Earth.org – meet the team

Most loved remote team,

Please take yourself a glass of wine or go surfing, sit next to the fireplace, or do a headstand, just whatever you like to relax, and afterwards read these words.

We are the team, we are Earth.org. Most of us have never seen each other – strange. Some have seen some, many have seen only few, many have also seen no one, but no one has seen all. Oi oi@#?$@%@!!?

So what it is to be a remote team – it feels good, even without seeing each other. Because we want this – despite the fact that all other Internet companies have offices. People can’t believe what we are doing, this is often the reaction.
We try to learn, so we learn. So e.g. Yammer has helped us also to see personal things, such as Justin surviving a Thunderstorm. Thank you Yammer – and thanks Twitter for giving the pattern. And thank you Mr. Trac – what a change in project management compared to Bugzilla.

So enjoy how we are doing things, enjoy beautiful days at Earth.org. Work with a smile.
2008 was a great year – and a million thanks for everything you did in 2008. There is no comparison between the team from the 1st of January 2008 to what we have now at the 1st of January 2009. We have a damn good team, you all know this, you all feel this.

And enjoy what we are doing. We all know Earth.org has the potential to do something really special – not just another website. And we all predict one more thing: A website such as Earth.org, with a responsible approach, can end up with more strength than any business driven website – if we have the trust and the contributions of the user. Let us prove there are more projects in a non commercial approach than Wikipedia and a few open source programming projects. Internet is still in its infant stage, in its very infant stage.

And even with the angle of your personal life – and what is means for you to work at Earth.org – we hope that your life is good, that you feel good, while you work for Earth.org. We hope it is for you a pleasure every morning to see things moving, to see Earth.org growing like a flower.

And now – let us have a look into 2009!

As you know the independence of Earth.org is a crucial point for us – any investor with commercial interests will not be suitable for us. We have to go all the way alone, without the big $$$. And we have to become successful in 2009, to get Earth.org on track, and if Earth.org does not pick up in 2009, we cannot continue with the project. We fund Earth.org with private means, these are the limitations.

So: Be cost conscious – and make the best of your time. Do not waste anything. And a special thanks for all your commitments – lower salaries than outside, full volunteering, also inside the core team, not writing down hours etc, this happens every day and everywhere in the team. We need this, and it motivates us that we are doing the right things.

The other site is : Everyone of us has to do an excellent job – and everyone has the potential to lift Earth.org. An excellent video from a video volunteer Andreas, a viral convincing message, perfect SEO, a fast and fluent website, content integration, loved TOYS features, big and small cooperations, a successful sponsorship model, many volunteers supporting us, Ambassadors, PR articles about our Earth.org for all these bored people out there on their office chairs, the perfect candidate in HR, all this and more has to go hand in hand.

Technically we have this time what we need – a very very good website and a highly positive and strong technical team with lots of knowledge and ideas too. We can have a single lucky shot, yes, one video which becomes viral, one idea such as the TOYS, but most likely we will join hands and do it all together.

And if such a strong team like us pulls together in 2009 – something great is about to happen – year 2009 is Earth dot org year!

All the best for you and your families – a happy and successful new year 2009!

From Munich and Australia,
Mathias  &  o#o