About the Observatory
The Observatory is a free digital education resource. It offers the public useful information to help them both better understand today’s issues and navigate life in the modern world.
Visitors engage with the Observatory:
- Via Search: For expertise by keyword, topic area, or a favorite author.
- Via Guides: To get the big picture.
The Observatory uses MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia, to publish content by a team of expert contributors.
Our doors are open: The Observatory is designed to incorporate reader feedback, and for input and collaboration with volunteer researchers and editors.
Our goal is to be an audience-supported education resource that can make a difference.
The Observatory Team
{{#invoke: Team member|item| |name=Jan Ritch-Frel |role=Observatory Co-Founder and Publisher |info=Jan Ritch-Frel is the executive director of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit organization that educates the public through a diverse array of independent media projects and programs. He has worked in independent media for more than two decades and has advised dozens of media companies. |image=Jan_Ritch-Frel_Headshot.jpg }} {{#invoke: Team member|item| |name=Reynard Loki |role=Observatory Co-Founder and Environment and Animals Editor |info=Reynard Loki is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute, where he serves as the editor and chief correspondent for Earth | Food | Life. His work has appeared in dozens of U.S. and international publications. |image=Reynard_Loki.jpg }} {{#invoke: Team member|item| |name=April M. Short |role=Observatory Co-Founder and Local Peace Economy Editor |info=April M. Short is a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute and the editor for Local Peace Economy. She has led editorial projects on consciousness, plant medicines, care, and well-being, including Reset.me and Lucid.News (which she also co-founded). Her work has appeared in dozens of U.S. and international publications. |image=April Short.png }}
Types of Content
Guides
The guide tools that provide audiences with an expert-curated collection of content that provides a more intensive or big-picture education on a particular topic.
Collaborative Research and Mainframes
The Observatory’s ongoing Collaborative Research projects, edited by a scholarly community.
Collaborative Research: an open-ended investigatory tool that allows multiple contributors to explore a topic, deciding what to share with the public through a peer research and editorial oversight process. Interested audiences can access the prepublication draft text and deliberations. Audiences have the option of supporting the Observatory’s Collaborative Research through a growing range of donation tools, including Crowdfunding.
Contributors can also use this tool to develop Mainframes, knowledge-gathering projects that can be largely expanded on by future scholars and researchers who want to expand or pursue a creator’s initial information project. The Mainframe publishing tool allows for future researchers to expand the scope of inquiry that the original author began, while holding to the initial line of inquiry and methods of communication.
Classics
The Observatory makes well-known works by historians, journalists, and researchers from the past accessible through its convenient long-form text reading interface.
Area Media and Events Calendars
Media guide and events calendar for the Observatory’s Areas that help audiences track conferences, presentations, podcasts, and other listings.
Authors Spotlight