In the Appropedia community we often talk about thriving - but Vinay Gupta is a philosopher of surving. From the Hexayurt shelter to the Six ways to die‎ framework, to the upcoming book of essays The Future We Deserve, his focus is on dealing with the critical questions that vast numbers of people in the world face, and which we all might face if and when things go belly-up for us.

Like us, Vinay is a proponent of the value of open knowledge, one of the reasons he uses  Appropedia as a collaboration tool for his projects.

Vinay's just been interviewed for Boing Boing, where he talks about his influences: Mahatma Gandhi, Buckminster Fuller and Richard Stallman.


Image credit: Vinay's blog.

1. A British father helped his wife give birth at home. He's not the first, and won't be the last, but there's a lot that can go wrong. You really want to get it right, and if you don't have a midwife or doctor handy, and you (and the woman giving birth) never happened to learn how to deliver a baby, what do you do? Leroy Smith turned to the web, via his mobile phone. He found a wikiHow article, and by following the 10 steps, he did his part well.

2. Surgeon David Nott had a more complex challenge. A hippo had bitten off a boy's arm, and faced death within days from infection. An amputation of his shoulder blade and collar bone would save him - but the doctor didn't have any experience of this unusual and complex procedure, and no one he knew in the Democratic Republic of Congo could help. But a colleague in the UK could help - and did so via SMS. In two very long text messages he explained the procedure, and wished Dr Nott luck. The operation - carried out in a basic operating theater, without the equipment and support the doctor would have expected back home in the UK - was a success, and the boy's life was saved.

In the appropriate technology for solving a problem, the key component is often information. Whether we're talking about health services or development, the right information can be the difference between a good outcome and a failure.

I'm inspired to see wikiHow used in this way - as I am with the stories I hear of Appropedia being used in the field. It's also true that making the best use of expert knowledge, as Dr Nott was able to do, supports good outcomes. Combining these ideas - enhancing ways of accessing knowledge, and making available the best knowledge - continue to guide our mission.

We'd love to hear your stories, short or long, about how you used Appropedia. Please take a moment to add a comment at the end of this post, to tell us about your experience. Whether you learned something, or were inspired, or found what you needed for your project, or contribute your knowledge about making the world better in one particular way - let us know what Appropedia means to you. Even a single line is valuable feedback, and appreciated.

You can share your story as a comment below, or add it to our Appropedia:Stories page on Appropedia itself - and you can read other stories there, as well . You can also share on this Appropedia Facebook post.

We hope to re-share these stories to inspire others, so comments left here are accepted under the same Attribution ShareAlike license used by Appropedia. Many thanks - and we look forward to hearing your story!

Appropedia is a large and broad site; others include small but active communities and NGOs doing good, focused work (e.g. Greenlivingpedia and Akvopedia), wikis run by multilateral organizations (e.g. the UNDP's WaterWiki and the OECD's Wikiprogress and Wikigender), and (sadly) wikis where nothing has happened for years, and the community appears to have scattered.The ecosystem isn't exactly thriving - even when we're friendly (and we usually are) we don't talk and we don't share as much as we'd like.

As communities we want to collaborate and encourage each other, but as individuals we're busy - and I'm as guilty as anyone. What can help is just being aware of what is on other wiki sites - knowing of good wiki pages out there in the green wikisphere, to learn from, borrow from and link from our own pages. That can even lead to the odd bit of drive-by editing on another wiki - all the better.

To that end, here's a tool I've made - a search engine for green and development wikis.

It's a Google custom search of over 40 wiki sites - apologies to the good wikis I haven't named in this blog post, but I hope you'll check that your site shows up in the search results.

If you want to who's writing about something on which wiki, this can help. The results are a little quirky, so allow a few seconds to scan the list to find what you want, and maybe try different search terms. Give it a try, and let me know.

May it add a little more unity to our wiki ecosystem.

The work will involve a mixture of interviewing, contacting and/or helping to write publicity materials. You can work part-time, and you'll have a lot of flexibility in how you work, but you'll have guidance always available.

There is a lot of potential to learn and to make a difference. I sometimes say, only half-jokingly, that Appropedia was built by engineers and scientists, so we're much better at doing stuff than at talking about what we do. But we've talked, and got better at it, and become active in social media, as we've taken our message out there. We're happy to share with you what we've learned, but we're also happy to learn from you and with you.

You'll need to take initiative, experiment and report on what's working and what isn't. We have a high respect for failure with enthusiasm, which is often the basis for future success, and even more often the basis for very valuable learning.

This is a virtual internship - you'll be working with people who might be on the other side of the world, but with email, chat and VOIP, that's not such a challenge these days. You can work from anywhere in the world with internet access. That requires you to manage your time, organize yourself and get things done - an online internship isn't for everyone.

If you have any questions or want to apply, please get in touch - email me on chriswaterguyappropediaorg, or leave a comment below, or on my Appropedia talk page. For up-to-date info on these internships, see: For more on all Appropedia's internship opportunities, see:

It's pretty simple - basically just adding "feed" to the end of the web address - but I know that when I first went looking, I didn't realize it could be so simple. (Nice job, WordPress.) So, you know how to get the feed for the whole blog, or for any tag (e.g. Announcements), or the comments on any post.

Speaking of feeds - there are some very cool blog readers on smart phones these days. (I use RSS Demon for Android, but there are other good ones). It's one good way to stay up-to-date with developments and opportunities at Appropedia.

We're looking for two to three interns with a desire to learn, a willingness to try, and at least basic skills in managing software and accessing a server. You'll be installing, configuring and testing software - focused on MediaWiki, with WordPress to a lesser degree, and possibly some other platforms and tools. Our intern team's tasks will include helping to build our spam defenses, and building features to enhance the community on Appropedia.

Knowledge of PHP and/or Python is a plus (but not essential). Likewise for experience with installing software on a server, and experience with the open source platforms that you'll be working with.

You will work as part of a team, with other interns and with mentors. We've been lucky to have an enthusiastic volunteer, Wesley, for the last few months, who's made a real difference to Appropedia. Now we're expanding the team.

This is a global, online project. Our address is in California but you'll be working with people on at least two continents. You can work from anywhere in the world with internet access. That means you need to be someone who can manage your time, organize yourself and get things done.

Is this you? Get in touch - please leave a comment either below or on my Appropedia talk page, and I'll get in touch.

Over the last few days, roads, trains and buses have swollen with people for the yearly return home. Jakarta, the megacity, is quieter than I've ever seen it - this really is a huge exodus. Many years ago I saw a photo of a man being helped onto a bus heading home - it wasn't possible to fit in through the door, so his friends lifted him up as though they were pallbearers, and passed him through an open window. Train stations are a sea of people.

Tomorrow people will visit friends and family, asking forgiveness for past wrongs, eating and drinking, but above all reconnecting.  This is a Muslim tradition, but people of other religions are often involved, being visited and sometimes visiting as well.

But like Christmas in my own home culture, this is a hard time for some. Many can't afford to go home, especially if home is a thousand or two thousand kilometers away on a different island. Walking the relatively quiet streets, you see the people who have stayed behind - busy working and hoping to go home next year, or mentally ill or down and out.

It strikes me again that Indonesia is a rich country with many poor people. I think about the things that could help them. I don't have the answers - but I maybe have a few ideas, and I know others have better ideas. Imagine if we all shared our ideas, in food production, health, children's education, financial literacy programs and business, found the best of them and promoted these. Think what changes could come about.

This would be particularly suitable for a law student with an interest in US and/or international IP law. Ability to use a spreadsheet might come in handy, and being more tech-savvy than that would be a bonus.

The main task is to help identify which web resources are and aren't public domain. This information is used as the basis for the Public Domain Search - see the Beta version here (still a significant number of false positives):

This is an unpaid internship (the Appropedia Foundation being a non-profit organization) and you would be working remotely - unless you happen to be near a trusted member of the Appropedia community who can assist in mentoring you. (I'm near Jakarta, and others are in various parts of the US, Canada and the UK.) I've done the work on this so far, but we also have an attorney (Joel Scott) on our board of directors, with an interest in IP issues; and we've discussed this project with the Wikisource community, who may be able to lend a hand. You won't be on your own.

If you are interested, please leave a comment either below or on my Appropedia talk page, and I'll get in touch. (Or email me at my username, above, at appropedia dot org.) For more information about the search engine, see Public Domain Search on our wiki. The position will be open until it is filled, but we'd ideally like to find someone to start in this half of 2011.

Our first post is from Philippa Lysaght from Wikiprogress - looking at progress as more than just increasing GDP.

When Wikiprogress launched at the 2009 OECD World Forum, there was a lot of excitement and nervousness as to how the wiki platform would develop and foster the progress community. Almost two years on and Wikiprogress has grown to play a central role in the progress movement, with many lessons learnt on the challenges and opportunities wiki platforms present. We have gathered a few of the highlights from this experience so far, along with a little background info what Wikiprogress is and what it aims to achieve.

What is Wikiprogress?

Wikiprogress is an online platform centralizing data, information, initiatives, publications, events and networks that are part of the international movement to look beyond GDP in measuring the progress of societies.

In recent years, the shift from measuring economic production to wellbeing has gained a lot of support from organisations and governments around the world. National statistics offices, intergovernmental organisations, research networks, non-government organisations and interested individuals are working to develop new and existing measures of social, environmental and economic progress.

Wikiprogress aims to provide a platform for all parts of the progress community, citizens and policy makers alike, to develop information on measures of progress by creating a robust wiki of related research and statistics. In doing so, Wikiprogress aims to foster a web community around the vision of measuring progress and provide a platform for collaborative participation.

Why wiki?

In fostering the development of progress indicators, it is important to develop a conversation with all levels of society on what dimensions of progress are important to each community.

Joseph Stiglitz, a world-renowned economist and pioneer of the progress movement, has called for a ‘global dialogue’ on measuring progress: ‘part of the objective of rethinking our measurement systems is to generate a national and global dialogue on what we care about.’ (From Measuring Production to Measuring Well-being, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Presentation to the Productivity Commission, Melbourne, July 29, 2010)

The wiki platform ensures that all voices are heard in developing progress indicators, and more importantly, fosters a multidisciplinary community to work together.

Key wiki lessons learnt so far

The wiki platform offers many opportunities and challenges; we are constantly learning more about how to make the most of the platform and how to deal with the openness it offers. Here are a few of the key issues we have encountered.

A wiki article is a process, not a product

While the purpose of a wiki article is similar to that of other articles, in the sense that it informs, the creation of a wiki article is quite unique. In creating a new article, the author does not need to be an expert in the field; they just need to begin the process of the article.

Take for example someone creating an article on the Human Development Index. The process of creating the article can begin with one simple sentence; ‘The Human Development Index is a composite statistics used to rank countries by levels of human development.’

The article is then viewed by readers who edit and develop it bit by bit to add as much information as possible. The article begins to develop, but can never be finished; a wiki article is an on going process of edition.

This was a key lesson learnt and definitely a hard one to swallow, given that the initial Wikiprogress community consisted primarily of academics and statisticians, from whom a written body of work is an entity. Previously, articles that were lacking in content would be highlighted and a flurry of activity amongst the Wikiprogress administrators would aim to fill these pages with quality and relevant information.

We have learnt to let these articles develop naturally and encourage our community to seek out articles that need cleaning up and/or information added.

Getting recognized – a key motivation

If you have read any literature about wikis, or indeed other Web 2.0 platforms, chances are you will have come across Clay Shirky- the Internet’s most excitable cheerleader.

Various studies have been done in order to determine what motivates people to contribute to wikis, among other platforms. Shirkey gives an interesting insight to this in a case study of Wikipedia. He identifies 3 key reasons why people contribute.

1. Doing something with the knowledge you have
2. Getting recognized
3. Being part of something that serves to benefit the greater good

Like other wikis, Wikiprogress strives to foster these motivations to encourage contribution. This has not been an easy task and we are still very much learning how to go about this.

The second motivation, getting recognized, has been is something we have been working on for a while. We now showcase ‘recent activity’ on the Wikiprogress homepage to show the names of those who have created and/or edited an article. We are also interested in looking into a system similar to the Wikipedia ‘Barnstars’ to reward our key contributors.

Much like the development of a wiki article, Wikiprogress is on a continual path of development learning about our community and how best to foster contribution. If you have any experience or ideas that you would like to share with us on this- please feel free to comment on this blog or get in touch with us directly.

Future plans and challenges on the horizon

Central to the function of Wikiprogress is the statistical wiki, Wikiprogress.Stat, a database of progress indicators. Wikiprogress.Stat has undergone a recent growth spurt and now includes 112 indices, covering a wide range of progress dimensions.

We have the data, and for the time being we have been iframing it from Wikiprogress.Stat to our Wikiprogress articles. See an example in the Wikiprogress article on the Global Peace Index. While the iframe serves a purpose, it is not the best way of displaying data and we are now faced with the challenge of finding the right data visualization tool.

We’d like to put a call out to readers of this blog for ideas on the best way to visualize data in Wikiprogress articles. Any ideas, suggestion or feedback would be much appreciated- please direct your emails to philippa.lysaght@wikiprogress.org

Content development

While we have covered several key areas of the progress movement in Wikiprogress articles, we still have a long way to go. We have some glaring gaps in the information we provide and would like to put another call out to the readers of this blog and ask for your knowledge on any of the following topics.

• Environment
• Climate Change
• Community
• Housing
• Interpersonal relationships

And on a final note…

The child well-being portal of Wikiprogress launched earlier this month, called Wikichild. We are very excited about this new development and have had a lot of positive feedback. Wikichild houses articles on the various aspects of child well-being and key indices measuring child health, access to education and overall well-being.

Like Wikiprogress, Wikichild is in a constant state of development and we would like to invite you to have a look and let us know what your thoughts are.

Stay in touch

You can stay in touch with Wikiprogress news on the Wikiprogress blog, the Prog Blog. We also hope to be keeping in touch with you via Appropedia.

We would love to hear your comments, feedback and ideas- please feel free to contact philippa.lysaght@wikiprogress.org

The Wikiprogress Team