The Science Commons Initiative is a non-profit collaboration aimed at increasing the public's access to and participation in the scientific process. We find, spotlight, and fund technological and other strategic infrastructure to help scientists and researchers solve some of the world's most pressing problems, with an emphasis on engaging the public. We seek to make long-lasting changes to the way science is produced and communicated so that it is more open, more democratic, and more optimized to benefit the public.
The SCI currently supports development behind two user-complete web3 and web3-related open-source projects and their communities (BOINC and Gridcoin) while also supporting the advancement of the DeSci ecosystem at large.
The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Networked Computing (BOINC)
BOINC is the first highly successful permissionless distributed computing platform. It was developed out of SETI@Home in 1999. In many ways, it is the embodiment of web3 open source principles through web2 infrastructure. BOINC is an open source project that serves as an onboard ramp for tens of thousands of web3 participants.
To date, BOINC has been the driving force behind numerous computationally intensive research programs; There have been over 400 scientific papers published using results from BOINC projects. Some notable achievements include producing an accurate 3D model of SARS-CoV-2 before crystallization-based models (Rosetta@home), developing a manufactured and distributed COVID-19 vaccine (Rosetta@home), finding new subatomic particles (LHC@Home), identifying pulsars (Einstein@Home), advancements in cancer marker and treatment research (World Community Grid), simulation of candidate molecules for next-generation solar panels (World Community Grid), advancements in climate research (ClimatePrediction.Net), along with many, many others.
BOINC ties the public to science, in part, by enabling any individual to create a distributed computing project for the cost of a server, which can be as simple as a personal laptop running in their garage. The public chooses to engage with the project, learn about the science, and participate. While BOINC is used by countless science enthusiasts, many of the large projects are supported by institutions such as universities from around the world, CERN, Krembil Research Institute, and the Max Planck Institute.
Bounty Board
Since getting our organizational infrastructure up and running the past weeks, The SCI has greenlit thousands of dollars of BOINC development bounties that will be going live over the coming months.
Several bounties for the BOINC community and development team are already live. Stay up to date at the following repo:
BOINC Development and Community Bounties
Microgrid
The SCI has launched a working group tasked with building a project which connects researchers with distributed computing requirements to public distributed computing platforms such as BOINC and also connects volunteer computing participants to those researchers' distributed computing work.
Microgrid Launch Post
Microgrid Presentation and BOINC 2023 Virtual Workshop
BOINC
The SCI developed the first BOINC survey of users since 2006. Beside being just plain interesting, this annual census will be the backbone for future endeavors related to SCI’s outreach for the BOINC project.
University Outreach
In an attempt to educate the principal users of BOINC (researchers), The SCI has developed resources for direct university outreach. We have begun executing on the endeavor and hope to have results to share with the coming year.
Open Promotional Material for the Community
The SCI has begun creating public resources for the BOINC community. So far, we have two installation tutorials for BOINC. We also expect to have free to use radio PSAs in the coming weeks.
BOINC Radio Podcast
The BOINC Radio has been hosting a BOINC oriented podcast for over two years! The discussions range from the greater implications of distributed computing, to BOINC specific architecture, to development hopes and dreams, to informal chats about various beverages. A weekly beacon for the community, the BOINC radio gives anyone who wants a place to share their BOINC story, and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.
The Project briefs
The Project briefs are a spinoff from the BOINC Radio Podcast. They are detailed, yet palatable, explanations of BOINC projects, their science, and how to contribute. With over two dozen episodes recorded so far, the Project briefs will undoubtedly need new projects to spin up to keep going! Or maybe they can dig into the hundreds of projects from BOINC’s past…
Future Endeavors
The SCI hopes to further accelerate BOINC development and adoption by funding bounties, helping new distributed computing projects spin up their servers and connect their applications, and spreading education on the platform to institutions and enthusiasts far and wide.
Gridcoin
Developed during the second altcoin explosion as the first PoW bootstrapped coin to transition to PoS (2013) and the first entirely science-based blockchain and Open Economic Network, Gridcoin is an open-source multi-incentive permissionless blockchain that mints and distributes cryptocurrency to various contribution-based and point-accruing systems. It currently distributes currency according to the relative processing power a network participant directs toward data-driven analysis and scientific discovery across BOINC and Folding@Home.
The SCI supports the Gridcoin community in its quest to use distributed ledger technology and economics to bring science to everyone, and everyone to science. Its main incentive structure encourages researchers to educate the public as to the value and methods of their research while encouraging the public to seek out information on the research itself.
The SCI believes that expanding and supporting the blockchain and economic protocol behind Gridcoin will serve to establish a resilient and persistent connection between science and the public.
Some stats:
Folding@Home integration
The SCI supported through a bounty the Folding@Home integration into Gridcoin. Gridcoin now incentivizes both BOINC and Folding@Home.
Future Endeavors
The SCI will continue to accelerate Gridcoin development and adoption by funding bounties, helping Gridcoin incorporate new point-accruing systems into its incentive layer, and, among other things, by providing a vehicle for formal representation throughout the DLT industry.
DeSci Ecosystem
The DeSci movement is using novel technology to build tools for the scientific system. These tools will remove inefficiencies, redefine incentives, and reimagine what access means. Beyond all that, The SCI believes that the DeSci movement and the tools it is building are critical for rebuilding the bridge of trust between science and the public.
We believe strongly that a connected DeSci is a stronger DeSci. We hope to continue building a project-agnostic, permissionless, and free infrastructure on which the DeSci ecosystem can rely for support. In addition to our currently supported DeSci initiatives, with your help we hope to grow to support events and freelance development in the DeSci space while developing avenues of outreach and education for people new to web3, DeSci, and who want to use DeSci to get involved with the scientific system.
DeSci.Denver
The SCI played a critical role in the organization of DeSci.Denver during ETHDenver. We intend to continue to support the DeSci ecosystem to the extent that our resources allow.
DeSci Peaks
The SCI, in partnership with DeSci world, founded and continues to support the DeSci peaks series, a monthly participatory live-streamed podcast that highlights major questions in the DeSci ecosystem.
DeSci Peaks Twitter
Find the recordings here
Future endeavors
We look forward to supporting DeSci initiatives such as conferences and funding rounds as we further establish ourselves as a viable non-profit in the DeSci ecosystem.
Expected Use of Donations
The SCI has established a bounty board and intends to use a portion of the donations expand on bounties offered for all currently supported projects. Donations will also be directed toward community growth initiatives for all currently supported projects. Additionally and if possible, donations will be used to increase the number of projects The SCI supports. There are already a few projects we have our eyes on and we would love to develop the infrastructure to support them through bounties and community initiatives. Finally, donations will be used to cover general expenses incurred by operating a 501c3, such as web hosting, legal fees, accounting, etc. No board members or officers in The SCI receive pay for their work.
James Owens - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamescowens
Marcus Belcastro - https://au.linkedin.com/in/marcus-belcastro-96628a1a1
Levi Rybalov - https://linkedin.com/in/levi-rybalov/
Vitalii Koshura - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aenbleidd/
Warren Lucas - https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-lucas-23264971/
Paul W. Jensen
Alexander Bryan
Jonathan Starr