Community Ownership and Involvement

As a website that aims to serve this global community, WiserEarth relies on participation and feedback from the community members to guide its development. In the words of WiserEarth's founder, Paul Hawken:

"The success of WiserEarth does not depend on garnering a complete database of all the environmental and social justice organizations worldwide, but on our ability to create a network that takes on a life of its own - one that is wholly owned and grown by the global community."

Join WiserEarth

• When you're ready, we invite you to join us (read the tutorial page or listen to an audio tutorial for guidance). 
• Login and edit your profile so it represents who you are, what you do, and what you are passionate about.

Here are some of the ways that you can get involved and make WiserEarth even more valuable for the community and for our cause:

Explore WiserEarth and Expand your Network

• Connect with others on the site and expand your network. Start by browsing people or groups interested in the same issues or based in your region. Send people an internal message and say 'hello' or leave a comment at the bottom of their profile. Join groups and get involved in the group's activity.
  
• Visit the Areas of Focus (issue areas) and click on the "(x people)" link to connect with the people who share your interest.
• See the latest comments and discussions on WiserEarth. "View the context" of the comments to participate in the discussion.
• Find information you need by searching for any keywords or phrases (e.g., architecture, water, funding, California, alternative, organic foods, World Wildlife Fund, Asia, Kenya, Andes, etc.). Read this tutorial on making the best use of the search feature.

Help Us Improve the Site

• Make necessary corrections and additions to any organizations, resources, wikipages, or events by clicking the "edit" link in the "About" section of each page.
• Explore the WiserEarth Editors Group, where editors and active users collaborate to serve the greater WiserEarth community.  Check out the working groups such as Area of Focus Editors, and WiserEarth Global Communities. Consider becoming a WiserEarth Editor by being an active contributor.
• Join the Suggestions for WiserEarth group or take the online survey if you want to propose and discuss suggestions for improvement or take the online survey
  
• Donate to WiserEarth. WiserEarth will not allow paid advertisements, monetization of the site, nor will any information on the site, or information about the WiserEarth community be sold in any way. It receives no government or corporate funding. Any donation you can make - big or small - will be a valuable contribution.
• Share WiserEarth with your community. You may choose to host a talk about WiserEarth, send postcards or emails. Presentation and outreach materials in a number of different languages have been produced to help you spread the word. For suggestions and questions regarding the outreach activity go to the WiserEarth Outreach and Publicity forum.

Share your Knowledge

• Is your favorite organization(s) in the WiserEarth directory? Search. If not, please add!
• How about any interesting and useful resources (books, journals, awards, government programs, articles, quotes, standards, internet resources, blogs, podcasts, databases, directories and other forms of data) you would like to share with the community? Add them too! This will increase WiserEarth's usefulness to the community.
• Add a WikiPage. WikiPages are like blank sheets of paper. They can be used to create a document, announcement, flyer that is outside the realm of WiserEarth resources. They can be connected to other entities on WiserEarth (i.e. organizations). Learn more about WikiPages, blogging on WiserEarth, creating wikipages and citation guidelines. If you want to create a more sophisticated wikipage, consult the HTML Help page.

Learn and Collaborate

• Find out what kind of collaboration WiserEarth allows by browsing through WiserEarth groups
• Do you have a cause you wish others to support? Do you want to create a network around a specific issues? Do you want a place for the member of your organization to coordinate and collaborate? Set up your own group or read the tutorial for setting one up. For more info, read about groups and visit the groups FAQ page.
• Browse Area of Focus (issue area) portals to learn in more depth about issues you care about. This list is not complete nor comprehensive, so we invite you to add your additions to improve the taxonomy.
• If you want to learn about anything in the array of issues in our cause, browse or ask about it in the discussion forums. Or start your own discussion.
  

Find a Job or Internship here or post a listing for free

• Looking for a job, internship or volunteer opportunity in supporting what you're passionate about? Go to jobs or events, and don't forget to visit the Interactive Map to find ones near your area.
• Share information on any job, internship or volunteer opportunity with the community. WiserEarth is full of passionate and wonderful people looking for these positions.

A Few More Tips...

• Click "Add to Your Network" at the right-hand side of this page. It will link this page to your personal profile under the "Network" section - "Wikipages" tab, so you can always find this page when you need it. You can use this feature on almost every page on WiserEarth. This way, you'll always be able to find any page on WiserEarth that you wish to keep with you.
• Click the "Add to My Watchlist" link on the right-hand side "Actions" box of any page you wish to be notified of changes or edits. You can set the alert frequency for the watchlist in the "User Settings" tab of your personal profile. Learn more about how to use the Watchlist. 
  
• We recommend you use Firefox browser for a better experience on WiserEarth. Firefox is an opensource software just like WiserPlatform, the software underlying WiserEarth. Otherwise, Internet Explorer 6 and 7 on Windows and the latest version of Safari on Mac are also well supported.
  
• If you're on a low-bandwidth connectivity (volume-based connectivity plan, or slow dial-up connection), use services such as Skweezer, Mowser and Google Mobilizer to save bandwidth dollars (up to 95%) and browse faster by browsing in text-only mode, or low-resolution-images mode (though it's not possible to log-in and edit contents). If you're browsing from your mobile device, use Opera Mini for similar results (it's possible to log-in, join discussions and reply to messages, but no editing is possible for the mean time).

Get to Know What WiserEarth is all About

• Find out why WiserEarth was created in About WiserEarth section.
• Learn why you may want to join WiserEarth.
• Read the story behind WiserEarth's inception in Paul Hawken's profile page.
• Watch videos and listen to audio podcasts.
• Read more about WiserEarth in the News and on the Web.

"This is the first time in history that a large social movement is not bound together by an "ism." What binds it together is ideas, not ideologies. This unnamed movement's big contribution is the absence of one big idea; in its stead it offers thousands of practical and useful ideas. In place of isms are processes, concerns, and compassion. The movement demonstrates a pliable, resonant, and generous side of humanity. . ."

"The promise of this unnamed movement is to offer solutions to what appear to be insoluble dilemmas: poverty, global climate change, terrorism, ecological degradation, polarization of income, loss of culture. It is not burdened with a syndrome of trying to save the world; it is trying to remake the world."

(Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.)