Demotech, design for self-reliance is a foundation, based in the Netherlands, dedicated to Appropriate Technology.

Demotech's contribution consists of technical research into ultra low cost and truly sustainable technical solutions. Next to this Demotech centers on how to get the story about such solutions across to an unwilling world without hope or expectations that such solutions do- respectively can exist.

Apart from sustainable targets, Demotech's design initiatives aim at "More joy per person". Life has more to offer then any consumer walhalla promises. Reduction of technology and in its wake economy, can go together with the raising of its quality. Far more comfort and leisure time can be had if we only re-design technology according to appropriate technical guidelines. Not meaning this is easy. But -yes- meaning it can easily be done in an Open Source collaborative approach. There are many examples that guide the way, but -no- such a collaborative culture joint effort still has to come into being.

In search for an enjoyable sustainable world Demotech wants to draw lessons from people living in poverty. "Learning from Poverty" is the short cut towards a sustainable society. Proper study of the positive aspects of life in poverty and of "Technology within Poverty" proves to be inspiring. To start re-design at the economic level of poverty gives the realistic framework for sustainability. Demotech found numerous options for this approach and has succeeded to get one of these generally accepted. We listed similar successes elsewhere.

Finding this website 'Appropedia' seems a step towards such cooperation. Now (09/30/06) I found it, I am glad to contribute to it. For the time being I can do this best by adding links to relating pages of the Demotech web site.
I welcome any other suggestion how to make the content of Demotech's website accessible to Appropedia. I realize there is more then one option for this.

Reinder van Tijen
Demotech, design for self-reliance
Biesenwal 3, 6211 AD Maastricht, the Netherlands
web: http://www.demotech.org
mailto:info@demotech.org

Discussion[View | Edit]

Welcome! Great to have you on board - looks like you fit right in here. Look forward to seeing your contributions.

I used some of the material from your userpage to create Demotech, design for self-reliance, and added to the organizations category, and the Netherlands category. --Singkong2005 talk 02:02, 30 September 2006 (PDT)

Another Welcome[edit source]

Welcome. Your site has so much excellent content. We are very excited to have your input here. Please feel free to add many relevant links back to Demotech, in addition we would love any content you wanted to bring from demotech to here... a great first page seems like it would be More joy per person. Thank you for your work and your interest. --Lonny 03:10, 1 October 2006 (PDT)

Student Workforce[edit source]

Hi Reinder,

Great to see the additions from your student workforce. The photo of the finished wood weld is a great addition to that page. I moved the photo to the top of the Weld wood page, so that viewers can see it right away, and know what they are going for. I also see that Anna has registered, I am welcoming her right now. Please let her know that she can ask for help from the community at the Village pump, from me at Lonny or from any of the other users especially admins.

Thank you, --Lonny 12:18, 21 October 2006 (PDT)

Added Category Demotech[edit source]

Hi Reinder,

We have promoted your organization page, Demotech, design for self-reliance, to its own category - Category:Demotech. This has been done because of the high level of contribution from your organization and allows user of Appropedia to see, in one place, the users and the pages ported from your organization.

Normally it is bad form to edit anothers user page, but I have gone ahead and added the category demotech to your user page so that you show up listed at Category:Demotech.

Thank you for you and your organizations excellent work, --Lonny 13:04, 12 November 2006 (PST)

Sub-sub categories for the sub-category Demotech[edit source]

copied from the Village pump


I would like to copy the category structure of my site http://www.demotech.org as it to found at http://www.demotech.org/d-design.php
In fact I consider to port the whole of the structure of the Demotech site to Appropedia to invite the cooperation that is up to now too limited. In this category structure I like to port an abstract of the content as it is to be found at the Demotech website. This regards an abstract of all of the design initiatives and all of the publications. I want to link all of these abstracts to the full original content at the Demotech site.

Next to that I want to link each of these design initiatives to a discussion page, thus creating a space that acts much like a forum, where each post is allocated next to the general info it is about.

In the Demotech web site there is, next to the main HTML part of each design initiative also a Wiki part. This Wiki part is meant for reporting on research done on this design initiative. I set it up to facilitate intern students and students doing their thesis. It is tested only with a few intern students. It worked fairly well: the general setup of the research fitted the work of the students well enough. See an example at: http://www.demotech.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Design/D53
I hope to get comments on the idea to port this section to Appropedia and not to have it anymore in the Demotech site. Maybe not only for the Demotech design topics, but added to any topic in Appropedia that is suitable for it and needs to be researched on. Specially it is meant to assist teachers and students in the hope to involve world wide education in the research for appropriate solutions.

I look forward to get from the village pump inspiration and guidance. Reinder, Demotech, design for self-reliance, 25 May, 2007

[--Demotech 26 May 2007 (PDT)--]

Hi Reinder,
We are very excited about the prospects. Let's start talking about the specifics. For instance, do the following categories represent the entire category structure that you would like to copy over:
  • Means to get informed
  • Making made easier
  • Better living
  • Water & Sanitation
  • Localize Energy
  • Sound mobility
If so, I think there are a few options. If not, please let me know. Following are some of the options for porting the Demotech category structure to Appropedia:
  1. Map those categories to existing categories on Appropedia
  2. Categorize the content in those categories to categories on Appropedia
  3. Name those categories suffixed by Demotech, e.g. Demotech sound mobility. Then those categories could be subcategories under relevant Appropedia categories, e.g. Cycling or Transport.
  4. Something else
Another question I have is about your content porting. Is the intent to port over all the pages at http://www.demotech.org/d-design/d-alldesign.php? If so, then we can place prominent links back to Demotech from those pages using the {{Attrib Demotech}} template.
Please let me know if I am on the right track. Let's figure out what is best and get moving on it.
Thank you,
--Lonny 01:26, 1 June 2007 (PDT)

your work on "More Joy..."[edit source]

Hi, I was just reminded of your work by seeing your userpage. I've done work on the Quality of life page recently, and I just realized we have related ideas. I linked your userpage, but perhaps you'd like to add more?

Would love to talk with you about your work. I will see if I can email you and line up a phone call. Or Skype - I use the same id as I do on Appropedia. --Chriswaterguy 20:42, 7 May 2008 (PDT)


About Spam damage, that you probably already know about[edit source]

Chris, hello, this is Reinder from Demotech/the Netherlands
Smam damage at the home page has been repaired, but in the Header, there is still a very wrong text. Hope your team can fix it soon.
Good luck with it,
Reinder

Thanks - let me know if I missed anything. --Chriswaterguy 07:33, 19 July 2008 (PDT)
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.