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Welcome to Appropedia
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in sustainability, appropriate technology, poverty reduction, and permaculture.
your site to find, co-create and improve the solutions we need. Our vision and mission.
Contributors have made 346,695 edits and uploaded 27,572 files. |
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As we approach our ten-year anniversary, we are looking at how best to support Appropedia in the next ten years. Please share your thoughts with us on the idea of appointing an Executive Director. |
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Dec 20 Communities online: Introducing the 'Teaching Community Technology Handbook' [1]
Dec 19 Sustainable livelihood news: WorkerTech: fighting for better work through technology [2]
Dec 19 California: These Workers are Celebrating 20 Years of Shared Bread and Shared Ownership [3]
Dec 17 Free Cash in Finland. Must Be Jobless. [4]
Dec 17 Solar Power Helps Raise Income Levels In Kenya [5]
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- Interview with Lonny Grafman on Passionate Voices
- Open-Source Solar-Powered 3-D Printers
- Fair Trade Standards for an Ethical 3-D Printing Filament
- FREE Chaps of Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs
- Recycle waste plastic into valuable products at home
- Students Build a School from Waste Products in the Dominican Republic
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Appropriate technology (AT) is technology that is designed with special consideration to the context of its use - including environmental, ethical, cultural, social, political, and economical aspects of the community it is intended for. With these goals in mind, AT proponents claim their methods require fewer resources, are easier to maintain, and have less of an impact on the environment compared to techniques from mainstream technology, which they contend is wasteful and environmentally polluting.
The term is usually used to describe simple technologies proponents consider suitable for use in developing nations or less developed rural areas of industrialized nations. This form of "appropriate technology" usually prefers labor-intensive solutions over capital-intensive ones, although labor-saving devices are also used where this does not mean high capital or maintenance cost. In practice, appropriate technology is often something described as using the simplest level of technology that can effectively achieve the intended purpose in a particular location. In industrialized nations, the term appropriate technology takes a different meaning, often referring to engineering that takes special consideration of its social and environmental ramifications. |
Engr305 Appropriate Technology Projects: Below are selected service learning projects from Engr305 Appropriate Technology, which is a course on appropriate technology at Humboldt State University taught by instructor Lonny Grafman.
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