Create submissions for sites and newsletters[edit source]

I think we need to go a step further than Draft Notifications, and also do writeups that we want organizations to put on their web pages and in their newsletters. Getting a notification will get some attention, and we should do it, but is also likely to fall into the category of "I really should try and do that one day..." Including something that they can easily put into a newsletter or copy to their web page is probably more likely to be used.

I'd suggest we develop short, medium and long versions. Let's focus first on Worldchanging submissions as these spiels can be then be adapted for other uses.

The one question I have about the Worldchanging submissions is about the form of url to be used in the links, so I've been putting this off till the short url is implemented. Or should we just use the old (long) form url, assuming that this will still work later? --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 19:00, 16 October 2006 (PDT)

I've been slowly shifting into the "do it now" mindset with respect to Appropedia promotion. Having said that, I don't actually get what "short names" are (is it getting rid of "?title=blah blah"?). And I don't know how long we would need to defer.. A few days? A week? Seems like this has been a pending issue for several weeks. And yet, short URLs are somewhat attractive.
Regarding the short, medium, long compositions, I agree. I've been thinking of creating and sending a single page PDF doc to all engineering departments that have graduate programs in order to promote the "thesis" category. We could write a different version for schools that have a EWB chapter. Alternatively, we could "co-market" with EWB when sending to those schools that do not have EWB chapters. On that score, I am now tempted to reach out to EWB USA and see what kind of group they are.
As for compositions, here is (for better or worse) the content of the email that I sent to various EWB chapters (which I would then customize slightly for each recipient, depending on what I found online at their sites):

Hi Chapter,

My name is Curt Beckmann. I’m a recent member of EWB San Francisco, and also very active with an open, public wiki, Appropedia, focused on Appropriate Technology and International Development. Appropedia has been endorsed by EWB International and other sites as a useful tool. I’ve just begun working on porting some of the EWB-SFP content over to articles on Appropedia.

On behalf of the Appropedia community, I want to invite you and your chapter (and all EWB chapters) to check into Appropedia as a resource. You can use it to post information about projects that you're working on or have completed, or technologies that you are investigating. (Posting public articles about your projects can be useful for fundraising, since you can send the URL to folks for viewing.)

So come check out the site! Here’s the link:

https://www.appropedia.org

If you find that your group is interested, but that you don’t have time or people to port your content, we’re also working to connect volunteer editors with people that have content. Drop me a note if there’s anything that you want to ask, or if you think something’s missing from Appropedia.

Thanks for considering Appropedia! I look forward to meeting you online!

Best Regards,
Curt

None of the chapters have responded, which suggests my composition leaves something to be desired. :-(
By the way, this leads me to ask, how does one post/attach docs or pdfs to a wiki page? Suppose we did develop a single page pdf flyer, then what?
This is a great discussion to be having! (Reminds me of "Mission" and "Logo", two other efforts that I link to promotion...not sure why.) --Curtbeckmann 06:34, 17 October 2006 (PDT)

Linking from Wikipedia[edit source]

With all the porting going on (great work, Curt & others) we're now coming into the time when there are pages here which are worth linking from Wikipedia. Of course we should only do this when it does add value to the relevant Wikipedia article, and not just to promote Appropedia. However, one effect will be to bring more people to Appropedia.

I suggest we make a practice of linking the editable pages, rather than original documents (but of course ported material will still be credited on the editable page). --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 17:50, 6 December 2006 (PST)

I'm certainly fine with this, but would defer it (on my own to-do list) for a while. The porting process (naming, templates, protection, when attribution no longer applies, yada yada) still needs a fair bit of work and I'm uncomfortable adding more wrinkles at the mo'. But if someone else does it, hey, that works for me.... --CurtB 06:51, 7 December 2006 (PST)
Of course, I didn't mean to suggest that you should do it - you're plenty busy enough, and I wouldn't want to distract you from your good work. I'll do it as I'm able, as it seems appropriate.
There's no particular timetable for this task. I've added it to Category:Appropedia maintenance#Linking to other wikis. I've also done it for Water conservationW (actually not a very complete page, by a long stretch, but I think still a valuable link for the Wikipedia page). I added this text to the external links:
* [[Appropedia:Water conservation|Water conservation]] at Appropedia (wiki site).
We should aim for better wording, and apply it consistently... I might ask at Wikipedia's village pump. --Singkong2005 (now known as Chriswaterguy) · talk 03:38, 8 December 2006 (PST) (updated 05:22, 8 December 2006 (PST))

Protected project page[edit source]

Hi Folks. We have seen the project page be a very popular spam target, mostly in the "other wikis" section. That leads me to believe that somehow the section has been passed around amongst spammers as a great spot. Because of the nature of this page, I thought it would be fair to lock that project page to unregistered users. This talk page remains unprotected. --CurtB 06:36, 11 January 2007 (PST)

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