Permaculture Database

[Richard Archer <pcdb@juggernaut.com.au>]

I must say, I'm quite excited about the initial vision
negiliblek outlined in his (?) original post. The ability
to analyse a data set to find a set of synergistic plants
and other permaculture elements is a fascinating project.

For the type of analysis we're hoping to achieve, the data is
going to have to be extremely clean and highly structured.
In my opinion, this requires that the data be collected via
a rigidly structured form with comprehensive data validation.

In contrast, have a look at the Dandelion page on the PermaWiki:
http://permaculture.wikia.com/wiki/Dandelion

There is some good info on that page, but it couldn't possibly
be used to locate other plants that could exist in harmony.
The data is just too freeform. Instead there would need to
be a structure so that you could cross-reference the requirements
of dandelion against the requirements of other elements and
also the abilities of dandelion with the requirements of
other elements.

The argument is raised that "people won't want to enter data
into all those little boxes... it's all too hard for them".
Well, maybe that's so, but there's no point collecting the
information if you can't use it for anything useful. It is
much better to have a lesser amount of highly structured data
which can be effectively utilised.

IMHO.

 ...Richard.