This document provides an introduction to the Wikirate project, which aims to increase transparency of corporate activities through crowdsourcing claims about companies via a structured wiki platform. Wikirate will function like Wikipedia but focused on collecting and rating companies' social and environmental performance. The goals are to engage more stakeholders in corporate oversight and bring more prominence to issues like supply chain management and tax avoidance. Wikirate has partnerships with universities and organizations for development and testing. It outlines the project timeline and proposes areas for collaboration with other open data and civic participation initiatives.

1. CAPS Concertation
04.02.2014, Brussels
Vishal Kapadia
vishal@wikirate.org

2. Wikirate, an Introduction/Recap
What does it offer:
How does it work?
Initially: A database of companies’
ethical behavior
Eventually: Personalized CSR ratings
Think Wikipedia, but more structured
and simpler to participate
“Nuggets of Wisdom” structure
The Wikirate
Project
Is it a new concept?
Atomization of Information is a new
concept in crowdsourcing
CSR ratings via crowdsourcing has not
been tried to date
What are its benefits?
Engagement and Education of
consumers via Radical Transparency
and Low Barriers to Participation

3. Project Objectives and expected outputs
Objectives:
To increase transparency of corporate activities
How:
Crowdsourcing claims about companies, through open source; semantic wiki
architecture to influence and engage wider stakeholders in the activities and running
of the companies
Output + Impact
granular level: allow stakeholders that were previously disengaged with companies
operations to become more engaged; allow those that are engaged to have a voice
Macro level: to bring the debate around issues to greater prominence; to influence
incentives around things as large as supply chain management; tax evasion;
environmental impact. Increasing visibility to issues, not only outside a company; but
also internally.

4. Project Partners
Cambridge: pushing forward UX, Development of
platform, Hypothesis testing
Grass Commons: Wagn for Wikirate; semantic wikiarchitecture; ease of use, making product lighter to use
Wikirate e.V.: Community and product development
CERTH: Data Processing: Smart data streams; collective
intelligence
ahref: Personas, User Stories, Gamification and incentives

5. Project Gantt Chart
Site architecture
User and community
dynamics
Rating Development
Data Processing
Wikirate.org
Development
Hypothesis testing
Community and
stakeholder impact

6. Project website, events, social media

7. Proposals for synergies between CAPS projects
Methodologies:
AI4SI; meta understanding of the dissemination challenges
and solutions across projects
Academic:
P2P Value (FLOSS Workshop in Madrid): interesting aspects
on overall dynamics and meta view on collaborative
awareness platforms in general
D-CENT: social ‘currencies’ around engagement and also
general aspects of affecting power dynamics through data
engagement
Data:
DSI; could help us in terms of connecting with engaged actors;
due to their open data facilities and also the ‘social’ agenda of
the engaged companies

8. Questions welcome
CAPS Concertation
04.02.2014, Brussels
Vishal Kapadia
vishal@wikirate.org