pcplantdb

[Stephanie Gerson <sgerson@stanfordalumni.org>]

Thanks for your honesty, Chad.

A FEW RESPONSES:
I don't fully understand how nature organizes, stores, and retrieves
information and I feel a little overwhelmed by being tasked with
achieving such an understanding and then creating such a product.  I
do however see that many of the natural systems or system
relationships as having elements that would be beneficial to adopt.

It is much easier for me to apply permaculture principles to what we
are doing as these seem more clearly defined for me.  Here is how I
see our project utilizing some of the principles:

BUT PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES *ARE* BASED ON THE FUNCTIONINIG OF NATURAL SYSTEMS
(THINK - DIVERSITY, STACKING FUNCTIONS, ETC.).  SO NO WORRIES CHAD, YOU ARE
ALREADY DOING IT ;)  AND I'M NOT SUGGESTING THAT WE CHANGE OUR FOCUS AT ALL,
JUST KEEP THIS IN OUR MINDS AS WE (YOU) CREATE...

ALSO, I AM TALKING TO BIOMIMICRY/IE FOLKS AND WILL REPORT BACK WITH
INTERESTING DISCOVERIES.  ACTUALLY, BEAR AND I WILL EXPLORE THIS TOGETHER.

Concluding in this direction I would urge Andy and the Permaculture
Association to consider using PIW software and data if it could be
adapted to meet your needs.  I am somewhat reluctant to re-open the
discussion as to the best way to implement the getting and storing
permaculture information because of the sheer volume of different
ideas.  Also the proposal that PIW group received funding for is
fairly specific so we are committed to implementing some specific
features before others.

I AM IN COMPLETE AGREEMENT WITH YOU.

Hmmm... create a general purpose relationship network tool.  Well when
we are done with the current design iteration it actually might not be
that hard to drop permaculture specific elements from it and plug in
your topic of choice.  

WONDERFUL.

There does remain a lot of discussion and
considerable implementation hurdles to get there though... also I
can't really see how you could do this without significant
customization to adapt to the topic. 

LIKE I SAID, LET'S JUST KEEP IT IN MIND.

BUT IT IS ENJOYABLE TO DAYDREAM.  AND I COULDN'T HELP IT IN A ROOM FULL OF
NETWORK-AFFICIONADOS AT THE PLANETWORK MEETING...

PEACE
*s









+++++++++++++++
Stephanie Gerson
sgerson@stanfordalumni.org
(c) 415.871.5683


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