pcplantdb

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Hope neshura doesn't mind my copying this list with his description of a 
project he is interested in
that that would develop the PC list message archives into an elaborate Web 
research tool.  Chad's reply
follows. This is for those who did not get to read the original.

LL

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [permaculture] list mirroring and copyright
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:15:26 -0500
From: neshura <neshura@gmail.com>
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>

At one point I started writing the skeleton of a pc-wiki that would
spider, analyze, and structure the whole of the PC list archive so
that I could browse the emails in a rich-context format, i.e. with
plant names linked back to a best-guess PFAF link, similar emails
grouped together and taggable, annotation and deep-linking of common
terms, author-grouping, and url-scraping into a "bookmarks" page for
myself.

But I got distracted, probably by something shiny. Anyway, since the
archive is freely available for viewing and copying right now, it
seems to me wise to look into the standing of the archive per
copyright. I would assume that the default is that the copyright on
each email belongs to the author unless and until they explicitly give
up or transfer their rights? I have no idea, actually. There is no
license information limiting reproduction of the archives when one
signs up, nor are there any limits published on the archive site
itself.

Since there *is* useful information in the list from which people
might profit, like much of the Internet except probably the wholly
useless blogosphere, perhaps a permie-friendly Creative Commons
license on content is in order.

I would release whatever worthless rambling I write into the public
domain and good luck to the scammers, but there are certainly more
knowledgeable and experienced permaculturists as well as authors who
might have more concern.

Any thoughts?
-neshura
_______________________________________________

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [permaculture]  list mirroring and copyright
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2005 09:40:55 -0600
From: Chad Knepp <pyg@galatea.org>
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>

Hi,

I had the exact same idea about 3 years ago, seeing the same
questions/debates over and over and wondering how to turn this
incredible source of information into a more accessible resource and
perhaps cut down on some repetition.  Currently a small group of
permie-geeks are working on something like this starting by extending
a CC licenced derivative of the PFAF dataset.  The latest most
interesting version (as in fully editable) is
<http://dev.permaculture.info/>.  If this is interesting to you
please consider joining us instead of heading out on your own.

Cheers,
Chad