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Why are our prices so low?  Why do we freely provide information about how we do things we charge to do?  What is the significance of the name "Interdependent Web"?  What is the significance of the funny colors in our logo?

First of all, if you're wondering why we're talking about two seemingly unrelated topics at once, see "What does Permaculture Design have to do with Web sites?"

The name Interdependent Web refers to the seventh principle of Unitarian Universalism, "Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part."  Not only are we (Ben and Jessie) UUs, but the creator of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is also a UU.  He has written that he created the Web partly as an expression of his religious principles.  We strive to create permaculture designs and Web sites as an expression of our principles.  A garden or a Web site should not stand alone; it should be interdependent, reaching out to contribute to other sites and to take in their contributions.  It should actively encourage participation from passersby and readers whenever possible.  And it should contribute to the ecosystem from which it draws -- any new techniques developed for one site should be contributed back to the community for use in other sites.

That brings me to why we blog here about what we're learning... the way we see it, anything we learn about open-source software (or permaculture) should also be open-source.  Information about how to build Web sites or greenhouses or tree guilds is hard enough to find without keeping it a trade secret.  What we are selling is not the technology itself (which is free), nor our knowledge about it (which should also be free), but merely our time and attention.  It is not our goal to make clients dependent upon us.  It is our goal to get you to a point where you can sustain yourseves.

Which brings us to our fees.  They are much lower than average for designer and developer fees.  But they meet our costs, which are modest.  Our favorite clients are individuals, small businesses and nonprofits that frequently only have a few hundred dollars to spend on a project.  We like being able to work for our favorite clients. It gives us satisfaction, which is why we are in this business. Therefore we don't price ourselves out of their range.

The colors in our logo come from Ken Wilber's labels for the stages of human psychological development as set out in The Integral Vision: Infrared, Magenta, Red, Amber, Orange, Green, Teal, Turquiose.  (Stages beyond Turquoise on the development spectrum are hypothetical.) For more information about what the colors represent, click the image at left.

Coming from a background in psychology and technology studies, we (Ben and Jessie) appreciated the analogy of a spectrum to developmental stages (since it implies not only continuous variation but also that there are more stages that are beyond our perception), and saw an analogous evolution in ecological succession and in the history of Web sites.  The Infrared (survival) and Magenta (magic-animistic) stages are not likely motives for a Web site, so I omit them... that leaves

• Red: personal Web sites, like FranStallings.com or Angela Davis, the Yarnspinner (or this site, for that matter), which provide one-way communication from individual people.  In a garden, this stage might feature a few specific annual vegetable crops.
• Amber: institutional, informational sites such as Prairie Star District UUA or Prairie Folklore Theatre, which provide one-way communication from a specific group of people.  A garden at this stage might feature companion plantings.
  
• Orange: interactive scientific or commercial sites, like the SecureProductsWiki or iPhone Life, which encourage participation within a specific discipline or industry.  A garden at this stage might feature guilds designed to support a specific crop or purpose.
• Green: interactive interpersonal, "Web 2.0" sites, like Wikipedia, the popular social networks, and media-sharing sites (we have no projects of this type in good working order, but have experimented with them in the past, and two are currently in the works), which encourage participation from anyone, regardless of background.  A garden at this stage might feature polyculture plantings supporting many crops simultaneously.
• Teal and Turquoise: sites that actively interact with other sites and with other programs and devices besides Web browsers, through new semantic protocols such as RDF.  We expect to start working on this type of site in the years to come, with Drupal 7 and beyond.  The distinction between the Teal and Turquoise stages is subtle, and will become clearer as we start to see them more often.  A garden at this stage would plan for ecological succession, evolving into a forest garden with many layers.

By placing these types of sites on a spectrum we do not in any way mean to call one type better than another.  There will always be a need for personal and institutional, informational sites -- and annual vegetable gardens -- precisely because they are more fundamental than the more recent types.  We are just asserting that the Web itself is developing, like society, in the footsteps of our collective psychological development.

One concrete success we can claim for structuring our Web development business along Permaculture lines is that all our hosting accounts are carbon-neutral, thanks to carbon-offset initiatives by HostGator and DreamHost.  Our office in Kansas and all business trips are also carbon-offset by TerraPass.

We hope that this page has helped shed some light on our philosophy of garden design, of Web development, and of doing business.  We encourage your comments below.