Encouraging an open-source tipping point

On November 18, 2004, the Kleercut.net site launched in English and French with full ActionWorks.ca integration to deliver bilingual e-mail and fax advocacy, send-to-a-friend postcards, “my actions” pages, and e-mail list management.

The next several months were a combination of building momentum and awareness around the campaign, both online and, more importantly, off-line — on the streets and in the stores where people shop. Street engagement, press conferences and store adoptions helped to build interest and intensity and made for great imagery on the Web site. Short articles and blog posts covered a range of Greenpeace-supported actions and a growing number of volunteer-supported actions. And, finally, we reached out to progressive online publications and news media like Grist, Corporation Watch, and Indymedia.org to amplify the message, in addition to working with tongue-in-cheek initiatives like Act for Love, the online dating site for activists.

In addition to the online articles and cross-site promotion of the campaign, Greenpeace Canada leveraged its own mailing list, in addition to using lists run by Greenpeace International and WildCanada.net, to increase the reach of the campaign to more than 150,000 activists in Canada and Europe. There was also outreach to a number of well-trafficked blogs and discussion forums to raise the issue of forest destruction and to point people to the Kleercut.net site. It’s rumored that there will be even more covert “electronic-ops” in the months to come (though we can’t tell you exactly what).

What’s been most interesting to watch is the steady climb of the Kleercut site in Google’s rankings, as more and more network capital is built at a grassroots level. The more sites that get out the Kleercut message and point back to the site, the higher the ranking. Six months ago, the site didn’t even rank on Google — as of July 2005, the site is about No. 8 when searching for Kleenex and Kimberly-Clark. We’re aiming for No. 1.