Step 1: Finding the Information
One of the questions people frequently ask us is whether the Climatographers have bots or spiders scouring the internet at night for materials to add to the Climate Web. The answer is no; that would simply replicate the chaotic information deluge you’ll see every time you search for any topic or question via the internet.
Instead, everything in the Climate Web, including 25,000 reports and papers, 30,000 news and opinion pieces, 5,000 websites, 4,000 videos and podcasts, and much more, has been intentionally added by the Climatographers.
So how do we source those materials? Often through our LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Mastodon feeds. We also do a lot of internet digging into specific topics, going much deeper than the first page of search results. And finally, we pull in relevant LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, and other threads that can help inform your exploration of climate topics.
Step 2: Getting It Ready
Before materials are integrated into the Climate Web, we use naming and color conventions to make it clear whether a thought represents a report, a news story, or a website. This also makes it much easier to later Search for specific things in the Climate Web.
- For books, reports, PPTs, and articles, the naming convention is: Year Author_Title
- For News and Opinion, the convention is: Year/Month Title
- For Videos, the convention is: Year Title
Step 3: Integrating It Into the Climate Web
First, all new additions to the Climate Web are “typed” by kind of content, e.g. sources, news, videos, websites, etc.. Each type has its own identifiable thought icon and font color for easy recognition. Learn more about the key Types here:
All new additions are then allocated to Topical Headings specific to their content type. In all, more than 5,000 Topical Headings, also color coded for easy recognition, organize materials topically in the Climate Web.
Topical Headings are then linked to Index Entries that form the backbone of the Climate Web, and which are the easiest way to navigate the Climate Web to get exactly where you want to go. There are more than 3,500 Index Entries in the Climate Web.
Step 4: Advanced Knowledge Curation
In addition to organizing climate materials into what is in effect a massive filing cabinet, the Climatographers take several more steps to curate information in ways that we hope will contribute to actionable knowledge
- We go through many books, reports, papers, and news stories to extract key graphics and ideas - more than 20,000 and counting. These Extracted Materials are then organized into Topical Headings of their own, allowing you to scan topical materials from MANY different sources in one place.
- We’ve pulled together content from all over the Climate Web to populate 500+ Topical Dashboards that help you quickly come up to speed on specific topics and questions.
- We’ve authored 500+ Insights pages that distill topical information, helping you zero in on the most important questions and topics. come up to speed on all kinds of climate topics. See the HELP - Insights Pages thought for more information on Climate Insights pages.
- We’re adding substantive content to Index Entries to make them even more effective as “topical roadmaps” in the Climate Web.