About

Upwell isn’t a traditional marine conservation organization. We’re here to transform the ocean conversation.

Upwell is a nimble team trained to sift through the vast amounts of real-time online conversations and content online. Our mission is to condition the climate for change. Through March 2013 the project is incubated by Ocean Conservancy. Upwell is made possible by grants from the Waitt Foundation and other donors.

What do we do?

• We listen to what people say about our oceans online, looking for upwelling of conversation. 
• We curate and contextualize the best ocean content online, create tools, and forge connections to help these conversations push past sticking points. 
• We are bringing value to the work of ocean conservationists by making missed opportunities a thing of the past.

We do it all on behalf of the ocean.

How do we do it?

Our energy is directed into three activities:

1. Monitoring and analyzing online conversations

We are using a variety of monitoring tools (like Radian6 and Topsy Pro) to scrape all available social platforms: blogs, video, Twitter and Facebook, discussion boards like Reddit, online mainstream media, and image-based platforms like Pinterest. We derive real-time insight into online conversation trends around key ocean issues like overfishing and marine protected areas.

2. Leading data-driven attention campaigns

Our team also leads attention campaigns, driven by data and inspired by online conversations. Nimbly working at the speed of the internet, we curate the best from the abundant sea of online ocean content and rapidly experiment with creating, amplifying and circulating stories that spark vibrant conversations. In a single day, a team member might work with a science blogger to translate a new wonky report, create a silly video to tap into a broader political conversation, and author an email newsletter to the members of ocean-related Facebook Causes.

3. Sharing knowledge with the sector

Finally, we share our conversation analysis and our campaign data with colleagues and evangelists in the marine sector. We create websites to share our data analysis, circulate a newsletter filled with sharp insights, forward thinking and tailored editorial content, and meet with our ocean colleagues to find out how we can help them create change. We court failure in our work, so that we can learn from our mistakes and create transformative solutions for the community.

At the end of the day, it’s not about us - we tailor our efforts to best support the marine conservation community and respond to the upwells of online conversation.