Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential

Cover of the 1976 edition of the "Yearbook of World Problems and Human Potential"

Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is the result of an ambitious effort to collect and present information on the problems humanity is confronted with, as well as the challenges such problems pose to societal values, development strategies, and concept formation. This long-term research project was initiated in 1972 through a collaboration between two international non-profits, the Union of International Associations (UIA) and Mankind 2000. It continues to this day under the auspices of UIA.

The project consists of six databases containing approximately 100,000 heavily interlinked profiles. The main sources of information include international periodicals and documents from international non-profit organisations profiled in the complementary Yearbook of International Organizations. Compilation, analysis, and editing are carried out by a small but dedicated team of volunteers.

The central editing platform resides at EWPHP.org.

The main public presentation, maintained by the UIA, can always be found at encyclopedia.uia.org.

The structured data is also available through a state-of-the-art REST API. The data is provided under a Creative Commons licence (CC BY-SA).

There are several derived projects, such as AskTheFox.org, providing data visualizations, AI experiments, and more.

Tomáš Fülöpp joined the project in the late 1990s as a researcher and editor. He helped to develop the first generated static (AREV, S/WEB), and later dynamic web databases (PHP, Drupal) for the UIA. He still collaborates with the UIA as a freelance Project Lead for the Encyclopedia. His responsibilities include strategic development, research and development, information architecture as well as hosting and maintenance.

Anthony Judge

Brussels, Belgium

1972-07

Tomáš Fülöpp

Elsene, Belgium

2000-05

Children