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