Sigala Research Areas

Hello. Thank you for visiting siga.la, a project in sustainable social networking. Sigala is rooted in research across many disciplines with the aim of ensuring that any technical development is well-founded with respect to human needs. We list below the kind of research with which we are engaging.

• Design Paradigms and Principles - How may technology be conducive to human flourishing? We discuss cultural variations and then define general requirements and indicate why less is more ...
• Relationships - in which we seek to understand elementary human processes and then proceed to anchor our designs on nurturing more meaningful friendship. We study individual actions and their collective significance; how relationships have observable and subjective aspects, the ethical imperative behind actions and especially what we mean by friendship. Thus we address the question of are we building the right system rather than building the system right.
• Determining a Suitable Model for Relationships - we start by introducing some of the key elements that will provide our SNS with firm foundations, leading later to our basic universal framework. We treat key issues in relationships such as intentionality and identity - the latter has been particularly problematic for systems the same type of connection for everyone. From this we may more readily build an appropriate taxonomy and refine it.
• The Economics of Sigala SNS - In order to lend credibility to our design we need to subject it to rigorous analysis to show its economic viability. We adopt an approach that encompasses micro as well as macro, drawing inspiration especially from the work of Avner Offer - the Economy of Regard, and extending it through Buddhist insights, especially concerning the notion of punnya (roughly translated as 'merit').
• Economic Viability and the Business Case - How to ensure that this service is practically viable in the long-term? In order for this service to be a public good it needs to be clear about its responsibilities, and given recent history, one of these responsibilities is to avoid boom and bust. We argue that from the outset this project should be not-for-profit (in the manner of services like Wikipedia) and indicate how the design engenders long-term network prosperity and is thereby a conduct for greater trust and richer transactions.
• Technical Implementation: An Overview - How we might approach the technical development, starting small and growing organically. We recognise at the outset the signal importance of the developer community; they will be delivering a system that balances data and communication in such a way that users can move horizontally and vertically across their networks. Details are given about the architecture and implementation methods aiming at dependability online and offline. The user interface itself will be conceived as fundamentally 3D and the navigation reflecting that. Personalisation will enable users to define their own relationship types and contexts will be defined according to 'location', not just geographic. Security will be given high priority, especially to ensure that reputational damage is limited as far as possible when there is malevolent communication or misinformation. Personal safety will be a salient priority.
• Evaluation In order to justify on-going investment in development, we define some initial suggestions for evaluation.

There's a lot of detail, but the separation of concerns will aid us in keeping the system fundamentally simple. This lends itself to a natural process of refinement that introduces further functionality whilst retaining an intuitive design.

Contact is welcome - just send to info at siga.la .