pcplantdb

[Chad Knepp <pyg@galatea.org>]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to talk a bit more about guilds so that I can better
understand the importance to the rest of the group.  I don't think I
place the same level of importance on guilds as a design methodology
that the rest of the group does.  I would like to explain why and get
some feedback about it.

As an intellectual concept guilds are very sexy, but IMO a bit of an
oversimplification that has aquired a lot of popularity via Toby
Hemenway (Gaia's Garden), and not something that translates easily
into software.  My definition of a guild is a group of species that
have positive relationships when arranged in a particular pattern.
The guild information consists of both the list of species and the
pattern of arrangement.  I think guilds can get in the way by
overemphasizing a particular scale of subgrouping (the guild level) in
the design to the extent that other levels of scale are not as
available; such as the relationship that only two different species
might have on the smaller scale and on the larger scale, viewing the
relationships and functionality of the system as a whole.  I also
think that guild focused design has the potential to endorse a
particular grouping as being an infallible and superior implementation
to the point of stifling the creative exploration of what could lead
to even better systems.  The total complexity of the relationships
within a typical guild is staggering and can only be represented (or
understood for that matter) simplistically at best.  I do think this
is worthwhile though and agree that a graph based mapping interface
would be an interesting and useful method of exploring these
connections.  The hard part of creating a good software tool is IMO
collecting and entering the relationship data not creating the
interface.  Guilds modeled after natural plant communities are also
highly bioregional and the translation from natural plant community to
guild is not usually obvious (and therefore not algorithmic), further
complicating an accurate software model.  I do think that guilds are a
valuable design method that should be included in every
permaculturalists design tool kit, but I don't think any tool is an
adequate substitute for hands on experience and a sensitive intuition.

Given how I feel about guilds, it is probably not suprising that I
don't think a guild building tool is the most valuable thing to focus
on developing.  Eden as a tool, is the product of what has been
helpful to me, and has development goals of what I perceive to be most
useful to myself and the permaculture community as a whole.  I see
Eden as a functioning design tool and although I am not opposed to the
creation of a specific guild design tool I would like to understand
the level of importance it has to others and why.  Is a guild design
tool really the number one software <-> permaculture intersection on
peoples lists?


-- 
Chad Knepp
perl -e 'print pack"H*","7079674067616c617465612e6f72670a"'