users are registered on WiserEarth and are able to search and browse through all the content on WiserEarth. Users are also able to add and edit content.

A user can:

• Create a personal profile
• Add a resource or an organization
• Join or set up a group
• Post a job
• Post a event to the calendar so that the WiserEarth community can know what's happening
• Add a new article by creating a WikiPage
• Edit any unprotected pages

To become a user, you will need to register first and create your profile. Read the Tutorial for directions on how to set up your profile. See the current list of users.

 

Editor

Editors are registered WiserEarth users who can also:

• Change the Page Status for pages and comments that do not meet WiserEarth Content Standards.
  
• Edit protected pages such as the Area of Focus pages.

Read more about being an Editor.

You can make a request to become an editor by sending a message to Peggy or one of the Administrators.  See the current list of Editors.

 

Administrator

Administrators manage the user experience. They are registered on WiserEarth and can perform a few restricted functions within WiserEarth, in addition to those functions of an editor:

An Administrator can:

• Change users to editors
• Change editors to administrators
• Delete any user
  
• Protect and unprotect WikiPages
• Block and unblock IP addresses

To become an Administrator, you will need to show the community that you have built up a deep understanding of every aspect of the site, its user-base, and the needs of the WiserEarth community. You can make a request to become an Administrator by sending a message to one of the other Administrators. You must be willing to spend a significant amount of time on the site to become an administrator. See the current list of administrators.

 

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5. WiserEarth Editorial Policy (v1 draft)

 

The WiserEarth Editorial Policy is in development. But WiserEarth needs your editorial knowledge and help.

So far there has been a suggestion to review Indymedia's Editorial Policy, which would for now, serve as an appropriate Editorial Policy for WiserEarth as well.

The following policy is adopted from http://montreal.indymedia.org/twiki/bin/view/Ontario/WebEditorialPolicy with modifications and additions to comply with WiserEarth Principles and WiserEarth Community Guidelines.

 

 

Comments Editorial Policy

We (WiserEarth Editors) will remove comments or content that:

 

• have been requested to be hidden by the poster
• have been posted by someone who is found to be impersonating someone else
• have been posted by someone who claims a false affiliation with an organization
• are duplicates
• are flagged by members of the community as spam
  
• have no content other than advertising a business or another web site
• in the opinion of the editors, directly or indirectly (via web link) incite hatred against an oppressed group of people
• in the opinion of the editors, is impolite and uncivil in nature.
• in the opinion of the editors, directly or indirectly (via web link) constitute an explicit or implied physical threat against any individual or group of people
• in the opinion of the editors, show disrespect toward any individual and organization regarding race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, and religious beliefs.
• in the opinion of the editors, contains unsubstantiated and very damaging information about an individual or group (such as false event info)
• are comments that are unrelated to the article being commented on.
• are organizing specific illegal acts (i.e. saying to meet at a certain place and time to go do something illegal.)
• are infringing copyright, i.e. contains materials that is beyond the limits of the "fair use" principle.

For some comments/postings or content which are repetitive (promotional) in nature, the poster may not receive a message upon removal due to the current limitation on space in the View all Comments page.  It's in the best interests of the WiserEarth community to minimize the number of comments in that page because it is useful to find discussions and questions throughout the site.

So far there have been no posts on WiserEarth of malicious nature.  However, when the time comes, the comment will be reviewed by WiserEarth editors and administrators who will take appropriate action.

 

In addition, see Terms of Use

Areas of Focus Portals Editorial Policy

At present, only users with WiserEarth Editor or WiserEarth Administrator privilege can edit the portal pages for Areas of Focus (AoF). We are discussing ways to better manage portal pages in the discussion on roles, privilege and responsibilies of editors and administrators. We also have formed a working group to steward these portal pages at http://www.wiserearth.org/group/aof. So, throw in your ideas on how we can best manage AoF portals in these discussions.

General Content Editorial Policy

Articles, resources, orgs, jobs, events, etc., which are not in compliance with the WiserEarth Content Standards will be removed or hidden.  Unless the material is clearly spam, the poster will be sent a message and an explanation will be provided to explain its removal.

Complaints and Suggestions About the Editorial Process and Policy

Complaints about the removal process of comments or contents should be left in the Suggestions forum.  An editor will respond as soon as possible.

Suggestions to improve this editorial policy are highly expected in the editorial policy discussion forum (you need to join the Editors group first).

 

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