pcplantdb

[Plants For A Future <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, Stephanie Gerson wrote:

> hello everyone,
>
> Please (oh please) read and respond to the following:
>
> 1. Wonderful news that we are at Ibiblio now ÿÿ Chad and JohnH, do we all
> need logins?
>
> 2. Lawrence suggested that we get in touch with the International Seed
> Saving Institute.  Which brings up the question all over again: are we
> ready to publicly announce ourselves?  Now that we have a URL, are
> decided on our platform, and are hosted on Ibiblio?  Or would we rather
> wait until weÿÿve spruced up the website, and have something to show?
> Even if itÿÿs a list of PC-characteristics to include, and not a working
> demo?  Iÿÿm fine with waiting, but also think that feedback from a ÿÿpress
> releaseÿÿ would be valuable in a grant proposal.  What do you all think?
>
> 3. Chad wrote, ÿÿAlso, I still have some energy to do some logo/graphic
> design stuff, but I need some ideas/feedback.ÿÿ  Yes!  Everyone, please
> take a look at permaculture.info, and think about logo/graphic elements ÿÿ
> I will do so tonight and tomorrow.

Just a minor point. Use a san-serif  (e.g. Arial) font on the main page.
I always thing san-serif fonts look better on the screen.

> 4. Potentially worthwhile projects:
>
> a. a non-technical summary how information will be organized in database
> ÿÿ Chad, since you understand it the best, would you be willing to do the
> first?  Or, write a simple draft of the first, and I can edit it?
>
> b. a list of PC-characteristics users will be able to search by ÿÿ Chad,
> can you please send out the list you are working with so far?  And we can
> add to it, and post it on the website?
>
> 5. None of the ÿÿtechiesÿÿ responded to this ÿÿ would it be possible to
> sort
> results by multiple characteristics (i.e. medicinal value, nitrogen-
> fixation, and attraction of predatory insects)?  And display these
> results 3-dimensionally, so users could visually see how plants fare
> according to multiple characteristics?

Technically possible, could be done using a java applet or something on
the client side. Personalliy I've never been too impressed with usind 3D
representation, you tend to get a pretty cloud of dots.

3D searches can be done in a 2D way (eg excel pivot tables) this might
be a good way to go.

> 6. An idea I had today while visiting a beautiful farm in Santa Cruz,
> California.  Not that this is necessarily something PIW could take on, at
> least not in the immediate future, but might be a possibility.  Crop
> rotation schemes can be very complicated.  Where to plant what when, so
> that you are alternating plant families in each bed throughout the
> season, but giving rotation preference to more disease-prone families,
> not placing overhead-watering plants next to drip plants, etc.
> Apprentices at the USCS program have to overlay farms maps from the
> previous 2 years over each other to determine what ought to go where.  So
> of course I got to thinking about hg.  And about the possibility of a
> program into which you could enter information ÿÿ crops that must be
> grown, which families they pertain to, how many beds you have, etc. ÿÿ and
> have it help you plan a crop rotation schedule.  I agree that this might
> not be the best program to write, considering that it replaces human
> thought/skill with automation, which will never account for all the
> variables anyway.

Sounds good. Just the sort of thing relationships are for.
The question here is where we could get this sort of data from?
Lawerence, do any of your contacts have this sort of info.
What do we know about rotation systems?

> However, we recently got a letter from the Whole Systems Foundation,
> replying to our proposal, saying that we need to demonstrate PIWÿÿs
> applicability to larger-scale agriculture.  Assuming that large-scale
> Permaculture is even possible and desirable (I know weÿÿve discussed this,
> but letÿÿs assume for now), the tool described above would certainly be
> applicable to large-scale farming.  What do you think?

The whole yields question is important. What are the sort of things a
large scale farmer would interested in? Yields, market posibilities,
processing methods... Could mention new techniques like ally cropping
(theres been a great example in Brazil). It is a different ball game to
the sort of thing we provide.

> Once again, please respond!
>
> And finally, Iÿÿve pasted tasks below (remember those good olÿÿ days) ÿÿ
> please check them and respond with updates.  Let me know what youÿÿve
> completed, what to change, what to addÿÿ
>
> Sweet dreams
> *Stephanie
>
> p.s. Chad, are you still stuck?
>
> ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
> LATEST TASKS
> ÿÿ Everyone ÿÿ now
> 1. Make accounts on bugzilla/scarab ÿÿ Johns, would you still like us to
> do this?
> 2. check out our website!  Add to your bios, give suggestions for logo/
> graphics, make UI design suggestions, etc.
>
> ÿÿ John S.
> 1. get whatever you need for evaluation set up (?)
>
> ÿÿ Chad
> 1. keep codingÿÿ
> 2. write a rough non-technical summary of how information will be
> organized, submit to Stephanie
> 3. write a list of PC-characteristics that users will be able to search
> and sort by, submit to list for feedback
>
> ÿÿ Rich
> 1.  do whatever needs to be done in order to get the
> latest version of PFAF that is under the CC-BY-NC-SA

See following post.
> 2.  respond to Lindbergh letter
>
> ÿÿ Stephanie
> 1. write up description user interface/experience, send to list
> 2. re-connect with Paula
> 3. grant-seeking activitiesÿÿ
> 4. research IE
> 5. fix mission and vision blurbs on website
>
>
> +++++++++++++++
> Stephanie Gerson
> sgerson@stanfordalumni.org
> (c) 415.871.5683
>
>
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>
>
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