We will start with ~500 researchers in the field of human systems (organizational policies, political institutions, economic mechanisms, social technologies, group practices, etc), focusing at first on innovations due to covid-19, and later expanding to a broader set of innovations. If we tap out that market, our next research fields will likely be AI research and then public policy.

We think this is a large market, and we can be a new kind of research network. Many orgs have unsolved research questions and people paid to work on them. This includes orgs that do knowledge work, product development, global strategy, or engineering[1]. Many orgs also own experimental platforms—social networks are platforms for sociology experiments and data mining; media channels are platforms to test different kinds of content; product and marketing companies run a/b tests, etc.

Open source brought software development outside of the walled gardens of individual corporations—we think we can do the same for research. While some orgs want to capture these research results as trade secrets, for others an extra-org pool of researchers, collaborating, would be attractive. Such a pool could use experimental platforms from several orgs to resolve research questions more quickly.

Product Description

• Use platforms, data, and channels outside of your organization to run social experiments.
• Build Dream Teams. Each area of research gets a custom research advisory board. Researchers are facilitated in finding and consulting with the best experts and ideators in the world who work in fields relevant to their questions.
• Access our Test Network. This tracks which values-based redesigns are working, and which aren't, and in which contexts the designs have been tried. As our researchers reinvent common systems or practices, these reinventions go into the test network, and are evaluated at ever-larger scales.
• Enjoy a Better Research Lifestyle. Each researcher works in cycles or phases that include consultation with experts in related fields, individual reflection on their question, and experimentation. Reflection periods involve solitude. Interruptions, and group process must be batched to support this. Visit our network of retreat centers and serene spaces to reflect on your research topic. Venues for experimentation are coordinated by the network. These venues should be such that researchers don't need permission, buy-in, or argumentation to make their experiments.

Business Model

• An org can pay $2k - $20k per year to put a full time researcher, who already works at the org, in our research network.
• The network is free for most independents and academics.
• Later, we'll also allow money to be attached directly to research questions, and routed to adjacent research. Money to fund a question will also fund nearby questions with experiments that shed light on that question. (Payments can be via a periodic settlement platform like Stripe Connect.)
• Participation may involve making experimental apparatuses or channels within an org available to outside, collaborating researchers.

Our Method

We have a unique way to surface the best contributors on a topic, a common framework for analytics and data collection, a way to arrange just-in-time collaborations, and a way to filter out ideologically-driven research.

Surfacing the Best Contributors

When we move into a topic area, we make a broad survey of what's happening on the topic. We do our own meta-analysis of who's doing the best work according to our Time Well Spent Metrics. These become the initial researchers in that topic area.

Analytics and Data Collection

For every research topic we take on, we provide a common analytics and data collection methodology or infrastructure, so that experiments throughout the network can contribute to a common corpus.

<aside> 👉 See pages like Time Well Spent Metrics, Meaning Analysis, and Structured Interview to learn about our data collection methods in the field of Human Systems.

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