Topic: Should We Use the Earth Charter for WiserEarth's AoF Taxonomy?
Posts (1 - 10 of 10)
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Friends and i have discussed how it would be helpful to have a higher level classification above the current areas of focus, and your suggestion of integration with the Earth Charter classification seems to be a perfect fit. For non-advanced users who are new to the site, or new to the realm of sustainability, it may be helpfl for them to see a smaller list as a portal, before they begin moving into a more detailed understanding of a particular area of focus. It seems that the current list and its format could be quite overwhelming for a new user. And hopefully changes like the ones you have suggested, this site can come to be useful and inspiring for a broader audience than just the current activist community.
Thank you for your work on this topic, and for your all of your thoughtful work throughout the site. Martin |
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Glad to be of service Martin :)
I resonate with you on "hopefully.... this site can come to be useful and inspiring for a broader audience than just the current activist community." We do need to get as many "non-believers" as possible on board if we really want to make an impact. WiserEarth can be further optimized toward this end. Looking forward to work with you on this Martin :) |
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I completely agree with Martin. I was bewildered when I was asked to pick out ten Areas on which to focus in my contribution to WiserEarth. I ended up choosing 18 and somewhat arbitrarily adding asterisks to those to be included in the ten. The 18 was narrowed down from more than 30 to which I feel some sort of meaningful connection.
My two cents is that we should use the Earth Charter for the purpose of attributing the top level classifiers to an established and reputable system but then introduce whatever adjustments best represent the interests of our user base and the audience we feel most likely to reach in the coming year. What are the technical challenges of introducing a higher tier classification? |
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Martin: "it may be help for them (non-advanced users who are new to the site) to see a smaller list as a portal, before they begin moving into a more detailed understanding of a particular area of focus. It seems that the current list and its format could be quite overwhelming for a new user."
James: "we should use the Earth Charter for the purpose of attributing the top level classifiers to an established and reputable system but then introduce whatever adjustments best represent the interests of our user base and the audience we feel most likely to reach in the coming year." Many have mentioned how the current list of AoFs are overwhelming. Fortunately, any of us can craft a wikipage on how such portal can look like. I tried to tinker on this with the idea of Weversity (still in infancy) @ http://www.wiserearth.org/article/a69d1376662936d71a666af03cd0514a/group/WiserEarthEditors Any thoughts? I will start a working group on this within the WiserEarth Editors group soon, care to help out? |
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Sure, I'll help... although, I'd be careful about making too many separate locations for collaboration. My memory can only handle so many places to visit for updates and to post comments.
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Hey bowo, I'm not sure if we need to create a group for this task, within the Editors group. I feel that it is too specific of a task and we should be slow in creating new working groups.
I understand if you feel the need to create a new group though. It seems to be more of a subgroup of the aof stewards group...those who are interested in the aofs will gravitate to it. |
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Mike: Yep, just a thought. It is pretty irrelevant for the WEversity group and more appropriate for the AoF Stewards group. (I wrote that comment before one day before we created the Stewards group anyway). And what was proposed there was of a different nature, but is linked to the idea of bridging users to the vast array of AoF and contents within WiserEarth.
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Great idea. For my two cents - I can't imagine having more than two levels any taxonomy we use. I could see us using the four main principles as the top level of the taxonomy and then merging the 379 AOFs into the 53 sub-principles - that would be the simplification route. I'm not in favour of using the 53 sub-principles as the top level and then categorize the 379 AOFs accordingly beacuse that leaves us worse off then the 46 top levels that we already have. Perhaps we use the 12 principles as the top level? I love the specificity of the AOFs but am not very happy with their taxonomic rigour - they are not always at the same level of granularity and not exhaustive and mutually exclusive at all levels. The AOF is a great strength but also a hinderance in terms of translating the platform into other languages. Its simply too much work - we need to simplify to go global.
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I have to say, that one of the most tedious process in adding entities is the AoF selection process. And you said it right about the 379 AoFs being not always at the same level of granularity and not exhaustive and mutually exclusive at all levels.
Btw, although Earth Charter has four main principles, only three is used to categorize issues: Ecological Integrity, Social and Economic Justice, and Democracy, Non Violence and Peace.
So, if we go down the route of simplification, we'll probably end up with a three tiered taxonomy consisting of three top level AoF, 12 mid level AoF, and 53 lower level AoF. We probably want to make entities taggable with the top level AoF to make things super easy, while distributing the task of tagging with lower level AoF to people who understand the categorization (WiserEarth Editors for example).
Anyone who wants to add more specific "AoF" can just create a wikipage and bring in related entities (orgs, resources, events, groups, etc.) in that page. The AoF portal can then create a section to host these wikipages.
There's a suggestion in the WiserEarth Suggestions group on this. If you're reading this thread, you might want to consider voting in support of: Simplify AOF Categories |
Contributors to this Page
That wikipage is a follow-up of the same idea I initially mentioned in the "Developing a top level taxonomy for the 46 different Areas of Focus?" discussion @ http://www.wiserearth.org/forum/view/273c26a131b7283968a34ff2b6478b19
Feel free to share any thoughts you have.
I will try to moderate this discussion the best I can.
Bowo
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Keywords:
Improving WiserEarth, Areas of Focus, AoF, AoF Taxonomy, Earth Charter, Action-Oriented Taxonomy, Classification of Global Challenges, Global Problems