permaculture

[Rich Blaha <rich@mossbackfarm.com>]

Niels-  "Real Email not required for download"

Thanks, again, for input.  It's always nice to know there's a privacy 
out on these things, without having to make up an email address.  I 
start losing track of my fake ones pretty quickly.

_______________

Bob-  "Why is it that so few site plans are available?"

Good question.   In the past, I think distribution played a 
part...permies weren't the first demographic to leap headfirst onto the 
internet, so we're a little behind there.  Judging from the great 
technical responses I've got so far to this posting, the permaculture 
community is going digital rapidly, so if that's a barrier, then it 
should be falling as we speak.

There's also the lazy effect.  Not that we're a lazy bunch, at all, but 
sitting in front of the computer / drafting table, scanning, uploading, 
photocopying, whatever it takes to distribute a plan falls pretty low on 
the list when the sun is shining, fruit is ripening, swales need 
digging, etc etc.  Being people of action reduces our time spent 
spreading the word.  Not that I would have it any other way.

And then there's the intellectual property issue.  Plans that you can 
find on the web are often very low resolution, to the point that the 
Monet-esque blur of detail is better as art than a map.  I can only 
assume that it is at least somewhat intentional, with some designers 
keeping their cards close to the vest, so to speak.  To a point, I guess 
it makes sense, since making a 'living' at permaculture is a dicey 
prospect at best, made perhaps more dicey by spreading the fruit of your 
labors to the competition. 

However, I don't feel that that's the way the consulting market works.  
Landscape consultations of any kind inevitably spiral down to a personal 
relationship....cost, etc  plays a role, but if you've got the vision, 
and can articulate it to the client, and get them excited about it, 
they're generally not going to keep shopping around if they're jazzed up 
on your idea and your costs are similar to the competition.  Jump in and 
correct me if you've learned different, you full time professional 
designers out there.

I tend to think of a plan like this as another facet of our farm's 
production system.  Besides our cash crops, gardens, and orchards, the 
outputs from our learning here are a yield.  And because digital 
transfer is so cheap, we can easily call it a surplus, which should then 
be shared. 

2 cents

Rich
Mossback Farm
Yamhill, OR
www.mossbackfarm.com/journal


>   4. Real Email not required for download Re: Farm design online
>      (Niels Corfield)
>
>   9. Re: Farm design online (Robert Waldrop)
>
>
>  
>
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 14:00:41 +0100
> From: Niels Corfield <mudguard@gmail.com>
> Subject: [permaculture] Real Email not required for download Re: Farm
>         design online
> To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <44969FF9.4080800@gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Just a quickie, anyone wishing to retain anonymity when using the free 
> download of arcreader, there is no need to give real info, or email.
> No confirmation or authorisation codes are provided by email or however.
>
> Cheers,
> N*
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 9
> Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 10:53:17 -0500
> From: "Robert Waldrop" <bwaldrop@cox.net>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Farm design online
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>,
>         <permaculture@openpermaculture.org>
> Message-ID: <011a01c693b8$7b8b9a90$5c960c44@bobcomputer>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>         reply-type=original
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Rich Blaha" <rich@mossbackfarm.com>
>  
>
> > When I first became interested in permaculture 
> > ~15 years ago, site plans
> > were hard to come by, and as the internet grew, 
> > I was hoping that we'd
> > see more and more plans online.  Well, they're 
> > still pretty hard to come
> > by, but here's my contribution to the Open 
> > Source permaculture movement.
> >    
>
> Thanks very much for this.  Why is it that so few 
> site plans are available?  I have thought a bit 
> about this, but haven't come up with anything.  I 
> had never seen an actual design report until I 
> enrolled in the online PDC taught by Barking Frogs 
> Permaculture, which includes a sample design as 
> part of the reading package, and then of course I 
> have had access to the designs being developed by 
> the other students, but that's it.  I intend to 
> make mine available once it has been completed and 
> passed which hopefully will be later this year.  I 
> don't know how people do something like this in a 
> two week course, our online PDC started in 
> September 2005 and finished in April 2006, and I 
> was not able to master the material and develop 
> the design report in that time frame, so I am 
> taking it again in the coming year to learn more 
> and to finish the report and become certified (you 
> can repeat it the following year as a monitor 
> without additional payment).
>
> The "Open Source Permaculture" phrase is great, 
> btw.  Maybe it will sprout a new rhizome in the 
> public domain.
>
> Bob Waldrop, OKC 
>
>
>
>
>