Mission Statement:

• To empower all Korean Americans to participate and explore in both their Korean and American communities and heritage in a more informed way.

• To facilitate and promote dialogue, participation, education and advocacy via a non-partisan online Korean American community platform.

• To serve as the primary non-partisan online resource for the Korean American community.

Overall Strategy/Philosophy:

The worldwide web is becoming more congested every day. No longer can one search a topic or phrase into Google to result in exactly what you’re seeking without having to dig a little further, use a different string of words or traverse through many unrelated sites. In fact, all online properties have been forced to develop more sophisticated online strategies in order to reach the audiences important to them.

Search “Korean American” in Google and you’ll find hundreds of thousands of pages of sites that include the words “Korean American” -- from the Korean American Museum to a KA professionals organization to religious, social, cultural institutions, and on and on. And that doesn’t include the individuals blogs and small business sites that exist to address and serve the Korean American community! The growing challenge is to find exactly what you are looking for within the cluttered, dissociated landscape of the world-wide web. Furthermore, the fragmentation of the KA community today is a debilitating obstacle in advancing Korean Americans. The community is limited in finding our collective voice and discourages civic engagement because there is no consistent place to go for information and to reach other community members.

Thus, a framework is needed to bring these interests together. The KA community needs its own online destination from where we can easily access and engage with the organizations, issues and services most important to us. This was the intent behind creating KAWiki, which stands for Korean American Wiki. The KAWiki will serve as the single, virtual resource hub of all historical, governmental, organizational, social, political, professional, etc content relevant to the Korean-American community. The Wiki format, by design, encourages participation by its users. As more people engage the tool and add to, revise or link from the main pages, the more valuable it becomes as a resource for more people of many interests. It empowers individuals to participate in their own way(s) – whether through grass roots organizing, mentoring, educating or just writing and communicating, among many other forms. It can address many of the questions/ideas/concepts/issues in our daily lives – from electoral politics, to public service, to political issues, to civic and legislative issues, to community and cultural events, and on and on. At its most simplistic it is a place where KAs can go to learn a historical fact or find a local organization.

At its grandest the KAWiki is a tool that can redefine Korean American engagement, advocacy and education. In essence, the KAWiki will be the platform upon which Korean Americans can remember, define and shape Korean America as it was in the past, is today and can be in the future.

Supporting Organization - This effort is supported by NetKAL IV: http://www.netkal.org

In association with the Center for Asian-Pacific Leadership at the USC School of Social Work, the Network of Korean American Leaders (NetKAL) Fellowship Program promotes community leadership among successful second generation Korean-Americans. With the assistance of some of USC’s leading educators, the NetKAL program provides fellows the networks and resources to communicate effectively, build coalitions and lead transformation at all levels of American society. Fellows gain a solid foundation in today’s most progressive leadership values and practices as well as opportunities to examine the multi-faceted role of a Korean-American leader.