Nanopub Space

We are currently in the stage of applying for funding for this project.

Vision

The Nanopub Space is a big step towards the implementation of the vision of a Knowledge Space.

Ecosystem

This project takes the existing nanopublication ecosystem as a starting point:

• Nanopublications are a concept and technology for sharing provenance-aware knowledge graph snippets

• Nanopub Monitor shows the services in the current nanopublication ecosystem network

This project will make this ecosystem scalable, trust-aware, and resilient. In addition, we focus on the social aspects of knowledge and connect to existing projects in this area, in particular around ActivityPub, such as Sensemaking Networks.

Software

These pieces of software are to be developed within the project:

• Nanopub Registry (MIT license)
  • Design draft available
  • Implements the publishing/lookup services of the Knowledge Space vision above
  • Adds contribution-type-based federation, community-based trust networks, and resilience mechansism
  • Will replace the Nanopub Server (see below)
  • Nanopub Query (see below) will connect to the Nanopub Registry instances to gather the data on which the Nanopub Query instances can then run more complex queries
• Nanopub<>ActivityPub (MIT license)
  • Bidirectional module connecting the knowledge graph contributions in our ecosystem with the plain-text-focussed contributions in ActivityPub world

These pieces of software will be used:

• Nanopub Query (AGPL license)
  • Implements the query services of the Knowledge Space vision above
  • Will be used for the API parts of the demo for this project
• Nanodash (AGPL license)
  • Is a graphical user interface to deal with nanopublications
  • Will be used for the UI parts of the demo for this project
• nanopub-java (MIT license)
  • A stable Java library to deal with nanopublications
  • Includes the generation of hash-based identifiers (Trusty URIs) and digital signatures
  • All tools above build upon it

This piece of software will be made obsolete by this project:

• Nanopub Server (MIT license)
  • The publishing/lookup service of the existing nanopublication ecosystem
  • Works but is neither scalable, trust-aware, nor resilient
  • To be gradually replaced by the Nanopub Registry above

Organization

This project will be performed at Knowledge Pixels, a young startup based in Switzerland committed to revolutionize (scientific) knowledge sharing with an open and decentralized ecosystem run on Open Source software.