Project Philosophy

From White Dots

The UFO Phenomenon is Worthy of Study

White Dots operates on the belief that the UFO phenomenon is worthy of study. If you think so too, please join!

The project isn't a forum for debating whether the phenomenon is real or not, or what it represents if it is; there are many great places on the Internet and elsewhere to do this.

Ordinary People Can Make a Contribution

Even in the absence of world-wide disclosure by governments (perhaps especially so), ordinary people can make a meaningful contribution to the study of UFOs. White Dots aims to be one such effort, with the goal of making it as easy as possible to participate for whoever is interested.

The Goal is Solid Raw Data

White Dots aims to collect substantially more useful data than comes out of ad hoc UFO sightings, and much, much more of it. It is not intended, at least for now, to form and publicize conclusions about the UFO phenomenon.

Resist Premature Explanations

Everyone will has his or her own beliefs about the UFO phenomenon.** This is healthy, but White Dots is not a forum for debating these beliefs. We're united only by the belief that more and better data will be helpful.

Project bias is unavoidable, but generally, White Dots strives to do analysis only to understand its data and what it might be telling us, and to form only those hypotheses and conclusions that will help it collect better data.

The Data is Public

White Dots is founded on the belief that ordinary people have a right to observe what is going on around them, to share that data, and to learn from it.* The fruit of this volunteer effort will be shared by everyone, through open source software and publicly accessible releases of the data.

Ethical Contribution to Science

In particular, the activities of White Dots will respect the right to individual privacy. To the fullest extent practical, data releases will not reveal the personal information of volunteers (e.g. names, addresses via exposed via the locations of their cameras), or those otherwise affected by the phenomenon without their express written permission.

Reliable Data is Everything

Hoaxes do tremendous damage to a field struggling for credibility. While we salute your creativity, your technical chops, your trendy iconoclastic attitude and your rakish good looks, the White Dots project has no sense of humour about hoaxes whatsoever.

* A well-informed planet is a healthy planet. If this makes things inconvenient for those who rely on an information advantage over others, or outright secrecy, then in the long run that's a positive thing.

** White Dots welcomes skeptics, card-carrying MUFON investigators, true believers, the merely curious, Christians concerned that UFOs are a manifestation of Satan, die-hard non-believers, and anyone else interested in participating.