The project, initiated by a group of students in Germany, is believed to allow a breakdown of stereotypes of other cultures. The website (www.adayontheplanet.com) offers information about the purpose behind collecting personal, first-hand and authentic experiences of a varied sample of people and consequently compile them in book form.

In a bid to describe one day on our planet with all its diversity, editors, translators, artists and programmers from all over the world have joined together to gather a better and closer understanding of how the world and communities within it function on a daily basis.

The purpose behind choosing September 9, 2009 as the date to record stories sent in by people was simple; the date being so easy to remember. It could have been any other date and yet the sole object would remain the same, 'to portray a “normal day” on earth.'

Another highlight of the project is that there is no prescribed topic of the stories. It may be a wedding, a family feud or even a death, as the website states, 'anything goes'. The stories will be collected and judged by a team of editors on the basis of originality, style and will also take into account the location of the story.

All members of the team including the translators are working on a voluntary basis and so it is reinforced many times that contributors and authors will not be paid for their stories.

The book is set to be translated into eight languages with publication to take place all over the world. However, the publication date and circulation is still under wraps. A large amount of the proceeds from the book will go to charity.
The tagline of the project, 'One day, 7 billion people, one book' reinforces the team's main aim behind such a unique collaboration 'to get to know people from all over the world and promote tolerance and understanding, and
diminish racism and prejudice'.