Students launch website to promote social justice

Say you're a student passionate about a specific environmental issue — renewable energy sources, for instance — but you don't want to be another face in the crowd. You want to join a group focused on your interests, one that will make use of your talents. Now, thanks to a student-founded website, you may get your wish.

Set to launch within the University by mid-fall and open to the general public by 2007, rethos.com plans to use networking software to unite nonprofit groups, businesses and individuals interested in social justice and the environment.

"We are offering a platform for individuals who feel isolated about how they can effect change," said Alex Salzman '07, co-founder of Blue-Horizon Media, the company launching Rethos.

On the website, new users will be able to create their own profiles, much like on facebook.com or myspace.com. From the main page, users can enter different "Spotlights," or pages devoted to a specific issue, from genetically modified foods to weapons in space. Each "Spotlight" will feature media clips, videos, debates and other content, much of which can be modified by the users themselves.

In addition to helping users exchange ideas, Rethos hopes to promote action by connecting users with the appropriate organizations.

"We want to make a library of information, then allow people to get connected and take action through volunteering, protesting or as a consumer to effect change," Salzman said. "We are offering a platform to bridge nonprofit organizations, corporations and the individual. Companies need to find a way for [the] audience to take active part in their organization."

By linking the nonprofit and corporate sectors, Rethos hopes to earn profits in the traditionally nonprofit field of social activism. Like Google.org, a recently established philanthropic organization, Rethos will be a "for-profit venture for a nonprofit cause."

Nonprofit organizations, such as the Sierra Club, and businesses will sponsor the site to gain access to individual users and their ideas, Salzman explained. "Allowing users to give direct feedback will be useful to corporations," he said.

In addition, the website will allow socially responsible companies to feature their policies and build a consumer base. "Companies who want to reform their policies must be advertised so that other companies will feel the pressure to follow suit," Salzman added.

This strategy may pay off, both for Rethos and its advertisers. Companies are becoming more sensitive to the impact of their environmental policies, Program in Environmental Studies director David Wilcove GS '85 said. "There is certainly a growing interest in the corporate sector in these environmental issues, as well as a growing awareness among shareholders and consumers about their companies' environmental track record," he said.

Regardless of its future impact on environmental and social justice policies, Rethos can already boast of possibly contributing to the English language. The staff at Blue Horizon Media coined the website's name — meaning "a revision of fundamental beliefs or attitudes" — by combining "re" and "ethos." Blue Horizon Media has submitted the word to the Webster Dictionary committee for approval, and its status is currently pending.

"As Rethos.com expands and 'rethos' becomes a household name, it will be more likely that the committee will approve it," Salzman said. "We are totally ambitious to take our brand and our website to all English speaking countries and connect millions of people."