Appropedia is the site to develop and share collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development through the use of sound principles and appropriate technology, original research and project information. We are a wiki, a type of website that allows anyone to add and edit content. We encourage you to create an account in order to contribute.
Sometimes, Appropedia has been described as an appropriate technology wiki, but it is much broader than that —it is a green living wiki for all matters of international development and aid. Appropedia is an open site for stakeholders to come together and find, create and improve scalable and adaptable solutions. This can include sharing information and collaborating with others on how we can lighten our ecological footprint and live in harmony with nature and our environment in developed countries, or discuss for example low cost technologies for use in the developing world.
Vision[edit | edit source]
Share knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives.
Mission[edit | edit source]
We build the infrastructure, help make the connections and populate free content to effect our vision. We provide the living resource library of individuals and organizations working towards a sustainable, healthier future, so that efforts can be spent evolving instead of duplicating past efforts.
What Appropedia is[edit | edit source]
Appropedia is a site for original research on sustainable development. We are not an encyclopedia (see Appropedia:Appropedia is different from Wikipedia. We welcome instead contributions of many more types of content, such as the following:
- Appropriate technology designs and guides.
- Open Educational Resources such as textbook-style information, tables, and figures.
- Best practices in sustainability, development, and all related fields.
- Documents such as books, project materials, and tutorials, made by nonprofits.
- Project histories and original essays related to our main subjects.
- Photographs and illustrations
- Information for finding supplies and help from anywhere in the world.
- Sustainability news (see Community action for sustainability).
- Links and information on organizations that relate to sustainability and international development.
- Collaboration pages for co-creating solutions.
- Discussion pages for commenting on work done and work that needs to be done.
- More - whatever aids the causes of sustainability and overcoming poverty.
Who makes Appropedia[edit | edit source]
You[edit | edit source]
The community of contributors and visitors that powers Appropedia work, and makes working at Appropedia meaningful. Join us!
Board of directors[edit | edit source]
- Lonny Grafman - Founder and chairman of the board
- Curt Beckmann
- Andrew Lamb
- Chris Watkins
Current staff[edit | edit source]
- Emilio Velis - Executive Director of The Appropedia Foundation
- Felipe Schenone - Technical lead
- Kathy Nativi - Head of communications
- Andrea Maida, Pedro Kracht and Irene Delgado - Content specialists
Historical supporters[edit | edit source]
- Roger
- Jason Michael Smithson
- Gabriel Krause - Founding technical administrator
- Vinay Gupta of the Hexayurt
- Ryan Legg
- Aaron Antrim - Consulted the original Appropedia team and provided the recommendation to use MediaWiki
Appropedia Foundation[edit | edit source]
The Appropedia Foundation is the organization that manages the Appropedia website, provides leadership on the promotion of projects, and actively supports related projects in open knowledge, sustainability, development, and service-learning in related areas.
The Appropedia Foundation is a California non-profit organization and has 501(c)(3) status under United States law. The Foundation's Federal EIN (Tax ID) is 20-8982657.
History[edit | edit source]
Appropedia began in April of 2006. In the earliest stages it was a collaboration between passionate people from the United States and Australia, and quickly expanded to become a global project.
A number of other similar sites have "joined with" Appropedia since its inception, bringing many content pages, readers and contributors, including:
- Development and Sustainability Wikia
- WinWinWiki
- WikiGreen
- Village Earth's Appropriate Technology Wiki Project
- How To Live Wiki, home of the Hexayurt
- Sustainable Goals Wiki (sustainable business) aka sGoals Wiki