This scratchpad is a place you can jot down useful sites or information if you aren't able to put it into an article now (e.g. you don't have time, or you don't completely understand it, or it's a half-formed idea that's not ready for an article...)

This is only for special circumstances though - it's usually best to create or edit an article using the information.

Feel free to take material from here and incorporate it into Appropedia. Please make an appropriate comment in the edit summary, to explain in a few words what you've done, and where you moved it. Sometimes material will need to be deleted as well, without being used.

CD & DVD resources[edit | edit source]

Including:

  • eldisondisc...
  • CD3WD - a CD contains 800 of the highest quality technical development information - in IS0 9660 format - for windows, unix and linux computers - an overview of the project and a list of the 800 titles. May be downloaded. This uses many languages.

Humaninfo Technical Encyclopedia: - 5 CD's covering all aspects of Development.....

Useful resources[edit | edit source]

http://www.peopleinaid.org/

Financial Management for Emergencies - A survival guide for humanitarian programme managers http://www.fme-online.org/ Managing People in Emergencies - A survival guide for humanitarian programme managers http://www.managing.peopleinaid.org/

http://web.archive.org/web/20070206041446/http://www.abc.net.au:80/newinventors/inc/categories/InventionsByCat_ENVIRONMENT.htm - incl several links relevant to water conservation.

How to:Water filter[edit | edit source]

Water filter how-to

Large plastic tub, gravel, sand (ideally course sand and fine sand), and perhaps charcoal.

Wash the sand. If you wash the sand till it runs clear, you may be there all day. When do you stop? I stopped after about three washes, when the water was milky rather than muddy. --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 05:16, 10 November 2006 (PST)

Explaining AT[edit | edit source]

moved from Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk's personal scratchpad: Explaining appropriate technology with examples (noting when they are apocryphal, i.e. untrue - e.g. check snopes.com).

The following two come from an email Case 1

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do...?? They used a pencil.

Case 2

One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan's biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly! line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral : Always look for simple solutions.

Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems

Always Focus on solutions & not on problems

So the end of the day the thing that really matters is HOW ONE LOOK INTO THE PROBLEM

Education[edit | edit source]

Let's go with Category:Education rather than Education. Although the initial content is likely to be just enough for one page, the category approach allows splitting the resources by topic so that each page also goes in the relevant topic (water, public health etc). I suggest that this is made a subcategory of Category:Internet resources, but also Category:Topic (is that breaking a rule/guideline?) as it's not just internet resources, but should include projects and topics that deal with education in development, as well as education of development workers (including us). Or perhaps it's better that the Category:Internet resources simply links to Category:Education under "See also." I suspect it will need subcategories, but we can deal with that later. --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 02:32, 23 November 2006 (PST)

I just realized I forgot about the stub article Online courses and materials - I think the material from Online courses and materials should be incorporated into this new broader one on education. --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 19:28, 10 November 2006 (PST)

Course and textbook material is usually found at Wikibooks and Wikiversity, and we encourage material to be added there.[1] However, active Appropedians may find it more convenient to develop material here, and then transwiki it later. Resources (e.g. links) from here may also be copied or transwikied to relevant pages on Wikibooks and Wikiversity as appropriate.

If something doesn't fit at Wikibooks or Wikiversity for some reason, of course we can accept it here. This might include course material for teachers which is written mainly in English, but which describes instruction in a different language (e.g. El Jardin Magico de las ninas Lesson Plan: Introduction), information about a specific course or notes taken by someone in a course. (This is unclear at this stage, as the scopes of Wikibooks and the new Wikiversity are still being worked out, but if in doubt, you can put relevant, uncopyrighted/open-license material in Appropedia).

The (pages/sections?) in this (page/category?) link to relevant courses at those and other sites.

  • Any relevant material at Wikibooks can be linked from the relevant page here.
  1. Just as the best place for encyclopedic material is Wikipedia, the best place for developing course notes is in Wikibooks, the Wikimedia project for developing textbooks, and Wikiversity for developing university curricula.

Enabling workers and volunteers with minimal outlay[edit | edit source]

There is much need which is unmet, but willing helpers can find it hard to find a way to help. Where should Appropedia direct people?

Volunteers need training, but the more they need to spend, the less likely they are to volunteer. Ideally, as much should be available for free as possible, so that people can explore first without commitment, and so that valuable knowledge spreads as widely as possible.

Organizations such as RedR provide training but it's expensive for individuals, especially non-members (and you can't be a member without several years of experience - which makes sense as that's the requirement of UN agencies, where RedR places most of its emergency workers).

Face to face teaching and cost[edit | edit source]

Is there a way to provide high quality training to people in a developing world setting, at a lower cost? (Note that English language teaching courses are cheaper in developing world settings, even when they give the same well-recognized qualification.) This also has the advantage of offering field and cross-cultural experience, though the travel costs are obviously a barrier to people casually taking the course. It may be ideal for people about to do a period of development work in the same region.

This also has the advantage of providing income for the local development organization (perhaps an NGO) which provides the training, and income for the local community. Of course this should be done with sensitivity, to avoid negative impacts; care should also be taken to ensure the quality of the training, providing certification from a recognized educational institution or highly-regarded development organization if at all possible.

Perhaps the lower costs could be balanced against higher commitment criteria, e.g. must demonstrate that you have read Engineering in Emergencies or other nominated book prior to training, otherwise you cannot join training yet.

Suggested course design:

  • 1 or 2 weeks of learning language by immersion (particularly for those planning to work in an area using that language).
  • In following weeks introduce additional material, being a bit gentle due to:
  • likely culture shock by many of the participants - allow time for rest and fun.
  • the fact that many of the most important lessons will come from the unstructured time spent with locals.

Gender and development[edit | edit source]

I'm inviting Michelle to add material here... It can be encyclopedic (in which case it might eventually be moved to Wikipedia) or not... --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 19:48, 16 November 2006 (PST)

Environmentalism[edit | edit source]

brief, link SCA. Types of environmentalism - also put at SCA? extract something from Wikipedia: "The term bright green has emerged in the past few years to refer to a subcategory of environmentalism, distinguishing it from traditional forms. Bright green environmentalism aims for a society that relies on new technology and improved design to achieve gains in ecological sustainability without reducing (indeed, increasing) the potential for economic growth.[1] Its proponents tend to be particularly enthusiastic about green energy, hybrid automobiles, efficient manufacturing systems and bio and nanotechnologies, are supportive of dense urban settlements. "One-planet living" is a frequently heard buzz-phrase.[2][3]

"Their ideas can be contrasted with what they consider traditional environmentalism: pessimistic, return-to-primitivism, unattractive, "dark green" ideas that depend on a reduction in human numbers or a relinquishment of technology to reduce humanity's impact on the Earth's ecosphere."

Terms/phrases and search engine optimization[edit | edit source]

Typos & misspellings: put likely mistypings on a page, or on relevant pages? In white text? Or do such things get penalized? E.g. sustainabile development.

Relevant terms that are just not mentioned much (or at all) in Appropedia: Best way is to make at least a stub for such a term, and link to that - run a bot to create wikilinks from other pages?

Forums - link to these from relevant pages. The forums will attract a different kind of search.

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