This is a draft article to describe the ways that Appropedia can have a positive impact
Supporting story lines
Internet growth in developing world
The developed world has created Wikipedia for its use. Anyone can check who was the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, or when Florida was granted statehood. Consider that internet usage in developing countries is exploding at a significantly faster rate than the developed world. What is the equivalent wikipedia that makes sense there?
Sustainable development is complex
Most people working in international development have some solid or even amazing expertise in some discipline. But the problems in international development are not confined to a single discipline. To make real sustainable progress usually requires making parallel advances on more than one front. Safe water supplies are tied in with many disciplines, from Architecture for rainwater capture, and solar water pasteurization.
Increase efficiency of international development orgs and CBOs
The largest international development organizations may have good sized staffs, and the resources to train their staff. Smaller organizations have much less resources. But large or small, all organizations would love to do more, and stretch their resources farther. What if 10,000 organizations each have annual budgets of $50,000. That's $500M. Now, anecdotally, we hear that many organizations 10% to 20% of time is spent searching for the best approach to solving a problem. And many are not confident that they find the better solutions. Others may not even address issues because they cannot afford to investigate where to start. What if, as a community, can make each organization 1% more efficient. That alone would provide $5M in value each year, and does not even touch on the direct value to communities through CBOs. Appropedia can accomplish vast things for much less than 10% of that annual number.
Supporting factoids
Internet growth
Region | Growth from 2000 to 2008 |
Middle East | 1,176.8 % |
Africa | 1,031.2 % |
Latin America | 669.3 % |
Asia | 406.1 % |
World Average | 305.5 % |
Europe | 266.0 % |
Oceana / Australia | 165.1 % |
North America | 129.6 % |
Number of organizations in international development
Searching WiserEarth for international development organizations] results in over 18,000 hits. More than likely, despite WiserEarth's thorough efforts, there are many small and/or informal efforts that are not among those counted.
Number of Community-based organizations in development
Searching WiserEarth for CBOs with development results in 3800 orgs. Again, the real numbers are likely to be higher.