pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

hello Permafolks,
> I was quite amazed at the 
> dialogue which had already been initiated, and found that I have been 
> considering many of the same issues that had already been presented 
> (leave the db modifiable by all vs. having a full-time data-entry person/
> moderator, etc.). So, what happened to your database idea? Did it ever 
> bear fruit? What season is it in?

Still gestating, I've had to concentrate on our main database
and other pfaf stuff. I've got a half finished version which
could allow colabrative input but I've never got round to
getting it to a releasable state. I'd love to work on this
some more but time, money...

> Basically, I intend to build a sophisticated guild design tool, which 
> additionally offers abundant information on guild components, 
> phenomenology, symbiosis, and other such related issues—-presented in the 
> form of established research/experience and case studies, and through 
> different media including text, images, and perhaps others. 

I must confess that I don't really know enough about guilds to
really understand the sort of problems encountered. What Id love to
see is a mock up of a few pages to show an example of how the guild
information would work.

I've thought that really guilds are just a subset of
relationships (or links). A set of plants belonging to a guild is a type
of relationship between the plants. There can be other types
of relationships, say plants which don't get along, or plants
which can spread diseases to each other.

For relationships the the webs links have proved to be a very sucessful
method, (slightly improved by some xml stuff).
I'd guess guilds could quite easily be done just as a set of links.

I've had a look at ThinkMap or similar (indeed I knew some mathematicias
who were pushing this idea very early on the web's history, hyperbolic 
maps). However, I've never really had much luck with them, I just seam
to get lost in them not knowing where I'm going,
but I've never really given them a fair shot or used them
for a directed search.

I can see some use for more visual tools, maybe you could
get a set of boxes, one per plant and group them together as
a guild. I've also seen some nice flash stuff which gives a much
more graphical impresion of the plantinformation which is very nice.

I guess the real question is what are the problems people are
trying to solve using guilds. How do people normally work
and how could a software tool enable that?

A few random thoughs:
1) I've been pondering using Resource Description Framework (RDF)
to describe links to other site. That way it might be posible
for us to share links and maybe help eliminate the link rot problem.

2) How about a slashdot like site? Regular news postings, theamed
discussions etc.

> guilds commence with a
> core element, the tree, as mentioned above. Users could, for example, 
> choose a tree native to their local environment. The tree would suddenly 
> become orbited by companion plants—native or non-native plants which ‘get
> along with’ that particular tree, so to speak. The user could click on 
> whichever plant she wishes to add to the guild, and suddenly that plant 
> would be orbited by further companion plants, and so on. There are a 
> multitude of possibilities with this application: users could start with 
> guilds already established for their local region and edit from there; 
> users could enter emphases or restrictions—such as the desire for food 
> production, the existence of strong winds coming from a particular 
> direction, the presence of a particular pest which a user would like to 
> somehow deal with, or the existence of deer; users could attach virtual 
> notes to specific combinations, alerting other users of a fine 
> combination, or of the complications associated with a particular 
> combination; analogous to the manner in which Thinkmap portrays antonyms 
> by their almost translucent appearance, a guild-builder could portray 
> antagonistic relationships between vegetation; the application could be 
> designed to include minerals or soil-additives, bacteria, insects, fungi, 
> birds, and other animals (of course, it should include the 5 kingdoms!), 
> adding expanded dimensions to the process of guild design. Evidently, 
> possibilities abound, and will continue to do so.

Looks like I've just said what you already wrote and you've answered the 
questions I posed!

I've been thinking of a way to refine searches for plants. You start
with a list of all plants and as you add and remove search terms the
list shrinks and grows, making it easy to refine down to the plants
you want.

Looking forward to a good discussion.

        Rich
--
Plants for a Future: 7000 useful plants
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