New name(s!), Alpha ready, and other exciting news
We’ve been quiet for a while, busy working behind the scenes. Now it’s finally the time to share the results and future plans that we are really excited about!
Goodbye Sensio, Hello Kelp!
The work we’ve been doing with Sensio in the last two years gave birth to the two exciting projects — Kelp.Digital & Anagolay.Network. They both started as components of Sensio platform: the Network and the photo app, and grew big enough to move out on their own.
Why Kelp? If you ever heard of the underwater Kelp forests, you know that they are famous for protecting their inhabitants in all their variety: from whales to the smallest fish. That’s exactly what the digital Kelp will do: we intend our application to protect all the content creators and their work in the Internet waters. So what better name could we pick?
Kelp application already knows how to sync your photos with its Lightroom plug-in and we are working to bring in other integrations in the future.
Once you synced your collections (albums), Kelp detects the equipment and guides you to start the verification process. At this stage, you can verify multiple camera and lens combinations.
When the verification process is complete, you are ready to claim the copyright of all the photos taken with your equipment. By ‘claiming the copyright’ we mean issuing & signing digital copyright statements that later on can be verified and used as sufficient proof. To explain how this works we need to move on to our second component. Meet Anagolay Network — the underlying technology and ‘behind the curtain magic’ of Kelp application.
The Network: Anagolay on guard for copyrights
As you may already know, we believe that few things are missing in the content markets today, namely: proper attribution and fair compensation for creative work. Anagolay Network, which got its name after the Tagalog Goddess of Lost Things, is created to bring back what was long lost — transparency, trust and fair rewards. That is, of course, easier said than done, but we believe we are on the right track.
We start with verifying whether a person uploading content (in our case a photo) is its rightful creator or owner. That is exactly what the equipment verification process is for. When you complete the process the camera&lens ownership statements are stored on the Network.
Anagolay will use these ownership statements as proof required at the next step: creating & signing verifiable legally binding copyright statements. These will be securely stored on the distributed peer-to-peer network, from where they can be always verified, but never erased.
Whenever you share your photos from Kelp, your copyright & the statement ID will be shared together with the photo. Later on, you will also be able to include the licensing options for the work you share. Once this is implemented, Anagolay will also store the transactions records keeping track of your licensing and the terms you set.
If you want to learn more about Anagolay technology, you can check our developer portal, or see the FAQ section for more details.
Is that all? Well, not exactly. Actually, we’ve saved the best for last.
Kelp Alpha is ready!
The main news is that our Alpha is finally out and ready for the very first testers! It is not a stable version yet, so if you are looking for a smooth experience better wait a bit. But if you are not easily scared by ‘bugs’ and want to be the first to play around — join our waitlist and we will contact you soon with the details.
Work with us
Do you agree that the photography market needs to change? Want to contribute? We have a lot of work ahead of us and need the help of creative & inquisitive minds. All our positions are fully remote and some of them are part-time. See our Kelp’s Career page to learn more.
Got some ideas & want to get involved? Drop us a message & join us on Discord, Twitter, or Telegram.
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Have fun and stay safe 🖖
