The Wiki Synergy Project

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I (Chris Watkins/Singkong2005) would like to see greater synergy between people working on wikis, and particularly those working on environmental issues, sustainability and international development and appropriate technology.

I see this happening in a number of ways:

• people finding, reading and working on the wikis that best suit them,
  • WikiIndex is a fantastic tool for that. One way to promote the use of WikiIndex for this is to edit WikiNodes (such as Appropedia's WikiNode) so they starts with links to the relevant categories on WikiIndex.
• Wikis merging where that's appropriate, to avoid duplication of effort, get a larger and more diverse community of editors in one place working on topics of common interest, and create greater synergy.
• Promoting the merged wiki (e.g. see Promotion of Appropedia).
• Promoting an understanding of what material belongs in which wiki. E.g. Wikipedia is for encyclopedic information (verifiable, notable, not how-tos, not original research...); Other wikis, such as Appropedia, happily accept resources and networking activities which are not suitable for Wikipedia.

Transwikiing pages

One important way to avoid duplication of effort is to move material to a more appropriate wiki. For example, see Wikibooks:Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was judged to not be in Wikibooks scope, so was moved elsewhere. The redirection can be left there, to let people know where to find the new page, and not to create it again at the first location.

• When folks are wiki walking around the wiki web and we find content, either pages or categories, we might suggest that they transwikify and move the content to the more suitable wiki? MarkDilley

Sustainability, environment, & international development wikis

Chris Watkins/Singkong2005 ^talk proposes that international development and sustainability issues would be best dealt with on a single wiki - see this discussion: Merging sustainability and development wikis. Localized wikis (e.g. a "Sustainability in Brownsville" kind of topic) would be best as part of a larger wiki rather than separate, in my opinion, and I'd like to help make that an attractive and simple option for local groups.

No need to list all wikis, if they are already in the linked categories.

• Category:International development, including:
  • Appropedia is currently the most active. Having merged with Village Earth's wiki it's now the leading "Appropriate Technology Wiki as well as billing itself as "The Sustainability Wiki".
• Category:Sustainability wikis, including:
  • PermaWiki (inactive) - permaculture people are often interested in appropriate technology, and vice versa, and both permaculture people and appropriate technology have a concern for sustainability.
• Category:Environment & Category:Ecology wikis - these might be a bit different, but much overlap with sustainability. Is there any reason not to consider the option of merging with environment wikis?
• Howtopedia - specifically for how-to pages.
• Greenlivingpedia - in discussion with Appropedia, but for now exploring its own direction, look and focus.

Name

If several international development and/or sustainability-related wikis merge, what name should we choose? Something broad and positive is good. (Note: this debate went on for some time at Appropedia, and it was decided to stick with Appropedia. The discussion is left here though - a name change would still be an option if an amazing name was coined.)

• WinWinWiki? The owner of that name (Curt Beckmann) is happy for it to be used for this purpose.
• Appropedia? Suits its focus on "appropriate technology"; arguably not broad enough for the merged wiki.

Successes

• Appropedia: Seven wikis have merged into Appropedia, including WikiGreen, the Village Earth Appropriate Technology Wiki,[1] and the How To Live Wiki.[2] We've also joined forces with likeminded groups such as Sustainapedia and Engineers Without Borders Australia and are making progress with a couple of other mergers.

• P2P Foundation is joined by Sphere of Networks!

Members

If you'd like to join, add your name below:

• Chris Watkins/Singkong2005 ^talk 23:29, 20 September 2006 (EDT). Main interest is in Sustainability, environment, & international development wikis
• MarkDilley
• Lonny 23:14, 26 September 2006 (EDT)
• Cgfoz 13:20, 1 October 2006 (EDT)

See also

• Appropedia:Synergy]