[Foundation-l] WikIdea: A new proposal

Fri Jun 22 18:56:39 UTC 2007

....sounds excellent - - - so while you work on the
wiki - universe - to get this started, please begin a
group someplace online..... I'd suggest Zaadz.com

--- Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:

> While it sounds like a good project, I don't think
> it's is something
> the Wikimedia Foundation would run. The WMF aims to
> provide
> information to the public, which isn't really what
> your project is
> about. Wikia (www.wikia.com) might be interested,
> they have a wider
> remit.
> 
> On 19/06/07, Blake West <westb at wharton.upenn.edu>
> wrote:
> >         Hello, my name is Blake, I am a Penn
> (Wharton) student.
> >            I'm envisioning a wiki-project where
> people can go to post the
> > problems or inefficiencies that they see in their
> work or life. The purpose
> > would be to create a place where those with the
> know-how and dedication to
> > invent and solve problems (like engineering
> students or weekend inventors)
> > can find the issues that need to be addressed.
> >            Like the idea that "necessity is the
> mother of all invention", or
> > that innovation happens when a problem is at hand,
> this wiki-project would
> > give people that specific problem to focus their
> energies on.  Please
> > contact me (bwest87 at gmail.com) if you would like
> to help me work out the
> > detials and get this started, or to help me work
> through the inevitable
> > problems that will be faced in making this idea a
> reality. I've put two
> > examples below that originally stirred me to think
> of this problem.
> >
> >           Thank you - Blake
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >        As some quick examples of what I'm talking
> about; two students at
> > Penn recently devised a system to capture weather
> probes that usually get
> > lost by the National Weather Service. The N.W.S.
> sends out thousands of
> > probes per year to gather data, but they lose 80%
> of them. Each one cots
> > over $100, and with the help of these Penn
> students, the N.W.S. will save
> > hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Yet,
> how many people even knew
> > that this problem existed? Perhaps it could have
> been solved sooner, if more
> > people knew about it.
> >        A different example. I was recently
> introduced to a business that
> > sells bedding for flowers, primarily to commerical
> growers. Typical bedding
> > is made of coconuts shavings that sucks up water
> and the plants then take
> > water from the coconut shavings. The founder of
> this business however, said,
> > "hey, why don't we put a small bio-degradable
> sheet of plastic inbetween the
> > coconut shavings to hold more water?" Once the
> original water runs out, the
> > coconuts will suck up water from the plastic bed
> and the plants will have
> > more water. This means that planters have to water
> their plants half as
> > much, which means huge savings in time and money.
> >       Again, however, so few people even knew of
> this problem, which is
> > probably why it took this long to find a better
> way to do it. There are
> > people with time on their hands who would love to
> solve issues for the world
> > (and potentially make money from them), but they
> just don't know where to
> > start. This is where we start. Right here, with
> this wiki-project. Please
> > contact me if you're interested.
> >
> > --
> > Blake West
> > Wharton, University of Pennsylvania '09
> > bwest87 at gmail.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> >
>
http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
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>
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