OneWorld Online was publicly launched to a packed house in January 1995 by
Terry Waite, CBE, at the Foreign Press Association in London. Herbert
Girardet, distinguished environmentalist and filmmaker, declared that he
"felt present at an historic moment."
At its simplest, the OneWorld Broadcasting Trust intended to publish
information about global issues at low cost for development NGOs and others
whose remit it was to get such material out to the world. This would be
done by the creation of World Wide Web sites on the Internet. These sites
contain text and pictures and, increasingly, audio and video clips. The
user follows links---to related text, pictures, audio, video etc.---simply
by clicking on them.
At a time of huge growth (it has been estimated that a new Web site is
created on the Internet every four seconds), it was essential that the
Trust should not create "just another Web site" - a needle in an
ever-expanding haystack. The Trust decided instead that OneWorld Online
should attempt to become a "gateway to development issues" on the Web -
perhaps, one day, the unmissable gateway.
These issues were resolved through the creation of a unique new concept at
that time: the supersite. It is perhaps an indication of its success that
this word (coined by a fan of OneWorld) has now passed into Internet
terminology.
Instead of creating one large space into which all manner of documents were
dropped from many Affiliates, OneWorld created separate, autonomous Web sites
for each of its development Affiliates. VSO, for example, had their own site
created for them, over which they have both editorial control---and
editorial responsibility. Libel and copyright issues relating to their
information are their business, and there is a formal contract that says so.
As time passed, responsibility for running these sites was passed over to
the Affiliates themselves - who were given direct ftp access. Training
schemes were run for those needing extra assistance, and training materials
made available online.
But there is also a further agreement - which allows the OneWorld editorial
team to extract material from these partner sites and highlight them in a
central area, where they are re-grouped according to category. For example,
the OneWorld News Service consists of articles and press releases from all
of OneWorld's Affiliates.
Within six months of its launch, OneWorld Online had become the leading Web
site in the field of human sustainable development anywhere on the World
Wide Web. When Rupert Murdoch launched his Web site in February 1996, it
included a feature story about the OneWorld Online phenomenon.
By autumn 1996, the awards shelf on OneWorld"s top page had become so
crowded that the page took too long to download; the awards were duly moved
to an "awards cabinet" page of its own. Among the many awards were the
prestigious "Cool Site of the Day" award, the Microsoft Network award
(twice), and the "Women and Technology" Cyberia prize awarded to OneWorld's
Editor for its unprecedented "Outreach."
In July 1996, when BT launched its first Internet awards, OneWorld also won
its "Best Web site in the UK" award, in the Non-Commercial category
(although the judges were at pains to point out that "It's a non-commercial
site that has the design and interface standards of a commercial site").
The Directors were particularly pleased to have won the BT award because
the finalists had been voted in by members of the public: the judges merely
chose the winner out of these finalists.
Thus it seemed that, thanks to the work of the Trust, development issues
had been firmly awarded a place on the Internet broadcasting map---and by
popular acclaim, at the same time as these issues were being elbowed off
the traditional broadcasting map by television's gatekeepers.
Another aim of the Trust was that the site should be accessed by countries
outside the West. Again, reality has exceeded expectations. At the start of
1996 OneWorld was being accessed from some 60 countries, roughly a third
from the South. Today OneWorld's readers come from as many as 120
countries---from Argentina to Zimbabwe---and half of these are countries
from the developing world.
Central to all this success has been the nature and number of the Affiliates.
The Trust's first goal was to start modestly 'at home', thinking globally
but acting locally, aiming to attract a strong nucleus of Affiliates by
February 1996, including the six key UK development NGOs: Oxfam, Save the
Children, ActionAid, CAFOD, Unicef and Christian Aid. This target was
achieved.
Now the Affiliateship totals many hundreds of organizations around the
world---with a special emphasis on bringing in groups based in the South.
OneWorld Broadcasting Trust runs OneWorld Online through its wholly-owned
subsidiary, OneWorld Online Limited, a not-for-profit company, whose
margins are covenanted to the One World Broadcasting Trust.
