Collaboration

One the things I'm trying to do during my internship here is find out what other Simple Technologies (also called appropriate technologies) have been developed by other NGOs. I have been supprised by the number of organizations out there with similar goals that have developed technologies, but I'm even more supprised at the lack of collaboration. With so many groups working on similar problems (clean water, sanitation, gardening etc.) I haven't found a great location for collaborating on inovations. It strikes me that collaboration is used for huge projects like open office and firefox but not for simple technologies like wells. For example today I came accross a website for Gaviotas a sef sustained village in colombia http://www.friendsofgaviotas.org/Innovation/Innovation.html they have plans for a pump and windmill that were both developed for their village. Its nice that they haven't pattented their designs so anyone can use them but the resource is only 2 of the many technologies that have been developed there. I also found Practical Action http://practicalaction.org/practicalanswers/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=168 It includes a lot more information on many different technologies so its a pretty good resource, but the key component, collaboration isn't there. Then I came accross Appropedia http://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia its a huge seachable database and best of all-its a wiki-so if it doesn't have the information I want I can add it. And if each user will update the wiki based on their experience with simple technologies it will keep getting better. The only thing that I think it lacks is the step by step instructions that practiacal action has, but this can be overcome by me or any other user by inserting links or instructions. I love it.