The Research Institute was given a contract from UCSB to help manage the planning phase of a proposal to the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. This proposal, DigitalOcean, involves the development of a dedicated social network (ECOSNet) linked to other Web 2.0 services, such as Flickr and Google Ocean, and building a strong community of users who will provide content for the system.

UCSB will be the initial home for DigitalOcean. The project is a collaboration between several groups from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. This innovative cross-disciplinary approach may prove to be the real engine that makes DigitalOcean fly.

Bruce Caron, NMRI's Research Director, served as Project Manager for the planning period. The proposal is now pending with the Foundation.