Greenpeace's web audience names newest ship
The
newest addition to Greenpeace's fleet of ships was named "Esperanza"
in a global vote via the worldwide web in October 2000. Esperanza is
Spanish for "hope."
This was the first time a Greenpeace ship has been named by Greenpeace's supporters and activists, and may be the first ship ever named via the web.
The vote ran for four weeks in nine languages, and over 70,000 votes were cast by visitors to the Greenpeace's International website and its national organisations worldwide.
The name "Esperanza" was suggested through an initial nomination of about a thousand names from subscribers to Greenpeace's cyberactivist mailing lists. The field was then narrowed to four names: Gaia, Witness, Esperanza, and Amchitka, by a group of Greenpeace activists, staff, and crew who met on board the ship during its refit in the Netherlands. Visitors to the site were then invited to vote.
The final tally gave "Esperanza" a lead of only 867 votes, after a close four-week race where "Gaia" led most of the time.
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"This is a small step towards involving
Greenpeace's worldwide supporter base more directly in its work" |
Greenpeace New Media director, Brian Fitzgerald, said that this was
a small step towards involving Greenpeace's worldwide supporter base
more directly in its work.
In the same year the "Esperanza" was named, Greenpeace created web space for a community of Internet activists called the "Cybercentre," where supporters can take action to help win Greenpeace campaigns via the web, download action kits, post their own home pages and links, and contribute to discussions about Greenpeace strategy, tactics, and policy. The community has been a sounding board for Greenpeace staff and a place to turn for volunteer help, field activists, and, in this case, suggestions for a ship name.
"Naming a new ship has never been easy. The ships are our most visible icons, they are homes to the crew, they're defenders of the oceans. Take a bunch of headstrong, stubborn Greenpeace campaigners and ask them to make a decision about what to call one -- you get a few sparks. In this case, the front-runner for most of the voting period was a name that would have been rejected by the in-house team" said Fitzgerald. "But we decided that we'd accept the decision of our worldwide activists and supporters. Without them, we wouldn't have a ship to name."
Esperanza introduction
Esperanza images