The New7Wonders Charter

New7Wonders is dedicated to the goals of…

1. Communicating simple ideas
2. Motivating participation
3. Stimulating awareness
4. Generating values
5. Ensuring sustainability
6. Creating legacies
7. Sharing with the world

Our 7 goals explained

1. Communicating ideas and concepts that span political, religious and ethical frontiers. It is our mission to spread ideas that are immediately clear and understandable to everyone.
2. Inspiring and motivating participation is essential, as real participation is based on free will and is the basis of any form of democracy. Participation is our best hope for partnership in the decision-making process.
3. Stimulating awareness to remind us of the danger of loss. Competition and the fear of losing something valuable are two vital calls to human action.
4. Generating new sets of values for individuals and societies via the global network that produces information on preferences and priorities.
5. Ensuring sustainability means making sure that a concept or an idea becomes self-supportive – financially and in terms of adapting and reinventing itself in an ever-changing world.
6. Creating a legacy involves doing something worthwhile that future generations will take an interest in and care about. New7Wonders is creating Global Memory – canons of 7 things that everyone can and will remember — “be part of the making of history!”
7. Sharing guarantees that the world will learn about what we have invented and created together — “Global Memory in the making.”

Personal observations by Bernard Weber

1. When computers and the internet became more and more accessible to people around the world in the 1990s, I wanted to find an idea, a word or a simple concept that everyone on our planet would immediately understand and be stimulated to act upon. This is how I decided to revive the ancient Greek concept of the Seven Wonders of the World, which was declared in Athens 220 BC by Philon of Byzantium. Of these Ancient 7 Wonders, the only one still standing is the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, all the others have since long disappeared. This was a good enough reason, I thought, to call upon the citizens of the world to choose the New 7 Wonders of the last 2,200 years by using the new communication technologies at our fingertips. Taking on such a huge project was a tough decision, but in 2007 the New7Wonders team and I had the pleasure of announcing the results of the first-ever global voting campaign. The declaration of the New7Wonders of the World took place in Lisbon, Portugal on the magical and fitting date 07.07.07, at the same time the 7 human virtues (in opposition to the 7 deadly sins) were announced.
2. In well-established democracies, fewer and fewer citizens are making use of their right to vote. There are many reasons for this, but one thing is certain: only motivated people will participate in shaping the future of society and our planet. So inspiring and motivating participation is essential, as participation depends on our capacity to orientate ourselves, generate positive action and gain a sense of democracy.
3. “If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it”. This is the slogan I created for the New7Wonders of Nature campaign. The statement is based on the fact that the two major motivations that stimulate us to act are competition and the fear of losing something that is precious to us. Therefore stimulating respect and awareness of the diversity and beauty of human and natural creations is the first step towards bringing humanity and Mother Earth closer to our hearts.
4. Interaction and participation are natural ways of educating ourselves and becoming responsible citizens. Many parents do not tell their children that they can shape their own futures. But taking on the challenge of becoming the master of your own destiny (or rather discovering the adventure of finding and following your individual destiny) is something exhilarating that everyone should be able to experience. All this happens in small steps: speaking out, commenting and voting; in other words having one’s voice heard. There is no better place to do this today than on the internet.
5. When an idea grows from a concept to a project and eventually becomes reality, it is also essential that it becomes autonomous and self-generating when it reaches maturity. If it still relies on the energy and funds of the initiator, it is most likely to end with the death of that person or the exhaustion of his resources. So the challenge is not only to communicate thoughts and principles to the younger generation, but also to create real value and a financial infrastructure, that allows for reinvestment and incentives for its organisation. At the same time, people or companies who recognise the value by becoming licensees and sponsor partners become additional champions by protecting their investments. All this is very important as it resembles a microcosm of our societies.
6. One can spend one’s life striving for pleasure, but one can also dedicate some of our limited time on earth to creating something of lasting value. This is a delicate balance that everyone has to find in their own lives. At the end of the day, it is only our thoughts that can be transmitted and that will eventually remain after we are gone. My extraordinary discovery during the years of campaigning for the New7Wonders of the World is the realisation that this magic number 7 is far more practical that most people think. In fact, 7 is the exact number of things that most people can probably remember by challenging their memory — and we all need that challenge so as not to forget.
7. Sharing is a critical social function, and it is difficult for me to understand how anyone can enjoy anything without sharing it in one way or another. It is my personal belief that if one’s ideas and thoughts are helpful and enjoyed by others, this eventually will create positive economic opportunities. The blessing of compensation means that many good things which cannot become self-generating can be supported, like the conservation of memory, for instance. This is why I started a foundation to support Global Memory and communicate the canons of 7 that all of us have created by voting in the New7Wonders campaigns.

 

Bernard Weber, Founder of New7Wonders

 

Download: Click on this link to download the New7Wonders Charter as a PDF file (328 KB).