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Open Grant Proposal: index.as #267

Closed serefyarar closed 1 year ago

serefyarar commented 1 year ago

Open Grant Proposal: index.as

Name of Project: index.as

Proposal Category: app-dev

Proposer:@serensandikci @nurinlowercase @serafettin @furkanozelge

(Optional) Technical Sponsor: None

Do you agree to open source all work you do on behalf of this RFP and dual-license under MIT, APACHE2, or GPL licenses?: Yes

Project Description

Today, information discovery is vastly centralized. We depend on several algorithms. This not only prevents us from accessing quality information, it also harms society by creating echo chambers and filter bubbles. Overgeneralized, unsourced and mediocre information is the only information people discover. Niche or credible content is extremely difficult to reach, sometimes impossible.

index.as is an interoperable tool that allows people to create and monetize curated search engines. Search engines can serve as a decentralized form of content, a medium of information, for delivering in-depth information about a specific topic/context. We believe that this is the most scalable and reliable way to organize information through context in a decentralized way. In addition, monetization and collaboration are two components of this solution that provide motivation and continuity for mapping information at different levels.

Value

index.as aims to serve three main purposes:

Decentralization of information organization

Information organization should be decentralized in order to reach and discover meaningful, inspirational, and stimulating perspectives. That's why index.as aims to change the way information is distributed. Creating decentralized libraries with subject matter experts will help us achieve this. As a result, we can achieve independent, censorship-resistant, yet authenticated information sources. With IPFS, we decentralize information organization and thanks to LIT Protocol we can offer creators and curators composable access control actions and collaboration options. In this way, we will contribute to the Web3 ecosystem by providing an interoperable tool that decentralizes information organization and offers a variety of monetization, collaboration options as well.

Monetization and collaboration are both crucial components and benefits of index.as, as one of our aims is to include information organization as part of the creator economy.

Including subject-matter experts and new use-cases to the Web3 ecosystem

With index.as, curators, journalists, niche content creators, and subject-matter experts will be onboarded to Web3. Those people cannot be found on Web2, as they aren't given incentives or represented. The role of monetization and collaboration is vital in this field, as they provide means of incentive and cooperation. Making information discovery as a part of creator economy will expand and diversify the web3 ecosystem.

Enabling a Web2 - Web3 bridge

Also, by indexing Web2 data on Web3, index.as also plays a bridge role, which has the potential to onboard Web2 users to Web3. In order to do this, we will collaborate with ecosystem-mates ipfs-search.com and webrecorder.net.

Deliverables

Indexer (API & Web app)

We created a tool that enables users to create a topic-based index. They can add articles, documents, NFTs, photos, videos, tweets and any other kind of content as links. In this way, they can create their own library of content in any format. Advanced filtering and search options can also make these indexes function as small search engines. Index data will be stored on IPFS, users will authenticate on indexes with their DIDs.

Web2-Web3 Bridge

We built a crawler that indexes web2 documents, fetches URL content, and indexes IPFS content. We will collaborate with the ipfs-search.com team to make this part interoperable.

Web2 Archiver

To generate cryptographically verifiable archives of websites, we will use webrecorder.net. Archive data will be stored on IPFS. As a result, there will be no data deletion risk for curated contents.

Collaborative indexing

We’ll provide composable access control options so that curators have full control over their content. They’ll curate collaboratively with on-chain conditions are as follows:

These composable conditions will enable information organization from two-person projects up to DAO-scale.

Dataflow

Indexas Dataflow (5)

Development Roadmap

# Description People Funding Period (week)
1 Web3 Indexer API & Web App @serafettin @furkanozelge @serensandikci @nurinlowercase USD 20,000 6
2 Web2 - Web3 Bridge @serafettin @furkanozelge @serensandikci @nurinlowercase USD 10,000 3
3 Web2 Archiver @serafettin @furkanozelge @serensandikci @nurinlowercase USD 10,000 3
4 Collaboration Feature @serafettin @furkanozelge @serensandikci @nurinlowercase USD 10,000 3

Total Budget Requested

We requested $50,000 to accomplish the four milestones. The budget will be used as team salary.

Maintenance and Upgrade Plans

The main goal for index.as and will be the basis for new features. Our next step is to continue improving the project as a team. Please refer to the link below for our future roadmap. Also, index.as is an open source project, and always open to community contributions and suggestions.

Roadmap

Team

Team Members

Team Member LinkedIn Profiles

Team Website

https://index.as

Relevant Experience

Seren Sandikci

Nur Yildirim

Serafettin Yarar

Furkan Ozelge

Team code repositories

https://github.com/indexas

Additional Information

serensandikci commented 1 year ago

Hi @ErinOCon @realChainLife,

Quick update: we're making progress and excited to keep building ⚡️

Any updates on our grant application? We are waiting for a feedback 🙂

Let us know if you have any questions 👀

ErinOCon commented 1 year ago

Hi @serensandikci, thank you for checking in! We are currently reviewing a large number of proposals and hope to have more information available soon.

In the meantime, can you briefly describe how/if users are currently engaging with your project? Do you have a timeline and plan in place for growing this user base?

serensandikci commented 1 year ago

Thanks for the update.

We are constantly exploring new ways to connect with users, and we have recently adopted various approaches including:

Forming partnerships with protocols and apps to enhance interoperability and reach more users. Examples:

Our tool can also be used by researchers in various fields, such as academia, business, and journalism, to create topical indexes of research and information. Example:

Moreover, we are reaching individual creators across various domains, including artists, musicians, writers, and developers. They can leverage our tool to establish self-sovereign contexts and improve the visibility and accessibility of their content to potential audiences.

ErinOCon commented 1 year ago

Hi @serafettin, thank you for your proposal and for your time with our inquiries. After much consideration, we have determined that we will not be proceeding with a grant at this time.

Wishing you all the best as you continue to build!

serefyarar commented 1 year ago

Hello @ErinOCon ,

Sorry to hear that, and thank you for your consideration. 🙂 We continue to collaborate with IPFS in different ways, for sure!