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We are creating a new map-based online encyclopedia, which invites specialists worldwide to compile a comprehensive, high-level overview of our current world on a platform which will be accessible and understandable for all.
Thanks to the global media environment, we currently have access to knowledge about almost any specific issue from around the world at our fingertips. The journalistic media provide news, stories or explainers, experts offer analyses and explanations, and Wikipedia, as well as AI research tools, offer user-friendly introductions to nearly any specific topic.
However, despite this scope, there is no single resource, in which anyone (and primarily non-expert audiences) could see a correct and in-depth complete picture of the current global socio-political situation, and thanks to this resource, easily gain needed comprehensive understanding of the current global socio-political situation.
Entries Written by Experts: Our encyclopedia is based on big-picture scientific entries that provide comprehensive overviews of the issues in a user-friendly format. For each entry, we seek a relevant specialist. These are primarily academics from universities and research centres but also include researchers from respected NGOs, neutral think tanks, and specialised journalists.
Embedded Into a World Map: We plan to complement our encyclopedia with an interactive socio-political map of the world. By bringing together existing data, country profiles with recommended third-party resources, and visualisations of global topics, it will allow everyone to see the complete picture in a compact and easy-to-use way.
Descriptive & Neutral: By avoiding political and ethical associations and remaining open to novel ideas, our long-term goal is to create an informative source for people of various backgrounds.
An Easily Accessible Source: Inspired by other encyclopedias such as Wikipedia and Britannica, we hope to become an easy-to-access resource that is available in moments when people need a global picture. To achieve this, we aim to become interconnected with Google searches and selected Wikipedia entries while building partnerships with journalists, NGOs, and influencers.
Multilingual Objective: Although originally created in English, we are not solely aimed at English-speaking audiences. To ensure this resource is available to anyone anywhere, we will be working with translators and AI translation tools.
Member Focus: We are a non-profit non-governmental initiative that aims to be funded primarily by our membership community. This income can be additionally supported by institutional or private grants and through cooperation with universities and NGOs. With this funding model, we wish to have the members always at the core of our activities.
From volunteering during the Refugee Crisis to the student-governed project Online Encyclopedia of Migration, our major concern through the years has been the limitations and gaps inherent in the media system. In response, we decided to design a broader information source through which everyone will be able to understand the global socio-political situation.
Here it is: Atlas of Today’s World.
During the Refugee Crisis in 2015, while providing water and blankets to Syrian refugees in the Balkans, we were exposed to the limitations and gaps inherent in the media system. Why had those affected been forced to flee? Why were they afraid of their relatives? What was everyday life in Aleppo really like? Their names and migration stories were being reported, but deeper knowledge about life in Syria was not sufficiently available to the wider world.
In order to address this, we launched the Online Encyclopedia of Migration in 2017: a digital platform that aimed to provide well-researched information about migration to Europe and the situations in the countries of origin. We wanted this to be available to everyone.
During this time, we collaborated with various academic institutions, NGOs and media outlets in the Czech Republic, which resulted in our special feature projects: The Story of the Syrian War and Went to Europe.
This project taught us a lot, but it also inspired us to begin analysing the media system and its limitations on the global level. From there, we decided to design a broader information source through which everyone would be able to understand the overall socio-political situation in today's world.
The first version of our encyclopedia is now ready. It consists of previews of the initial three sample themes: Russia-Ukraine War, Global Issues and Russia. And we tried to build (unsuccessfully) an initial membership community primarily during June-July 2024.
It will enable us to cover our small debts and needed software, negotiate institutional partnerships to produce full themes together (e.g. a comprehensive portrait of the Middle East), and to address first readers around the world. Finally, we will invest into the grant fundraising so we can speed up Atlas development significantly
With this help, we could regularly create new content (portraits of individual world regions, global issues or countries), intensively negotiate partnerships with research institutions, NGOs or media to produce new content and deliver this resource to people around the world, and start developing the interactive world map.
CONTENT:
We do not create the content ourselves. Our role is similar to that of an academic journal. We build the infrastructure and perform the editorial tasks while inviting scholars and other specialists from all over the world to contribute.
IMPACT:
Through partnerships across the global media system, we aim to deliver our source to everyone in the moments they most need it. In this way, our encyclopedia will be easily accessible to anyone anywhere.
Help introduce specialists and ensure the quality and neutrality of the content.
Help accelerate our development and fund specific projects.
Help deliver our entries to the public via hypertext links, quotations, interactive info boxes, and other paths.
Currently, we are an international team of 5 individuals who work remotely and are mostly volunteers. We combine knowledge in human and social sciences with skills in IT, marketing, and media studies. Over the course of the almost 10-year project, probably around 200 individuals have been involved.
We are a non-profit, non-governmental organisation that has been registered in the Czech Republic since 2016 (Online encyklopedie migrace, z.s.; our registration information is available here).
We are looking for specialised authors, and academic, media, and funding partners who can help us establish our new encyclopedia.
Atlas of Today’s World is membership-driven. By joining our community, you enable us to reach the next development milestones, create new content, build partnerships and deliver our resource to more people around the world.
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