Communications of the ACM
Harnessing the Power of Hashtags to Tackle Climate Change
The #Climate mobile app is designed to help build momentum for climate change policies by connecting influential persons to nonprofit efforts through a social network model.
Credit: Julia Rosen
The ClimateX nonprofit's recent public release of its first project, the #Climate mobile app, is designed to help build momentum for climate change policies by connecting influential persons to nonprofit efforts via a social network model.
The app's underlying concept is to make it simple for such influencers to identify climate-change campaigns, to promote them on social media, and then to monitor the scope of those messages. Any consumer can download and use #Climate to find new campaigns, but only vetted influencers can use the platform to post messages and track their reach.
In an interview, ClimateX co-founder Josh Felser says the nonprofit is founded on the idea of using technology to make a difference in climate change. "We decided that what we really needed was a place to aggregate all the actions in one place--a smartphone app--and build in an analytics engine to show influencers how they are doing," he notes. Felser says the #Climate app will be offered for free to the public, but other nonprofits have requested a white label version for their campaigns and for their own networks of influencers, which could be provided for a fee. Felser describes an app that provides direct messaging for influencers as a next step.
From The Wall Street Journal
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