[Linux-aus] Grant application to Linux Australia for Aletheia

Mon Jun 19 15:36:00 AEST 2017

Hi Kade,

As a person who works with researchers everyday at the University of
Melbourne, the idea of paywalls is a very hot topic at the moment.

Open access publications such as F1000Research and PLOS ONE have provided
researchers with more choices than ever before.

Yet the big publications can still provide paywalls due to the way that
research funding is granted, based on publication impact factor. Being able
to publish in Nature gives one an advantage the next time the NHMRC and ARC
grants come around.

In my opinion, the issue around paywalls in research is very much one that
needs a community fix, not a technical fix. And that fix is going to be a
long and complicated journey.

I am unsure how much of this backstory you know or which researchers you
have talked to from a range of disciplines like Life Sciences, Humanities,
Astronomy etc. I would highly recommend engaging with these researchers if
you don't have those relationships already.

In my opinion, this kind of project would be discussed at a University and
Funding level (eg NHMRC) both nationally and internationally. I think the
technical considerations would be of a very low priority

Regards,

Rowland Mosbergen

On Mon, Jun 19, 2017 at 2:52 PM, Kade Morton via linux-aus <
linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au> wrote:

> I've been asked to resend
>
> ***
>
> Hi all,
>
> I wanted to make a grant for the open source project I co-founded,
> Aletheia.
>
> Project name: Aletheia
> Aim of the project: To provide an alternative to publishing scientific
> research behind paywalls and to popularise decentralised autonomous
> organisations.
>
> Aletheia is a decentralised and distributed database which we're applying
> to academic publishing. Basically a a database that is free to upload to
> and access from, administered by the community as a decentralised
> autonomous organisation. Aletheia would be an alternative to publishing
> research behind paywalls.
>
> Have a look at our source code here: https://github.com/aletheia-
> foundation/aletheia-app
> Have a look at our community documentation here:
> https://github.com/aletheia-foundation/aletheia-admin
>
> Key stages or milestones of the project:
>
> Completed
>
>    - Onboarding documents up to standard that newcomers can come onto the
>    project, documents hosted on GitHub.
>    - Participated in the Mozilla Global Sprint https://mozilla.github.io/
>    global-sprint/
>    - Get application running on Ubuntu
>    - Get application running on Mac
>    - Cofounder to complete courses through Mozilla to help create avenues
>    for Mozilla's continued support for Aletheia
>
> To be Completed
>
>    - Get application running on Windows
>    - Finish MVP (aiming for 27th of October 2017)
>    - Run presentation about Aletheia and the applications of
>    decentralised and open source technology in science at MozFest (application
>    made, waiting to hear for acceptance, presentation will be in London, 27th
>    of October 2017)
>    - Finish Aletheia 2.0 (aiming for 1st of July 2018)
>
> How the success of the project will be measured: Number of downloads,
> number of active community users and number of documents stored in Aletheia
> Estimated cost breakdown of the project, including any materials, projects
> or online services that are required to deliver the project. The cost
> breakdown should include estimates of labour costs and/or professional
> services:
>
>    - $15,000 for Extra Credits to create a video covering Aletheia.
>    - $10,000 legal fees, up front consultation and ongoing
>    - $2,000 incidentals incurred so far (server costs, custom domain
>    name, travel expenses we have coming up)
>    - $5,000 to have website professionally built.
>
> These are a great deal of costs. I'd be happy to just apply to have the
> video covered. We think a professionally created video that's engaging and
> made by a talented group of people with a large fan base that's easily
> sharable on social media and can be given to anyone who asks "what is
> Aletheia?" would be the greatest boon to our project. We need to get the
> word out about our project and increase the rate of volunteers coming on to
> the project, we think the visual medium of a video is the best way to do
> this. Unfortunately we don't have any video editors working on the project
> yet, and we've attempted to negotiate an "open source rate" with Extra
> Credits but they have said $15,000 is the lowest they will go. This single
> cost can be paid and therefore count as incurred before 30th of September
> 2017.
>
> The project team, their credentials and professional capabilities,
> especially their history of open source, open data, open hardware or open
> culture contributions:
>
>    - Kade Morton, Mozilla regional coordinator for Brisbane, Mozilla
>    techspeaker, completed the Mozilla open leadership course for open source
>    projects, organised Aletheia's contributions to Mozilla's Global Sprint
>    2017, board member of Electronic Frontiers Australia
>    - Roo (wishes to remain anonymous) cofounded Aletheia with Kade, works
>    for ThoughtWorks on a number of open source projects, is extremely active
>    in running privacy, online security and decentralisation meetups locally.
>    If our application hinges on the identity of Aletheia's cofounder I can
>    approach him and ask if he would mind his name being disclosed to the
>    council but as a blanket rule he has asked for anonymity.
>
> Person responsible for project: Kade Morton
> A statement including a willingness to provide regular project updates on
> the project: I would be more than happy to provide Linux Australia with
> regular status updates on Aletheia and how our client is coming along.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kade Morton
> Twitter: @cypath
> LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kade-morton-34179283
> Keybase: https://keybase.io/kademorton
>
>
>
>
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>
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