Online collaboration to help Greenpeace plan campaigns

Protest group aims to raise awareness of global warming through online
co-ordination.

Environmental campaigner Greenpeace has launched an online collaboration system to help activists plan events and action around the world.

The community, called Melt, will provide a variety of tools to allow the sharing of information and strategies on green issues such as global warming.

Rolf Kleef, the co-ordinator of the project, says the protest group wants to be able to bring people together worldwide to campaign together.

"The intention is for it to become a one-stop shop for all issues relating to climate change," he said.

"It will serve a number of purposes from organising protests to providing practical information about how, for example, to set up solar panels on houses and business buildings."

Melt will operate using an open source collaboration system that has been tailored for Greenpeace by consultancy firm ThoughtWorks.

Ovum analyst Chris Harris-Jones says online collaboration systems are being adopted much more readily in the communities sector than they are in the business world.

"General community groups have created web sites for this sort of thing; it will make it much easier for Greenpeace to be able to contact activists and organise demonstrations using this kind of technology," he said.