Social Monitor is a database of objective and unbiased information from verified sources on social issues such as climate change, health crisis, and violations of human rights. It aims to provide everyone with access to verified information and the tools to learn how to validate data in full transparency. We do believe this would be valuable to strengthen a constructive democratic debate and help everyone understand the consequences of our actions as a society.
There are several ways you can help us in our mission. If you are a researcher and work in one of the research fields covered in social monitor, you can help as a scientific advisor by taking care of reviewing one of the topics covered. If you are an individual, you can help us by informing other people about this platform, citing one of the indexed topics, participating in one of our committees, or with a small donation.
We fund Social Monitor mainly by crowdfunding, as we believe it is the most democratic form of financial support for social projects, and it ensures that our work is free from any commercial third-party interest and is provided by the community for the community. As we may not always be able to reach our targets by crowdfunding, we also personally fund the program, and reach out to foundations. In very limited cases we rely on sponsorships, as the use of sponsors may reduce the trust appraisal on how unbiased and independent our work is.
Yes, Social Monitor is non-profit. We make no revenue out of this project. The funds are spent solely on the management of the program and on the process of reviewing and indexing the publications for each topic. The platform can be accessed for free by everyone and it contains no advertising, nor does it collect or sell user navigation data. The platform uses the digital technology developed by Goldmarck, and is shared with other services.
We believe that trust can be built on the basis of full transparency, as well as proven integrity. May you have any doubt regarding the way we use the funds we raise, or the reason at the basis of Social Monitor, we kindly ask you to ask us. Each topic is moreover reviewed by two volunteer Committees. The Peer-Review Committee is in charge of certifying that our work is done professionally. The Transparency Committee is in charge of checking how funds are spent on each topic, and that no revenue is made out of the project. Any funder is entitled to be in the Transparency Committee.
We do review and index scientific publications, governmental and non-governmental reports, as well as private and commercial reports. In all cases sources need to be verified sources, in the sense that they present data collected through commonly-agreed and professional methodologies. All data have to be published and transparently accessibile in the source. Note that commercial publications may be accessible on the publisher’s website only via payment of a fee.