Sostenibilità
Spain: Open source, online green knowledge sharing
The Fèlix Rodriguez de la Fuente Foundation has launched an online communication platform that aims to collect generations old rural knowledge of the environment before it disappears along with Spain’s last shepherds and artisans.
Open source technologies come to the rescue of the rural pastoral lifestyle. A contradiction in terms? Perhaps. But RUNA, an initiative developed and launched by the Madrid based Fèlix Rodriguez de la Fuente Foundation, is a concrete step in favour of safeguarding traditions that for generations have been passed on orally but that, with the advent of modernity, technology and urbanisation, risk being lost forever.
The project revolves around a website, www.ruralnaturaleza.com, that is to function as a sorting house for information posted by users from across Spain on natural resource management and biodiversity. Every user that opens a personal RUNA account is entitled to an individual blog and can add their comments to posts by other users. But the foundation is quick to point out that there is no space for personal commentary or debate in RUNA: “We want data, facts and objective, verifiable information to circulate on RUNA,” explains the website. The fewer adjectives that are used, the better.
Open source expertise, free of charge and accessible to all. The Fundaciòn Fèlix Rodriguez de la Fuente hopes, through RUNA, to keep rural traditions alive and to encourage people, especially young people, to move back to the land. In order to actively promote communication between users and encourage people to manage their territory sustainably, RUNA also offers another innovative service – a Who’s Who of rural experts.
Find out more:
www.felixrodriguezdelafuente.com
