Appropedia
Encyclopedia
Appropedia is a website for collaborative solutions in sustainability
, poverty
reduction and international development
, with a particular focus on appropriate technology
. Appropedia is a wiki
-based website
like Wikipedia
, a website where a large number of participants are allowed to create and modify the content directly from their web browsers. Appropedia is a site for collaborative solutions in sustainability
, poverty reduction
and international development
. It is an open website for users to co-create sustainable solutions, questions, and information; it serves as a resource area for other organizations.
Appropedia is being used by a number of nonprofit organizations and individuals working in the sustainable development
space because it simplifies the administration of collaboratively organizing information
, project
examples, best practices, and “how tos”. Examples of organizations using this wiki are Demotech and the Full Belly Project. It has been expanding rapidly as other organizations utilize its information transfer and collaboration capabilities.
Currently, Appropedia houses more than 14,000 articles, which exemplifies the appropriate technology
movement started by E. F. Schumacher
in the book Small is Beautiful
is gaining some traction.
engine for Appropedia.
A note left on another site led Curt Beckmann to join Appropedia, bringing energy, new ideas and different perspectives. Like-minded people and organizations were happy to give permission to use their material (see below).
Contact with WikiGreen in December 2006 led to a quick decision to join forces. It was decided to use the name Appropedia. This merger led to a large increase in content, including permission from various publications, and some content from CD3WD (CDs for the 3rd World).
Since then Appropedia has made connections with more people and organizations:
This could be an indication that wiki-derived information is beginning to provide reliable data for the intellectual sphere.
and in engineering education
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
reduction and international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...
, with a particular focus on appropriate technology
Appropriate technology
Appropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
. Appropedia is a wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
-based website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
like Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, a website where a large number of participants are allowed to create and modify the content directly from their web browsers. Appropedia is a site for collaborative solutions in sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
, poverty reduction
Poverty reduction
Poverty is the state of human beings who are poor. That is, they have little or no material means of surviving—little or no food, shelter, clothes, healthcare, education, and other physical means of living and improving one's life....
and international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...
. It is an open website for users to co-create sustainable solutions, questions, and information; it serves as a resource area for other organizations.
Appropedia is being used by a number of nonprofit organizations and individuals working in the sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
space because it simplifies the administration of collaboratively organizing information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
, project
Project
A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. Projects can be further defined as temporary rather than permanent social systems that are constituted by teams...
examples, best practices, and “how tos”. Examples of organizations using this wiki are Demotech and the Full Belly Project. It has been expanding rapidly as other organizations utilize its information transfer and collaboration capabilities.
Currently, Appropedia houses more than 14,000 articles, which exemplifies the appropriate technology
Appropriate technology
Appropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
movement started by E. F. Schumacher
E. F. Schumacher
Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s...
in the book Small is Beautiful
Small Is Beautiful
Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. The phrase "Small Is Beautiful" came from a phrase by his teacher Leopold Kohr...
is gaining some traction.
History
After years of other online and offline sustainable collaboration projects, Lonny Grafman started Appropedia in April 2006 with a focus on appropriate technology, defined very broadly. He was assisted by Aaron Antrim and Gabriel Krause in the decision to use the MediaWikiMediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
engine for Appropedia.
A note left on another site led Curt Beckmann to join Appropedia, bringing energy, new ideas and different perspectives. Like-minded people and organizations were happy to give permission to use their material (see below).
Contact with WikiGreen in December 2006 led to a quick decision to join forces. It was decided to use the name Appropedia. This merger led to a large increase in content, including permission from various publications, and some content from CD3WD (CDs for the 3rd World).
Since then Appropedia has made connections with more people and organizations:
- International Rivers Network gave permission for several pages worth of content.
- Practical ActionPractical ActionPractical Action is a development charity registered in the United Kingdom which works directly in four regions of the developing world – Latin America, East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia, with particular concentration on Peru, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Nepal.In these countries,...
gave permission for over 100 articles - Demotech, an organization in the Netherlands has built many, pages.
- A long-running discussion with Village EarthVillage EarthVillage Earth: The Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development DBA: Village Earth is a publicly supported 501 non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Fort Collins, Colorado...
led to their wiki merging in March 2007. This was the original wiki on appropriate technologyAppropriate technologyAppropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
. - Discussions with Architecture for HumanityArchitecture for HumanityArchitecture for Humanity is a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need...
, who have set up the Open Architecture NetworkOpen Architecture NetworkOpen Architecture Network is a free online, open source community dedicated to improving global living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. It was developed by Architecture for Humanity after one of its founders, Cameron Sinclair, won the 2006 TED Prize from the Technology...
. Their website serves a different purpose to Appropedia, and the exact form of collaboration is still to be decided, but we have agreed to support each others' efforts. - Sustainapedia, a planned website by a group of people with a similar vision and much ambition, led by Ryan Legg, and Jim HarrisJim HarrisJim Harris may refer to:* Jim Harris , American novelist, author of A Bottle of Rain* Jim Harris , American children's book illustrator* Jim Harris , American naturalist...
of Cleantech. The Sustainapedia and Appropedia teams quickly agreed to join forces, and are now working out the details. - The How To Live Wiki, the site of Vinay Gupta, known for the HexayurtHexayurtThe Hexayurt is a simplified disaster relief shelter design. It is based on a geodesic geometry adapted to construction from standard 4x8 foot sheets of factory made construction material. It resembles a panel yurt, hence the name.- Design :...
autonomous buildingAutonomous buildingAn autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, gas grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases, public roads.Advocates of...
, merged much of its material into Appropedia in March 2007, and Vinay joined the Appropedia team. - The Sgoals wiki, focused on sustainable businessSustainable businessSustainable business, or green business, is enterprise that has no negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy—a business that strives to meet the triple bottom line. Often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies...
practices, joined shortly after Howtolivewiki. - Students for Global Sustainability Wiki merged in January 2008.
- CCATCampus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT)The Campus Center for Appropriate Technology is a student-run sustainability organization located at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California...
, the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology, partnered with Appropedia to move their project pages to Appropedia in April 2008.
Use as source
An increasing number of papers and books are beginning to use information generated via Appropedia as source material. For example:- Kreye, Melissa M. "Metal accumulation in gill epithelium and liver tissue in steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) reared in reclaimed wastewater", Thesis (M.S.)--Humboldt State University, Natural Resources: Wastewater Utilization Program, 2008.
- Urmila Balasubramaniyam, Llionel S. Zisengwe, Niccoló Meriggi, Eric Buysman, Biogas production in climates with long cold winters, Wageningen, May 2008.
- James A. West and Margaret L. West, "Using Wikis for Online Collaboration: The Power of the Read-Write Web", Jossey-Bass (December 15, 2008).
This could be an indication that wiki-derived information is beginning to provide reliable data for the intellectual sphere.
Use as pedagogical tool
Appropedia is increasingly being used to improve the pedagogy of service learning. This is being done in language educationLanguage education
Language education is the teaching and learning of a foreign or second language. Language education is a branch of applied linguistics.- Need for language education :...
and in engineering education
Engineering education
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles related to the professional practice of engineering. It includes the initial education for becoming an engineer and any advanced education and specialization that follow...
See also
- Appropriate technologyAppropriate technologyAppropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
- EkopediaEkopediaEkopedia is a free , collaborative , and multilingual encyclopedia project dedicated in providing answers and spreading practical knowledge related to environmental sustainability...
- Sustainable developmentSustainable developmentSustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
- WiserEarthWiserEarthWiserEarth.org is a user-generated online community space for the social and environmental movement , tracking the work of non-profits around the world...
External links
- Appropedia
- Appropedia's "About" page
- Do It Yourself Instructions Motherlode: Appropedia Wiki, Derek Markham, Planet Green, Oct 19 2009.
- Citizen Engineer - Chapter 9, Page 109 recommends Appropedia for "an overview of key considerations and recent engineering community insights."