wiki.cofundos.org - FAQ

2008-07-17 17:48:49

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-17 17:48:49 and 2008-07-17 18:23:18

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This problem might exist now, but will increasingly disappear on a platform such as Cofundos, since everything is really public and available for commenting, discussions or even reporting by peers in case of fraud attempts. First experiences on Cofundos showed that duplicate efforts (or solutions based on existing work) are quickly identified by community members.

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This problem (might exist now), but will increasingly disappear on a platform such as Cofundos, since everything is really public and available for commenting, discussions or even reporting by peers in case of fraud attempts. First experiences on Cofundos showed that duplicate efforts (or solutions based on existing work) are quickly identified by community members.

2008-07-17 15:46:00

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-17 15:46:00 and 2008-07-17 17:48:49

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Is licensing of the ideas and solutions under an open license an requirement?

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Is licensing of the ideas and solutions under an open-license an requirement?

2008-07-17 15:07:22

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-17 15:07:22 and 2008-07-17 15:46:00

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Although the basic principles are ready to be tried out there is some work to do with regard to further refining the concept and consider privacy, security/safety and provenance aspects, further developing the Web platform for organising this market and the participatory research process, and last but no least persuade research funding agencies to use this platform for managing a part of their research portfolio. In order to achieve these goals the ParticipatoryResearch initiative needs your support.

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2008-07-17 14:15:20

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-17 14:15:20 and 2008-07-17 15:07:22

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Economists found out that predictive markets are the best known institutions for information aggregation, since according to the Hayek hypothesis, the competition on the market most efficiently aggregates the asymetrically distributed information. On a predictive market participants bet on certain events. In the case of the ParticipatoryResearch concept stakeholders bet on the usefulness of the outcomes of research for their purposes. Such a prediction market is very efficient, since the bets of participants are calibrated by attaching a (virtual money) value to each bet and the overall market will very accurately reflect the mean predictions of all participants. Predictive markets proved to be that efficient that they are even considered to qualify as a tool for general governance of society (cf. Robin Hanson's Futarchy concept, Shall We Vote on Values, But Bet on Beliefs?).

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Economists found out that predictive markets are the best known institutions for information integration. On a predictive market participants bet on certain events. In the case of the ParticipatoryResearch concept stakeholders bet on the usefulness of the outcomes of research for their purposes. Such a prediction market is very efficient, since the bets of participants are calibrated by attaching a (virtual money) value to each bet and the overall market will very accurately reflect the mean predictions of all participants. Predictive markets proved to be that efficient that they are even considered to qualify as a tool for general governance of society (cf. Robin Hanson's Futarchy concept, Shall We Vote on Values, But Bet on Beliefs?).

2008-07-17 13:53:41

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-17 13:53:41 and 2008-07-17 14:15:20

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2008-07-17 13:50:54

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-17 13:50:54 and 2008-07-17 13:53:41

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2008-07-16 04:38:40

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-16 04:38:40 and 2008-07-17 13:50:54

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The ParticipatoryResearch concept is based on the idea of creating an open, predictive market for research ideas. Communities of stakeholders, be it companies, societal groups or other researchers, bet (or vote) on the usefulness of prospective research results for their purposes. The most promising research ideas (according to stakeholder vote) will get funded. The market will be realised as a Web platform employing semantic and social networking strategies for collaboration and communication.
What's the idea behind a predictive market?
Economists found out that predictive markets are the best known institutions for information integration. On a predictive market participants bet on certain events. In the case of the ParticipatoryResearch concept stakeholders bet on the usefulness of the outcomes of research for their purposes. Such a prediction market is very efficient, since the bets of participants are calibrated by attaching a (virtual money) value to each bet and the tendency of the market will reflect the mean

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The ParticipatoryResearch concept is based on the idea of creating a (virtual/predictive) market for research ideas. Communities of stakeholders, be it companies, societal groups or other researchers, bet (or vote) on the usefulness of prospective research results for their purposes. The most promising research ideas (according to stakeholder vote) will get funded. The market will be realised as a Web platform employing semantic and social networking strategies for collaboration and communication.

2008-07-15 22:39:05

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-15 22:39:05 and 2008-07-16 04:38:40

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Peers usually have the same background knowledge, intentions and perception with regard to certain research results. Peer review systems even aim at increasing this matching of competences. They are perfect to ensure excellence and quality. For deciding about what research should be funded excellence and quality, however, should be only a secondary criteria. More important is that a research task solves a real problem and (in order to maximise effectiveness) that the most pressing problems are solved first. The distinction between stakeholders and peers on the ParticipatoryResearch platform is made explicitly and implicitly: Funding agencies explicitly award a certain budget to members of a certain stakeholder community (e.g. SMEs, aerospace researchers or NGOs fighting climate change). Implicitly, members of these communities will utilize the awarded budget in ways, which benefit them most.
This is an important issue, but resolvable but adding certain constraints. For example, we can require projects to be voted/pledged for by at least three different stakeholders and let people confirm an absent of conflict of interest. Also, the transparency of all information on the platform would prevent misuse, since everybody can see who was voting/pledging for what. Once people know that everything they do is publicly visible they are very careful to stick to the rules.
Research is sometimes unpredictable. Aren't researchers who fail with risky and challenging problems endangered of loosing reputation?

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Peers usually have the same background knowledge, intentions and perception with regard to certain research results. Peer review systems even aim at increasing this matching of competences. They are perfect to ensure excellence and quality. For deciding about what research should be funded excellence and quality, however, should be only a secondary criteria. More important is that research task solves a real problem and (in order to maximise effectiveness) that the most pressing problems are solved first. The distinction between stakeholders and peers on the ParticipatoryResearch platform is made explicitly and implicitly: Funding agencies explicitly award a certain budget to members of a certain stakeholder community (e.g. SMEs, aerospace researchers or NGOs fighting climate change). Implicitly, members of these communities will utilize the awarded budget in ways, which benefit them most.
This is an important issue, but resolvable but adding certain constraints. For example, we could require projects to be voted/pledged for by at least 3 stakeholders and/or let people confirm an absent of conflict of interest. Also, the transparency of all information on the platform would prevent misuse, since everybody can see who was voting/pledging for what. Once people know that everything they do is publicly visible they are very careful to stick to the rules.
Research is sometimes unpredictable. Aren't researchers failing with risky and challenging problems endangered of loosing reputation?

2008-07-15 22:38:05

Comparison for /FAQ of 2008-07-15 22:38:05 and 2008-07-15 22:39:05

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The ParticipatoryResearch concept is based on the idea of creating a (virtual/predictive) market for research ideas. Communities of stakeholders (which can be companies, societal groups or even other researchers) bet (or vote) on the usefulness of prospective research results for their purposes. The most promising research ideas (according to stakeholder vote) will get funded. The market will be realised as a Web platform employing semantic and social networking strategies for collaboration and communication.