New Ubuntu inspired project about Food Forests

[nexx]

The design of my new project ogbuzz.com is heavily inspired by the design of ubuntu.com. It is not only the design that inspire me but also the social aspect of Ubuntu: a community project to make things better. In the case of http://www.ogbuzz.com it is about using Food Forests to alleviate climate-change, secure food supplies, make this planet a little more "natural" and fun to inhabit while enhancing biodiversity, and create valuable country jobs (as an old farm worker that love working on farms, I think that this type of jobs is not recognized and paid as much as it should).

I am in the process of making the Business Plan for ogbuzz before july 29 to be able to participate in the greenChallenge http://www.greenchallenge.info. I am not a business person and I only learned recently to use computers and program webpages so if you have ideas that you would like to share, or even better if you want to participate, I really need to understand the conditions necessary to get peoples happy about engaging themselves in that project.

[forrestcupp]

Sounds interesting. How are you going to go about acquiring the land needed for this?

[nexx]

Ogbuzz.com aim is to be an information and exchange portal to help Food Forest Growers. I do not want to buy land, this would need way too much money and the purpose of the project is to help peoples start their own Food Forests, from the small backyard project to the mega farm. I am thinking of something that would permit peoples to barter, exchange or sell seeds (Seeds that they would harvest themselves), crops, and other gardening stuff...

There will also information about growing techniques (a lot will come from my own experience at first and from Permaculture designs). I also want to have a section about ideas of tools, land designs, grower and consumers ways of collaborating....

[drawkcab]

Good work. This is the future I suspect so it's good to be ahead of the curve.

[handy]

Good work. This is the future I suspect so it's good to be ahead of the curve.

In so doing you can actually have an effect on the trajectory of the curve.

I am working on something that hopefully will be of benefit to this project. When (if) I get it together I will post the results.

In so doing I will hopefully save a great deal of time, water & concern over reliability, when it comes to the matter of intelligent garden irrigation.

[Linuxratty]

I'm astounded more people with some land,even a small amount don't do this.
In our yard we have plum trees,apple trees,fig trees,hickory,pecan,and chestnut.


(\ /)
(O.o)
(> <)

[nexx]

[QUOTE=Linuxratty;11047168]I'm astounded more people with some land,even a small amount don't do this.
In our yard we have plum trees,apple trees,fig trees,hickory,pecan,and chestnut.


I think that it will come, as people will realize that the big ag system is fragile and not really apt to resist in case of drought, new pesticide resistant bug or disease, war. And that Food Forests are a security blanket much more capable of resisting droughts, insects and diseases than industrial crops (plus an enjoyable way of life).:)

[handy]

@nexx: You may be interested in this project (http://www.thegloucesterproject.org.au/) that my wife & I are involved with.

The two people (also husband & wife) that created the project & are the prime movers - lobbying all levels of government, plus universities, the CSIRO & other bodies - have worked tirelessly for well last 4 years (5 days a week between them, for the greater good). The project has won one national competition (funding) & has received multiple grants, the most recent being for $300,000- over 3 years, from the federal gov'.

The project will now move into stage 2, where it will be demonstrating the most efficient ways to farm a wide variety of crops in the most effective way for the health of the environment. The project is all about long term sustainability for local communities.

There are universities, the CSIRO & other organisations that are interested in using our region for R&D with regard to solving the problems of food security, water security, energy security & gaining more knowledge to help people to adapt to the ever increasing effects of climate change in parts of our country already, which was the initial goal of the project.

[nexx]

Since this Food Forest mainly show to the whole planet that I am a crazy idealist flower lover (eater), let's do it on a grand scale: my new idea is a campaign to make Fast Food Restaurants put a flowering herb on their burgers (to save the planet of course). Introduce yourself to The "Herb Flowers & Burgers campaign" at http://www.ogbuzz.com/en/campaigns/ ;)

[handy]

The common problem with ideals is making them practical & therefore worthwhile, worthwhile to at least those that have faith in their belief.

Beliefs no matter how complex don't have any effect until they are put into action. Some beliefs are so far from practical that they are & will always remain just a dream. There are others that have existed for way over a 1000 years that have been hijacked, & even though their fundamental core is most likely rubbish, these ideals are handed down by parents to their children.

Due to the strength of numbers, there are societies that are permeated to greater & lesser extents with these groundless ideals, & they are protected & propitiated where possible by those that are part of the power structures supported by these groundless ideals.

So it would seem that the practicalities involved in selling ideals to the masses has to incorporate a knowledge of how to sell your ideal so that it fits into a receptive part of the human psyche. It is a wise marketroid that can see whether what they are trying to sell has a chance of being picked up by the many or not.

History has proven that even if the ideal is ludicrous it can become an ideal that people will sacrifice their freedom, their children's future & their own lives for.

I hope that gives you hope. :) :lolflag:


/rant. I just got out of bed & obviously needed to get that off my chest. Thanks. ;)

At a glance your website looks well constructed. That helps these days. Though I find that the red jumps of the "Campaigns" page too much for the comfort of my eyes (complimentary opposites & all that).

Also the aqua blue with a bit of yellow in it that you use for some links on multiple pages is not easy to read & if made a little darker would make those pages that use it that much more appealing (well my wife & I think so anyway :)).

Another thing, when I went to Bookmark your site all it had for its name was "Home". It would benefit you to have a more descriptive title.

The content of your site is great, I like where you are coming from & wish you all the best with it. I know about the many hours for many years required to get something off the ground, grow it & maintain it.

I'll pass a link to your site on to the leaders of the project that I'm involved in, I expect that they will welcome it. =D>

[nexx]

thank's handy for the tips:

1) on colours (changed link colors to sky blue, and the orange-brown color of titles, plus the top menu background-color (more saturation most of the time to augment legibility and eye confort.

2) on adding more descriptive page title so peoples have more information when they bookmark.

Since the ogbuzz.com page code is a lighter copy of the design of ubuntu.com, I think it's code should be open sourced.
I use JavaScript to inject youTube videos, may be the code could be used when peoples want lean minimal ultra-fast websites. The html is nice and highly extensible. The future PHP web site builders could be build open-source style I'm sure

:guitar:

[handy]

The colours are a big improvement, thanks. :)

Your Bookmark page title is great.

You've certainly done a nice job of copying the design of the proprietary Ubuntu site.

[nexx]

I have made big changes to the design, not so much in the html structure (apart from the needed ones because of "internet explorer" usual array of rendering bugs).
I would describe it as an Ubuntu inspired Green, asphalt and cement theme (with some touch of fire and ash). Hope it looks professional, it certainly make the information blocks very evident.
I am not sure about the information blocks gray background, I may change it for a white one.
There will be more iterations. I need to concentrate on coding the planned "Search Engine" and "Networking Web App" instead of bothering with visual design (not very comfortable with visual design.

I wonder if some open source programmers could help that project?

[cyberhood]

I am not a business person and I only learned recently to use computers and program webpages so if you have ideas that you would like to share, or even better if you want to participate, I really need to understand the conditions necessary to get peoples happy about engaging themselves in that project.

I just wanna start out by saying way to go! I've been researching food forests and permaculture (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Permaculture) non-stop since I stumbled upon Geoff Lawton's (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Geoff_Lawton) YouTube videos (for those of you interested, check out Greening the Desert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk)).

I was thinking about starting up a similar website myself, but it looks like you beat me to it! Great work.

an idea: If you want it to be participatory and mutual aid based, why not make it a wiki (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Wiki)?

[nexx]

@cyberhood

A wiki is definitively the way to do it. For now what I am doing is establishing a base that could be built upon. The structure of the project need to be completed with How To articles, some sort of "Twitter" for real time exchange of Food Forest Growers and photos. I am working on it and shopping for Wiki code that would be simple to implement and use. If you have ideas, photos, videos or articles to share I open to publish them. :D

[uRock]

Trees are bad, but I am still guilty of planting them where I live.

[Dry Lips]

This is definitively the kind of thread that deserves a bump now and then. :smile:

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Nexx: I've been going through your site (just a little. It's late, and I'm tired. Maybe tomorrow I will give it a closer look), and I want to join everyone else, and congratulate you on an excellent job.
As a man who grew up on home grown vegetables, spices and fruits, among other things, it's always been surprising to me how most people seem to be quite happy feeding exclusively off the garbage they buy at the supermarket. It's incredible to see how the countries that have the most available land (not only the US, but also my country (Argentina) among many others) seem to be the ones in which people show less interest in taking advantage of it.

Anyway, I have, if you don't mind, 2 suggestions for your site:

1. You could make it "wider", for lack of a better word (sorry, English is still a challenge for me), and include other ways of natural self sustain, like growing your own herbs and spices (for those that can't (or don't want to) fill up their backyard with trees). People don't seem to understand that you only need an old bucket and some top soil, to grow your own stuff in your balcony, even if you live in an apartment, in the middle of the city.

2. Open a forum!!! There's a lot of people (myself included) that have lots of information to provide on things like growing your own food, composting, making other stuff, and many other things that could turn this into a huge movement.
I have been doing lots of research on that kind of stuff for the last 5+ years, and one thing that has always bothered me is how nobody treats this in a more comprehensive way, so that resources can be better taken advantage of.

For example, one personal anecdote: When I started researching into this, my focus was on renewable fuels I could produce myself, namely biodiesel, ethanol and methane. I joined a biodiesel forum, in which learned a big deal, not only about making and using biodiesel (of which I even made a few test batches), but also about the things that can be improved in the way most people produce it. So I learned that most biodieselers have a really hard time getting rid of the glycerin byproduct left over from the BD conversion, and will happily give it to you for free. With that glycerin I've been making, for the last 3+ years, my own unbelievably smooth (and almost free) soap. But beforer making the soap, since I'm picky, I purify the glycerin which leaves me with a lot of free, natural fertilizer, and some extra potassium chloride, which is also a fertilizer (though not so natural).
But the point of this is: I had to come up with most of that information on my own, as nobody in the biodiesel hobby seems to know anything about making soap (other than the stinky black bars they make out of mixing the glycerin and some lye), and nobody on any soapmaking forum (I belong to 6 or 7 of them) has any knowledge of how to use BD glycerin to make soap. I think a forum where all self sustain topics were treated in the same place would be a great thing.

So that's about it. If you decide to open up a forum, you already have a member. :D

[nexx]

Forums/wikis/tweeters are the way to go, I am thinking of making another website with a name that would mean: "Giant Forest Forum" instead of ogbuzz.com The "Organic Gardening Buzz" !
The Organic Gardener Buzz would still be used as a blog, the Forum would be on the Giant Forest Project website.
The forestry web site would focus on "forests that sustain yourself", be it a bonsai herb garden on your balcony or a giant ranch. A food forest you can start in a flower pot!
Still looking for a good website domain name...

Shopping and reading to find or code a Forum web software so people can easily find, enter and rank information. Forum, Tweeter and Wiki would be all integrated in some way and visible on the main page. Sort of a modern Craigslist for Food Forest where people could define their own information circles (for example: link soap information to biodiesel or trees seeds). It will probably begin as a simple one page Web App. The idea is to make it fun for people that are kind enough to share their information, practical and fun for readers that do not have much time but need information. A Forum about self sustainable green technology (know how, howto's, where to, when to) with a calendar, forum live view (instead of "Twitter") and forum categories that are all related to forestry. A small Giant Forum about Forests !

[Inodoro Pereyra]

Sounds good.
Let us know how it goes. :)

[nexx]

I have registered a new domain name: OGFOR.com

Since OG means giant in the bible and can also be read as Organic Gardening and also that FOR could be the abbreviation for forestry or forum, OGFOR means: The Giant Forum about Organic Gardened Forests
This forum will also try to help people in all self sustainability subject as they seems to be an important part of what we have to do to grow Food Forest to sustain ourselves.

Even more fun is that I was able to set a twitter and a facebook account for ogfor

I still need to learn how to install and use a forum software. I was thinking about using the same software as the ubuntu forum but the complete package is a little too costly for my actual farm worker salary, but hopefully there is the phpBB open source software that is really powerful too :guitar:

I also need to draw a good logo, I want something that would be a mix between a green giant and a tree. I have a draft to begin with:

[cyberhood]

Nexx: I've been going through your site (just a little. It's late, and I'm tired. Maybe tomorrow I will give it a closer look), and I want to join everyone else, and congratulate you on an excellent job.
As a man who grew up on home grown vegetables, spices and fruits, among other things, it's always been surprising to me how most people seem to be quite happy feeding exclusively off the garbage they buy at the supermarket. It's incredible to see how the countries that have the most available land (not only the US, but also my country (Argentina) among many others) seem to be the ones in which people show less interest in taking advantage of it.

Anyway, I have, if you don't mind, 2 suggestions for your site:

1. You could make it "wider", for lack of a better word (sorry, English is still a challenge for me), and include other ways of natural self sustain, like growing your own herbs and spices (for those that can't (or don't want to) fill up their backyard with trees). People don't seem to understand that you only need an old bucket and some top soil, to grow your own stuff in your balcony, even if you live in an apartment, in the middle of the city.

2. Open a forum!!! There's a lot of people (myself included) that have lots of information to provide on things like growing your own food, composting, making other stuff, and many other things that could turn this into a huge movement.
I have been doing lots of research on that kind of stuff for the last 5+ years, and one thing that has always bothered me is how nobody treats this in a more comprehensive way, so that resources can be better taken advantage of.

For example, one personal anecdote: When I started researching into this, my focus was on renewable fuels I could produce myself, namely biodiesel, ethanol and methane. I joined a biodiesel forum, in which learned a big deal, not only about making and using biodiesel (of which I even made a few test batches), but also about the things that can be improved in the way most people produce it. So I learned that most biodieselers have a really hard time getting rid of the glycerin byproduct left over from the BD conversion, and will happily give it to you for free. With that glycerin I've been making, for the last 3+ years, my own unbelievably smooth (and almost free) soap. But beforer making the soap, since I'm picky, I purify the glycerin which leaves me with a lot of free, natural fertilizer, and some extra potassium chloride, which is also a fertilizer (though not so natural).
But the point of this is: I had to come up with most of that information on my own, as nobody in the biodiesel hobby seems to know anything about making soap (other than the stinky black bars they make out of mixing the glycerin and some lye), and nobody on any soapmaking forum (I belong to 6 or 7 of them) has any knowledge of how to use BD glycerin to make soap. I think a forum where all self sustain topics were treated in the same place would be a great thing.

So that's about it. If you decide to open up a forum, you already have a member. :D
YES! Now THIS is what I'm talking about! I too have spent a lot of time researching biodiesel, for the same self-sustaining reasons, and have come to the same conclusions! What we (the entire internet community) need is a general forum on all things living autonomously. I have yet to come across such a forum, and do not have the means, time, knowledge or money to start one up. But it doesn't take long to connect the dots and see that ALL OF THIS IS CONNECTED!
permaculture (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Permaculture) (food forests being a part) = food autonomy, the most fundamental means of autonomy.
biofuels (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Biofuel) (biodiesel being a part) = fuel autonomy
GNU/Linux + FOSS programs (Ubuntu being a part) = software autonomy
green architecture (have you guys/gals heard of Earthships (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Earthship)?) = architectural autonomy.
It doesn't stop! We can do it! We have all the technology, all the know-how, all the resources, we only lack the will to link it all together put all our knowledge together using forums, wikis, etc. and free ourselves!

@nexx, I'll be joining your forum as soon as I get the chance. I can't wait to learn more about food forests. Thanks again for the PM.

Por cierto Inodoro, tu inglés es perfecto.

[Inodoro Pereyra]

YES! Now THIS is what I'm talking about! I too have spent a lot of time researching biodiesel, for the same self-sustaining reasons, and have come to the same conclusions!

Good to see I'm not the only freak out there...:lolflag:
Either way, I couldn't agree more. There's a difference between making a few gallons of biodiesel a week to save some money, and completely changing the way you live. Many self sustaining techniques are interrelated, and it'll be a great thing to finally have a place to treat self sustain as a whole.
I have already signed up. Waiting on you...:P


Por cierto Inodoro, tu inglés es perfecto.

Gracias, pero lo que estas viendo es el spell check, no mi Ingles. Yo se que mi Ingles no es "terrible", pero sigue siendo "dificil"...