Wikibuilder - a knowledge base covering the design and construction of the built environment
Project proposal page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikibuilder
See also: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects
== Basic idea ==
To create a knowledge base covering the design and construction of the built environment.
== Scope ==
Much, if not most, of the information could be presented as text (and could start off as just that), but text presents profound and obvious limits for describing the built environment, so much of the information would be pictorial. With the drawing expertise of designers and draughtspeople around the world who are intimate with CAD (computer aided draughting) there should be no shortage of people to get the ball rolling.
There are currently efforts going on in the graphics and architecture industries to standardise pictorial file formats (see links below) and the main topic of initial discussion on Wikibuilder may well revolve around the kind of file formats to use for presenting and distributing sketch, 2D, 3D and other kinds of pictorial information. Carrying on from this might be discussion on graphical styles and style standardisation.
There are a few open-content repository-type websites around for sharing building details, et cetera, but most of them are woeful and narrowly focused on CAD technicians looking for details to use at work. There're a myriad of websites dotted around the internet offering information on design but this is extremely fragmented. [edit]
== Why? ==
Ever since we as a species started manipulating our environment we have built a vast knowledge of designing and constructing the built environment. This knowledge belongs to everyone, but much of it is is locked away in people's heads with no easy way to share such information except for books (usually expensive ones) and apprenticeship. A wiki focused on the built environment could help unlock this knowledge and make it accessible to vast numbers of people (builders, designers, inventors, diy'ers, knowledge lovers) who could put it to use and continue to build on it in a open way. A wiki could also help the push for open standards in the presentation of pictorial information via the internet.
Kind regards, Christiaan