Goal

The goal of Openclimate.org is to bring to bear scientific findings to solve actionable problems on an accelerated time scale utilizing an open community of experts and a robust information technology infrastructure that is accessible and useable by non-scientists and scientists alike.

• External communities outside the scientific community will be posing questions, and the answers to these questions should be informed by the best science-based information available at any given time. These questions are best answered by applied research and analysis posed directly to address those questions. This stands in contrast to the current situation where information developed for scientific purposes is recast for the applications posed by the external community.
• Openclimate.org will be based on the principles of open communities, open innovation, and open access to information. An open source community will enable more people to access, validate, and engage in climate change research based on best available information. An open source community will provide an environment for the generation of new knowledge on a faster timescale.
• The Openclimate.org technology architecture will enable a broader audience than has been developed by the scientific community to access state-of-the-art climate information. The technology architecture will facilitate the sharing of algorithms and information to those who are addressing real-world problems.

Openclimate.org builds upon existing resources

Governments around the world have developed an enormous array of climate resources, but the broader community is often unaware of these resources or not able to access them easily. The analysis of the information contained in these resources requires the expertise of the practitioner. The fragmented development of capabilities across a large number of countries and multiple organizations in these countries leads to barriers to the access and generation of climate information. Openclimate.org will draw on and build upon existing scientific investments and climate models. Rather than waiting for scientists to “push” information to the broader climate community, Openclimate.org recognizes the “pull” and strives to organize and facilitate this pull.