The History Commons website is run by the Center for Grassroots Oversight (“CGO”), an organization that is fiscally sponsored by The Global Center, a 501©3 non-profit organization. CGO was incorporated as a public benefit corporation in late 2006, and is currently applying for its own 501©3 status.

The website is a tool for open-content participatory journalism. It allows people to investigate important issues by providing a space where people can collaborate on the documentation of past and current events, as well as the entities associated with those events. The website can be used to investigate topics at the local, regional, or global level. The data is displayed on the website in the form of dynamic timelines and entity profiles, and is exportable into XML so it can be shared with others for non-commercial purposes.