[Appropedia] is a living library for sustainability and international development, a better life for everyone. It is a wiki with contributors from academia, the non-profit sector, as well as enthusiastic individuals.
It is especially rich in content on [appropriate technology], and is a venue for [service learning], but is much wider in scope, allowing community members to write up projects and how-tos within the broad scope of the wiki.
More than this, it is also:
- A collaborative workspace, both to grow the library, and for plotting real-world action.
- A networking tool. While our platform (MediaWiki) is not designed as a social networking tool, this is a community full of hardcore sustainability buffs and problem solvers from around the world, and from all walks of life.
- A "shell" within which communities can operate, serving their members and connecting with partners both local and distant. A community of communities, if you will.
- A way of increasing profile & findability.
- A way of increasing synergy. Why work on a greywater treatment page on a locally focused site, that will have a small number of contributors and readers, when you can work with a global community on making an awesome page?
- You can have your own pages on your own projects, too, as part of a collection of designs from around the world. Be like the developer of the [Home biogas system], who received emails of thanks, along with design improvements, from around the world.
- it is currently (late 2009) the only active PermacultureWiki, and the most active GreenWiki.