Topic: Appropriate Technology
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Hi Pax,
My two cents: Areas of Focus are searchable by keyword, so I think this point about sub- and sub-sub-areas is a moot point. Appropriate Technology is a pretty well defined set of innovations. Basically, Appropriate Technology is any invention or application of "technology that is designed with special consideration to the environmental, cultural, social and economic aspects of the community it is intended for." - Wikipedia This is opposed to technology that, because special attention to the factors above was not paid, is flawed in some way. I know this is a very abstract notion but the term itself is designed to cover all the instances of Appropriate Technology. To insist that sub-categories are necessary to give it meaning is akin to demanding that we must list all the instances of any idea for it to have meaning. The words Appropriate and Technology have meaning by themselves and, when joined together in English have come to have another socially constructed meaning, just like every other term in the language. Additionally, when we link the Area "Appropriate Technology" to entities on WE, we give it meaning. To go a little farther, in reallity, there are an infinite number of Areas of Focus and we have chosen to list those that are listed on WiserEarth because they provide what is believed to be the most effective expedient to describing the nodes of interest within Civil Society. I think the selection of Areas would be better served as a decentralized function of the network, but that requires additional programming resources we just don't have right now. Thanks for the suggestion! Please let me know if you disagree with my assessment! |
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'Appropriate Technology' (AT) is meaningless (like ‘natural’, or ‘green’) unless it is linked with a specific topic. These could be the following subtopics for the AT:
- information and communication
- construction/house maintenance
- energy
- cooking/food storage
- health care
- water supply/sanitation
- farming/gardening
- transportation
Logistically, someone who enters a new resource for WiserEarth under the AT topic, MUST also select one of the subtopics described above. In this case, a potential user who is only interested in building a home doesn’t need to go over hundreds of resources (and the number will grow!) trying to find information relevant to his/her interest. The AT subtopics should be listed on the AT portal page.
So, it makes sense to have sup-topics under AT (back to sub subs anyone?).