Welcome to our first blog post 🥳
We are thrilled to embark on this journey of sharing our core beliefs and aspirations with you.
Our Vision
In today's discourse, "Open Science" and "Open Source" reverberate loudly, especially within the research community. Yet, in our seven years of immersion in research, we've realised that these concepts often remain aspirational rather than practical realities. Despite the rhetoric, many hesitate to share their data or findings freely. We've encountered numerous hurdles that impede the realisation of genuinely open research:
- the prohibitive costs associated with open-access publications in academic journals
- a lack of adherence to the principles of "fair use"
- unhealthy competition among research teams resulted in a proliferation of publications and self-citations, often at the expense of quality
However, amidst these challenges, we maintain a steadfast vision of open science: a landscape where research findings are readily accessible to all, fostering collaborative learning and innovation.
Our Mission
Ever wonder why leading security tech giants like Signal and Bitwarden are hailed as the epitomes of security 🔒? Surprisingly, both embrace an open-source ethos, allowing transparency into the very fabric of their security measures. This transparency engenders unparalleled trust among users—a trust we aspire to earn from you. Hence, we proudly declare that our platform and codebases are not just free but open source.
Our overarching objective is to realise 100% data transparency in the realm of mineralogy and its allied fields. We believe that science thrives in an open ecosystem, and we are committed to championing this cause.
Core Tenets
With our work, we aim to share our insights, tech innovations, and research findings with you. Our mission is underpinned by three core tenets:
- Transparency 🔍: We pledge to share our codebases, data, and findings openly.
- Innovation 👨💻: We are committed to bringing new technologies and methodologies to the forefront of mineralogy research.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration 👏: We believe that the most groundbreaking discoveries emerge from the cross-pollination of ideas across disciplines.
Collaborators
We extend heartfelt gratitude to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) for their partial funding, which has been instrumental in realising our vision 🤗. We are actively seeking additional support from the research sector within the EU to further our mission. Along this journey, we've been fortunate to receive invaluable assistance from two renowned tech services:
- Sentry: Our go-to platform for issue tracking.
- DataDog: Powering our log monitoring and beyond. You can explore our public dashboard hosted by DataDog.
- UptimeRobot: out uptime monitoring service.
To Sentry, DataDog, and UptimeRobot, we express our most profound appreciation for their unwavering support 😍.
Stay tuned as we continue to push the boundaries of open science in mineralogy and beyond. Together, let's shape a future where knowledge knows no bounds!