-
Evaluation
of Symfony
On entering the development phase for a proof of concept, there was already the intention to make use of Symfony based largely on desk research. Rather than dive straight in to coding at that point, a more thorough evaluation has been carried out based on Symfony: The Fast Track, a book by Fabien Potencier, Symfony’s … Continued
-
Work commences on Proof of
Concept
Following the positive feedback from the presentation at the Virtues in the Digital World conference, the process of implementation has begun! We aim to produce a proof of concept by spring 2022 in the form of an early software prototype that should demonstrate some of the key architectural features of Sigala. The software is being … Continued
-
Presentation at ‘Virtues in the Digital
World’ Conference
On Saturday 11th September, I presented a paper entitled, ‘Cultivating sīla Online: the use of Cognitive Interventions in Systems Design’ at the ninth annual conference of the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues. A copy of the paper is available on the conference website, as well as on Academia, with the presentation slides below. It … Continued
* * *
Hello. Thank you for visiting. Sigala is a project in sustainable social networking inspired by ancient teachings given by the Buddha about 2,500 years ago. It emphasises the quality of friendship and how to nurture such friendship gradually, seeking to implement this through a measured and sensitive approach that characterises our rationale.
It all started in November 2007 with a blog post entitled On ‘Friends’ and other associations (copied here), which was published on CONNECT, a community site for EDUCAUSE, a non-profit organisation, based in the United States, devoted to improving the impact of IT in Higher Education. This provided the seed for the independent scholarly research that we invite you to explore on this site. Most of all, we seek to disseminate these ideas, collaborate, invite improvements and additions with the goal of developing new software services that embody the ideals of true friendship.
The research ranges from consideration of concepts of well-being in sociology, psychology and religious studies, through to software systems architecture and cognitive approaches to interface design, aided by methods in education. The basic foundations have been expressed in Supporting Kalyāṇamittatā Online: New Architectures for Sustainable Social Networking, a paper delivered at the 3rd World Conference on Buddhism and Science. Kalyāṇamittatā (a word in the Pali language) means ‘spiritual friendship’.
The ideas in that paper, which are summarised in an informal report, have been progressed through intensive research that covers in quite some detail how this can actually be realized. It goes far beyond what was given in the original paper and is leading to a kind of blueprint.
- For a quick overview, read an outline of the research areas under consideration that indicates the breadth and depth of the analysis.
- To explore systematically, please start with the requirements
- To see how we plan to implement Sigala, read on to system design and implementation.
Work so far has proceeded in phases, much of it between 2009 and 2011, which established the foundational principles which continue to hold, but some of the more technical details have become out of date and are now in the course of being updated. To aid progress, options for developing a research community are currently being explored. For now, contact is welcome by email — to info at siga.la .