Thank you for your interest in EarthCAT!

To learn more about the EarthCAT process, please download the workbook from the Home Page. In addition to the workbook, we've developed this web site to help community leaders manage the process. We hope you find the information and utilities on the web site useful. We are still developing the documentation for the site - it just went live recently - and so if you have any questions about how it works, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Right now, the EarthCAT web site enables you to:

1. Conduct a web based visioning process where you enter the visioning questions you want people to answer, and then the general public can use the EarthCAT site to answer the questions. The data that is collected is then compiled by the site, and you can search it by keyword.

2. Track each step of the planning process, and create a database of the conclusions from each step on line, so a broad group of stakeholders can always easily access the information about the project.

3. Host an on-line dialogue, using the Open Forum tool you see as part of each section. This works like a threaded dialogue, where people can post comments and others can post replies on the web page.

4. Share documents with your stakeholder group using the File Manager tool that is part of each section. This enables you to use the web site to share important information with a broad group of people, to solicit comments, or make them aware of what has happened in the project so far.

5. Manage your electronic mailing list for the project and send messages to your stakeholders. You do this through the Foundation section of the web site, which enables you to enter the names and contact information for the groups in your community who are involved, and then send messages to them inviting them to join the project. As a community leader, you can also send messages to your core team, your stakeholders, to other community leaders, and to all the participants in EarthCAT.

6. We have a global database of goals, strategies, and targets that other communities have used in their sustainability planning processes. You can search the site to get new ideas for your community. The Search feature is at the bottom of each section, and the database is organized by section (vision, goals, targets, strategies), by country, and by category - Social Well-Being, Good Governance, Human Economic Security, Human Services and Infrastructure, and Natural Environment. As you finalize the elements of your plan, the information from your community will be added to this searchable database, so other communities can learn from you.

7. The site allows you to keep the information that is still in draft form only available to your stakeholders - you choose when to make the materials and conclusions public. Once you post the information to the public part of the site, then it is possible for anyone who uses the web to see it, but until then it is only available to the people who you have approved as stakeholders.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need more information or assistance.

All the best,

Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Executive Director