Learning across locales, organisations and networks: The weADAPT experience

The document outlines the evolution of the weADAPT platform, detailing how the Stockholm Environment Institute overcame barriers to knowledge-sharing through technical redesigns, relationship-building, and a distributed management model. It emphasizes that successful knowledge platforms require active content management, face-to-face user engagement, and a focus on supporting decision-making rather than just providing information.

• Early attempts to encourage collaborative writing, such as the Frontline Knowledge Explorer (FKx) experiment in 2009, saw disappointing participation despite positive feedback, revealing that contributions primarily came from individuals with whom the organisers already had established trust and shared visions.
• To address barriers to sharing, weADAPT implemented features to ensure proper accreditation, such as making organisational logos central to shared content, and created incentives like high visibility for new content to benefit small community-based organisations as much as international NGOs.
• The platform integrated visual and technical tools to improve accessibility and utility, including a Google Earth Adaptation Layer for place-based case studies, a Google Maps option for low-bandwidth areas, and semantic tagging to improve search engine rankings and content discoverability.
• weADAPT adopted a distributed model of collaboration where expert organisations manage specific themes; for example, the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) manages the Forests and Climate Change theme to ensure quality and sustainability.
• Face-to-face engagement, such as 'user labs' conducted with partners like the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) and ENDA, proved more effective than remote feedback for identifying non-intuitive functionality and creating 'adaptation champions'.
• The platform aims to move beyond basic information provision to support actual decision-making through tools like the Climate Adaptation Options Explorer (ADx) and pilot tools for knowledge elicitation (KnETs).
• Financial sustainability remains a critical challenge, as many similar initiatives fail after initial project funding ends; weADAPT counters this by integrating the platform into its research and seeking institutional support.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (n.d.). Learning across locales, organisations and networks: The weADAPT experience. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-2013-weADAPT-experience-brief.pdf

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Learning across locales, organisations and networks: The weADAPT experience. n.d. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-2013-weADAPT-experience-brief.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Learning across locales, organisations and networks: The weADAPT experience |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-2013-weADAPT-experience-brief.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitutendlearning, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Learning across locales, organisations and networks: The weADAPT experience}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/SEI-2013-weADAPT-experience-brief.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }