The study of why what communities produce never reaches the people it was produced for, and what breaks in the pathways between output and access.
Community Discovery is the study of why what communities produce never reaches the people it was produced for. The field examines how discovery infrastructure, the platforms, algorithms, networks, and institutions that determine what gets found, is built around engagement and scale rather than proximity and relevance.
The core claim: communities are not invisible because they lack output. They are invisible because the infrastructure that was supposed to surface their work was never designed to serve them. It was designed to serve the institutions that already have resources, audiences, and reach.
That gap is measurable. It is reproducible across domains. And it is closable. The Proximity Index is the instrument that measures it. Each therapeutic environment this lab builds is a direct response to what the instrument finds in a specific domain.
The Proximity Index is the diagnostic instrument this lab builds for Community Discovery research. It takes two inputs: what a community produces, and what discovery infrastructure actually surfaces to that community. The gap between those two numbers is the score.
A score of zero means what was made for you reaches you. A high score means what your community makes is algorithmically invisible to the people it was made for. Not because of quality. Because of how discovery was built.
The score is reproducible, trackable over time, and comparable across communities, geographies, and domains. Wherever discovery infrastructure was built around engagement rather than proximity, the Proximity Index measures the gap that infrastructure created. Each domain where it finds one is a candidate for a therapeutic environment: a platform built around proximity, tested against the same score.
A location-based discovery platform built around proximity. Missions guide you to the music venues, cultural spaces, causes, and community built right in your city. The things that were always there but never surfaced. Your city is a game you've never played.
Surfaces music through proximity: artists building scenes in your city, what your social graph is listening to, music made by and for your community. A therapeutic environment for the Proximity Index finding in the music domain.
Research Collaborator
The Proximity Index scoring methodology is being grounded in the academic literature on algorithmic systems, community formation, and discovery infrastructure. If you work in these areas and want to contribute to the instrument design, reach out.
Get in touch →Advisor
Methodological expertise in community research, algorithmic systems, or discovery infrastructure. The Proximity Index needs grounding from people who have worked inside these systems.
Get in touch →Lab Partner
Funders and institutional partners who want a sustained relationship with this research program as it expands into new domains. This lab is fundable now.
Get in touch →Network & Introductions
If you know a researcher, practitioner, or funder who should be aware of this work, a warm introduction is worth more than any cold outreach.
Get in touch →