DGAC 2.0 and Open AIP

After watching TED videos and reading Wikipedia articles about open-source, open-governance, etc, I began to think of a Wiki project in which anyone could could add, modify or delete the content of the articles and structure of a virtual civil aviation authority. I wrote the basics on a notebook and named it DGAC 2.0.

I first began to look for free web hosting sites and found Wikia. At first I didn't know how to edit the content and add more pages to the site. I even searched for more free web hosting sites, because Wikia looked pretty complicated than I thought. I then found Wikispaces. It was more programming-and-wiki-ignorant-friendly and I started to write the pages and content of DGAC 2.0.

It's basically a Wiki of a civil aviation authority with a simple structure and regulations based on the ICAO Annexes. After finishing the copying of the regulations of the annexes, the addition, modification and deletion of rules can begin. I also added a section to each department to describe the role and paperwork issuance methods of that specific department.
Other goal of the project is to create an interest in the open-source democratic philosophy, to analize it's development, participation, efficiency and action in a government sector.

I then began to think about a project that could benefit pilots and, most importantly, student pilots. I named it AIP México.

AIP México is a Wiki with the goal of establishing a collaboration of pilots, student pilots, aviation fans and other people, so that they can help writing the content of the Aeronautical Information Publication.

The mexican transport and communications ministry, the mexican aviation administration and the air traffic administration hasn't published an AIP on the internet or other electronic medium. That's why another goal of the AIP México Wiki is to demonstrate that the aviation community in Mexico can organize and create a collaborative network to develop efficient and modern projects that benefit aviation in general without the support of a government agency.

I opened another Wiki with that name in Wikispaces. The problem was that Wikispaces began to charge page creators to make the pages viewable for everybody. I didn't like that.
I returned to my original site, Wikia, fearing it would be difficult for me to understand the method of editing the pages and content of the wiki. It's not. It's much more simple that I thought. I started editing, writing and adding pages for the DGAC 2.0 wiki and finally had something to work with.

Please visit AIP México and DGAC 2.0 !

There's a chance both projects will fail based on these facts:

• The big majority of the aviation community has a poor understanding of the international and national air law, and do not care.
• It's a complicated project, requiring a lot of time and dedication, which not many have.
• Poor knowledge of open-source and wikis.
• The flight schools in Mexico don't show the content and function of the AIP to their students.
• Not many have the mexican AIP, which costs around $2650 mexican pesos.
• Not many will spend some time writing the AIP content.
• Nobody cares about the AIP, since a lot of its content is in the Jeppesen Airway Manual for Mexico.

Anyways, the DGAC 2.0 is kind of a personal experiment/project to create a civil aviation authority that DOES work and is efficient. I'll keep writing the content of the AIP, with or without participation of others. It's a good cause.

G'day.