Is permaculture divided?

Discussion in 'General chat' started by nate_taylor, May 20, 2008.

  1. nate_taylor

    nate_taylor Junior Member

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    It seems strange that while permaculture is now global and booming, the major websites seem to ignore eachother (even though they are obviously of the same teaching lineage). It leads me to suspect that some unknown ideological divide is at work, like in every idealistic movement.

    For example why aren't we linking to permaculture.com and permaculture.org, and vice-versa?
     
  2. dylanz

    dylanz Junior Member

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    Re: Is permaculture divided?

    Hey Nate ! I know what you mean. It did take me a while to find this forum, which ends up being the most active community around.
    Also, I agree that the root permaculture.com/org domain should be a link to "the" permaculture site. But... that's the Catch22 :)

    I have a linkedin.com style site built for permaculturists... but it has no pretty face, and haven't had time to collaborate on it with anyone for quite some time. Was hoping to make it "the" site for permaculturists, having it be a very clean and pointed portfolio oriented system.

    But yeah... feel free to PM me if you have any suggestions :D
     
  3. nate_taylor

    nate_taylor Junior Member

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    Re: Is permaculture divided?

    That's just it isn't it? What is the "real" permaculture? And why is it a bad idea?

    I think permaculture is so vast in scope that it's inefficient to lump it into one system, because you run into hierarchies, fundamentalism, egoism, and hurt feelings :axe: . A social network like this works best when it is created by individuals and decentralized. On the other hand teaching and research require a fixed vocabulary, not to mention respecting the source. If there is to be a singular network it has to be in no mans land. i.e. non-regional and not under the umbrella of any particular school, like wikipedia.

    There's a wiki going on with 198 articles which isn't much.

    https://permaculture.wikia.com

    permaculture.org.au has a user base of almost 3000, mostly aussies. After this forum gets spruced up a bit there could be more growth.

    In California, where I'm from, permaculture is being taken pretty seriously and Geoff has been teaching out there as well. But there isn't really a forum that I know of.

    The Permaculture Drylands Network has a map of 80 permaculturists, mostly in the US but with only two in Australia.

    https://www.frappr.com/permaculturedrylands/

    It seems we would all have more knowledge and resources if we are all better linked. In the early days of the web it was called a link exchange. A simple solution could be to create a widget that anyone can embed into their webpage or myspace profile or whatever. It would be effective as far as the hours put in, updatable, and voluntary. And like Bill says "it can be as simple or as sophisticated as you like."

    I predict that the payoff from a global Permaculture wiki would be monumental. Can you imagine? But getting a wiki off the ground is really time intensive. I think that would be the biggest obstacle. Who has hours to slave away posting their research online? Getting it started would take collaboration and dedication from all the major projects AND getting them comfortable with the internet. :oops: That scould be an insurmountable obstacle, but still dwarfed compared to achieving a sustainable world civilization. Maybe all the worlds problems can be solved in a wiki.

    I would spend a day setting up a wikipedia clone if a few others would volunteer an equal amount of time posting content.
    I can only assume that among our members there are brains and hard drives overflowing with gems.
     
  4. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    Re: Is permaculture divided?

    there is strength in diversity.
    Trying to lump it all together makes it easy for someone decide to run their own agenda. Much better the way it is. In fact more sites would be even better.
     
  5. grease

    grease Junior Member

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    Re: Is permaculture divided?

    Permaculture is permaculture is permaculture. It is united in its quest to design for sustainability. Probably divided in it's ways of acheiving it but all pulling in the same direction. Different forums are good. Its not a contest surely. The increase in petrol price is probably the best advertisement/incentive to desighn sustainably we have at present. :D
     
  6. MikeB

    MikeB Junior Member

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    Re: Is permaculture divided?

    Re setting up a wiki.

    i have just spent 6 weeks almost full time setting up my wiki which is about low salt recipes not permaculture. https://lowsaltrecipes.org/wiki/tiki-index.php But still it was worthwhile getting it off the ground. I have one dedicated member who is now handling most of the minor admin tasks which leaves me free to work on other stuff.

    If I can help just give me a shout.
     

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