Green Wiki talk:Village Pump

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This is the general discussion page for Green Wiki!

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This is the discussion page for the Green wiki. To learn more about the purpose of this wiki or to see what others are working on, see the About page or the Project page here on the Village Pump.

Contents 1 Content Development 1.1 Act Locally 1.2 Sustainable Living 1.3 Sustainable Business Practices 1.4 Agriculture 1.5 Renewable Energy 1.6 Green Science 1.7 Legislation & Politics 1.8 Green Media 1.9 The Green Movement 2 Public Domain Content 3 Ekopedia and others... 4 Capitalization 5 WikiNode 6 Logo 7 Public Launch and New Logo and Design 8 Guidelines for Posting About Your Green Business, Product, or Service

[edit] Content Development

Here are the content areas we think should be covered on this wiki.. Please feel free to add sections and propose how much to focus on different areas. The Green space is huge and while one day Green Wiki hopes to cover all of it, we must start somewhere :). I would also welcome feedback about the best sources for this information.

Question: I have material (listed under Long Island Energy right now, but soon to be distributed around) on several topics that don't fit neatly into the existing categories.

• Green Business-Sustainable Business Practices -this is a clear category
• Green Building- falls under the sustainable living subcategory House- but also have info on Greening Schools, municipalities, and businesses- this may also include sustainable code
• Green Transportation issues, alternatives and technology
• Education on the environment and/or energy (related to green building for schools)
• Reducing municipal emission (our www.coolcities.us campaign, among other things) Combination of issues here too.

I'd love some advice on how to organize distribute this material Cassabel 16:54, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Because the wiki is still young there will probably be lots of messy categories, which is totally OK! I recommend just focus on writing lots of good content and we can figure out the categories later. That said, I think almost everything you mentioned above could fall into a large parent category "Sustainable Practices". angies (talk) 17:20, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Act Locally

What about a section for regional environmental issues (could be organized by wiki's state/county/town- see Wikipedia Geography for framework we can use). For example- an entry on a specific superfund site, or what materials a town recycles and doesn't- entries in this section would link internally to Sustainable Living, The Green Movement,Legislation and Politics,and Green Science, and externally to other wikis etc. It would provide a resource collection site for community activists on this. (sorry if I'm doing this whole thing wrong I'm a newbie). Cassabel 23:59, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Cassabel, I think that would be great. Please feel free to start one for your area! There are a couple of local-oriented articles now: one for Gainesville, and also a collection of farmers' markets. These are just small starting points and by all means could use expansion and interlinks like you suggested. You can see both of these on the green wiki home page under Act Local on the right-hand side. Mollyh 00:26, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

A question of wiki protocol- Are Farmers Markets a subcategory of Act Locally, AND Act Locally a subcategory of Farmers Markets? Or does that create some kind of wiki-paradox? Cassabel

Hi Cassabel, nice to see you back on the wiki! You can do it that way, but kind of makes for a circular navigation experience. I would suggest making keeping Go Local as the parent category, and Farm Markets as the a sub-category. I went ahead and removed Go local as as sub category of Farm Markets. angies (talk) 16:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sustainable Living

• Eating
• Shopping
• Driving/Autos
• House (green design)
• Traveling (eco-travel)
• Vacationing
• Home products (cosmetics, fabrics, toys, etc)
• Recycling
• Solar
• Gardening
• Carbon offsets

possible shared / overlapping agenda with Sustainable Community Action - a lot of the above and maybe some below might, on sca21, come under 'personal options' and / or 'Green Purchasing'.

Hi Phil, thanks for joining the discussion!Feel free to use interwiki links to point to these articles. angies (talk) 21:39, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Some challenges, which if we can find a way round might help move things forward:

• In what ways is it OK to mention specific products and services without going agianst Wikia terms of service (no advertising)? (eg for purposes of review?)

This is definitely going to be a developing discussion for this community. I would prefer not to make any hard and fast policy this early and see how people want to write about products. Wikia has several wikis that are dedicated to products or companies (video games, digital cameras, etc) so I don't think its against Wikia's terms of service to document products. angies (talk) 21:39, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

• What is the best way to deal with Green wash?

Same thing here, I think we will have to just wait and see what/if the problem is. I hope this community grows large enough that enough unbiased voices will ensure that doesn't occur. angies (talk) 21:39, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

• Is there a need to include something on the limitations of, or controversy surrounding 'green purchasing / sustainable consumption / ethical consumerism, etc Philralph @sca21 17:16, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

Sure, feel free to start the article :) angies (talk) 21:39, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sustainable Business Practices

• Carbon offsets
• Sustainable Web-hosting http://www.sustainablehosting.com/
• Company Initiatives (PGE, Clorox, GE, Ford)

[edit] Agriculture

• Sustainable Farming
• Community Supported Agriculture, CSA
• Farmers Markets

[edit] Renewable Energy

• solar Panels
• bio deisel
• Carbon
• Ethanol
• Wind

[edit] Green Science

• Climate Change
• Global Warming

[edit] Legislation & Politics

• Environmental Laws & Legislation
• Kyoto
• State laws/Bills

[edit] Green Media

• Movies/Documentaries
• Green bloggers/publications

[edit] The Green Movement

• Non Profit Organizations
• Activists
• Events
• Propose adding here green programs sponsored by local governments - allows users to identify "green" cities/localities and see in one place the actions, municipal regulations, statistics, etc that make that place green. So an article on Portland, OR as an example detailing that City's work towards encouraging bike and transit use, green design, and other activities. Links from this page would then link to articles on local issues, regulations, events, organizations, etc. Localities have much of this information.

I had envisioned this sort of thing in the get local section- i.e. what is your town doing. However, it would be even better to have those actions compiled in this green movement section, with links to the individual programs in the get local category! Cassabel 17:53, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Public Domain Content

The following are list of sites who's content is in the public domain and can be used by green.wikia.

[edit] Ekopedia and others...

I arrive and actually I do like most of the people create a new subject without being sure that there are none already talking about this... I am part of Ekopedia. It is a participative encyclopedia about alternative techniques... It started in French but it is now developing in many others languages...

Check Ekopedia

We earlier tryed to have a collaboration with Tiptheplanet... It did not work out... Pity so much dubble information...

Check TipThePlanet

On their Website I now discover Appropedia seems to be the same also...

Check Appropedia

I have to had this student initiative...

Check Demotech

So I feel a little bit sad to see so much person motivated but not working together... If you feel like talking about and trying to create synergie... mail me at olivier(a)kaospilots(dot)nl

Thank you

[edit] Capitalization

Should articles be capitalized like Nuclear Power? If this is so, should the title be referenced within the article using normal grammar? --Dragonclaws^(talk) 02:06, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiNode

This page set up to help with any interwiki collaboration Green wikia may become interested in. It'd be good to have a link to this from the sidebar - a good place is at the end of the community listing/headings. If Green wikia genuinely aspires to become 'central' then talking with potential allies has to be a part of this doesn't it? Philralph @sca21 10:10, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi Phil I totally agree that we need to start working more collaboratively with sca21. I am having trouble though understanding the wikinode project? Is it a ways of creating a hub to organize all the sustainability released wikis across the web? Please let me know the best way to support this effort. angies (talk) 19:03, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Hi Angies, the WikiNode is more a beginning to help with possible future collaboration, a sort of list of who's out there. So for example I noticed a list of other wiki and other sites in lh col when signed out. I've added these to the wikinode, which of course focuses on wiki (other sites set up Green or sustainability rss feeds for). If there are other eg any listed on the sca wikinode you can just copy details across (didn't add renew energy as looks inactive). I tend to regard any that start editing and ask about collaborating as being collaborators. (Each wiki's wikinode contains a list that that wiki thinks appropriate for them eg sca and green wiki nodes don't necessarily have to be the same). Jimbo Wales dropped by recently to sca and talked about links and other stuff. Although its not essential it would be good if anyone from green wiki that sees stuff that perhaps ought to be on sca or at least linked to there, felt free to add at least some links. As part of ideas for Interwiki collaboration month I'm thinking of suggesting / starting some sort of table as to who tends to do what eg whilst sca covers all areas we perhaps have more on the uk than anyone else, whereas green might tend to get more on the USA (?), Ekopedia (French version) perhaps best starting place for French content, etc.

[edit] Logo

Like the new logo! Philralph @sca21 09:55, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

thanks! angies (talk) 02:13, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Public Launch and New Logo and Design

Hi Everyone, Wanted to let you guys know that tomorrow we are publicaly launching Wikia Green to the press. Jimmy has been doing interviews all day with outlets such as Tree Hugger, Grist, Cnet and Wired who will be posting stories tomorrow to go along with our release. I will publish the release here on the wiki tomorrow morning. We are hoping this added press attention brings in lots of new contributors who are excited to get to work! Please take extra care to welcome new contributors and show them the ropes. We are very exited by the progress this small community has made and are excited to spread the word!

You also might have noticed we gave Wikia Green a facelift this week. The creator of some great logos and skins for some of Wikia's largest wiki sites such as ffxi.wikia.com, and marvel.wikia.com, took a crack at building one for Wikia Green. I definitely think it gives the wiki more of a personality. Would love to hear any feedback you guys have! angies (talk) 02:13, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Guidelines for Posting About Your Green Business, Product, or Service

Hi there - A lot of regular contributors on this wiki own green businesses or sell green products and services and bring their welcome knowledge and insights to the articles here. However some also use the wiki as a way to more or less advertise themselves. While I personally love to learn about new stuff in the green space, I'd like to suggest the following guidelines to keep the quality of articles a top priority over personal promotion. Comments and suggestions are welcome! Mollyh 21:07, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

1. Post to an appropriate page. The Green productspage is a compendium of green products and services, and is an appropriate place to post a brief summary. You may also want to describe product/service/business in more detail on your user page.
2. Describe why your product/service/business is green using your best judgment. This is a green community, and people are very sensitive to greenwashing.
3. Do not post personal contact information such as your email address in an article. It is fine to add this to your user page if you choose to do so, but this is considered inappropriate in an article itself.
4. Do not categorize your user page so that it will show up on category pages for Environmental Issues, Organic Gardening, etc.
5. Showcase your knowledge. The best way to gain trust is to create relevant content that adds value to the green wiki.
6. If you are posting content that you wrote for your business's website, be sure to indicate the original location of the content and that you are posting it with permission if it is copyrighted content.
7. Finally, if you would like to advertise to a targeted green audience, contact Advertising.