This page shows where Appropedia fits in with other collaborative projects, and hopefully will help create greater synergy.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, while Appropedia is for non-encyclopedic material - they complement each other. While Wikipedia doesn't have project information or how-tos, it does have a growing collection of information on topics including:
If you are keen to get involved with developing encyclopedic articles on these topics, you may want to check out these collaborations:
- WikiProject International development
- WikiProject Environment
- WikiProject Energy development
- WikiProject Water purification
Wikis on similar themes
Some wikis are so similar that we'd probably be best to merge and combine our efforts. The active contributors at Appropedia have suggested this to several wikis:
- 4 have merged already: the Development and Sustainability Wiki, the WinWinWiki, WikiGreen and the Village Earth Appropriate Technology Wiki.
- Another is in the process of merging (to be announced soon).
- Howtopedia is extremely similar but focused on how-tos, and is continuing independently
We seek to collaborate with other wikis, and have discussed this with several including:
Finding wikis
WikiIndex lists and categorizes many wikis.
CentralWikia:Society Gardens: A summary of active, established Wikia sites on serious topics (ie not entertainment or gaming).
Many more can be found with a search engine such as Google. Many of these wikis are not very active, but it may be valuable to contact the community and explore possibilities for collaboration, perhaps joining with a more active community of editors such as Appropedia.
Transition
"Transition Towns" started in the UK but this initiative is rapidly spreading worldwide. It represents local communities responding to the twin drivers of Peak Oil and Climate Change, and it draws deeply on Permaculture. It is a grassroots response designed to work together with national and global responses, and to be replicable, community by community.
Transition Towns is a wiki where each "official" Transition initiative has its own wiki or link to its own website. Each local Transition initiative has a forum that is usually pretty active.
Transition Network is the overarching Transition network with a Transition primer and list/map of over 400 groups worldwide "mulling" over taking up the Transition initiative.
See also Green World Trust which, though not a wiki, is perhaps the best introduction to Transition Towns.
International development
- See also the International development category at WikiIndex.
Appropedia is a living library of appropriate technology, sustainability and development.
Howtopedia - "simple technologies, simply shared." All in the form of how-tos. Largely taken, with permission, from Practical Action.
Kivapedia is a wiki supporting Kiva, online microlending to small businesses in developing countries. Kivapedia is hosted by and maintained on a volunteer basis, mainly by users of the Kiva Friends community forum.
Disaster relief
Indian Ocean Disaster Relief Portal (www.tsunamihelp.info)
Why - interested in the Indian Ocean Tsunami, among other things. "Not in raising money, there's easily been enough of that. But in the people that will be affected for years to come..." (Partly/mainly/wholly from a Christian perspective?)
Sustainability
- See also the Sustainability category at WikiIndex.
Appropedia, as above.
gWiki - "The Green Wiki." Not very large or active, at the moment.
Ecovillage wiki is a site for exchanging information
and ideas about ecovillages in particular, and
sustainable community in general.
This Wikia will facillitate ecovillages to develop
regional and global networks. It provides a place for
individual ecovillages to edit relevant documents and
for individuals in different geographic locations to
collaborate. It will also be a knowledge base for
people to learn about ecovillages generally, or about
a particular ecovillage.
http://ecovillage.wikia.com/
G. Knowledge is the definitive repository of green
knowledge. G.Knowledge will bring together the collective
knowledge of green thinking people throughout the world to
produce a collective memory to take from and to deposit the
deep knowledge of the world.
The success of a greener, happier, safer, friendlier,
cleaner, more productive world relies on passing on the
knowledge of green minded individuals and their
collective wisdoms. Green Knowledge is not a commodity,
it's a necessity." Note this is not actually a wikia, but directs people to their page.
WikiGreen Note: Now merged into Appropedia - the description was: A Wiki for Sustainable living, Intentional communities and life Off the grid. You will find here the personal experience of Alternative energy, Back to the land and Do-It-Yourself people, as well as regular folks wanting to live more Green.
WaterWiki, created as a resource for use by members of the Rio Grande Basin Roundtable and the other roundtables created under the provisions of the Colorado Water for the 21st Century Act. In addition to that circumscribed use, this wiki may be used to develop and present information regarding world wide water resources and issues by anyone. Not very active.
Permaculture
PermaWiki - Not very active.
Permaculture Information Web - a fair few pages, but spam problems at present. Not very active.
Ecology
Climate and Conservation Wiki, from Climateandconservation.org - a scientific wiki, devoted to compiling and disseminating information, summaries, and reviews about conservation of biodiversity and how biodiversity is affected by Global Climate change and Global Warming. This is not a site for you to express your opinions about the existence or non-existence of Global Warming.
Health and environment
Heande, an abbreviation for Health, the Environment, and - Everything is a wiki-based website for helping decisions about human health, and environmental factors affecting it.
Technology and design
http://future.wikia.com/images/b/bc/Wiki.png
Future is a Wikia about futurology, technology
foresight, and futures studies. This wiki aims to develop
future forecasts (using scenarios, timelines, etc.),
and to write speculative articles on future topics.
The wiki's logo is a combination of a nanogear and the
A molecule, which signifies the importance of
nanotech and biotech. The "wikia: " brackets show that
it's a wiki.
Philosophy of open source, open licenses, free culture
The Foundation for P2P Alternatives - P2P Foundation:
We function as a clearinghouse for open/free, participatory/p2p and commons-oriented initiatives.
We aim to be a pluralist network to document, research, and promote peer to peer alternatives. Our political aims could be summarized under the following maxims:
- ending the destruction of the biosphere by abandoning the dangerous conceptions of pseudo-abundance in the natural world (i.e. based on the assumption that natural resources are infinite);
- promoting free cultural exchange by abandoning the innovation-inhibiting conceptions of pseudo-scarcity in the cultural world (i.e. based on the assumption that the free flow of culture needs to be restricted through excessive copyrights etc...).
Sphere of Networks: (note - the P2P Foundation and Sphere of Networks are working together.[verification needed]
This is a website that explains the diverse movement that is promoting Freedom of Information, or whatever else it might be called (free culture, open source culture, etc.), and its associated ideas.
It has different levels:
- green Nutshell level - simple overview of these ideas,
- blue Overview - more comprehensive but still straightforward.
- red Details level - everybody is welcomed to contribute more in-depth information and write and talk.
How tos
There may be some overlap between our How tos and these wikis:
Howtopedia, described above.
http://howto.wikia.com/images/b/bc/Wiki.png
How To Engineer It will be a comprehensive
encyclopaedia of technology which answers questions about how to make modern products in the natural environment from scratch.
http://www.wikihow.com/skins/common/images/wikiHow_logo_5.gif
wikiHow The How-To Manual That Anyone Can Write or Edit
HowStuffisMade (spam problems, inactive - any value?) - an encyclopedia of and manufacturing processes and labor conditions involved in the production of contemporary products. This information is often hard to obtain and little of this material exists on the web.
Political & policy issues
Issuepedia - "Issuepedia is the encyclopedia of issues, analysis, thought, and opinion. As with Wikipedia, anyone can edit; unlike Wikipedia, we encourage opinions and rants as well as carefully considered analysis and purely factual writing."
Campaigns and activism
Sustainable Community Action, or SCA21, is a Wikia
to develop information on all aspects of local sustainability,
particularly community run action for sustainability.
As well as providing a Local Sustainability Ideas Bank,
the site contains a shared work space for developing
ideas for networking, both virtual and real world, for
local sustainability action and seeks to link up community action for sustainability across the world.
Sustainable_Community_Action:WikiNode SCA WikiNode], SCA collaborations page
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks
Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East
http://campaigns.wikia.com/images/b/bc/Wiki.png
The Wikia for Campaigns recently set up by Jimbo Wales, aims to explore new ways of doing politics and campaigns.
http://worldcitizen.wikia.com/images/b/bc/Wiki.png
The Wikia for World Citizenship, Global Justice and
Global Governance aims to create a new space for
publishing and discussing opinion articles on topics
related to world citizenship, global justice & global
governance. The wiki is construed as a combination of
an open journal, a thematic non-neutral encyclopedia
and an open discussion forum. Although it is expected
to attract people from the world citizenship and global
justice movement, the wiki welcomes all sorts of
opinions, statements and comments provided with respect
for each other position.
http://activism.wikia.com/images/b/bc/Wiki.png
The Activism Wikia is a place for sharing information about all forms of activism.
http://censorship.wikia.com/images/b/bc/Wiki.png
Censorship is a Wikia which will provide official
and unofficial accounts on censorship, particularly
internet censorship in areas such as Iran, so that
international observers and activists have a better
picture about the situation of freedom of information.
The wiki is a space to gather information and analysis
on effective ways to bypass censorship.
Resource wikis
These wikis may be useful for building Appropedia as a project.
Translation, interlanguage issues
http://translation.wikia.com/images/b/bc/Wiki.png
The Translation Wikia is for collaborative
translations of free texts and fair use extracts. The
wiki also provides a meeting space with information
about translation, and from translators. Information
and discussion on the theory and techniques of
translation will be included.
Other WikiNodes
Non-wiki collaborative sites
- This is a tentative list and probably needs cleaning up.
- Worldchanging (choose a category and click "Go." Some interesting appropriate technology articles.)
- Full Belly Blog
- HowStuffWorks - covers a wide range of topics.
- CREST has some good discussion pages - see also the links on left side of this page.
it's a wiki.
Online volunteering
Help without leaving your computer:
- Nabuur - "The global neighbour network." Connects local communities in need with online helpers.
- Online Volunteering (a United Nations Volunteers service). Assignments Search
- Murphy's volunteer project: http://www.keyfarmers.org
- Siebert's volunteer project: http://spear.org.bz
- Elder Wisdom Circle: http://www.elderwisdomcircle.org
- Myths: http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volunteer/ovmyths.html