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KnowMore.org Firefox Extension - Get Alerts of Corporate Abuses When You Visit Company/Brand/Product Websites

KnowMore.org Firefox Extension - Get Alerts of Corporate Abuses When You Visit Company/Brand/Product Websites

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The Idea:

What will change in the world because this Project happens?

You can find out more about and download the Knowmore extension here!

The aim of Knowmore.org is to raise awareness of corporate abuses and to serve as a catalyst for corporate reform and social change. To accomplish this goal, KnowMore has created an online clearinghouse of hundreds of “responsibility profiles” of large corporations. These corporate profiles address a variety of corporate crimes ranging from environmental destruction to human rights violations to political corruption. As we grow our database, we see a huge potential for harnessing the power of Firefox to raise awareness about these corporate abuses when people visit company, brand, and product websites.

We built a Firefox extension that alerts users to areas of concern whenever they visit the websites of unethical companies. For example, if you were to visit AmericanApparel.net, the statement - "This company has areas of concern around worker's rights and business ethics. Click HERE to Learn More!” would appear over the top of that website.

(click to enlarge)

Knowmore also works to promote sustainable companies -- visit EqualExchange.com and the statement "This company has a positive rating" appears at the top of the website.

If enough people were to add the KnowMore Firefox extension, we would see a radical shift in the number of informed and conscious consumers. In this way, KnowMore.org could revolutionize how people use their purchasing power to encourage corporations to be more accountable to our communities and to our planet.

What information will people interact with to make this change?

For each company that is in the KnowMore directory, there is an overview of the concerns KnowMore users have found that are relevant to that company. These broad concerns are broken down into Worker's Rights, Human Rights, Political Influence, Environmental Issues, and Business Ethics. Our extension alerts people to the corresponding concerns when they visit company websites.

We also integrated our ratings into Google -- and have plans to integrate with other search engines.

When these concern overviews and ratings are presented, users can click through and visit the full KnowMore profile for that company. Once there, they can read the entire corporate profile, discuss the page, edit it, and even add to it. KnowMore is powered by the same open-source software as Wikipedia.

What else have you done in this Cause Area?

The KnowMore team consists of KnowMore's founders, Bernard Dolan and Sage Francis, who started KnowMore.org in 2004. Bernard and Sage have since grown the site, recruiting thousands of editors, and profiling hundred of corporations. Bernard also published a 70 page report on American Apparel in 2006, entitled "Understanding American Apparel.”

The KnowMore Firefox Extension team's Project Consultant/Manager is Joe Solomon.

Our current rock-star development team consists of Eric Cooper, Ondrej Donek, Seth Wagoner, Karl Deaden, Danny Brown, and Dietrich Ayala.

http://www.netsquared.org/blog/joesolomon/feed

Cause Area:
Cause Area Tags:
- corporate accountability
Previous Prize Tags:
- n2y3mashupchallenge
Project URL:
http://www.knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=KnowMore_Firefox_Extension
Supporting Organization:
KnowMore, Inc. 501 (c) 3 non profit organization
Supporting Organization URL:
http://www.knowmore.org
Financial support?:
No
City:
Mapleville
State/Region:
RI
Country:
US

The Assessment

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

We are curretnly busy at work at our Google Group. If you're interested in joining the KnowMore Firefox Extension team, please contact us at knowmoreextension@gmail.com!

We are also looking for feedback from the community and are eager for suggestions for both the extension and for ways to help raise awareness about corporate abuses.

Mashup Data Sources

http://knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=Behind_the_Logos

We are also open to and encourage a wide array of data sources. Because KnowMore's corporate profiles are wikis, each profile can be updated by anyone with any kind of data source (as long as it is verifiable). For example, articles could have sources from Wikipedia, NYTimes, Greenpeace, CorpWatch, etc. This wide array of data sources ensures our articles are more robust and reliable.

The Team

Submitted by KnowMore on March 6, 2008 - 10:57am

Comments

You can Help!

Phil,

Phil - Thank you very much for bringing up these great points!

Our community tracks changes through the Watch feature (anyone can follow profile changes) and profiles can be updated at any time by anyone. Also - anyone can view the history of profiles to see what the recent changes are (just like with Wikipedia!). Our extension pulls on this updated data once every 24 hrs. Highlighting recently updated data is something we can explore - and I'd love to get your ideas!

The challenge Knowmore faces is to build an even richer community -- we want to recruit Knowmore Guardians who can take an even more active role in keeping profiles up-to-date. That's one of the reasons we came to this conference -- to be able to hire a community builder.

Being open and transparent is extremely important -- our trusted moderators who create the ratings are community members who have proven themselves as objective and thorough researchers. We are exploringd way to make clear on each profile who are guardians are -- and that's part of our Knowmore guardianship program that we plan to unroll soon.

And better alternatives is on the roadmap. You can see the beginning of this recommendation engine with these profiles:

http://www.knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=Equal_Exchange%2C_Inc.

http://www.knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=Endangered_Species_Chocolat....

http://www.knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=Image:Amy%27s_Kitchen%2C_In...

Submitted by KnowMore on May 28, 2008 - 2:54pm.

How are/will you track or

How are/will you track or highlight changes in company profile ratings & scoring? ie: if a company goes from red to green in environmental? How often are companies re-visited.

Whose trusted advisors are you using? ie: why should someone trust your advisors? What happens when your trusted advisors disagree? I couldn't find any descriptions of trusted advisors, how many they are, their affiliations, credentials, whether they make ratings alone or collaboratively, or names, or other attributes. I'm thinking that being open and transparent about these ideas could be a good thing.

I'd also add my vote to suggestions that you link to better alternatives within the profiles. Thanks; keep up the good work!

Submitted by philk on May 28, 2008 - 2:07pm.

I am very impressed with

I am very impressed with your project idea and have suggestions for your website:

1. I could not find a contact link. (Otherwise I would have sent these ideas directly to you.)

2. I could not find a legend of what the icons you use and the various colors of the icons refer to. Now that I am using your plug in, I don't know what difference it makes if the icons are red or yellow.

Superb idea. I am passing it along already. In fact, I highly recommend you utilize Facebook to promote this plug in. I expect you are one project that would get forwarded very quickly and easily within Facebook. I know I would and I have yet to forward anything within Facebook.

Submitted by angelasiefer on May 28, 2008 - 12:19pm.

Thank you!

Angela,

Thank you so much for your support! We will be adding a contact for the extension soon -- and for sure, we also need a key. Our basic Issues page is here. We will definitely be promoting the extension on Facebook -- it's part of our marketing plan! Thanks for passing it along!

Submitted by KnowMore on May 28, 2008 - 12:45pm.

Some Knowmore Firefox Extension Buzz

"sweet! Its almost like McAfee telling you about a site's safety. Clever and has the potential to really get knowledge out there! Great job, I can't wait to see the fruits of this."

-Random Youtuber http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n98zAOyu0Qo

"Webizens concerned with ethical shopping will automatically be alerted to areas of corporate shiftiness when they direct their url to the company-in-question’s site, the extension essentially becoming an automated web monitor for corporate social responsibility."

-Portable Content http://portablecontent.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/n2y3-mash-up-challenge/

"This could bridge the gap for some between the desire to be a conscious consumer and the reality of being lazy"

-BR Strange Records Forum

"Do you ever land on a site to buy a hot new outfit and wonder if the company you are about to buy from pays fair wages to its garment workers? If so, KnowMore, a Firefox extension, will alert you to the issues associated with a company when you land on their site so you can make an informed purchase."

-Agnes Varnum, http://resources.renewmedia.org/2008/04/02/netsquared-fing-cool/

"The concept rocks. Your icons are great. And the implementation seems to be coming along splendidly. Well done. What I see here is corporate oversight / auditing / reporting from the bottom-up."

-Peter Deitz, SocialActions.com

Submitted by JoeSolomon on May 26, 2008 - 9:52pm.

Firefox Developer Wanted For KnowMore Extension!

Hi everyone, I just published a blog post with a few of our latest mockups and a call for a firefox developer who shares out vision and is interested in helping us make this mashup a reality. Please spread the word!

Submitted by JoeSolomon on April 3, 2008 - 5:21pm.

Great idea!

I know many people who would love to have this!

Submitted by mhovorka on April 1, 2008 - 12:11pm.

Greener One - Great Stuff!

Thanks Molly - I think the work you're doing @ GreenerOne is also great! I've been thinking about different ways you could integrate mobile technology @ the point of sale, perhaps with barcode scanners, to help your users access your database. If you want, I'd love to explore this idea further with you - you can reach me by email at joe@engagejoe.com.

Submitted by JoeSolomon on April 3, 2008 - 5:16pm.