Ekopedia
Encyclopedia
Ekopedia is a free
(Creative Commons
), collaborative (wiki
), and multilingual
encyclopedia
project dedicated in providing answers and spreading practical knowledge related to environmental sustainability. Their goal is to help everyone become more independent and establish the foundation necessary to build a better world.
in December 2002 under the name of Newlimits.org, the project was initially in French
and under Free Art License
. It was using TWiki
wiki application for collaborative edition and in 2004, community decided to migrate to MediaWiki
.
The project got over 1000 articles December 10, 2006. In February 2007, English
and Esperanto
Projects were created. Italian
, German
and Polish
were created in February
and March 2008 and the Spanish in November 2008. Ekopedia has about 2500 articles (> 1 800 in French).
The Ekopedia Foundation was created on September 19, 2007
In April 2009, Ekopedia has migrate all its contents from Free Art License
to Creative Commons
(CC-BY-SA-3.0) in order to facilitate content sharing with other projects like Wikipedia
, and Appropedia
.
ally sound way. Ekopedia is a wiki
-based website
(like Wikipedia
) using MediaWiki
. Ekopedia now licensed under Creative Commons
CC-BY-SA-3.0 (after having been under Free Art Licence for more than 6 years).
Ekopedia is developed mainly in French
, Polish, and Italian. In 2008, French Project received 2,3 millions uniques visitors and each day, an average of 11,000 people come to visit and participate in the project, which makes Ekopedia the most visited French website focused on ecology
and sustainability
issues.
Ekopedia articles are organized around 12 topics in order to meet the basics needs of people : Birth, Education, Food, Lodging, Clothing, Art and craft, Thinking, Living together, Health and care, Travel, Play and Communication. There are thus many articles on green building
, washable diapers, seasonal vegetables, electric vehicles or even tofu
manufacturing.
Ekopedia is different to Wikipedia as certain types of content and collaboration are not suitable for Wikipedia. In contrast to Wikipedia
, Ekopedia content requires a different approach in selecting and writing articles.
Since the end of 2008, Appropedia
and Ekopedia Projects are in active collaboration that could lead to a projects merge.
Other references could also be found on Ekopedia Foundation Website: http://www.fondationekopedia.org/Salle_de_press
Free content
Free content, or free information, is any kind of functional work, artwork, or other creative content that meets the definition of a free cultural work...
(Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
), collaborative (wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
), and multilingual
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
project dedicated in providing answers and spreading practical knowledge related to environmental sustainability. Their goal is to help everyone become more independent and establish the foundation necessary to build a better world.
History
Created in QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
in December 2002 under the name of Newlimits.org, the project was initially in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and under Free Art License
Free Art license
The Free Art License is a copyleft license that grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without needing the author's explicit permission.The Free Art License recognizes and protects these rights...
. It was using TWiki
TWiki
TWiki is a Perl-based structured wiki application, typically used to run a collaboration platform, knowledge or document management system, a knowledge base, or team portal...
wiki application for collaborative edition and in 2004, community decided to migrate to MediaWiki
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
.
The project got over 1000 articles December 10, 2006. In February 2007, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
Projects were created. Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Polish
PL
PL, P.L., Pl, or Pl. may refer to::In politics, law and philosophy:*Pl., an abbreviation for Plural*Partido Laborista*Patrologia Latina...
were created in February
February 2008
February 2008 was the second month of the leap year. It began on a Friday and ended after 29 days on a Friday.-International holidays:* February 2 - Candlemas* February 5 - Shrove Tuesday* February 6 - Waitangi Day...
and March 2008 and the Spanish in November 2008. Ekopedia has about 2500 articles (> 1 800 in French).
The Ekopedia Foundation was created on September 19, 2007
In April 2009, Ekopedia has migrate all its contents from Free Art License
Free Art license
The Free Art License is a copyleft license that grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without needing the author's explicit permission.The Free Art License recognizes and protects these rights...
to Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
(CC-BY-SA-3.0) in order to facilitate content sharing with other projects like Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, and Appropedia
Appropedia
Appropedia is a website for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development, with a particular focus on appropriate technology. Appropedia is a wiki-based website like Wikipedia, a website where a large number of participants are allowed to create and...
.
Project details
Ekopedia gives people solutions and practical knowledge in order to act in a more environmentEnvironment (biophysical)
The biophysical environment is the combined modeling of the physical environment and the biological life forms within the environment, and includes all variables, parameters as well as conditions and modes inside the Earth's biosphere. The biophysical environment can be divided into two categories:...
ally sound way. Ekopedia is a wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
-based website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
(like Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
) using MediaWiki
MediaWiki
MediaWiki is a popular free web-based wiki software application. Developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, it is used to run all of its projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikinews. Numerous other wikis around the world also use it to power their websites...
. Ekopedia now licensed under Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
CC-BY-SA-3.0 (after having been under Free Art Licence for more than 6 years).
Ekopedia is developed mainly in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Polish, and Italian. In 2008, French Project received 2,3 millions uniques visitors and each day, an average of 11,000 people come to visit and participate in the project, which makes Ekopedia the most visited French website focused on ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
and sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
issues.
Ekopedia articles are organized around 12 topics in order to meet the basics needs of people : Birth, Education, Food, Lodging, Clothing, Art and craft, Thinking, Living together, Health and care, Travel, Play and Communication. There are thus many articles on green building
Green building
Green building refers to a structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition...
, washable diapers, seasonal vegetables, electric vehicles or even tofu
Tofu
is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is part of East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and others. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu...
manufacturing.
Ekopedia is different to Wikipedia as certain types of content and collaboration are not suitable for Wikipedia. In contrast to Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, Ekopedia content requires a different approach in selecting and writing articles.
Since the end of 2008, Appropedia
Appropedia
Appropedia is a website for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development, with a particular focus on appropriate technology. Appropedia is a wiki-based website like Wikipedia, a website where a large number of participants are allowed to create and...
and Ekopedia Projects are in active collaboration that could lead to a projects merge.
Press references
Here is a list of some press references:- January 15, 2009: Article "Ekopedia: Une encyclopédie pour construire un monde meilleur" by Virginie Roy from Canoe.
- January 2, 2009: Interview of Jean-Luc Henry at radio Première heure on Radio-Canada. Listen in mp3 or ogg
- April 2008: Reportage about Ekopedia on radio le Mouv des campus on Radio-France. Listen in (mp3 or ogg).
- April 10, 2008: Reportage about Ekopedia on radio Vous Etes Ici on RadioCanada. Listen in (mp3 or ogg)
- January 11, 2007: the newspaper Metro wrote Ekopedia, le Wikipedia écolo.
- December 2, 2006: Magazine Télérama n° 2968 published Critique Internet Ekopedia
- April 2006 : the book Wikipédia, comprendre et participer wrote about Ekopedia.
- January 2006 : magazine "Micro Hebdo" (01net) published "http://fr.ekopedia.org : l'encyclo écolo"
- December 2005: Liberation Newspaper published Ekopedia: L'encyclopédie des alternatives.
Other references could also be found on Ekopedia Foundation Website: http://www.fondationekopedia.org/Salle_de_press