There have been a number of changes to our team, and since we recently released an update to the BOS Platform development plan, we thought it would only make sense to introduce the revamped team to the public — let’s start from the top:
As previously mentioned, the BOS Platform Foundation (Foundation) is registered in Zug Switzerland. The Foundation’s main purpose is to ensure the donations raised from the fundraiser on May 10, 2017 are used appropriately for the development and promotion of the BOS Platform.
The Foundation has engaged in BlockchainOS to build the BOS Platform, whereby operations are out of South Korea. We were previously located at TIPSTOWN-S1 165, Yeoksam-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea, however the team was split across different floors and sections of the building. We have now recently moved to a new location slightly north, where we are all co-located. Similar to TIPSTOWN, it is at a business incubator run by SparkPlus in Korea, and our office is now at 28, Nonhyeon-ro 98-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Now let’s introduce the business functions behind this:
Technical Engineering
The Technical Engineering team is led by our CTO Yezune Choi, and we have identified the platform to be split into 4 components as follows:
Blockchain Engine
Consensus (Dark Matter) Team
The Consensus team, led by Mukeun Kim, will be in charge of research and development of the consensus algorithm — including the actual consensus algorithm, integration of that into the quorum network structure and the blockchain (data store work package), and finally integration with Trust Contracts. The initial work is to use the Stellar Consensus Algorithm in C++, which will then be migrated to D language, and finaly combining it with PoS to create the Modified Federated Byzantine Agreement component of the BOS Platform.
Ontology & Trust Contract (OIS) Team
This team is working to design and build the OWLChain & Trust Contracts (as mentioned in the BOS Platform white paper concept with the Resource Description Framework (RDF), Web Ontology Languages, components and concepts including research into various vocabularies including Dublin Core, Friend -of-a-Friend (FOAF), Simple Knowledge Organisation System specifications and standards (SKOS) and Finance Industry Business Ontology (FIBO). OWLchain comprises of 2 components, the Web Ontology and Timed Automata Language as further detailed in the white and technical papers.
Once complete, the Trust Contracts will be integrated into the BOS Platform applying knowledge from Linked Data principles, system engineering and Artificial Intelligence.
Applications (Leading BOS Platform Application System aka LBAS) Team
This team’s main focus is to design and develop applications built on top of the BOS Platform. As mentioned in the white paper, part of the BOS Platform project will be to create demand, encouraging the community to use BOS tokens, and also for the betterment of the BOS Platform ecosystem. Work will research into various application concepts suitable for the market both locally and globally. The first task is to design and develop the Simple Payment Verification Client (SPV) which then will follow onto the web and mobile wallets.
BMS (T-Mind) team — (Business, Math and Security)
BMS is abbreviated from Business, Mathematics and Security. This team’s core focus is to use business, mathematics and security modelling as a support function to validate the designs of the other technical designs. An example of the modelling may require physics, statistics and logic theory application to analyse the dynamic quorum component within our mFBA design developed by our Consensus team.
Operations
The operations team is currently focused on planning for how the Platform will work in the real world. So a major task identified will be co-ordinating the network infrastructure testing directly applicable to the various TestNets we have planned. As development is further matured, this team will focus operations on network monitoring, security and general operations.
Business Relations
Although currently Business Relations are focused on domestic South Korean business engagement, we believe there will be a strong relationship with the community establish and management activity — upon maturity of these communities, regional members may want to engage themselves on local businesses specific to their region.
Design (Twinkle) Team
A new department in the organisation, our design team supports the complete spectrum of the BOS Platform including communications, product development, and product identity. The team is split into two distinct functions — Brand Management and UI/UX Design.
Brand Management
The Brand Management team is currently focused on establishing the BOS Platform brand, which will be implemented across all BOS documentation. Examples of the work will include:
- Brand Policy
- Brand Identification and Structure
- Content Storyboarding
The work from the Brand Management team will inform how the BOS Platform products will operate, and also provide underlying principles on communications.
Experience Enhancement
Experience Enhancement is everything about user experience and user interface.
Our current UI/UX designer is led by our newly engaged Art Director Hyonam Lee, and the work produced will be readily experienced by members using any of the BOS Platform products in both visual and interactiveness. Products that this will be experienced include both our web and mobile application wallets, website, newsletters and articles to name a few.
There will be a large body of work overhauling the BOS identity over the next phase and both the Brand Management and Experience Enhancement teams will play a critical role in providing direction and functionality, standardization and improvement.
Communications
Communications’ main focus will be on community establishment and management; getting the BOS Platform on exchanges globally; website refresh (including an integrated discussion forum including migration from Slack in the future); more regular newsletter and Medium articles; and general informational documentation as required for each milestone release (i.e. TestNet, TokenNet, Genesis Launch, etc).
Management & Executive
And of course the management does what they do — for example daily finance and accounting, organisational and talent management, and higher level planning.
Although everything we have said up to now has been about the small eco-system behind the current development of the BOS Platform, in all honesty, the real team is the larger community. We have a strong community of close to 5500 members in Slack (the current BOS messaging platform) and we appreciate everyone’s effort and support. We have all shared frustrations now and then, but we are all for in it together for the betterment of the BOS Platform — thank you everyone for being part of our team, and let’s continue making the ecosystem greater — 위하여 (Wee-Ha-Yeo)!
(‘위하여’ is a chant that Koreans use, technically meaning ‘for the sake of… ‘, however used widely other situations, especially in teaming environments with the meaning of ‘moving together in a positive manner. I.e. teams chant at the end of a workshop “working together to achieve the outcome, or in a social sense ‘cheers’).
