Community Governance Oversight (CGO) Parameters Platform

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

André Diamond

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Entity (Not Incorporated)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

7

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Build an open-source platform where the community can log and view changes to Catalyst governance parameters, including background detail, to enable ongoing community-led oversight.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

This proposal is related to the Community Governance Oversight (CGO) proposal, in that the CGO team will, if funded, test the Dashboard by using it to help track parameter changes; but the work of this proposal is independent and can still be done without this.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

We will publish the Platform itself under GNU GPLv3.

[METADATA] SDG rating

n/a

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

Over recent Funds, the parameters related to Catalyst governance have changed often; and although community members have individually commented and engaged, changes can be difficult to track. Often, it is unclear where a change originated, where it has been shared, and who has been consulted; there is also little clarity on how community input is incorporated, so those who have contributed to consultation are often left unclear how or whether their input has been used. Additionally, the process of sharing background information about changes has been patchy, particularly with regard to the research behind a proposed change.

We propose to address all this by building a platform, with a “dashboard-style” frontend, to make it easier for the community to record and maintain oversight of changes to governance parameters in Catalyst. The project will end with a final report on the effectiveness of the dashboard and the insights it enables the community to uncover.

The Parameters Platform will enable any community member to log a Catalyst governance parameter change that they have noticed. They will be asked for as much background detail as they have - for example, who originated the change, where was it shared and who had input, how long was it shared before being implemented, whether the background research that underpins it has been shared; who is mainly affected by the change, etc. The fields will be based on the research in the CGO Fund 8 proposal on parameter changes - see CGO community register of Catalyst parameter changes. Initially, the platform will be populated with the data from this spreadsheet, to enable testing. These kinds of details will support community anaylsis and oversight of changes - for example, if a change primarily affects Group X, but they have not been well consulted and have not had much input, this may suggest a problem.

One immediate use-case for the platform is that we intend that the Community Governance Oversight (CGO) team (https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/112876), if funded, will use the information in the dashboard to explore how changes are being managed, which will aid them in developing a community-led change management process for the future. 

The platform will also be tested by inviting community members to try it out by logging parameter changes that they are noticing during the run of the project.

A note on the approach to “governance parameters” that we are using:

This is derived from CGO’s Fund 8 project, which concluded that “governance parameters” in Catalyst is a broader field than IOG’s definition of the parameters for each Fund - in fact, it comprises any change that substantially alters the way Catalyst operates, or the way a Fund is run. This is the definition of a “Catalyst governance parameter change” that we will be working to.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

The Parameters Platform is rooted in the ideals of Voltaire governance - that the community needs tooling that can support it to engage more easily with governance changes. We believe the real-time insights it provides will help maintain lively community oversight, and will help people to analyse the implications of a parameter change, thus moving towards greater co-production and shared power.

Further, we believe the Platform will be readily applicable to maintaining oversight of wider Cardano governance changes, such as CIP-1694, Continuous TestNet changes, and the development of the Cardano MBO. We see this proposal as a testing-ground for this kind of process, and we intend for the basic platform to be adaptable to logging core governance changes across Cardano as a whole. Engaging communities with oversight and tracking in this way will enable Cardano to be more accountable, and for decision making to be more transparent, more evidence-based, and more participatory.

Finally, the open-source build of the platform fits the open-source ethos of this Category, and indeed that of Cardano itself, and we hope that others will go on to use it as a basis for other tools that foster community engagement with governance issues.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Our team members are highly skilled and experienced in their fields, and established members of Catalyst with a deep understanding of the ecosystem and its governance. Several of them were part of CGO (Community Governance Oversight) in Fund 7 and Fund 8.

The team is committed to the open-source ethos, and all have extensive experience of working on open source developer projects documented on GitHub, providing a trackable, accountable and trustworthy audit trail. 

Our project wallet will be managed by Miroslav Rajh of Treasury Guild, thus ensuring trustworthy and accountable budget management.

We intend to measure the success of our project by recording:

• The number of GitHub commits while the dashboard is being built.
• The number of parameter changes added by community members via the dashboard.
• The number of data-points added for each parameter change.
• The number of unique users engaging with the dashboard as viewers 
• The number of unique users adding data.

We plan to share the outputs and results of our project via: 

• A GitHub repository, which will provide an audit trail of work done
• Using GitHub, Twitter, Discord and other key platforms to invite the community to view the platform, and add parameter changes to it.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Setup (to be submitted at the end of Month 1)

Outputs

• Team onboarded
• Initial meeting to define issues
• Set-up of wallet and budget management, GitHub project board, and documentation systems.

Acceptance criteria

• Project board is populated with issues we will cover
• Treasury management process clearly defined

Evidence

• Wallet 
• GitHub project management board

Platform build (to be submitted at the end of Month 3)

Outputs

• Working platform protoype
• Community publicity inviting testers

Acceptance criteria

• Protoype is working
• Publicity has been done across a range of platforms

Evidence

• Documentation on GitHub
• Posts on Twitter, Discord, Telegram, Cardano Forum

Platform, 2nd iteration (to be submitted at the end of Month 6)

Outputs

• Bug fixes; platform developed in response to tester input, and release of beta version

Acceptance criteria

• Platform incorporates changes identified in testing

Evidence

• Beta version of platform

Reports (to be submitted at the end of Month 7)

Outputs

• Closing report and video to IOG

Acceptance criteria

• Closing report and video are accepted by IOG

Evidence

• Closing report and video

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Andre Diamond Linkedin - has experience in Javascript frontend web development, GitHub automation and database management. In November 2021, he joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team as Treasurer and later co-founded the Treasury Guild to amplify support for projects in the Catalyst community. Currently responsible for development on the Treasury Guild treasury dApp and other tools in the ecosystem.

Role: main developer for Parameters Dashboard

Phil Khoo - experience as an accountant, UI/UX frontend and graphic design and business advisor amongst numerous other pursuits. He currently has a lead position in the development and direction of Cardano AIM and is co-creator of the Community Tools. Was part of CGO F8 where he focused on oversight of Challenge Setting and Catalyst Parameters.

Role: UI/UX frontend 

Miroslav Rajh (Linkedin) - has 20 years of experience in managing finances. He also worked as a Human Resources Manager (HRM). Currently as part of Treasury Guild he is managing transactions for Swarm, Singularity Net, Governance Guild, Catalyst Training and Automation, Community Governance Oversight, Lead Generators, and Edify.

Role: Treasury and wallet management

Stephen Whitenstall - (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-whitenstall-166727210/ , Twitter: https://twitter.com/qa_dao) is the co-founder of QA-DAO, https://qadao.io/ , and has provided project management consultancy for many Catalyst projects since Fund 4 including Catalyst Circle, Audit Circle, Community Governance Oversight, Training & Automation (with Treasury Guild), Governance Guild and Swarm. A Circle V2 representative for funded proposers. Also engaged in cross chain collaboration with SingularityNET managing an Archive project. He has 30 years experience in development, test management, project management, social enterprises in Investment Banking, Telecoms and Local Government. A philosophy honors graduate with an interest in Blockchain governance.

Role: Documentation; project management and reporting; community engagement

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Cost Breakdown

• Development of the Dashboard, and frontend design: estimated 200 hrs x 161 ADA p/hr x 2 people Subtotal = 64,400 ADA 
• Development progress meetings: 3 people x 6 meetings x 700 ADA per meeting Subtotal = 12,600 ADA 
• Treasury management: Miroslav Rajh of Treasury Guild will set up the wallet for the project, arrange ADA payments to members, and maintain budget records. Average 10 hours/month for 6 months = 60 hours x 161 ADA /hour. Subtotal = 9660 ADA
• Project management and reporting (comprises monthly reports, milestone reports; project close-out report and video) Subtotal = 8,000 ADA
• Publicity and comms (covers posting in Discord, Telegram and Twitter every 2 weeks: 500 ADA/month x 6 months Subtotal = 3,000 ADA

Total = 97660 ADA

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

The pay rates given are typical freelance rates for this kind of work, at the low end of US and European averages. Note that freelance pay rates take into account the employment overheads of the resources contracted, so they are typically higher than salaried pay rates. The amounts in our budget are calculated for each milestone based on the hours to complete.

Also, all the people working on this project are taking on the currency risk of being paid in ADA. This means that a fall in the ADA price will result in being paid less or delivering less in each milestone. Any rise in the ADA price will represent a reward for investing in the Cardano ecosystem.

The average JavaScript developer hourly rate is $50/hr. In addition this tool needs to accommodate different kinds of projects, so the design process for each step needs to take that into consideration. [Source - JavaScript Developer Hourly Rate Guide | Flexiple]

A freelance Accountant can charge from $50/hr. Treasury Guild is charging $50/hr for wallet setup, admin and payments. [Source - Accountant Hourly Rates | Crowdsourced List (contractrates.fyi)]

A freelance project manager can charge from $50/hr. In addition management of this project requires knowledge of open source software tools and an awareness of blockchain technology. [Source - Project Management Fees | Hourly & Consulting Rates | Salaries – OCM Solution]

The output from this proposal will be regular open reporting, an OS platform to engage a community with governance oversight, and collect and analyse governance data; plus testing with the community to offer an OS proof of concept.

Given these factors, we believe this proposal offers excellent value for money in a volatile cryptocurrency environment.

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept