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<font size="5">'''Convivial Tools Database'''</font><br>
<br>
This website is a database about people, things, concepts and movements related to [[Convivial Tools]]. [[Ivan Illich]] coined the term [[Convivial Tools]] in his 1973 book [[Tools for Conviviality]]. Convivial Tools can be defined as tools which allow the user to operate with independent efficiency.

This database website is a companion to the [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org conviviality.ouvaton.org] website, which remains my main showcase on the subject of Convivial Tools. The present website is a grab-bag of more hastily-written or less directly-relevant pages. Some articles on the present website were copied over from that other website (they will be tagged as [:Category:Copied from conviviality.ouvaton.org]).

==The Convivial Tool==
This part of the website seeks to describe the [[Convivial Tool]] as a possible object of design and marketing. See the following categories and pages:
*[[:Category:Convivial Design]]: characteristics of the convivial tool
**Introductory page: [[Convivial Tool Characteristics]]
*[[:Category:Convivial Product]]: production and marketing of the convivial tool
**Introductory page: [[Convivial Product]]

==Thematic Topics==
This part of the website situates Convivial Tools within the broader frameworks of alternative technology and social change. See the page [[Thematic Topics]] for a summary. The main thematic topics are listed below in approximate order of their chronological development:
*[[:Category:Historical Roots]] of the ideas behind Convivial Tools - see [[Historical Roots Narrative]]
*[[:Category:Post-War Cybernetics]] - see [[Post-War Cybernetics]]
*[[:Category:Sixties Counterculture]] - see [[Sixties Counterculture]]
*[[:Category:Whole Earth]] - see [[Whole Earth]]
*[[:Category:Appropriate Technology]] - see [[Appropriate Technology]]
*[[:Category:Ivan Illich]] - see [[Ivan Illich]]
*[[:Category:Hacker Generation]] and the invention of the personal computer - see [[Hacker Generation]]
*[[:Category:Postmodernism]] - see [[Postmodernism]]
*[[:Category:Web]]: the web as convivial technology - see [[The Web]]
*[[:Category:FOSS]] - see [[Free and Open Source Software]]
*[[:Category:Open Source]] as a broad movement - see [[Open Source]]

The scope of these thematic topics is too wide. Some of the pages have been transferred or copied into my tentative (and very incomplete) [http://interdb.org Internet Database] and [http://iuserguide.com Internet User Guide]. Detailed pages on [[wiki]]s have been transferred to my [http://toolswiki.ouvaton.org Wiki History Database].

==About this website==
Michael Slattery is the creator and administrator of this site.

The website is a structured collection of pages grouped into categories. All categories are attached, directly or indirectly, to [[:Category:Root]]. Links to pages that have yet to be created appear as [[red links]]. For a look behind the scenes, see [[:Category:Scaffolding]].

Is this Website a Wiki? The website operates under [[MediaWiki]] software, and thus has the potential to be a [[Wiki]]. However, to prevent spam, the site is currently configured so that only I can edit pages.

==See Also==
*The companion website, [http://conviviality.ouvaton.org conviviality.ouvaton.org], my main showcase about Convivial Tools.
*[[Convivial Concepts]]
*[[Cooperation Database]]: a site-within-the-site, the beginning of what could be a separate project on the subject of Cooperation