Governance

Governance • Open Source • Storage

How will the Open State repository be governed?

In our design, all research objects are controlled by the individuals who published them. Edits and deletions are solely managed by the works' original authors.

There are certain things like protocol updates, platform development, and data migrations which currently are controlled and managed by DeSci Labs and could affect future data availability and author eligibility into scientometric calculations used by funders. We at DeSci Labs believe no single entity should be solely in charge of long-term data availability and grant eligibility metrics. We believe with proper technical design, we can eliminate almost all forms of "vendor lock-in" or similar problems. We pledge to minimize if not completely eliminate our ability to maintain influence over the protocol in the long term. If any influence over the protocol, its data or users continues to be maintained, our plan is to transfer control and governance over any influential mechanisms to the DeSci Foundation, a non-profit in Geneva, Switzerland. The DeSci Foundation's mission is to make science better using emerging technologies, and thus should represent all major stakeholders in the scientific record, with a particular emphasis on metascientists to guide the protocol forward. Our goal is to create credible neutrality for the protocol.

Is the software Open Source?

Yes! We believe Open Science is built on Open Source. You can find our releases in our GitHub

Where is data being stored?

Prior to publication, your data is privately stored on DeSci Labs cloud infrastructure, which is hosted by various cloud providers depending on market conditions such as storage costs.

Once published, your data and metadata are transferred and stored in the open state repository. Our goal is to provide the most secure, open, long term, transparent, and platform-independent storage solution for research outputs possible.

Traditional repository architecture binds the perennity of the data and metadata to the sustainability and continued existence of the operator and its legal entity.

In contrast, we are building a so-called open state repository which relies on open, peer-to-peer storage and decentralized indexing of your research object. Technically, Nodes are IPLD-compliant JSON-LD structures that form a Merkle DAG. We index the root hash of this Merkle object on a decentralized registry that provides a version-invariant PID and ties versioning rights to the creator’s digital signature.

Nodes store all content on this open state repository powered by the IPFS network and its associated incentive-layer, with at least 5 archival copies across 3 continents plus 1 “hot” copy, provided by several different storage providers which are incentivized to preserve an unaltered copy of your data and operate competitively on an open market for storage deals. This data redundancy greatly reduces the chance of valuable data getting lost and creates independence from specific storage providers.

Our vision involves decoupling the “data layer” from the “application layer” - Nodes is an interface to access this open state repository architecture. As such, Nodes inherits the fault tolerance of the underlying networks on which it is built. While Nodes and their PIDs are completely secured against content drift, malicious or unintentional, they are only immune to link rot to the extent that its underlying networks continue to operate.

In accordance with the FAIR principles, we treat metadata with redundancy of caution by storing an additional backup copy. All metadata is licensed under CC0

You can learn more about the Open State repository here.