There are enough projects to keep you busy for quite a while, and more on the way.
It’s all direct from Humboldt State University’s venerable Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT), which has partnered with Appropedia, a Wikipedia-like website.
This partnership joins one of the country’s oldest student run sustainability houses with the Internet’s largest wiki dedicated solely to appropriate technologies and sustainable living. It offers the same opportunity for creative collaboration as Wikipedia, but with a specific focus.
The site - http://www.appropedia.org/CCAT - is full of practical tips and tricks on how to build appropriate technologies for your own home.
Appropedia is quickly gaining popularity. And as users from different backgrounds and expertise add new information and ideas, other users can come in to enhance and refine the projects even more. The Appropedia format “allows for a lot of collaboration on projects and makes appropriate technology development much faster,” says CCAT co-director Jeffrey Steuben. The more input and feedback added to the site the better the projects become.
Before Appropedia, there was no specific online site for people to come together and share their ideas and know-how about sustainable development. The recent introduction of CCAT’s presence has been enthusiastically received by Appropedia users.
CCAT has been developing and experimenting with appropriate technologies for 30 years. Now with so many projects and experience to share, Appropedia is a perfect location to promote CCAT successes and offer its suggestions to the rest of the world. The CCAT portion of Appropedia works like a recipe book; it starts with an introduction to the projects, gives a list of materials and estimated costs, provides specific construction steps and then instructs you on how to test your projects to make sure they are working properly. The step-by-step format makes the projects relatively easy.
Appropedia was developed nearly two years ago by Lonny Grafman, an Environmental Resources Engineering lecturer at Humboldt State. CCAT, another Humboldt State University project, was started in 1978. CCAT is a student run appropriate technology demonstration home that focuses on teaching others how to live more sustainably.
“The fact that both Appropedia and CCAT began here in Humboldt County makes this relationship only natural,” said Grafman.
Learn more about the http://www.appropedia.org/CCAT_natural_paint_project">natural paint project pictured above »