🕊️Overview

High-level information about the new protocol

This specification defines an interactive data graph where anyone*, can freely collaborate on maintaining the scientific record. Given some base properties of the underlying implementation, the goal is to work together globally, without barriers, in weaving the permanent fabric of our collective scientific progress. Every thread of which is deterministically resolvable and its existence independent of any one individual person or organization. The network collectively contributes to safekeeping our accumulated scientific knowledge.

Anyone can create user-facing applications for interfacing with this open-data-network, which is only defining the rules of interaction. Such applications are called gateways, and fill the role of user-facing, application-specific interactions with the underlying graph.

We strive for decentralization and diversity in gateways, data pinning, HTTP resolvers, analytics services, scientific collaboration platforms, etc. This will ultimately maximize accessibility, mitigate censorship, guarantee data integrity, reduce operating costs, guarantee long-term preservation, increase democratic participation, reduce gatekeeping, achieve radical transparency, and empower individual researchers.

A note on ongoing work

You are reading an early version of the protocol specification, and things will likely change with insights gained from continuous development. Some models don't capture every detail: some things are purposefully simplified to make it easy to reason about semantics, and some properties are simply left out to avoid premature over-engineering. These are simple to add after initial kinks are ironed out.

*more specifically those related to research in the form of researchers, data stewards, reviewers, metadata curators, curiously interested, analysts, science reporters, policy advisors, et cetera,