permaculture

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

> From: Loren Davidson <lorenstwin@yahoo.com>
> Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 10:05:38 -0800 (PST)
> 
> --- keller <ak.and.ak@on-line.de> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > just one idea that comes to my mind. There are good internet links
> > about
> > many plants. There should be a possibility to assign a number of
> > links to a
> > plant. So there could be a URL-table in the database (in relational
> > terms,
> > this should be modeled as an n:m-relationship, one plant can have
> > several
> > URLs, and one of these could be linked to several plants).
> 
> Excellent idea.  I've been getting a lot of my info on specific plants
> by searching with Google for either the Latin or common name of the
> plant, then printing out the two or three best pages/sites I find for
> reference.  If this is going to be an online database, the amount of
> data stored in it could be reduced somewhat by incorporating links in
> this manner.
> 
> Similarly, it might be possible to include links to nurseries that sell
> specific plants, with no inference of endorsing said sites, when it is
> possible to acquire those plants in that manner.  At the very least,
> I'd recommend including a "how to acquire this plant" field for each
> plant record, as well as "how to propagate."

I've been thinking of both these ideas for the Plants For A Future
database. Indeed it is already possible (up to a fashion). A the bottom
of each page in the UK version of the database 
        http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/D_search.html
is a Readers Comments section. In that anyone on the internet can add
comments about a plant. Links to other sites and links to plant
suppliers
are most welcome. The interface is a bit clunky, but I'm hoping to
clean it up in the near future.

What I think would be a great internet resource would be to have an 
online collaborative database where people could add links to the best
sites about each plant.

                Rich

-- 
Plants for a Future: 7000 useful plants
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Main Site: Blagdon Cross Plant Research and Demonstration Gardens,
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