User talk:Maud

salut, c'est quoi cette page?

Cette page, c'est pour me laisser des messages.

Salut

Mais, je ne peu pas parler francais.

Hello, Maud. Please pardon me for being a pest. I dropped an email recently about Appropedia, to see if you might reconsider the possibility of collaboration. Although both of our sites are doing fairly well, I'm sure that we could accomplish much more together. We are in the early stages of a major expansion, which will probably take several months. See http://www.appropedia.org/OpenSustain-Appropedia_Launch_Document for more information. Of course I understand that the mission described in the document is somewhat different from the Howtopedia mission. It is also different from (at least bigger than) the original Appropedia mission. But I believe that this larger mission will have a strong positive impact on the world, in part because it will engage a much larger audience.

One challenge that we face is a relative lack of wiki savvy folks, such as yourselves. We are also not as multilingual as we would like to be.

Although both Howtopedia and Appropedia are seeing good activity, it's also clear that there is relatively limited collaboration and extended contribution going on. We have recognized that one way to expand that significantly is to integrate a forum / message board. (Look at SustainabilityForum.com, which in three months has a larger user base than either of us. Think of how the strengths of wikis complement the strengths of forums. We approached them, but they prefer to remain independent for now.) We will be integrating forum functions soon as part of our expansion, and we expect to engage a much larger audience, and help them begin to collaborate.

You will notice from the link I provided above that the name of the new project may not be Appropedia. The team that approached us was using a different working name. If you were to consider joining the project, it would be on equal terms with the other team members. Howtopedia, Appropedia and "Sustainapedia" (their working name) could all be considered equal partners, particularly since a new name will be used. You at Howtopedia, and we at Appropedia, can clearly see the value of the work that we are doing. We can both imagine a large and active site, providing useful information on how improve lives sustainably. In my view, the world will be better served by a single such site, rather than two sites competing for viewers and content, overlapping in many ways and duplicating effort. Is it important what the site is called, or who gets credit? To me, no. I created "WinWinWiki", then let it go to join another wiki. Several other wiki founders have also decided that collaboration is the key and joined Appropedia. Perhaps other wiki founders have joined Howtopedia. Is there someway that we can collaborate in a big way?

Please consider joining us as we work toward this new site. Please help us to define it and make it grow and serve the world.

Best regards, --Curtbeckmann 14:56, 10 April 2007 (CEST)

Hi again

Hi again, Maud.

Thank you so much for the very prompt reply, and my apologies for this delayed response. Two things happened. I went on vacation the same day I left my last note, and I forgot to set up the "watch this page" on my user pages, so I didn't realize that you had replied.

Anyway, I am very encouraged by your response! I think there is a lot that we can accomplish as a united team, instead of the various duplicated effort that I'm sure we are currently doing... When you get a chance to review with the rest of your team, let me know how it goes. If email might be a better format for this conversation, I can be reached at curtbeckmann (at) appropedia (dot) org. Otherwise, I'm going to watch this page, and my two user page and talk page, so you can reply at any of those if you prefer.

Best regards, --Curtbeckmann 00:31, 23 April 2007 (CEST)

Yes, me again

Hi Maud,

Perhaps you will now change your mind and reconsider the "pest" label for me.

Really, though, I just want to know if you have had a chance to discuss some form of collaboration between our sites. We are getting more serious about multiple languages, and I'm sure that you and the Howtopedia team have much valuable experience in this area. Also think of the combined impact we could have!

Anyway, enough pleading. If you tell me that you have discussed it and are not interested right now, I will leave you alone for, say, 6 months? Or let me know how long, and I will stop nudging you.

Thanks for the consideration, --Curtbeckmann 06:23, 15 May 2007 (CEST)

I'm back

Hi Maud,

It's been about 4 months since last time I checked in with you. I know that things are typically slow in August in Europe, but I was still surprised at how few recent changes there were in the last 30 days here at Howtopedia.

Meanwhile, Appropedia has been making some progress. Our monthly page views are about the same as the total page views for Howtopedia. Somehow, we've managed to reach some minimal critical mass of visibility and content. Still, there is a lot more that we can do at Appropedia, and in particular I would like to do 2 things: multiple languages, and more "how to" content.

I want to mention that Appropedia is about to begin producing Spanish language pages. We're going to start by translating the pages that we already have, and we'll start with the pages that we think are relevant in Latin America. Other languages will follow, but we'll start with one.

Also want to mention that we have created a non-profit Foundation, and we have a small (3-person) board of directors. We want to grow our board of directors. If you're considering your options at Howtopedia, I'm convinced there is a very positive combination between our groups that can include real leadership / authority on your part, and the part of other Howtopedia folks.

I hope that you and I are able to have a conversation about this. Email me at curtbeckmann (at) appropedia (dot) org.

Thanks, --Curtbeckmann 05:23, 10 September 2007 (CEST)

Greetings again

Dear Maud,

I hope you are doing well! I see the site continues to grow -- I'd love to find a project we can work on this fall... especially in Spanish (we now have ~250k XOs in peru and uruguay :) Warmly, Sj 00:13, 6 August 2008 (CEST)