As many of you know the CLEAN Pathway project (http://cleanet.org), which is a National Science Digital Library collection that grew out of the conversations of the Climate Literacy Network (CLN), has a number of elements. The first is to establish and steward a reviewed collection of existing climate and energy literacy resources. The initial collection went live in November of 2010 and we are continuing to build and steward that collection.

The other primary components, which we are in the process of implementing now are 1) Professional Development opportunities for educators around the use of resources in the collection, and 2) Fostering networks/communities/groups to contribute to and make effective use of the resources in the collection, and serve as a clearinghouse for information and partnerships between individuals and various related groups and communities.

It has become clear over the past few months that there is confusion about the difference between the CLN (http://cleanet.org/cln) and the CLEAN portal (http://cleanet.org). Ultimately the CLEAN collection should be a tool/resource of the CLN and that both the collection and the CLN should be effectively and easily distinguishable and accessible from cleanet.org. The question is how to integrate the CLN and CLEAN, retaining the recognition of the CLN has and its effectiveness in providing a venue for a broad spectrum of stakeholders in climate literacy to share/exchange information and leverage resources and activities.

In addition, we want - in the longer term – to allow the integration of smaller regional, thematic, or other relevant groups into this larger community – to leverage the broader expertise of the CLN - while enabling them to network/communicate about the more focused issues that of concern to them.

I am asking your thoughts on this, as we want to make sure that we retain the recognition and benefits of the CLN “brand” that we now enjoy. My view on this is that the CLN is the overarching group – with the broad range interests and expertise of its members and the goal of increasing climate literacy nationwide (we won't get into international possibilities now). The CLEAN community (you can join this from the CLEAN portal at this point) is a subset of people from the CLN (or who don’t have to explicitly be a member of the CLN) who are primarily educators of various kinds and levels who discuss, possibly contribute to, and use the collection of resources.

Other subgroups of the CLN could be, for example, the regional and thematic Climate Change Education Partnerships (again who might use and contribute to the collection but have further focus on a particular community or environmental issue or some other focusing mechanism). Individuals could engage with any subgroup alone or with a subgroup (or multiple subgroups) and with CLN. CLN would provide the connection to the broadest range of interests and expertise, and a venue for the subgroups to share across. All of these groups could make use of and contribute to the CLEAN collection through their ongoing and funded activities.

Please contribute your thoughts through this discussion thread so that we can leverage the CLEAN Pathway effort, continue to grow the CLN and make it effective in increasing the climate literacy of all citizens.

Tamara, if I have understood, you're suggesting that CLN is the big umbrella under which the CLEAN pathway and other projects or subsets are clustered. To me that makes perfect sense. And it provides a structure that allows for future connection of the larger network AND for the future creation of additional projects and subgroup initiatives.

I am one of the educators in the "CLEAN community" and your description of how CLEAN and CLN relate makes sense, but how does this matter? (What negative consequences may result from any confusion?) It does seem to me that the URLs for these ARE confusing because the URL for CLN goes to a "subfile" of cleanet.org rather than being the main level of the website.

Mary Ball in TN

CLN is the overarching organization. That said, then the portal should be the homepage and the projects should branch from it. One of the easiest ways to make this relationship clear is to use a graphic-based navigational device, such as a pie chart divided into the sections which link to each of the projects for which the network acts as administrator and/or adviser. A list works too but does not communicate as clearly or as quickly as a graphic-based navigational device. Just my two cents worth...