A Primer for Empowering the World’s Problem Solvers

“A global challenges Wikipedia has the potential to yield long-term frameworks for addressing every single global challenge that confronts our planet: in short, it has the potential to empower billions of people to transcend their plight and become their own agents of change. That prospect is as much a source of excitement as it is a call to action – let us answer it together.”

BACKGROUND

I entered Change.org’s competition to propel ten ideas to the fore of Barack Obama’sadministration. My proposal to establish a “global challenges Wikipedia” has generated greatinterest among nonprofit organizations, consulting firms, and policy organizations. I prepared thisprimer quickly to ensure that I am able to follow up with them while they are still enthusiastic. It isintended both as a preliminary effort to describe the wiki’s purpose and functionality and as aninvitation to readers to volunteer any questions, concerns, suggestions, and other observations thatthey might have. Please direct all correspondence toawyne@alum.mit.edu.

I. INTRODUCTION

Barack Obama will inherit perhaps the greatest set of global challenges that any president hasconfronted since Franklin Roosevelt surveyed the ruins of war abroad and the devastation of recession at home. He is being inundated with prescriptions on how to address each of thesechallenges – ranging from climate change to weapons proliferation – in no small part because muchof the global community regards him as an agent of change and innovation.It is doubtful that many of the legion memos, reports, and books that he is receiving will actually beopened, let alone read and heeded. A

“global challenges Wikipedia”

would empower the nextadministration – indeed, the entire global community of problem solvers – to address globalchallenges in an efficient, systematic manner with an eye towards generating and implementing concrete solutions.

Although this portal could be launched without the next administration’ssupport, establishing, maintaining, and updating it will require extraordinary manpower andresources. It stands to reason that these will be obtained more readily if this proposal gains theattention of President Obama and, accordingly, of problem solvers here and abroad.

II. A GLOBAL CHALLENGES WIKIPEDIA

Given that there are currently about 20 global challenges and 200 countries in the world, a globalchallenges Wikipedia (GCW) would consist of three distinct, but highly integrated parts:[1] The

global challenges repository (GCR)

would be 20 rows by 200 columns (one row perglobal challenge, one column per country). Each cell would contain(a) A history of the corresponding global challenge in the corresponding country;(b) An inventory of the players – the international institutions, governments, businesses,nonprofit organizations (NGOs), and individuals – that are addressing it, and how; and(c) A profile of the issue, financial, and logistical networks between these players. Teams of experts, one per global challenge, would ensure the accuracy of additions and updatesto the GCR.[2] The

solutions portal (SP)

would also be a 20 x 200 matrix. Each cell would contain(a) Descriptions of policy initiatives that have been successfully deployed against thecorresponding global challenge in the corresponding country in the past;(b) A thread on how to address the corresponding global challenge in the corresponding country; and(c) A thread on how the aforementioned players can collaborate without replicating eachother’s efforts and wasting resources. The expert teams would ensure that all contributions are solution-oriented. They would evaluatethe ability of the solutions that have worked for a given country ([2](a)) to be tested in and

I use the phrase “global challenges Wikipedia” not as a potential title for the framework that I envision, but rather, asan analogy to illuminate its intended purpose and desired outcomes. I have considered several titles (for example, the“Global Challenges Portal”) but have yet to settle on any of them. The final title, however, will not contain the word“Wikipedia,” which is a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation.

3applied to others. They would also monitor the discussion threads ([2](b), [2](c)) to identify areas of consensus and accordingly articulate new solutions.[3] The case studies of past successes and write-ups of new solutions would be inputted into a 20 x200

solutions repository (SR)

, which would offer a dynamic pool of insights for application tonew challenges.

III. A HYBRID, SOLUTION-ORIENTED MODEL

My proposal would blend Wikipedia’s spirit with principled regulation. Specifically, the expert teams would be tasked with approving all additions to the GCR and SP, which would be open to thepublic. Furthermore, they would have exclusive access to the SR, the GCW’s central output. As noted earlier, additions and updates to the GCR, which would essentially be a repository of facts, would be monitored for their accuracy. Additions to the SP, however, which would essentially be arepository of recommendations as to what actions should be taken, would be monitored for theirrelevance and tone. Thus, proposed contributions that did not contribute to the discussion at handand / or were abusive would not be accepted. Otherwise, the discussion and debate in the SP wouldproceed without any interference. Allowing individuals – whether scholars, public servants, activists,or laypeople – to contribute continuously to the SP would provide for a marketplace of ideas in which sensible proposals prevail.I envision populating the GCR and SP initially with comments from the appointed experts so as togive the GCW enterprise profile and credibility at the outset. Thereafter, however, the discussionand debate would be truly global insofar as they derived from and responded to the needs of individuals who are suffering acutely because of global challenges. Enlisting the support of NGOrepresentatives who are on the ground in developing countries will be critical in this regard, becausethey can speak with and aggregate the concerns of those who do not have the technical access orsavoir-faire to contribute to the GCR and SP themselves. Only 22% of the world’s populationoverall has Internet access and, not surprisingly, the figure is much lower in those regions whereglobal challenges are most oppressive. Only 21.3% of individuals in the Middle East, 15.3% of individuals in Asia, and 5.3% of individuals in Africa have Internet access.

It is the 78% of peoplein the world who do not have Internet access whose concerns must drive the solutions that emergefrom the GCW.

IV. THE MODEL AT WORK

Figure 1 offers a simple illustration of the GCW at work; it is a small, 10 x 10 cross-section of theproposed model:

Internet World Stats, “The Internet Big Picture: World Internet Users and Population Stats,” available athttp://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm(2008).