I know Appropedia would be very keen to have editors with skills and experiences in sanitation get more involved in adding and editing information.

As far as I can see, the main problem with opensource (and open edit) information is that there is potential for misleading information to be added when there is nobody better able to remove it. In addition, one sometimes wonders what the purpose would be of adding information that can be obtained from better sources elsewhere.

In my view (which I have discussed with Appropedia), it would be best to be a be a combination of alternative tech research, first hand case-studies and signposting to other good sources of information on the web. The problem is that to get a wiki into that kind of format takes a lot of effort and keen people.


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Note by moderator: The conversation continued in this thread .

By the way, since it fits well to the topic:

There is also the Appropedia:
www.appropedia.org/

(Totally forgot mentioning that earlier; it's all licensed CC-by-SA)

Not sure if that is such a great example. It both prohibits commercial use (CC-by-NC-SA) and the lectures themselves use a software called "silverlight" by Microsoft which is not possible to view on an open-source system (I am using Linux and I can't view it, nor would it work on a Android phone etc. AFAIK).

see nice example 16. The Resource Factory of cc (open source) knowledge from TU Delft, NL

with 16 Lectures video-presentations and 16 slight-shows

ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/watermanagement/w...he-resource-factory/

1. Introduction + Recap N removal
2. New perspective for N removal: the anammox process
3. Sieving the wastewater
4. Membrane BioReactors
5. Advanced wastewater treatment technologies
6. Aerobic granular sludge
7. Interaction between wastewaster collection and treatment
8. Anaerobic treatment: Introduction + UASB design base
9. Anaerobic treatment fundamentals: Microbs
10. Anaerobic reactor technologies
11. Anaerobic fundamentals COD balance
12. Anaerobic sewage treatment
13. (Re)source oriented sanitation
14. Agricultural use of treated effluents
15. WWTP 2030
16. The Resource Factory

We don't really need to setup a new platform/wiki. I think the Akvopedia is fine for what you have in mind: akvopedia.org/

But yeah, content "crowd-sourcing" is much more difficult that one would think. Most people still use the internet from a pure "consumer" point of view instead or the "user contribution" model it was really designed for.
I blame decades of "TV caused passivisation" for this

Julius (Kris) you got it, by looking forward... Thanks!

I have in "my mind" a collective collaborative approach on SUSAN between Youngsters and older IT-illiterate "dummies" like me, seeing this start-up wikihouse.cc just as a model.

The mentioned "open-source design of an urine diverting san-plat" could be a great start-up project for many to come, like the CNC-stuff on wikihouses.cc is. I guess some san-pat open-source designs are already existing around the world!?

Making a successful new wiki is much, much harder than generally realized.
www.appropedia.org/How_to_make_a_successful_new_wiki
"Appropedia has a core of a number of people who work on the site daily, and academics who have their students (a large number in total) engaged with creating content on Appropedia (see Appropedia:Learning institutions on Appropedia). It hasn't been anywhere near as successful as the Wikimedia sites or wikiHow (in amount of content and page views) but it's the largest and most active green wiki. Factors include a small number of very active members, and a large amount of work done by university students and interns, along with their instructors."

As I am more or less IT-illiterate I can not take the lead

Very best
Detlef

Just to add: in electronics (integrated circuits, chip-design etc.) there are also quite a few "open hardware" projects that have sometimes resulted in very interesting results that allowed the production of really low-cost but flexible products (see www.raspberrypi.org/ for example).

With the slow uptake of consumer grade 3D printers, any kind of open-source designs that can be home-printed have also become quite interesting for rapid prototyping.

But what kind of open-source projects do you have in mind? Is there a standard and open-source design of an urine diverting san-plat available for example?

REMARK: There will be probably a misunderstanding, this "www.wikihouse.cc" platform is not only about the mentioned CNC-stuff! This CNC is only a start for many more already existing "stuff" to come, for different climates, cultures and economies...

Fully agree that we should not divide sanitation approaches between a so called "development world" and a "industrialised world", only the "financier" at this time could only finance Q+A from and for the so-called DCs, due to the distribution of ministerial tasks in the ICs.

But I do still not understand your "problem", what kind of "key's" are needed to improve already open source published recent published handbooks, manuals, designs, .... It will be helpful if you could make it understandable for the audience - with practical examples, please.

Dear Mango-anonymous,
Maybe I stepped on your very feeds? I am happy to do so , but take it easy... Even so it is better to start with positive examples from the past like GATE-, SKAT- and ITDG-publications and many others without intending any rankings.

In my personal opinion a real "open source" approach via a web 2.0 like WIKI do not fit any more in your mentioned past

"...from and for the development world"

by dividing sanitation approaches between a so called "development world" and a "industrialized world", the world is too small and fragile for that kind of past thinking. Furthermore an "open source" WIKI is not in contradiction to entrepreneurial thinking people on the ground, it would support them very much. Just my personal "beliefs" ...

Regards,
Detlef (non-anonymous)

Please, could you please give us a practical example where a key is missing in such a recently published practical manual, and which kind of "key". Of course, there is also a key of GATE's success: GATE was heavily subsidised by the German Government to contract in an adequately level German and international authors and editors and experts to publish their knowledge and to answer each appropriate question of interest from and for the development world.

your second point, I call it SALE of knowledge without "keys" (like selling a house without keys), to hinder purposely real access to the particular know-how, in order the author or owner of booklet receives payments for handing out the needed keys later... "economizing" every part of live...

the mentioned practical information (manuals etc.) produced within the sector in 1970ties to 1990ties came very much with the keys, see nice examples of GATE-booklets of former GTZ now called GIZ (Gesellschaft für individuellen Zeitvertreib und Teppich-Handel;-)

the "Open Source" approach comes always with the keys and is in my opinion picking up on the idea/objectives of mentioned 1970ties & 1990ties (e.g. by former GATE) but taking it with the help of the Internet (web 2.0) much further.

I would like to encourage discourses between us on issues around "Open Source" on WIKI-SUSAN in general, not getting sucked only in narrowed subjects like ABRs or dry toilets only...

"Open Source" on WIKI-SUSAN is not about general susan-knowledge (SSWM and Akvo), it is about how to do it (know-how) and how to taking it further on individual and group levels, like example of wikihouse.cc