User talk:Lonny

If you are logged in, click the + sign next to the edit tab above to leave me a message. Or just click edit if you are not logged in. --Lonny (see also User_talk:Lonny/Archive for many past discussions)

Lonny: Podcast Update

We've just published an interview with professor Anil Gupta of the Honeybee Network. Very interesting, I think you would enjoy it.

http://agroinnovations.com/component/option,com_jd-wp/Itemid,173/p,30/

I would be more than happy to do a similar one on one with you, or a more open format with other members at appropedia. Just let me know. Looking forward to it...frank [at] agroinnovations.com

Your thoughts requested...

at User_talk:Chriswaterguy#Greenlivingpedia interwiki. Thanks.

I was going to request input from the moderator of Category:Alternative building, but then I realized we don't have one yet...

Perhaps we should invite Peter to be moderator for Category:Sustainable buildings, which could have Category:Alternative building as a subcat. --Chriswaterguy · talk 16:02, 16 March 2007 (PDT)

Photovoltaics how-to?

What do you think about moving much of Category:Photovoltaics to a how-to? --Chriswaterguy · talk 02:53, 4 April 2007 (PDT)

Hi Chris, Great question. I have thinking about what to do with these types of pages. I do not think moving it to a how to is the best idea, as I feel that how tos should be followable step-by-step methods. I do think that the amount of content on Photovoltaics hides the category links below. Here are a two possible solutions:

1. Create a standard _______ basics, for each category page. In this case, Category:Photovoltaics would have a prominent link to Photovoltaic basics.
2. Move the subcategories and pages above the content. There is a mediawiki extension that does just that.

I would like to develop a standard. I think that #1 sounds best so far. Do you have any ideas?

When we do come up with a standard, we need to think about what is appropriate on a category page. If we have no text on category pages (as is the standard on some wikis) then we have users needing to click again to find any real information. If we do have text, how much and what type?

Thank you, --Lonny 19:21, 4 April 2007 (PDT)

Yep... #1 is a variation on the Wikipedia approach, and I can see the reason for it. I also see why it makes sense to take a different approach, and keep the topic and categories both high profile, since we have multiple content types.

I need to think more about this. --Chriswaterguy · talk 02:04, 24 April 2007 (PDT)

The top of any topic page would have a template notice something like "For more pages on this topic, see the Sanitation category. That works well.

I'm not sure whether to use "XYZ basics" or just have the page name = topic name. This is Wikipedia's approach, albeit in a context of only one content type to deal with. It also makes the abovementioned template workable using {{PAGENAME}}. And I'm not sure yet whether the info will necessarily be basic and would rather let that question be answered organically. --Chriswaterguy · talk 05:48, 24 April 2007 (PDT)

I like this discussion of moving the hefty content to a separate page. Low-content category pages are fine (essentially, a few sentences describing the nature of the category), and don't need a separate page. As for naming, I have a slight bias toward using the same name, as WP does, but to me this is a detail. Of course, it's a detail that needs to be worked out :-). But as long as the naming is algorithmic (standardized), it shouldn't be too hard to alter the algorithm. I think there ought to be a way to write some template that points to the page if it exists, but I could be mistaken about that. Also, since if there is no page, then the category name wants to be a redirect (I think), and that could spoil the "if exists" test... Anyway, I'm getting lost in implementation details. --CurtB 10:07, 24 April 2007 (PDT)

I'm now leaning strongly towards this change, after thinking about how we deal with topics with multiple aspects - whether the topic deserves subcategories and whether it deserves multiple pages on different aspects, are not quite the same question. It's also easier to create topic pages if we don't have to think so hard about how it fits with the category system.

Shall we make this our new policy, at Appropedia:Topic content? We'll also need to adjust pages and sections such as Appropedia:Categories#Topic_categories Run it past major topic contributors, and Appropedia team members including User:Vinay Gupta and User:On2Leggs before making the changes? --Chriswaterguy · talk 19:03, 29 April 2007 (PDT)

Promote feed-back from user to designer

Hello!

Please help me out! The original, self-made/designed/originated material I contribute to society through the website of my foundation Demotech (www.demotech.org) is also ported by Appropedia. This I highly value for two reasons:

• Outgoing:
  

To be among the mind stuff of people with a similar mindset, to have an opportunity to be inspired, to learn in general

• Incoming:
  

To create the opportunity for feed back from users. This world needs rapid development of any item of Appropriate Technology. Without a mechanism of DIRECT and EFFECTIVE feedback from users on content such as what Demotech offers, further development of this content may stagnate. However, when feedback opportunities are provided this development may soar!

For this reason the sole condition for use of Demotech designs is to provide a link back to its origin attached to the information from Demotech. And please, let this link not only contain name and (web)-address of the author, but also a few lines that the author expects explicit and detailed feedback as a rightful reward for its otherwise freely to be used contribution.
As I looked at Creative Commons Licenses, I found the license 'Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0' that seemed somehow to answer what I look for. However not with the specific request condition as named.
I fully realize this condition can not be enforced in practice. Similar as the condition to pay for 'share ware'. But non the less it should be a condition that remains attached to the content as it spreads.

Three questions:

• Is the 'Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0' -license endorsed by Appropedia?
• Where can I find earlier discussions on the topic of feed back on behalf of continuous development?
• Where is info to be found on how design-communities may best originate and function on Internet?

Thanks for a rapid response!
--Demotech, design 14:03, 16 April 2007 (PDT) Reinder/Demotech

Hi Reinder,

Great to hear from you. I hope you received the email from my students. Your comments and questions are excellent and extremely pertinent. As requested, I am reposting your comments to the Village Pump for group discussion to follow. We are also considering starting a forum, so that it is easier for even more people to be involved.

Appropedia uses the GNU-FDL license. Here are our conversations on the topic of license - Appropedia_talk:Copyrights. Please feel free to add your comments there, where a more focused group can respond.

Thank you, --Lonny 18:51, 11 April 2007 (PDT)

To sign your comments use the following code: --~~~~

Lonny, hello!

Thanks for help and hope more clearity will come. And yes, I received the mail conserning the [=NightReader=]. I'll come back to it soon.

--Demotech, design 14:03, 16 April 2007 (PDT) Reinder

main page counter?

Lonny -- it looks like the main page counter has been stuck on ~58k for awhile -- is this correct? Is it counting? I tried reloading it and nothing changed - only one hit per ip? Cheers - Joshua ps - love the new chicken highlight

Hi Joshua,

If you mean 56k, it may look stuck because the counter stays in the cache during a normal refresh, but it will reload on a hard refresh. Use Shift-Refresh in Firefox and see if that works. If you mean 58k our numbers are different and we should discuss it further.

Glad you like the new chicken highlight.

PS you can sign your posts using 4 tildes (~~~~) --Lonny 22:23, 19 May 2007 (PDT)

Demotech contribution

Lonny, hi!
Thanks for your feed back. I have to study it thoroughly. Specially as I am not yet fully used to the Appropedia set up.
Whatever choice is made, it will be a tremendous lot of work to do all the porting to the right places. There seems to be a MediaWiki template that would well go together with the Research template. A friend of mine tries to find it.
All together it seems best to follow fate: go slow, make mistakes and hopefully then find a better way!
Reinder/Demotech

Great plan. I look forward to feedback. It will be a lot of work, but we have some techniques that make it easier. Here is a link to the entire topic category structure of Appropedia. -Lonny 02:25, 1 June 2007 (PDT)

Gender

I know very little how these kinds of sites work, and can't figure out how to make this suggestion otherwise: I'd like to see Gender as one of the categories under Culture and Community, if not its own listing under the main topics-areas listing.

Hi Jayne,

Thank you for your great suggestion. I responded on your talk page. Thank you, --Lonny 22:10, 13 July 2007 (PDT)

stats for GEM_mosquito_control

Hi Lonny,

Georgedappilly had a question about stats for GEM_mosquito_control:

By the way is it possible to get any details about those who visit the page. So far 714 visits are there!

Cheers --Chriswaterguy · talk 03:10, 22 July 2007 (PDT)

Actually I'd like to know how to access this for pages in general. Just noticed that Washing and drying clothes has had 1256 page views, which isn't bad, and I'd be interested to know where people have come from, so we can learn from it.

I also just noticed that my user page is 10th most viewed on the stats page, no doubt because I use it in my signature on blogs and other sites. I'll have to put more effort into giving people links when they arrive there. --Chriswaterguy · talk 05:50, 22 July 2007 (PDT)

Mandatos y Preguntas

¿Porqué no tienes un foto nuevo en tu pagina? Mas importante, ¿¡¿Porqué no hay un spell check en Appropedia?!? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12:04, 29 July 2007, Waterfaery72

Gracias para tus dudas. Voy a hacer un nuevo foto para mi pagina muy pronto. Y para spell check, I suggest using the excellent web-browser Firefox. Here is a portable version (will work on a thumb drive) and here is a install version, both will spell check inside of Appropedia. --Lonny 12:29, 29 July 2007 (PDT)

Muy pronto, mis nalgas!

Kiva, Kivapedia and microfinance

Hey Lonny,

I've been looking around trying to get a feel for how I could best contribute to Appropedia. I'm not an expert in any of the fields covered here, just a fan who likes to edit wikis. :-) In terms of Kiva, etc., I made a few simple edits to test out the connections. They work great.

As far as articles go, there doesn't seem to be much here related to microfinance. You also seem to uses categories like that one as main articles. :-) So I was wondering, do you approve of "importing" Wikipedia articles with trans-wiki links? If that's okay, I would be willing to add "Kiva" and "microfinance" articles. Also, do you add articles about related wikis? If it's a yes on that, I also could start a little something about Kivapedia.

As another "connections" idea, people in the Kiva Friends community often send Kiva gift certificates to folks, e.g., Gift Certificate to Celebrities to get the microlending ball rolling in a new area. If you know of a sizable group of folks here or elsewhere, and they would be willing to form a "lender group," I would be willing to bankroll the "first" loan (a whopping $25! ;-) if the group finds a way to match it. Then we could add "Appropedians for Kiva" (or whatever) to the List of Kiva Group Lenders! ;-) Regards, RichardF 14:25, 1 August 2007 (PDT)

Hi Richard - haven't responded to your comment on my talk page yet and I'm busy at Wikimania, so I'll take the liberty of make some quick comments here on Lonny's talk page.

• We use the {{Wikipedia}} template to link to encyclopedic content, rather than duplicating it here.
• We would love more content on microfinance, and Kiva. My friend from the Grameen Foundation (Australia) has told me good things about Kiva.
• We did have a policy of using categories as topic articles - I think we agreed to change the policy a while ago but haven't carried it out yet.
• I see no problem adding stuff about Kivapedia - we like to interlink where appropriate, and in some cases have merged (e.g. with WikiGreen.org) where we were covering the same ground. It may be that the WikiNode is the best place to add that info, but that's not a hard and fast rule.
• Welcome to Appropedia! --Chriswaterguy · talk 21:12, 1 August 2007 (PDT)

Okay, I really don't have any new content to add and I already added the basics to WikiNode. Let me know if you're interested in loaning as a group. RichardF 05:01, 2 August 2007 (PDT)

Think I erased a photo of yours on accident

I was uploading a photo and called it Batchsolar.jpg

Accidentally clicked ok when it asked me if I wanted to replace one with the same name. Don't know where the picture is linked to. Thought I'd let you know.

Matt

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the heads up. You saved over a photo that you had uploaded, so no problem. If you click the image and go the image page (http://www.appropedia.org/Batchsolar.jpg) you can see the past versions and see what pages use the photo.

--Lonny 19:09, 6 August 2007 (PDT)

PS You can sign your name using 4 tildes (~~~~).

Adobe Schmadobe

So I think I got the page to be a little more PC like you asked. Also put up the new floorplan. If that all looks good it's just about done, though we do have a couple building pictures to put up it's really difficult since Jaqui's gone and Hannah and I don't have a flash drive or a cord...anyway it's hard to get that stuff together and tomorrow's my last day in Parras, so let me know what you think so that I can fix things up before I take off. Thanks Lonny, hope you're feeling better...and I heard you ran into Richard in DF! La changa 14:48, 7 August 2007 (PDT)

Thanks for the template fix

...and the welcome! I wasn't sure if you had a welcome template yet so I reckoned I'd make one - moved it to Template:Welcome and made it a bit more generic (see demo below). Mchua 20:11, 18 August 2007 (PDT)

Actually, it's probably better to look at Template:Welcome - or pop {{subst:Welcome|yourusername}} into a new user's page to see it at work. But it should work for everyone now, so hopefully we'll see a welcome-wagon phenomenon. On a somewhat related note, Chriswaterguy and I was talking about the entry barrier for new contributors to wikis (especially folks working on appropriate technology) so I'm trying to delve into the code that WikiHow uses to make its interface more user-friendly in the hopes of generalizing it to an extension (it's currently custom hacks embedded into their php, so they tell me). Mchua 20:15, 18 August 2007 (PDT)

Great template! And there has been a resulting ramped up welcome wagon phenomenon. Thank you for the help on lowering the wiki-tech bar for new users. I look forward to making Appropedia easier to use for the many people that balk at our archaic code. Thank you, --Lonny 11:04, 26 August 2007 (PDT)

Welcome!

Thank you...

Hey Lonnie... thanks for the formatting tips- was definately needed and certainly appreciated. Thanks and have a beautiful day... -a.

Glad to help. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you --Lonny 16:25, 16 September 2007 (PDT)

News from Demotech, at last...

Lonny, hello!
I found new web master who has a pretty good idea how to approach the transfer of info from Demotech to Appropedia. As ideas are now, this guy Robert, will make a script to transfer of the Demotech content just and only the 'Why" and "How" of the first page of each design page also with the pictures that belong to this info. So this is just to give visitors at Appropedia a taste of what is could be, then to click through to the Demotech site.
The big idea is that I want to be able to steer and animate further development of the design ideas presented by Demotech. I can't have that at Appropedia, so I want to have a place that I can manage myself. I do not yet know how I can work this out with my webmaster Robert, it should be some content managment system close to that of Appropedia. Anyway I want to make sure further linking up to Appropedia remains easy at the very moment that's Appropriate!
Soon you will hear more!
Greetings, Reinder

Hi Reinder,

Great to hear from you. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help the movement. Keep up your great work. Look forward to hearing from you soon. --Lonny 18:10, 16 September 2007 (PDT)

Hi Lonny - the banner at the bottom of GEM mosquito control gives me more credit than I deserve or want, just because I created the page (with a few lines). Can we do anything about this? --Chriswaterguy · talk 06:17, 28 September 2007 (PDT)

Contributor notice

Hi Lonny - the banner at the bottom of GEM mosquito control ("This page was last modified 21:34, 21 July 2007 by E.M.George. Based on work by Chris Watkins and Anonymous user(s) of Appropedia.") gives me more credit than I deserve or want, just because I created the page (with a few lines). Can we do anything about this? --Chriswaterguy · talk 06:19, 28 September 2007 (PDT)

I am sure that there is someway to do this in the database, but I think the best fix right now is probably a work around:

We have E.M.George create a new page, maybe GEM mosquito control system, then copy the content there and make the old page forward to this new page.

Alternatively, we copy the content, delete the page, have E.M.George create the page again and the paste the content back into the page. I think that this will hide the history even further, but both ways should return the banner to its correct crediting state.

What do you think?

--Lonny 07:50, 28 September 2007 (PDT)

Good plan. I would normally be concerned to preserve history, but in this case it's basically George, with very little by me. A couple of minor edits by an anon or two, who may be the same as George.

We can keep the same name for the new page, simply by having George move the old page, and create the new page on top of the redirect. We can then delete the moved old page (noting that the history is accessible to admins through the deletion log, if desired). Does that make sense? --Chriswaterguy · talk 10:10, 1 October 2007 (PDT)

Sounds good, when should we do this? --Lonny 11:07, 13 October 2007 (PDT)

I haven't been watching changes very well lately - with the wiki being so active, I think it's best to reply on my talk page from now on.

After checking Appropedia submission for BFI prize, I realized that my analysis of the problem was wrong - who created the page has no impact. Each person is mentioned only once, even if they are both the creator and the most recent editor. I made a small edit on the GEM page, and now the names are reversed - "This page was last modified... by Appropedia user Chriswaterguy. Based on work by E.M.George and Anonymous user(s) of Appropedia." Perhaps the "last modified by" is not a desirable feature of the notice - this is just one bit of information without context, and more complete info is readily available anyway, by clicking history. If a simpler banner is available, I'd support using that (but no rush). --Chriswaterguy · talk 10:32, 28 October 2007 (PDT)

Glad to be here.

Lonny,

Appropedia is great. I've wanted to do this project since 1987 when I was a graduate student in anthropology studying economic development. Appropriate technology was all the buzz then, but ideas didn't move much. I hope that is all changing now. I've registered with appropedia and hope I can contribute.

Back then I wanted a central facility in which people could create and disseminate interactive records of development ideas: projects, appropriate technologies, managerial techniques, etc. The facility would have the ideas, how they worked on the ground immediately and over time, observations by planners and locals, spin offs, lessons learned, etc. Then the whole lot would be available to anyone. Of course, back then this was impossible. Now you have it.

A colleague of mine and I are particularly interested in dispersal of small scale development ideas into areas of low computer concentration: PNG for example. I've spoken with one of the old development professors there and worked up some ideas.

Since 1987, I have spent 5 years in social work, earned a Ph.D. in economics, and advanced as an academic in Australia concentrating on other fields. But I am eager now to return to my old love of economic development.

How can my ideas fit in to appropedia? Do you know of people currently working on getting appropedia information into areas with few computers?

Cheers, Chris Geller

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your encouraging feedback. Your ideas fit perfectly into Appropedia. The administrator most connected with getting Appropedia information into areas with few computers is Chriswaterguy.

I think that we may be served by having this conversation over email. Although it does lack the transparency of the wiki, we have a few other colleagues, with interest in this area, that reply more via email. Please email me at Lonny to further this exciting conversation. You may be interested in the following pages: Low cost computer guide, User:Chriswaterguy/OLPC_frontpage, Collaboration to produce offline content. These pages are different from but related to what you are discussing.

Welcome to Appropedia and welcome back to economic development, we look forward to talking and hopefully working with you, --Lonny 11:04, 13 October 2007 (PDT)

Slashes in page names?

Hi Lonny,

Was just leaving a note for Steve about Lemon douches for HIV prevention, when I came up with this issue: I thought about a rename to "Lemon and lime douches..." but that sounds like a mixture of the two is required; "Lemon or lime douches..." sounds like a comparison is being made. "Lemon/lime douches..." is probably best, but it looks like a subpage. Looking like a subpage is possibly not a problem, but I wanted to get your views. --Chriswaterguy · talk 00:23, 24 October 2007 (PDT)

Hi Chris,

My take is that we should reserve slashes for subpages. How about a dash, e.g. Lemon-lime douches?

Thank you, --Lonny 00:49, 24 October 2007 (PDT)

Lemon-lime still sounds like a cocktail to me :). Will think on it. --Chriswaterguy · talk 13:18, 25 October 2007 (PDT)

One issue with the title "Lemon/lime douches" is that (I think) there will be a breadcrumb trail back to the page "Lemon" linked at the top of the page. I think that "Lemon and lime douches", while ambiguous, is okay. If lemon and lime didn't go together so well, in cocktails :), I do not think it would be as misleading. Think "Orange and apple flavored beverages" this allows for mixed or separate beverages, whereas "Orange and apple flavored beverage" must be mixed (and gross). --Lonny 23:47, 25 October 2007 (PDT)

Tildes...

Re your sig at Talk:Lemon douches for HIV prevention... i think there was a typo - fives tildes (~~~~~) make a date with no username (13:18, 25 October 2007 (PDT)). -Chriswaterguy · talk 13:18, 25 October 2007 (PDT)

Thanks. I fixed it. --Lonny 11:13, 28 October 2007 (PDT)

hi

Thanks for your words in my talk page. I'd like to help you translating the information you have about photovoltaic systems. I want to learn building my own small PV system and i think that is a very good way to learn the theory. I see you are also interested on PV. In case that I don't understand something, may I ask you questions about PV design and calculations?, :)--Javier Carro 05:17, 18 November 2007 (PST)

Hi Javier,

Please feel free to ask me questions. I have supervised, designed and built quite a few solar applications (plus I teach it at University). One of the questions I will probably not be able to help much with, is rules and rebates in your area. Where are you located? I have had a hand (sometimes very small) in the majority of the photovoltaic projects (including these Spanish translations) here on Appropedia, and Joshua did the quite excellent Solar Photovoltaic Open Lectures - he may be amenable to questions.

I look forward to watching the photovoltaic page be translated. The content on that page is too much for a category page, so we were planning on renaming it something like Photovoltaic basics (we are still working on the policy). Please feel free to name your page how ever you would like, and we will make sure it fits.

Thank you for your fantastic work, --Lonny 09:57, 18 November 2007 (PST)

:) Sorry, I didn't notice you answered me back here. Thanks a lot. As soon as I have time I will be looking to all this material. You also can ask me for translating something you consider of high relevance. By the way, at the moment I live in Zürich. I was thinking of using this website to calculate the inclination and orientation of the modules.

I will ask you my first question: do you know some schematics to make your own DC-DC 12 to 19 volts converter? I want to build one but until now I didn't find anyone in internet. --Javier Carro 04:44, 24 November 2007 (PST)

Thanks!

Hey Lonny!

Thanks for the nice note. I appreciate the additions you made to the article, as well as the kind words about my story. I'm hoping to make more contributions soon, since I've been reading a whole damn lot about soil health...

Best,

--Krystle 20:58, 23 November 2007 (PST)