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  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] database, wiki, blogs, forums, etc
  • Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:09:14 -0800

I think you should go for it... but heed Jedd, creep slowly... this sounds like a potential project mangement nightmare... once you start populating the RDB you get locked in.. most databased fail for lack of conceptual design. You need to fully conceive and test the structure of your information before you open the flood gates.
I think I get what you are talking about -- but don't know much about RDB... what about something more conceptual like:

tbl_element: (element_id, element_name, element_family (lookup),
tbl_elementattribute_link (element_id, attribute_id)
tbl_attribute (attribute_id)
tbl_attribute linkage (attribute1_id, attribute2_id, l

elements are physical components of a system (i.e. wind tower, chicken, worm box, absorbtionswale, building wall, building roof). They would have to be clearly defined, explicit, mutually exclusive. You'd have to be able to split elements that got to loaded... for example, swale becomes, absorbtion swales vs. diversion drains vs. drainage ditches, etc.
Are individual species elements?! this would go too far perhaps... maybe functional groups are better. How could designers interact that are in different climates... what if elements have different attributes based on climate?! You could have biome independant attributes and biome dependant attributes or you could just qualify linkages
It would have to be a nested taxonomy of elements... there are relationships between 'building' attributes and other elements... then there is 'metal roof' vs. 'living roof' vs. 'brick wall'...

design elements have attributes attributes, there are different types of attributes,
beneficial inputs (element process improves)
processes (element does some function/work/process)
outputs (element produces output)
contraints (element doesn't function in presence of condition)

elements have multiple attributes, attributes create linkages between design elements. You could search for potential linkages be looking for similar attributes where one is an input and the other an output. You could search for contraindications by avoiding outputs and constraint similarities.

Y'know... even just developing the element input/output analysis collectively would have tremendous value... and that could be done by simply aggressively structuring an existing Wiki. Fleshing out a range of elements in terms of their permaculturally significant attributes would be a good preliminary exercise to better define the nature of the data structure that would be of service.

Paul



-say for a wind turbine generator installation:

windProject table: ( rowID, projectID,projectName, longitude, latitude, windZone, expectedDaysUseableWind,towerHeight,towerMaterialConstruction,testedVAOutputAvg)

windMeasurement table: (rowID,projectID,dateMeasured,measuringTowerHeight,timeMeasured,avgWindSpeed )
windTurbine table:
(rowID,projectID,turbineType,turbineMake,turbineModel,minWindSpeed,minOutput,maxWindSpeed,
maxOutput,turbineWeight,turbineDimensions,turbinePropDimensions)

whatcha think?

negiliblek


Looks wonderful; I will put you in touch with the server staff so we can get
going.
Other considerations:

A name for this project.

Do we want a .org, .net or .info domain and have that hosted instead of using
the server's name?

I'll donate a domain for 3 years if that's the direction we want to take.

Some sort of peer review process to filter data entered; or a ranking system
to evaluate data quality and usefullness
A registration or user authentication component as we will not want anonymous
data entry

LL






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