[GSBN] [Gsbn] Important GSBN News

Mon Mar 30 16:55:17 UTC 2020

Bill,
If you start a go-fund-me page, I would put $50 in to help the cause, and I am sure that many others would too.

Best,
Nehemiah

Stone Energy Associates
PO Box 324 Loomis, CA 95650
(916) 663-1225

“There is infinite hope, only not for us.” Franz Kafka
“There is no hope, except for us.” Jonathon Franzen

From: GSBN <gsbn-bounces at lists.sustainablesources.com> On Behalf Of Bill Christensen
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2020 7:55 PM
To: David Arkin, AIA <david at arkintilt.com>
Cc: gsbn at lists.sustainablesources.com
Subject: Re: [GSBN] [Gsbn] Important GSBN News

Hi all,

The Straw Bale Registry server started giving me problems just last week... it is currently offline, and since we're under "stay at home" orders here in Austin, TX, it'll probably be next week at the earliest, possibly the week after that before I can address the problem.  The Registry is the only thing on that server.

The Registry server and the software that runs the Registry are both pretty old.  I've been wanting to completely overhaul it and expand the scope for years, but I don't have any funding to do that - We received some funding to build it initially (shout out to Catherine Wanek), but there's been pretty much nothing ever since.

I have the data from the Registry downloaded of course.  I suspect it'll take a fair bit of work to make it usable. I also suspect that the contact info for a fair number of the listed buildings is waaaay out of date as we've done nothing to remind people to update their listings for a very long time. But we do have location info, if someone wanted to follow up on that.

You can see some of the data by going to http://web.archive.org/web/20190904143620/http://sbregistry.sustainablesources.com/search.straw<http://web.archive.org/web/20190904143620/http:/sbregistry.sustainablesources.com/search.straw>.  They didn't archive all the way down in many cases, and of course they could only see the info which is publicly visible.  A lot of SB people are pretty adamant about their privacy and we took pains to insure that we could collect data about their SBs without making it public except in a general aggregate form.

Remember also that some years into this project, State Farm decided to use the Registry to identify and deny insurance to SB homes - the exact opposite of our intent.  That resulted in further restrictions on what identifying info we were able and willing to share.  I'm pretty sure that occurred prior to the oldest data on archive.org (2011).

On 3/27/20 8:55 PM, David Arkin, AIA wrote:
Hello Bill / GSBN and Sustainable Sources:

Hope this finds you well, in these times in particular.

I was looking for the Straw Bale Registry and the link provided by Google wouldn’t open … curious if it now has a new address as well, or otherwise?

One of our members has a project idea to query the registry for their insurance and finance experience, and ideally the information gathered is made available to others who might be struggling with one or both of these, both potential homeowners as well as many current ones located in fire-prone areas in particular.

Would be please to hear your thoughts on the survey project, and whether it could be added to the database or just solicited separately.

Be well, stay kind,

David / CASBA

On Jan 22, 2020, at 9:22 PM, Bill Christensen <billc at sustainablesources.com<mailto:billc at sustainablesources.com>> wrote:

Hi everyone!
I have a couple of important news items:
1) GSBN has moved to a new server, and the address has changed.  Please be sure that you use the address "gsbn at lists.sustainablesources.com<mailto:gsbn at lists.sustainablesources.com>" (we added the "lists." part to the previous address) in all future emails.  I may be able to get the old address to forward over to the new, but it'll be best if you just use the new address.
We were offline for a while in the fall due to software issues, and I'll be forwarding the two emails the list received during our downtime to the list as soon as I'm done with this one.
2) I now have time to put together something I've wanted to do for a long time: an online video meeting.  We can use Zoom or GoToMeeting - I'm open to suggestions - and talk about what is going on in the world of Straw, Earth, and Sustainable Building.
The idea would be to have quarterly or monthly video meetups, record them, and post them to YouTube or similar.
The first one would probably just be a round-table type free for all, but later ones could center on a particular topic or a presentation by one of our esteemed contributors.
I'm thinking that the first meeting could be sometime in February. Let's discuss dates and times and, if anyone is particularly familiar with various technologies, that too.

--

Bill Christensen

http://SustainableSources.com<http://sustainablesources.com/>

http://LinkedIn.com/in/billc108<http://linkedin.com/in/billc108>

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention

with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.” — Mitch Ratcliffe
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Arkin Tilt Architects
Ecological Planning & Design
1101 8th St. #180, Berkeley, CA  94710
510/528-9830 ext. 202
www.arkintilt.com<http://www.arkintilt.com>

David Arkin, AIA, Architect
LEED Accredited Professional
CA #C22459/NV #5030

Co-Director, California Straw Building Association
www.strawbuilding.org<http://www.strawbuilding.org>
CASBA is a project of the Tides Center

"There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."
— A. J. Muste

--

Bill Christensen

http://SustainableSources.com

http://LinkedIn.com/in/billc108

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention

with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequila.” — Mitch Ratcliffe
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