Permaculture Information Web

[Sean Maley <semaley AT yahoo.com>]

Sorry Heide,

There are too many listservs and I was rushing out the
door.  I intended the bottom part of my message to the
plantdb group, which is about plants (so far).  It
related to what you were saying (albeit the technical
breakdown). I failed to separate it's contents for my
convenience leaving work after a long day.

Entering brain dumps will be the reality of the system
and represents our technical challenges.  As we
discuss it further, the patterns will emerge.  It's
important not to get bogged down by expression.  At
the same time, computer technology seeks to break down
the ever changing world into discreet components and
their patterns.  If this can't be done at a detailed
level, a less accurate and grainy generalization is
mandated.  We want a tool to make the human job more
effective, not replace us (contrary to popular oppion,
they can't, haven't, and won't).

I find it important that species relationships require
a discussion beyond specifically discussing plants,
animals, cellular life, or even viruses.  In fact,
even nutrients are involved.  I am only asking for
lists of these components.  Then I am asking for
examples of these components; or completed lists when
it can be easily done.  You have provided a great deal
of this information, so please forgive a little tech
chat in the wrong place.

I have made suggestions on the technical side that
address the inevitable "data in the wrong boxes and
the system just needs to deal with it" realities.  I'm
not expecting data to come into this system and we
don't have any concerns about its validity or direct
usefulness.  My focus is only on what you require the
system to provide in order to be useful to you.


-Sean.

--- Heide Hermary <heide.hermary AT gaiacollege.ca>
wrote:

> 
> 
> Sean Maley wrote:
> 
> >Perhaps we can all brainstorm to list all
> fundamental
> >types of species relating, list the pertinant
> stages
> >of development, agree on a way to express
> locale/time
> >or whatever metric is important.
> >
> >
> >-Sean.
> >
> >Table wise I'm seeing three entities: plant,
> relation,
> >and relation_type.  relation is a composite of two
> >dimensions of plant and a dimension of type and has
> >measures of maturity range, times of year, perhaps
> >calories/materials exchanged per unit, and more. 
> Some
> >measures may need further mormalization, depending
> on
> >what we come up with.
> >  
> >
> 
> Sorry, you lost me there.
> This isn't just about plants, it's about other
> living beings (animals, 
> microbes etc) and abiotic factors (soil, water,
> temperature/ light/ air 
> etc.) all of which are REQUIRED for healthy plants,
> and any one of which 
> can change the relationships between all of these -
> resulting in changes 
> to plant health.  It's really, really complicated.
> 
> When I teach organic horticulture I tell my students
> it's a management 
> decision making process, and management is as much
> art as it is anything 
> else.  In some ways I am at a loss in trying to
> quantify information 
> that we have so far used mostly on an intuitive
> basis.  I can see how 
> it's necessary.  I am really, really concerned that
> we will be trying to 
> classify too much.
> 
> I would like to see very general fields, like the
> ones I outlined in one 
> of my earlier posts.  Each field should have
> descriptive guidelines to 
> the person entering the info, like "this is the type
> of info we want to 
> see here".  Let them enter it the best way they can.
> Plain text, 
> spelling errors and all.  Anticipate that they will
> not enter the info 
> into the correct field (unless you want someone
> proofreading 
> everything), and then develop a search that will
> pull out the info required.
> 
> Basically I see the entry fields as guidelines for
> the person entering 
> the info.  The search needs be much more powerful
> than simply looking 
> into ta field and finding what's there.  The search
> itself needs to be 
> intuitive.
> 
> Have no idea if this makes sense to you from a
> technical perspective, or 
> if it's even doable.
> 
> Cheers, Heide
> 
> _______________________________________________
> piw mailing list
> piw AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/piw
> 



                
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