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OUR COMPANY
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OUR BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
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OUR RESOURCES
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OUR TEAM
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OUR PASSION
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LATEST NEWS
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MAPPING OUR EFFORT
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OUR COMPANY
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What is The Open Source
Science Project?
We are a web-based social business
founded and managed by a team of academics, researchers, and engineers
What do we do?
We empower
you
to actively meet - and overcome
- the challenges we and our world face through innovation and
research
How do we do it?
We develop
free web-based tools
that will facilitate
communication between
researchers and non-researchers, as well as increase the
accessibility
of unfiltered scientific data and information through open
licensing
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MISSION
STATEMENT
The Open Source Science Project
is an organization wholly dedicated to rendering transparent the 'black-box' of contemporary scientific
research and increasing its accessibility by affording all individuals - irrespective
of geographic, cultural, socio-economic, academic, or personal background; the opportunity
to participate directly in the scientific research process.
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OUR BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY
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To appreciate the
novelty of our
business model, and the conviction underlying our mission
statement, it is important that we take a moment to clarify what
a 'social business' is, and what it is not.
A social business is not a traditional for-profit
business (which seeks, ultimately, to maximize its profit for
the benefit of its shareholders), nor is it a non-profit
business (which relies upon a constant stream of charitable or
philanthropic donations to cover its operational budget and
expenses). |
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We are a
'social business'.
What does this
mean?
Being a social
business means that
our
goal
is to solve
a social problem
by using business methods, including the creation and
sale of products or services. |
Rather, a
'social business' is an entirely distinct type of business which
is structurally designed, wholly, for the purpose of
maximizing its
impact
upon a particular problem - or issue - which threatens people
and society. As noted in our mission statement; the ultimate
goal of our efforts is to render transparent the 'black box' of
scientific research; and to increase its accessibility. To
maximize our impact in this effort, our business model is founded upon
six fundamental principles:
Our objective is to solve
a social problem - not to maximize profit -
We will attain financial
and economic sustainability
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Investors shall be paid
back only their investment amount - no dividend shall be
given beyond the return of the original investment
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When the investment
amount is repaid, profits stay with the organization for
expansion and improvement
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We are environmentally
conscious
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Our employees shall
receive a competitive market wage - with
better-than-standard working conditions
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OUR RESOURCES
Since its founding in
early 2008, The Open Source Science Project has developed a number of web-based tools
to empower all individuals and communities to more directly
participate in the scientific research process.
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To appreciate the
importance of such a model, we must recognize the fundamental
issue which exists within the status quo: the lack of
communication between scientific researchers, and between
researchers and non-researchers.
Presently, the only outlet
whereby researchers may disseminate their work is the formal
manuscript submitted for publication upon the completion of each
research study.
These reports,
however, are limited in the insight they are able to provide
regarding the work they are intended to represent - a great
deal of information, after all, must be filtered out in order to
condense months of work into a 5-10 page report. |
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A diagram
depicting how scientific research is disseminated under
the status quo. The absence of green arrows
represents the inability for non-researchers to directly
access the research community. |
This system of
one-publication research, combined with the high costs
associated with accessing these (often privately held)
publications, greatly restricts the ability for the research
community - as well as the non-research community - to profit
from understanding gained from the research study itself.
In protest of this
restrictive status quo, we have developed a series of tools that foster a far more transparent
exchange of information between researchers, as well as between
researchers and non-researchers. As illustrated above, three of
these tools (the research log platform, research microfinance
platform, and discussion forum) function to gather information
from the research community that is then discussed, deliberated
- and subsequently fed - to our
openly-accessible research-based scientific curriculum.
What makes these tools truly unique, however, is not their
capacity to gather and concatenate research information - but
rather, the fact that these tools are dually accessible by the
research community and the non-research community.
A diagram
indicating how these tools function, and how they facilitate the open-exchange of information
between researchers, as well as between researchers and
non-researchers, is presented above. Here, blue arrows
indicate the flow of information and resources out of the
scientific research community, and green arrows indicate the
flow of information and resources into the research
community.
This means that
for the first time in history, any individual - irrespective of
who, or where, they are - may now pose questions, challenge
'conventional wisdom', and debate theories with their peers
working at the cutting edge of scientific research!
Through our
research
microfinance platform,
individuals and communities around the world may directly fund
(in the form of microinvestments) research projects that will
ultimately have a direct impact upon themselves and their
livelihoods. Through our
discussion forum,
individuals around the world may pose questions to, and discuss
ideas with, researchers working at the cutting edge of
scientific research while our
research log
platform
enables individuals around the world to follow the progress made
in ongoing research projects in real time, and enables
researchers to collaborate with one another in order to improve
the outcomes of the projects themselves. Ultimately, the
information produced within, and submitted to, each of these
three resources will be incorporated into the comprehensive,
dynamic, and openly-accessible,
research-based curriculum
that
we have launched, and will continue to develop in the years to
come.
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Imagine a world where a young professional who learns their
parent has been diagnosed with NIDDM was afforded the
opportunity to directly invest in a
research team actively working to develop a therapy to prevent
diabetic retinopathy.
Imagine a world where a community in need of clean water could
receive funding not simply to buy water from elsewhere, but
could receive an investment to develop a unique filtration system to purify their local reservoirs, and
access to an outlet through which to then freely broadcast this information so
that other communities could benefit in kind.
Imagine a world where rural communities stretching from Ecuador to Vietnam could invest
directly in the development of a more inexpensive, and efficient, treatment
for malaria; and observe (in real time) the progress made by those researchers
whose work they fund.
Imagine a world where cutting-edge science is no longer a body of
abstract ideas we must have faith in, but a network of information and
theories we may readily access and comprehend!
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This is the world we seek.
One where communities are not forced to suffer in silence simply
because the diseases which affect them do not affect enough people to
attract the attention of large commercial corporations. One where
'charitable giving' is not equated with actions that further a community's dependence upon
such assistance.
We seek a world where the unrestricted access to
knowledge and the unplanned, and uninhibited, association of individuals
and communities for its furtherance, make - as physicist J. Robert
Oppenheimer observed - our "vast, complex, ever-growing, ever-changing,
ever more specialized and expert technological world, nevertheless a
world of human community."
In order to ensure
the accessibility, and utility, of this information; research conducted via our research
microfinance platform (unless otherwise noted), and all information
and content published within our research-based curriculum, is
provided free-of-charge under one or more open-source/share-alike
licenses.
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OUR TEAM
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PRIYAN WEERAPPULI
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR |
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PSYCHOLOGY | BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING |
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A graduate of Michigan
State University, Priyan Weerappuli began entertaining
the idea of developing a research-based
neuroscience
curriculum as an alternative
resource for students interested in the
research
aspects of
neuroscience
(as opposed
to their
clinical
correlates) while
an undergraduate biomedical engineering research intern
at The Johns Hopkins University.
Following his graduation from MSU in the summer
of 2006, he moved to San Diego where he spent
the next two years developing this idea into
what would, by January 2007, become The Human
Brain Project (The HBP) - a web-based platform
where students could access cutting edge
neuroscience research information, as well as
submit proposals for research projects in order
to secure funding through microinvestments.
After completing a prototype platform in early
2008, Priyan co-founded
The Open Source Science Project with his father
to serve as a 'parent organization'
that would extend the utility of The HBP to all scientific disciplines.
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SARATH C. JOSHUA
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FINANCIAL DIRECTOR |
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CIVIL
ENGINEERING | TRANSPORTATION
ENGINEERING |
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Though completing his
formal education at the University of Virginia -
where he graduated with a Ph.D. in 1989; Sarath
Joshua has spent over three decades working as a
professional engineer in design, research, and
planning. In 1998, he joined the Maricopa
Association of Governments (MAG), where he has
focused his efforts on the application of advanced
technology solutions in urban transportation
systems, and on improving road safety in the Phoenix
metropolitan region. In addition to his work
with MAG, he also serves on several state and
national expert panels, and is a Faculty Associate
at Arizona State University.
He is currently an
ITS and Safety Programs Manager at
The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG).
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PARAKRAMA
WEERAPPULI
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OPERATIONS DIRECTOR |
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BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING | MECHANICAL
ENGINEERING |
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A graduate of Iowa
State University, Parakrama Weerappuli completed his
formal education with the receipt of a Ph.D. in
Biomechanics, followed by a Post-Doctoral fellowship
in Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins
University. He began his professional career
at GESAC Inc. - a biodynamics research and
development company; and later joined the Ford Motor
Company; where over the past 15 years, he has worked
toward mitigating occupant injuries caused by
automobile crashes - his primary focus being to
improve the safety of formula one drivers, and the
efficacy of automotive child restraint systems.
He is currently a
Technical Expert in Biomechanics at
Ford
Motor Company.
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ARI WIJETUNGA
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CONTENT DIRECTOR
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STATISTICS | STATISTICAL METHODS |
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Completing his formal
education upon graduating with a Ph.D. in Statistics
from Colorado State University in 1979, Ari
Wijetunga began his professional career at Minnesota
State University Moorhead (MSUM) - where he has
taught for over 25 years. During his tenure,
he has taught a number of courses in Mathematics and
Statistics including remedial mathematics courses,
service courses, and advanced mathematics/statistics
courses. He has also developed the curriculum
for a preparatory course for students planning to
take their First Actuarial Examination of the SOA.
He is currently a
Professor of Mathematics at
Minnesota State University Moorhead.
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KANAKA VIJITHA-KUMARA
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PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR |
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COMPUTER SCIENCE |
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Completing his formal
education upon graduating with a Ph.D. in
Mathematics from Iowa State University in 1985,
Kanaka Vijitha-Kumara began his professional career
at Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois. During
his tenure at EC, he worked to improve the computer
science curriculum, as well as the overall campus
computing environment. He is responsible for both academic and administrative
computing on campus, and oversees the implementation
of network services to the Eureka College Network.
He is currently a
Professor of Computer Science and Director of
Information Technology at
Eureka College.
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OUR PASSION
Perhaps the most important, and appropriate, question that may be asked regarding our
overall effort is: Why should it be undertaken at all?
For most citizens, the lack of accessibility to scientific research and the scientific research process
is inconsequential. It hardly impedes one's ability to wake up each morning, to earn an honest
living, and to fall asleep each evening. In fact, in the eyes of most, the only community of
individuals who ostensibly stands to benefit (or suffer) from the degree of accessibility they are afforded
to scientific research and the scientific research process is the scientific research community itself.
Why, then, should increasing the transparency and accessibility of these resources concern anyone but
the scientific research community?
Often, in those appeals made by researchers and educators for increasing access to these resources, we are
asked to consider the economic disadvantages that will arise if scientific innovation is stifled, the
consequences this will have upon our national security, and the obstacles this will place, in turn, upon our
individual (and collective) freedom. In other words, all too often, we are asked to value
scientific research as an integral component in maintaining our economic and social standard of living.
Unfortunately, for most citizens, such appeals serve only to equate the importance of scientific
research with the importance of scientific researchers; and in doing so, discourage those uninterested in
pursuing scientific research as a profession from considering it as anything but an occupation - and
scientific understanding anything but a professional qualification.
It is, in part, to defeat this misimpression that we have undertaken our effort.
Our scientific understanding is far more than the combined product of esoteric experiments conducted by
university lecturers and reclusive thinkers. It is a product of our collective curiosity.
A curiosity unabashedly embraced by children, but all too often, suppressed during our transition to
adulthood by those pressures which demand our abandonment of 'childish things'. Scientific research is not a
mere occupation, but an extension of this childish curiosity into the realm of organized study. In the process
that underlies its conductance, scientific research provides the inquisitive mind with the tools by which to focus its
curiosity upon a single idea, to gather information prior to forming opinions, and to acknowledge the imperfection and
approximation inherent in those opinions it forms.
Imagine how rich our public discourse would be if we were all encouraged to embrace our individual
curiosity, empowered to gather information prior to forming opinions, and able to communicate these
opinions with the humility their imperfections demanded.
In 1969, US physicist Robert Rathburn Wilson (1914-2000) was asked to testify before the the Congressional Joint
Committee on Atomic Energy of the United States Congress to justify the $200 million in funding he had
requested to construct a particle accelerator. During the proceedings, he was asked by US Senator John
Pastore (1907-2000) what, if any, impact the accelerator would have toward improving national security, or in
placing the US in a position of being competitive with the Soviet Union. It was in reply to this
question that Wilson provided his since oft-quoted response:
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“It only has to
do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture.
It has to do with whether we are good painters, good sculptures, great poets. I mean all the
things that we really venerate in our country and are patriotic about. It has nothing to do directly
with defending the country, except to make it worth defending.”
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Priyan Weerappuli
Executive Director
The Open Source Science
Project
priyan [at]
theopensourcescienceproject [dot] com
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LATEST NEWS
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May 24, 2010
The OSSP Partners with Science for Humanity
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May 04, 2010
The OSSP Partners with the USA Science and Engineering Festival
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March 30, 2010
The OSSP Joins the COPUS Network
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March 25, 2010
Lecture Added - Introduction (The Search for the 'Self')
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March 25, 2010
Lecture Added - Introduction (The 'Self')
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March 22, 2010
The OSSP Becomes a Signatory to the Budapest Open Access Initiative
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February 23, 2010
The Importance of Open Scientific Research
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February 17, 2010
Research Microfinance Platform Launched at the University of Michigan
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January 31, 2010
The Scientific Method - An Introduction
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MAPPING OUR EFFORT
- Currently Under Development -
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