The Real Alaska: Joining Together to Present Conservation Opportunities

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The Idea:

What will change in the world because this Project happens?

If successful, this project will give rise to the first complete, readily updated, and geographically presented portrait of Alaska's conservation issues. Conservation efforts across our state will be presented in their navigable context. People will be able to understand Alaska's conservation issues more readily than ever before possible, and through their own lens of importance, rather than digging through the many perspectives of individual, dispersed nonprofits.

The effort will raise awareness and support for conservation, as well as increase community spirt among the over 100 conservation groups across our state.

Those outside of Alaska often imagine Alaska as a pristine wilderness, with the Arctic Refuge being surrounded by oil developers poised and prepped for environmental disaster... while the rest of the state remains untouched and safe. But this isn't the case-- there are mining prospects across Alaska for gold, copper, zinc and more, plans to mine coal for shipment to Asia (a quarter of the Earth's coal reserves are here), shipping routes from the Pacific risking destroying the world's largest fisheries, and the last of the Earth's temperate rainforests, with more than half of them clearcut. Hundreds of thousands of Alaskans rely upon these resources for their livelihood.

By creating a platform for sharing information on the vast array of issues across our state, this project will change the way nonprofits work with each other, and greatly improve the way we communicate with the rest of the world. "Issue of the day" conservation trends can be muted in favor of greater transparency, public understanding, and cooperation.

Information like this has never been objectively collected and presented in one location because of the understandably inward focus of conservation nonprofits, which have a vested self-interest in presenting only their own issues. However, as the cost and means for presenting and revising content steadily decreases, and technological breakthroughs are provided by the Web, GoogleEarth, and GoogleMaps, we can create a truly groundbreaking website about an iconic place, offering a model for conservation cooperation applicable across the globe.

The conservation community has the willingness and data to make this happen. We need the expertise to design and market a winning approach.

What information will people interact with to make this change?

A moderated, web-based community platform for conservation groups would provide a one-stop web gateway for the public to learn about the broad variety of conservation issues and organizations across Alaska. We would employ two-dimensional satellite imagery and a Googlemaps-style interface. Geotags, brief information, and URL links to member pages would be created by conservation groups, separated into various data layers that allow browsers to select the type of information they seek (mining, forests, oil, global warming, salmon, youth internships, volunteer opportunities, environmental education, etc.), and presented on a common web portal for the general public.

Unlike nearly all conservation websites, that strive to hold visitors hostage on their website and attract funding, our approach is to present a navigable wealth of conservation information, along with easy access to those groups working toward an issue's resolution. We will create value by sharing information, and giving our visitors away to the groups they wish to support.

We would allow visitors to post comments related to all geotags and issues presented.

What else have you done in this Cause Area?

The Alaska Conservation Foundation is the community foundation of conservation in Alaska. Since 1980, we've awarded over $27 million in grants to over 200 organizations. We are the single organization working to present the needs of our partners to conservation supporters nationwide, and raise funding for them. We are the hub of Alsaska's conservation community, and are perfectly positioned to create this Utopian platform for sharing conservation opportunities.

We have published many award-winning publications, and have a strong communications program. We currently sponsor more internships and conservation projects across Alaska than any other organization. Our staff of conservation professionals has over 50 years of Alaska conservation experience.

This project represents a shift for us, as we place considerably more focus into making our donors and supporters more directly aware and involved with the outstanding conservation groups we support.

Cause Area:
- Environment
Cause Area Tags:
- Youth
- Human Rights
- Health
- Education
Supporting Organization:
Ourselves: Alaska Conservation Foundation
Supporting Organization URL:
http://www.akcf.org
Financial support?:
Yes
City:
Anchorage
State/Region:
Alaska
Country:
USA

The Assessment

What kind of help or resources do you need to turn your project idea into a completed mashup?

We seek to refine this concept into a clear, achievable project, with a proposal, a clear budget and pathway to success. We do not require (yet are very open to!) help with fundraising.

We have a concept, broad support across the conservation community, some financial resources, and minimal web programming skills in-house.

Having this exciting content, evolving content which has never been available in one location-- could generate considerable traffic at our website. We will need assistance in a marketing plan for this new content.