In praise of Appropedia
If you had never heard of Appropedia before, you really missed something.
Appropedia (*) is a Wikipedia-like portal specifically devoted to real innovation with appropriate technology. Appropedia collects and explains resources, products and projects about appropriate tech for construction, energy, food and agriculture, health and medical devices, water and transport systems.
In addition to its permanent mission, Appropedia has been providing open source information for resource strapped settings and pandemic responses for over 13 years, and this year it develops and shares resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic:
The last section is particularly relevant in these times. The resource it provides go from lists of collaborative COVID19 initiatives by fablabs worldwide to essays on pandemics and related disaster-preparedness.
Appropedia shows the kind of innovation we need the most these days. You will never find embarrassments like this or this there. Please support Appropedia if you can.
() post written in March 2020, put online in August 2020 because of… COVID19, of course*
Who writes this, why, and how to help
I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
I do it because YOUR civil rights and the quality of YOUR life depend every year more on how software is used AROUND you.
To this end, I have already shared more than a million words on this blog, without any paywall or user tracking, and am sharing the next million through a newsletter, also without any paywall.
The more direct support I get, the more I can continue to inform for free parents, teachers, decision makers, and everybody else who should know more stuff like this. You can support me with paid subscriptions to my newsletter, donations via PayPal (mfioretti@nexaima.net) or LiberaPay, or in any of the other ways listed here.THANKS for your support!