Dave from Village Earth[edit source]
I couldn't find the early conversations that I thought I had with Lonny about needing something more than Wikipedia. Now I realize those conversations were with David Bartecchi of Village Earth, and the conversations with Lonny were more about scope of topic and content types, and where to collaborate. So, thanks Dave, and the history page will be fixed soon... Here's a note that I left for Dave during in the exchange. (original url and preserved at WikiIndex --Chriswaterguy · talk 16:10, 30 April 2007 (PDT)
- Hi Dave,
- Sorry for the slow response. I've been focused on Wikipedia, and haven't checked in here, but I've been giving this a lot more thought.
- I've realized you're right - it's extremely valuable to have a wiki on this topic aside from Wikipedia, for the reasons you've mentioned. However, I would like to make some suggestions:
- The broader the subject, the more people might join the wiki. Something that covers all international development and sustainability would be attractive to more people, and there would be more synergy. For myself, appropriate technology is only one of my interests. I want to put my thesis (on water management in Indonesia) onto a wiki site, but it's not really about AT.
- I recently discovered Appropedia, another excellent site similar to this one. I also have experimented with the Development and Sustainability Wikia (in line with my first comment about a broader topic). It would be far better if there were just one wiki. I have discussed this with someone from Appropedia, and they were positive about the idea. I have no problem scrapping mine to join another, but the subject area would need to be broader than just appropriate technology (and this should be reflected in the name of the wiki).
- As you know, I'm very keen on Wikipedia. I believe that an additional wiki should be complementary. E.g. by having a principle that encyclopedic material should be placed on Wikipedia (or moved there, if something is developed on the wiki which becomes of encyclopedic standard). This will reduce the amount of editing work, improve synergy between the projects, and ensure that information is higher quality.
- I've started writing a proposal to explain these ideas more fully, and when I finish will post the link on this wiki, and on Appropedia. It's exciting to see the way your site and Appropedia are developing - I'm just hopeful that we can improve the cooperation further. -- Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) 04:24, 30 May 2006 (UTC)