Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Help Wanted Department: Donald Appleyard is (almost) not on Wikipedia

To: John Whitelegg, Editor, WTPP


Dear John,  Your editorial and latest edition of World Transport  got me to thinking once again about the great work of Donald Appleyard -- to the extent in which I have decided to make his 1981 publication of Livable Streets into a significant milestone in the process of sustainable development accomplishment and awareness in the context of the course which I am currently developing at – http://sustain.ecoplan.org

So naturally enough, just to be sure that his work is being properly presented by Wikipedia, I dropped in and checked out what they had to offer this morning at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Appleyard and I saw to my great disappointment that they dispensed with his important contributions in something like five short lines.  So, time being terribly short here these days, I had to do a most un-Wikipedia like thing , and that is I simply cut and pasted entire content of and homage to him into his work by Allan B. Jacobs and Clare Cooper Marcus.

Now I am sure that the ever-vigilant WP editorial robots will quickly narrow in on this and get rid of everything that does not correspond to their protocols.  My hope is that you and others who know who appreciate Appleyard's work will find the time to go in and clean it up so that it corresponds with the standard Wikipedia procedures.

I wish I had time to do it myself, and I rather doubt that you do not have a lot free for this either.  But I wanted to share this with you, and perhaps if not yourself you can find a couple of other people who appreciate his wonderful work and who want to make sure that it is properly acknowledged in what is after all the source that just about everyone these days turns to first.  For better or worse, so in this case let us make it better.

Eric Britton

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1 comment:

  1. Wikipedia is not edited by robots and "they" aren't out get him. Wikipedia only restricts access to changes when there's mischievous/malicious activity and I find it hard to believe that Donald Appleyard has risen to minor celebrity status. What does the history of that post say?

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