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Sharing knowledge - Akvopedia

What is Akvopedia?

Akvopedia works just like Wikipedia. It is filled with information on smart and affordable water and sanitation technology in rural or urban settings. Anyone can contribute knowledge and edit Akvopedia. Local field workers get access to new ideas for their projects, and can share knowledge in new ways. For those with good content but who are short of time to share it, Akvopedia offers free editorial services.

How to contribute to Akvopedia

We use the same conventions as the well-known online resource Wikipedia, so adding and editing articles is quick and easy to learn. To get started, first create an Akvopedia user account using the Log in/create account link in the upper right corner of the Akvopedia home page. Then use this graphical guide to get started creating and editing articles. More detailed information about editing wiki articles can be found on our help pages.

How is quality control done?

Akvopedia draws on the combined knowledge of many water and sanitation experts from around the world. We actively engage experts to contribute new and check existing information. All changes to the Akvopedia are reviewed weekly by our Akvopedia editor.

What about other languages?

At the moment the Akvopedia is only available in English. Having it available in more languages is one of our priorities, and we are currently figuring out the best way to handle translations.

Why use Akvopedia instead of Wikipedia or Appropedia?

Akvopedia is an integrated part of the whole Akvo system: projects link to relevant Akvopedia articles, and Akvopedia articles will (eventually) link back to relevant projects. For that to work, the structure of the Akvopedia portals needs to be stable. We couldn't guarantee that if we depended on another knowledge sharing platform.

We also have certain ideas on how best to structure water and sanitation information. Taking a systems approach, we've given our articles on individual technologies a uniform structure and quality. If all articles have similar structure, readers can more easily and quickly find what they need.

This having been said, all Akvopedia content is licensed as open source. Just as we use material from others, all are welcome to read and reuse our material.