pcplantdb

[Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>]

John Schinnerer wrote:

> Aloha,
>
>  
>
> > questions:
> > -do we still want to work on this project?
> >    
>
> Not in its current state, namely DIW (Dead In Water) except for Bear's 
> recent efforts of interest.
> When I ask for a measly $500 @ $15/hr to improve/polish the issue 
> tracker based on feedback from group use so far and the response is 
> deafening silence my motivation vanishes like Descartes when he stops 
> thinking.
>  
I guess I missed your request for funds John, because noone yet has been 
turned down once the group gave the go ahead for me to write a check.  I 
have only received such requests from Chad, Bear, and Stephanie.  I have 
been going under the assumption that people we mostly providing pro bono 
participation.  I knew that Chad had volunteered to do the heavy lifting 
since we were following his recommendations for what system to create 
and that he would ask for payment from time to time.  I have kept to the 
background, in lurking mode, as I am completely illiterate in 
programming stuff.

I would like to bring this conversation back to the beginning for a moment:

The idea for this data base came out of a conversation I had with 
Stephanie a couple of years ago when I was lamenting the lack of good 
"guild" information in permaculture circles.  I can only recount a half 
dozen examples for our arid climate in New Mexico.  For those of you who 
aren't permaculture literate a guild is an assembly of plants, animals, 
fungi, and other biota that support a specific plant or animal.  Take an 
apple, for instance,  its guild would be bulbs such as alliums to keep 
the root zone open and air permeable, clovers and the fungal or 
bacterial associates for nitrogen,  umbelliferae for beneficial 
insects,  birds for insect control, bees and their pollen plants for 
pollenization,  phosphate accumulators, and so on.  Even the glouchester 
spot pig, once used as an orchard animal to keep the soil friable, could 
be part of the "apple guild" in a farm setting.  In the case of corn and 
bananas humans are an indespensable part of their guild.  Obviously 
guilds vary according to climate, soil types, and etc. but the 
principal  remains true.

Stephanie then decided to devote time to raising money to put together a 
guild data base and was successful.  We were also sucessful in 
recruiting several programmers who helped launch this whole process and 
brought it to its current state.  I think that we have accomplished a 
lot and would be loath to give up when it seems we are in sight of the goal.

I have met botanists and biologists around the world who were captivated 
by the guild concept and they have a lot of knowledge, from studying 
plants in their native habitat, about guilds in the natural 
environment.  Russian biologists come from the Vavilov tradition of 
looking for the origins of all comestibles - potatoes from Peru, corn 
from southern Mexiico, and apples from Kazakstan.  If one had the 
opportunity to look at apples in the forest of Kazakstan the evolved 
guild there would become apparant, and from that we could develop 
analagous structures for the human environment.  What I had hoped to do 
was enroll my international contacts to add their accumulated wisdom to 
the data base once it was formed, I still hold out that expectation.

> > -do we consider this project worthwile (even if we personally don't want to
> > work on it)?
> >    
>
> From a functionality standpoint I don't find much that's been done so 
> far worthwhile, with the possible exception of where Bear has started 
> exploring.  I can get more plant information faster using Google than 
> using current PIW.  As I posted some time ago based on an ad hoc case 
> study drawn from a question on a permaculture list, PIW is currently 
> pretty useless for even basic plant searches.
>  
I will have to defer to other programmers on the list to guide me as to 
whether this project is worthwhile or not, I certainly hope so!

> > -is it justifiable to retain Threshold funding???
> >    
>
> I don't know what the terms of the funding are.
> If we have formal agreements and we've not met them then I think the 
> money should be returned.  If we don't have formal agreements and/or 
> what we have have not been broken then it's an open question.
> If others turn up to move the project forward then by all means apply 
> the money to it.
>
> FWIW nobody who's somewhat of a key player can go completely AWOL on a 
> software development project and assume/expect that it will keep on 
> chugging without them.  Since we've all done our share of AWOL I'm not 
> surprised PIW is DIW.
>  
The terms of the Threshold funding are that we will develop a guild 
database, there is no time line or other restrictions that I know of 
except that the money should be used for this purpose and not to build a 
solar car or some such.  We are still within the grant parameters as far 
as I'm comcerned and I will send the report to Threshold for 2005 and 
see what their take is.  To my mind this is a project that is still 
fundable and worthwhile at this point there seems a little lack of will 
is the primary shortcoming.

I would appreciate more feedback from those of you who know how data 
bases work and what still needs to be done.  If we had a short list of 
what has been accomplished and what needs to be done I think it would 
help us all.

Thanks,
Scott Pittman

begin:vcard
fn:Scott  Pittman
n:Pittman;Scott 
org:Permaculture Institute
email;internet:pci@permaculture-inst.org
title:Director
tel;work:505 455 0514
tel;fax:505 455 2003
tel;cell:505 231 1723
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
version:2.1
end:vcard