ChainReact - An Introduction

Supplier networks touch virtually every corner of the globe. While everyone is familiar with some of these companies, the network itself is largely invisible. Purchasing a device in Madrid can indirectly perpetuate debt slavery in Multan. Unless the supplier network connecting the two is made visible, the purchaser has no way to react to the supply chain’s problems. So long as public data on corporate supplier networks remain poor and scarce, stakeholders are powerless to remedy the networks’ faults. 

ChainReact is an effort to make supplier networks transparent, understandable, and responsive, so that companies and their stakeholders can see, react to, and ultimately transform corporate network impacts. The main objectives of the project are:

  • Identify irresponsible corporate activity
  • Connect issues at corporate networks’ edges to network drivers
  • Incentivize companies to address the issues

  

To this end, we will create an integrated data network supported by three platform struts: 

Struts

 

  1. A new informer platform (The Whistle) will help advocacy groups manage campaigns to solicit flexible bottom-up reports about corporate behaviour.
  2. The world’s largest open repository of corporate information (OpenCorporates) will be enhanced to connect these reports to major corporate brands through multi-level corporate network mapping.
  3. An open analysis platform (WikiRate.org) will integrate data from both sources (and others, including direct corporate disclosure) and support their interpretation via collaboratively-developed, dynamic, network-aware CSR metrics.

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