Welcome to the BlockScience Quarterly Newsletter – 2024 Recap Edition!
As we close out an impactful year, we’re celebrating the research, tools, and collaborations that defined 2024 🎉 This edition highlights some key milestones, including advancements in knowledge organization infrastructures, systems modeling frameworks, and participatory governance design.
We revisit top articles on legitimacy in governance, energy efficiency initiatives, and the politics of protocols alongside standout videos that showcase hands-on systems engineering tools like cadCAD 🤖. From dancing with complex systems 💃🕺 to fostering adaptive organizations, these insights capture our ongoing efforts to bridge theory and practice in socio-technical systems. Here's to another year of innovation and exploration!
NEW ARTICLES
Architecting Knowledge Organization Infrastructure
In his presentation, Knowledge Organization Infrastructure (KOI), Dr. Michael Zargham, Founder and Chief Engineer at BlockScience, introduces a systems engineering perspective on designing, implementing, and governing knowledge infrastructures. Presented to the Open Source Architects (OSA) community, this talk bridges theory and practice. Zargham illustrates how KOI evolves in complex, digitally mediated organizations like MetaGov, a community of research and practice focused on self-governance in the digital age. Learn more from a systems perspective about transforming raw data to actionable insights and how we guide systems engineering from conceptual frameworks to implementation.
Mental Models diagram by Zargham who says:
“We need narrative models alongside scientific and engineering models. Our implementation methodologies—spanning data models, machine learning and AI models, and systems—will also require operator models, such as dashboards and reporting tools. We should take care to maintain good modeling hygiene by clearly distinguishing between these models, even as they inform and influence one another.”
Exploring Complex Systems Modeling with MAIDs, GDS & cadCAD
This quarter, we hosted an interactive workshop series led by Octopus, a BlockScience Research Engineer, to explore three key modeling frameworks: Multi-Agent Influence Diagrams (MAIDs), Generalized Dynamical Systems (GDS), and cadCAD. The workshops covered the theory and practical applications of these tools, including agent-based modeling, strategy optimization, and the role of modularization in dynamic systems design.
The accompanying article provides a detailed breakdown of the sessions, with links to workshop recordings, slides, and additional resources. Whether you're interested in decision-making models, dynamic games, or systems engineering, this series is a must for those eager to push the boundaries of what's possible in systems modeling.
TOP ARTICLES OF 2024
From exploring the foundations of governance systems to accelerating Canada’s energy efficiency initiatives, these top articles reflect the themes and questions that shaped our work in 2024:
3. The Windfall Protocol: Blockchain-Based Infrastructure to Accelerate Building Retrofits & Energy Efficiency Initiatives
This piece highlights how emerging technologies can accelerate energy efficiency retrofits in buildings in Canada. Developed with Windfall Ecology Centre and partners, the Windfall Protocol improves data sharing, incentivizes retrofits, and bridges stakeholder gaps. A planned pilot in Durham Region, Ontario, will demonstrate its potential to streamline adoption, support net-zero targets, and catalyze large-scale environmental regeneration, leveraging new tools for distributed energy labeling.
2. Knowledge Networks and the Politics of Protocols
This article examines how open-source infrastructure shapes governance and collaboration, highlighting a research initiative with Metagov. It explores balancing configurational freedom and user-friendliness while addressing the political trade-offs embedded in digital tools. By navigating interoperability and self-expression, the work provides actionable insights for designing AI-enhanced systems that empower organizations without sacrificing their unique values or goals.
🥁…
1. Engineering for Legitimacy
Our most-read article explores participatory governance systems that maintain stakeholder consent by balancing Liberty, Equality, and Agency. It introduces trade-off curves as tools for navigating these tensions and provides practical insights for building resilient institutions. Drawing on BlockScience’s research and Arthur Isak Applbaum’s Liberty, Equality, and Agency framework, the article offers a roadmap for cultivating legitimacy in complex governance systems.
TOP VIDEOS OF 2024
Our video library continues to bring systems thinking to life with tutorials, demos, and presentations that empower both new and experienced practitioners. Here are the most-watched videos of 2024.
3. Knowledge Organization Infrastructure
In this engaging session, the team unveiled our Knowledge Organization Infrastructure project. Covering goals, design principles, protocols, and future plans, this video dives deep into how we’re advancing tools to represent and organize knowledge dynamically. Watch to explore concepts like RIDs, digital objects, identity, and their role in modern systems design.
2. cadCAD tutorials - Robots and Marbles 2 (Actions and State Dependent Policies)
Part two of our Robots and Marbles series captivated audiences this year! Building on the basics, this tutorial explores adding policies and behaviors in cadCAD simulations, demonstrating how to gradually increase system complexity. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, this hands-on walkthrough offers invaluable insights into dynamic systems modeling.
1. cadCAD tutorials - Robots and Marbles 1 (States and State Update Functions)
Originally posted in 2019, our CADCAD walkthrough video claimed the top spot this year! This hands-on demo breaks down the process of turning ideas into simulations, showcasing CADCAD’s power for modeling dynamic systems. Its enduring popularity reflects the value of accessible tools for both new and experienced systems designers.
BlockScience in the Wild 🦣
United Nations Headquarters - New York, New York (December)
Our Chief Engineer Michael Zargham (far right) joined a panel on “Localizing and Mapping Global Challenges, Action and Impact” at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The event “Addressing Global Challenges through Local Action: Building a Movement towards a Regenerative and Peaceful Future” was hosted by the International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI), GloCha Foundation New York, Council of Global Change and the Bloom Network in cooperation with Permanent Mission of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas to the United Nations. Zargham discussed The Role of Common Knowledge in Coordination and knowledge management and infrastructure from an engineering perspective.
Devcon - Bangkok, Thailand (November)
The Ethereum community hosted its conference focused on decentralized systems connecting builders with researchers, designers, artists, and community organizers. There were hundreds of side events hosted across Thailand and the BlockScience team was in on the action…
BlockScience Team Retreat - Albany, NY (October)
Our team gathered for our yearly retreat. Below is a snapshot from a casual moment of creativity and connection—solving puzzles and striking chords between sessions.
🙏 Thank you for being part of our journey this year!
As we look ahead to 2025, we’re excited to continue pushing the boundaries of systems engineering, knowledge design, and collaborative innovation. Stay connected for more insights, research, and tools that drive meaningful change - and of course, blocks of science.
Wishing you a restful holiday season and a new year filled with inspiration! 🎉
— The BlockScience Team
ABOUT BLOCKSCIENCE
BlockScience® is a complex systems engineering, R&D, and analytics firm. By integrating ethnography, applied mathematics, and computational science, we analyze and design safe and resilient socio-technical systems. With deep expertise in Market Design, Distributed Systems, and AI, we provide engineering, design, and analytics services to a wide range of clients including for-profit, non-profit, academic, and government organizations.
