Online encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (EWPHP) is a research work published by the Union of International Associations (UIA). It is available online since 2000, and was previously available as a CD-ROM and as a three-volume book.
The EWPHP began under the direction of Anthony Judge in 1972 and eventually came to comprise more than 100,000 entries and 700,000 links, as well as hundreds of pages of introductory notes and commentaries on problems, strategies, values, concepts of human development, and various intellectual resources.
Contributors and history.
The project was originally conceived in 1972 by James Wellesley-Wesley, who provided financial support through the foundation Mankind 2000, and Anthony Judge, by whom the work was orchestrated.
Work on the first edition started with funds from Mankind 2000, matching those of the UIA. The publisher Klaus Saur, of Munich, provided funds, in conjunction with those from the UIA, for work on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions. Seed funding for the third volume of the 4th edition was also provided on behalf of Mankind 2000. In the nineties, seed funding was provided, again on behalf of Mankind 2000, for computer equipment which subsequently allowed the UIA to develop a website and make available for free the 1994–1995 edition of the EWPHP databases. The UIA, on the initiative of Nadia McLaren, a consultant ecologist who has been a primary editor for the EWPHP, instigated two multi-partner projects funded by the European Union, with matching funds from the UIA. The work done through those two projects, "Ecolynx: Information Context for Biodiversity Conservation" (mainly) and "Interactive Health Ecology Access Links", resulted in a fifth, web-based edition of the EWPHP in 2000. Two other individuals supported the project: Robert Jungk of Mankind 2000, and Christian de Laet of the UIA.
EWPHP began as a processing of documents gathered from entities profiled in the "Yearbook of International Organizations". The United Nations Library in Geneva facilitated access to other material over two decades. At one point, the Institute of Cultural Affairs International was contractually associated. The "Goals, Processes and Indicators of Development" project was led by Johan Galtung of the United Nations University, in conjunction with Anthony Judge.
The principal editors of the EWPHP's editions have been Jon Jenkins, Maureen Jenkins, Owen Victor, Jacqueline Nebel, Nadia McLaren, and Tomáš Fülöpp. In 2005, following disagreement over the partnership contract, Anthony Judge, in his role as executive secretary of Mankind 2000, reframed the EWPHP as having been a strategic initiative of the Union of Intelligible Associations.
Tomáš Fülöpp maintained the EWPHP databases at the UIA until sometime after January 2012. Tomáš Fülöpp also acts as manager along with senior editors Nadia McLaren and Kimberly Trathen.
Critical reception.
There have been several reviews of the EWPHP. One of the criticisms came from the American Library Association in 1987: "The board considers the "Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential" a problematic monument to idiosyncrasy, confusion, and obfuscation that certainly is not worth purchasing at any price." Similarly, The Guardian was critical in a review article published in 1992. The Wall Street Journal published a review of the EWPHP initiative in December 2012.
References.
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