$DEMU: Impactful social community governance with ODIN

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Randall Harmon

[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)

6

[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)

ODIN community applies social governance principles together for DEMU as a proof-of-concept for open, permissionless community contribution at speed, targeting key goals, principles, and metrics

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

Yes

[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.”

This project is interdependent with DEMU in general. In particular, its MUnode software and tokenomics programs will play roles connected to delivery of the services and of token rewards for participants.

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

No

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

Our work for the DEMU community isn't producing code output that would be relevant for open source.

However, we'll share learnings as described in the Milestone outputs. Also, the content created for promoting DEMU and Cardano in the Marketing and PR space will be shared openly.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Understanding the Problem

Decentralized governance structures often suffer from the tension between making right decisions and making any decisions. We have plenty of examples of decentralization leading to extremely slow progress and a "get permission from the crowd" culture. We want to move fast!

Traditional centralized governance structures in many organizations limit innovation and restrict the active participation of key stakeholders: the contributors. Although these structures are often adopted for their perceived effectiveness in decision-making, they frequently stifle innovative contributions.

Description of Sociocracy 3.0 Principles

Sociocracy 3.0 (S3) is a flexible and scalable governance framework designed to empower decentralized decision-making. Rooted in principles of consent-based decisions and equivalence among participants, S3 fosters transparent, inclusive, and effective collaboration. Social governance encourages continuous improvement and reasoned choice-making, removing the bias toward perfectionism and enabling fluid and ongoing refinements to be a cultural practice.

More information on S3 principles can be found at Sociocracy 3.0.

About ODIN

ODIN (Open Decentralized Innovation Network), known for fostering innovation through a network of open and decentralized structures, is applying social governance principles to revolutionize decision-making and community member engagement and contribution to the ecosystem. 

This initiative is part of ODIN’s broader mission to replace traditional, centralized models with more inclusive, efficient, and adaptive governance methods, thereby nurturing a fairer and more innovative community aligned with the progressive values of the Cardano ecosystem. We seek to enable autonomous contribution based on shared guidelines, with minimal permissioning requirements.

This proposal aligns with ODIN's vision of empowering individuals and organizations to solve complex challenges, setting a new standard for community-driven governance and collaboration in the digital age.

The Program

Within the framework of ODIN, DEMU community members will learn key skills for constructive contribution (this learning program is incentivized with $DEMU rewards) together with ODIN’s Education Space.  

ODIN staff will create and facilitate a social governance envelope for the $DEMU Community, in which two zones of community contribution are created. One area will administer the MUnode Operator Network (where all concerns for Node Operators are collaboratively resolved), and the other will administer DEMU’s Community Marketing & PR program.  

Participants in either program will have clear access to information about the program, with operational objectives, transparency into the goals and context, and opportunities to scale their efforts to match their intended impact. Those who participate constructively and effectively will be well rewarded.

We will be issuing $DEMU tokens as rewards for all community members who participate constructively in the program. We will draft standards for constructive participation and release of rewards, with guiding criteria so that expectations are clear. We'll work together in social groups with community members to establish informed consent for the program and ensure good alignment for contributors.

Those standards for participation and rewards will be constructed around key principles, among them that all contributors are incentivized to recognize when they and the folks around them are doing great work; that dedicated attention and objective impact are worthy of significant rewards, and that we'll find more principles as we go together.

Because social governance is a fluid and continuous program, many rewards will be focused on short-term expectations.

We are also planning a lightweight "special rewards" program for all community contributors, in which achieving various "stretch" objectives on a personal level, or contributing in some outstanding way to our culture, to our program, or to our programs' operational goals will earn contributors bonus rewards. Details of this plan are TBD, with a strategy based on providing all program members the opportunity to shine together and work for the big-picture impact.

We would like to offer these "special rewards" bounties denominated in both $DEMU and ADA. This proposal budgets a moderate-sized pool of spendable money alongside a 7x allocation of $DEMU tokens per ADA.  

Demonstrating Impact

The impact of implementing social governance principles within the DEMU community will be rigorously measured through both qualitative and quantitative metrics:

• Engagement Metrics: Pre and post-implementation surveys will gauge changes in community engagement and overall satisfaction.
• Innovation Output: The quantity and quality of projects and initiatives emerging from the new governance framework will be tracked to measure the increase in innovation within the community.

Uniqueness and Benefits

ODIN applies a tested governance model in a novel context specifically tailored to enhance decentralized innovation networks. 

The benefits of this approach include:

• Scalable and Flexible: As the DEMU community grows, its social governance framework can be adapted to meet evolving needs, ensuring governance remains sustainable.
• Inclusive: This social governance framework reduces the risk of alienation and enriches the diversity of ideas and solutions by empowering every community member to have a voice in the governance process.

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

Expected Increase in Community-Driven Innovations and Improved Governance

Implementing a social governance framework within the DEMU community will empower members with more direct governance roles, catalyzing a significant uptick in community-driven innovations. 

Measuring Impact

To quantitatively and qualitatively measure the impact of the social governance implementation, we will employ the following metrics:

• Engagement Metrics: Frequency and quality of community participation in decision-making processes before and after the implementation.
• Innovation Metrics: We will track the number of new projects or improvements initiated by community members as a direct result of enhanced governance structures.
• Governance Effectiveness: Surveys and feedback mechanisms to assess the satisfaction with the governance process among community members. This will enable us to monitor subjectively the sense of engagement, influence, and time-effectiveness for their contribution.

Sharing Outputs and Opportunities

Outputs from this project will be openly shared with the broader Cardano community through:

• Regular Updates and Reports: Published on community forums, social media, and through newsletters.

• Workshops and Webinars: To educate and inspire other Cardano community projects on adopting decentralized governance models.

These will be key responsibilities of the DEMU Marketing and PR program. 

Uniqueness and Benefits

This project introduces a unique application of social governance tailored specifically for a blockchain community, setting a precedent within the Cardano ecosystem for future governance models. The benefits are multifold:

• Enhanced Collaborative Innovation: By decentralizing governance, the project nurtures an environment where innovative ideas can surface and thrive from anywhere within the community.
• Resilient and Adaptable Structures: Social governance offers flexible frameworks that can evolve with the community’s needs, ensuring long-term sustainability.

Importance to Cardano

Implementing social governance principles in DEMU exemplifies Cardano’s ethos of promoting decentralized, community-driven initiatives. This project advances the DEMU community and acts as a role-model for similar governance transformations within the broader Cardano ecosystem, highlighting the practical benefits of social governance in enhancing innovation and fostering robust community engagement.

[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?

Capability to Deliver

ODIN members have been active in practice of social governance for around 18 months, studying and practicing the habits of Sociocracy. Within the Cardano community, we have been leaders in the adoption of social governance. The practices of sociocracy have spread to Andamio and Gimbalabs as a result of these ODIN programs.

ODIN members are active participants in various areas of the Cardano ecosystem and have successfully delivered several impactful projects over the years. 

Validating Feasibility

By keeping our scope focused on two key areas (public awareness for DEMU, and the DEMU node-operator program), we are limiting the scope of effort and attention. By including tokenomics rewards, we are providing clear incentives for participants, backed by additional financial rewards budgeted to create cash incentives for effective participation.

Managing Funds Properly

• ODIN members will manage the funds and release them using Sociocracy’s consent process, aligned with the project’s drivers, requirements and principles.
• Transparent management of budget with on-chain records of reward distributions
• All budget allocations will be documented and reported regularly. This includes breakdowns of expenditures and progress reports matching budget spending to project milestones

Conclusion

The combined expertise of our team members and our transparent approach to fund management provides a strong foundation for delivering the project with high levels of trust and accountability. We are committed to contributing to the Cardano ecosystem's growth in the area of governance practices.

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

Milestone 1: Planning, design and onboarding

Milestone output(s):

• Detailed plan for the delivery of ODIN’s educational programs to acquire knowledge and practice constructive contribution to social governance
• Candidate audiences onboarded with introductory sessions with existing DEMU staff to build context and share knowledge about DEMU's platform and plans.
• Introductory sessions are also for ODIN-sourced social-governance facilitators and record-keepers, to begin their contribution lifecycle with the same context as other program contributors.
• Introductory sessions for MUNode operators, in which they'll gain exposure to additional material needed for them to be clear on details about the technical platform and the kinds of activities they should expect to be part of their node operations work. This will be an active space of collaboration on our incentive program for node operators, validating our approach to structuring music incentives in ways that are technically feasible and align resource allocation and rewards.
• Established drivers, requirements, and target metrics; reviewed with $DEMU community and refined as needed.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Approval of the plan by both ODIN and DEMU communities
• Any refinements needed for their consent to the drivers and objectives
• Report on introductory sessions, drivers, requirements and target metrics

Timeline: 1 month

Milestone Output(s):

• Facilitation of open spaces where DEMU community members will participate in social governance, contribute to their respective programs, and receive rewards for their contributions according to predetermined and agreed-upon metrics and growth targets.  
• Development of a clear framework for content-development workflows for the Marketing and PR group 
• The node operator program will focus on getting each node operator up and running and responding to operational usability concerns they raise.

Acceptance Criteria:

• Report on key insights from the collaborations during this milestone 
• Report on participant-rewards issued during the milestone
• Report on content-development criteria and workflows

Timeline - 2 months

Milestone 3: execution and refinement

Milestone Output(s):

• Administrative
• Identify and respond to refinement opportunities, ensuring a healthy space for governance activities
• Adjustments to the facilitation model based on feedback
• Facilitation of content creation program for the Marketing and PR group
• Reviewing created content for consent
• Releasing materials for PR
• Identifying any new principles to ensure the quality of decentralized contributions
• Facilitating any governance activities needed in this production phase 
• Ongoing engagement with node operators
• Help them keep up-to-date with new MUnode releases
• Monitor for operational challenges they may face
• Align DEMU's capacity-planning marketplace with the workflow needs of node operators
• Plan together the consensual transition paths from Testnet to Mainnet 

Acceptance Criteria:

• Report on key insights from the collaborations during this milestone
• Summary of content created in the Marketing and PR group
• Report on the mainnet transition plan
• Report on participant rewards issued during the milestone

Timeline - 2 months

Milestone 4: Evaluation and refinement

Objective: 

Milestone Output(s):

• Feedback collection, adjustments to the facilitation model based on feedback

Acceptance Criteria:

• Demonstrated improvement in engagement metrics through pre and post-implementation surveys and engagement statistics
• Report on measurements
• Closeout report & video

Timeline - 1 month

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

Members in ODIN's governance and education spaces will provide the facilitation and learning, including:

Newman Lanier

Roberto Mayan

Randall Harmon

Tevo Saks

... other members of the Governance Guild also available.

more info at https://catalyst-swarm.gitbook.io/governance-guild/about-us

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

Personnel Costs

Program facilitation

Coordination, oversight, and management of the entire project lifecycle across all milestones

45k

Training: Trainers in social governance to help participants be constructive

16k ADA

Subject matter advisors: Marketing, PR, and technical operations management

Experts in key subject matter areas guide DEMU staff and contributors to effective practices for shared action

10k ADA

Contribution Bounties

10k ADA

Personnel Subtotal: 81k ADA

Evaluation and Documentation

Feedback collection and analysis tools

Collecting and analyze quantitative and qualitative data on project impact

5K ADA

Reporting and documentation

Preparation of comprehensive final reports detailing project outcomes, challenges, and learnings

5k ADA

Eval & Docs Subtotal: 10k ADA

Miscellaneous

Materials and supplies

Training materials, workshop supplies, and educational resources; Tools required for feedback / impact analysis

3k ADA

Software and communication tools

Subscription to collaboration tools and platforms for virtual training sessions and workshops

1k ADA

Contingency fund

5k ADA

Misc Subtotal: 9k ADA

Total Project Cost

100k ADA

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

This budget efficiently allocates resources to critical areas of the project while ensuring high-quality outcomes:

Justification of Costs:

1. Personnel Costs ()

• Prioritizing expenditure on skilled trainers and project management ensures that the project is executed effectively and that the principles of Sociocracy 3.0 are correctly integrated and sustained.

2. Miscellaneous Expenses ()

• Investment in essential tools and robust evaluation mechanisms ensures the project’s success is accurately measured and documented, providing valuable insights for future initiatives.

Return on Investment for the Cardano Ecosystem

By training the DEMU community in decentralized governance, this project enhances immediate engagement and innovation and sets up a replicable model for other projects within the ecosystem, thus amplifying the overall value generated from this investment.

Doing this together will propagate the cultural habits of effective autonomous work for shared purposes, building Cardano's culture.

This program is expected to produce significant momentum for DEMU, and to bring new artists and listeners to Cardano, either directly or through DEMU's Fiat onramp, thus bringing new general audiences to our ecosystem and raising general awareness of Cardano.