Mission / Vision[edit source]
Vision[edit source]
The Appropedia Vision is that all members of the international development community have the ability to find and connect with each other, and to collaborate in sharing the latest information, with multiple views on best practices, for sustainable development, poverty reduction and capacity building. They will have speedy access to each other and to this knowledge-base worldwide and in every desired language. Specifically, this Vision includes:
Copyleft availability and usage rights for all sustainable development knowledge in developing nations What are the best technologies for solving these challenges, by region and by culture What labour / capital trade-off options exist for various solutions In detail, how are these technologies deployed and what are the common pitfalls to avoid What are the best techniques for engaging and partnering culturally and regionally What are the best site assessment techniques for each project Where can supplies and services best be secured, by region? What are the best shipping / delivery options regionally? What experts are open to being contacted with questions? Etc
Mission[edit source]
What is the Appropedia (wiki) Mission regard as its Mission (role and challenges) within the vision above? Everything. Okay, not really.
Appropedia's core mission is to provide an easy-to-use, highly-available, fast, stable, open, fairly managed and multilingual data clearinghouse infrastructure (i.e. library, or wiki) for sharing all the information, and to promote the use and expansion of the wiki in order best support the Vision above. Specifically, the Mission includes:
Assuring the presence and availability of adequate hardware resources. Assuring timely firmware upgrades Providing adequate system admin resources to keep the site available and spam-free Assuring the development of clear and effective policies Active recruitment of contributors, editors, admins, engaged consumers and commentators. Ensuring up-to-date infrastructure (enhancements, templates, categories, and so on) Requests for permission to republish original content Pursuit of useful regional info, e.g. travel, supply chain, services, or links to same. Aggressively discouraging inappropriate material or use (e.g. copyright violations) Continual pursuit of features (wiki and non) to increase community effectiveness Maintaining privacy of information as appropriate Continual low key querying of community for improvement opportunity Continual low key querying for potentially missed community elements
Promoting the Vision above (ads, articles, conferences, T-shirts, stickers, comments)
For purposes of clarification, the mission does not include: >Driving internet accessibility to remote locations. >Providing translation services >Responsibility for delivering all content >Purchasing rights for protected intellectual property >Validating accuracy of content >
Customer definition[edit source]
This simple list is a beginning. We should add to the list, sort/prioritize it, then spend a bit of energy trying to figure out what will interest the high priority users.
- Primary content consumers
- NGO team members (includes many of those below)
- Existing development volunteers
- Prospective development volunteers
- DIYers
- Project managers
- Program developers
- Existing Host site residents
- Potential Host site residents
- Existing host site orgs
- Potention host site org founders
- Teachers
- Students
- Liaisons and agents
- Existing funding sources
- Prospective funding sources
- Experts in adjacent or related fields
- Advocates of AT, SD and SID
- Environmentalists generally
- Folks interested in specific
- Grant writers
- Journalists?
- Content providers
- Topic Experts
- Prospective experts / researchers
- Project participants / documentors
- Teachers
- Porting helpers
- Translators?
- Other supporters
- Editors / formatters
- Admins
- Interns / inspired volunteers
- Fact checkers?
- Moderators?
- Translators?
- Appropedia promotors
Research / analysis[edit source]
Leverage Analytics and other tools (existing Google ads, ad cost estimates, experimental ads, other wiki traffic, google search results, etc) to identify where community interest is. Use this information to help clarify who the customer is and potential ad opportunities.
Investigate and understand visitor behavior on the site. Identify ways to improve stickiness / increase page views. Simplify navigation and enhance attractiveness.
Site Preparedness[edit source]
- Main page / nav bar revision
- Simplify / Focus / Clarify
- Main focus on Content Consumers (most visitors)
- Clear link to a Content Contributors page (more targeted than Community portal)
- Policy development / maturity
- Categorization
- Structure closure (or at least satisfaction)
- Adjustment of categories where necessary
- Articulation of category policies? (When to create a subcategory?)
- Template prettifying (See "stub" at SCA)
- Removal of
- Feedback opportunities?
Community coordination[edit source]
- Specific content expansion areas, eg Water
- Porting
- Promotion
- Internal linkages
Partnering Efforts[edit source]
- NGOs
- AIDG
- Village Earth
- Practical Action
- Amizade
- etc, etc, etc
Advertising[edit source]
- Identify ad categories
- Sustainable development
- Appropriate technology (same?)
- Define ad language "Living library"?
- Define keywords / phrases
- Define destinations / portals per ad
- Consider budget, etc
Print media? Existing newsletters?
Other Promotion[edit source]
Web buttons Blogs and blog comments T-Shirts Flyers at conferences? Other PR (press releases) Membership in appropriate groups Links from related sites (especially Wikipedia)
Language expansion[edit source]
This will take some planning! Recruiting! What's involved:
- Wiki enhancement or replication?
- Prioritization of language
- By available staff?
- By demand / need?
- By content availability?
- By resource (tool / service) availability?
- By cost?
- By support readiness? (MediaWiki alphabet issues?)
- Recruitment of multilingual (admin?) staff (got to, right?)
- Policy / help page enhancement or creation?
- Translation (free or paid tools, followed by human review? services?)
- Separate promotional efforts?