The sites are having a bit of fun with naming the new initiative, which theyre calling the Digital Ecologies Research Partnership, though theyd probably you rather call it by its abbreviation: DERP. Research supported by DERP must be released publicly Twitch, Fark, and Stack Exchange are also part of the partnership thats launching DERP. Naturally, DERP is also requiring that any research that it helps support is released in an open and public manner.