From around 1998 to 2000 I was part of a small email list discussing politics (the "Rip Rip Woodchip" list which spun off from a list discussing the band Midnight Oil). At times at was enlightening, and many times other times exasperating, as we debated matters of fact and value judgements. It was frustrating to take so much effort and still fail to establish much at all to the satisfaction of all sides.
I could see the place for a site which enabled people to add and correct information in a structured way, laying out what was actually verified. I didn't know how to do it, and I was preoccupied with my own health and personal life, and my unmanaged ADHD meant thta I was never going to make progress on unless it was in my top 2 or 3 priorities, so I did nothing beyond registering a domain (rootsofchange.net).
An idea achieves little unless it's put into practice, so my concept languished; and perhaps many people around the world had a similar concept and did little or nothing with it.
Thankfully there were others who <i>did</i> put in the hard work, notable among them Ward Cunningham (who created the first wiki), Jimmy Wales (who let Wikipedia loose on the world) and the community of Wikipedians.
So when I discovered how Wikipedia actually works (quite late, in 2005) I immediately saw it as aligned with my original hope, and I started editing. I started editing at random where I saw needs, but then stopped and though about where I wanted to have an impact.
For me, that was appropriate technology - the concept of technology that's appropriate to the social, economic and environmental context. This came from my study and experience - I had studied water management in Indonesia (looking at culture and institutions) and come to the personal conclusion that institutions in countries such as Indonesia can't be counted on to deliver clean water and other services. At the same time I learned about community-oriented development and the (apparent) value of community participation in the design and implementation of development projects. (E.g. the Orangi Pilot Project, where a low-cost community-funded sewer system led to actually having sewers, as opposed to a government body that showed no interest in laying sewers for slums.) So, funding significantly corrupt institutions and waiting for them to do the right thing seems suboptimal. What, then? To me the alternative was to empower people to make their own decisions and take action with the resources available to them.
And appropriate technology is a part of the knowledge that can be used to improve lives, so that is where I started work on Wikipedia, creating articles and relevant categories.
That was the start of my wiki journey. But Wikipedia turned out to be limited, not allowing designs, how-tos or case studies. There was a need for another wiki.
To be continued...
