Organizational habits and Principles: The Governance and Collaboration Study Group

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Newman Lanier

[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)

These funds create opportunities for ALL community members to study, present and practice exemplary governance and collaboration patterns. And, the resources created are open and promoted to all.

[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.

[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 use the Creative Commons license - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

[METADATA] SDG rating

Goal 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.3 - By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university

4.4 - By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

Goal 16 - Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

16.6 - Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels

16.7 - Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

This proposal will fund a governance and collaboration study group in a unique way. 

Individuals will be empowered to select and present on a pattern of their choosing at a weekly, 90 minute meeting. Each presenter will be awarded 100 ADA as a token of appreciation for the effort. Likewise, the meeting facilitator will be compensated in the same way.

The videos of presentations and meetings will be collected on a video sharing site. These recordings and public repository of the presentation files are some of the valuable deliverables for this proposal. 

Project Catalyst funds will create opportunities for community members to research state of the art governance and collaboration patterns and techniques, create learning artifacts in the form of accessible presentations for the group that can be widely shared and distributed… and truly learn and share a passion for governance and collaboration. 

For example, this collection of 79 sociocratic patterns is already being investigated by an established Circle of the ODIN (Open Decentralized Innovation Network).

Besides Presenters, funds will also be available for:

• The facilitator of the meetings where the presentation happens.  
• The project administrator for organizing the meetings and disbursing the funds.
• The catalyst administrator for Project Catalyst reporting.
• Social Media Manager for organizing a small funded campaign to promote the project. 

The core of this group is already established as an Education sub-circle of Open Decentralized Innovation Network (ODIN).   

This project will engage the Cardano community and any organization hoping to become more effective and robust. Our target will be the Project Catalyst communities, such as the townhalls, funded projects (past and present). Also Intersect MBO and sister innovation fund, SingularityNet DeepFunding.   

Rationale:

This solution is a specific and concrete way for community members to engage with the governance and collaboration principles. 

It’s open to everyone to select a ‘pattern’, study it, do the presentation at a weekly meeting, and receive funding. This way we can engage anyone in the wider community willing to study and learn. This lowers barriers to education - effectively we are incentivized to learn and share what we learn.  

We can demonstrate the impact by the number of people doing the presentations and those attending and participating in the conversations during the presentations. 

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

The Cardano community will benefit from understanding a framework and patterns for governance and collaboration. By implementing these patterns, changes can be made in organizational culture and habits of collaboration. In this way our community outputs can improve. Our governance systems can improve. 

By sharing the project widely we can incentivize more community members to study and learn about governance in general and S3 specifically.

With Voltaire / CIP 1693 coming online, Cardano communities that have a governance skillset will be better perpared to participate and to be effective. In the days and months ahead, the trail being blazed by Cardano communities into the first truly decentralized governance protocol in crypto will require rare, high-value skillsets and experience in coherent collaborative patterns.

[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?

This is an initiative of the Open Decentralized Innovation Network (ODIN). The study group has existed September of 2023 and has held over 30 meetings with the express purpose of studying methods for governance and collaboration .  

We have made this proposal with simplicity in mind. We are a capable group of veteran Project Catalyst members with many completed proposals. We are confident we can coordinate and complete the project.

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

Setup

• Description: 
• Set up the project. Finalize and confirm the roles, budget, timelines
• Outputs: 
• The administration team is confirmed. Project documentation is ready. Communication channels are established and published. Social media campaign is established
• Acceptance Criteria: 
• A project kickoff call with the Administration team that presents the project, presenter workflow, a video of which is published on a bespoke study group video channel. There is a project repo for documentation and reference. Social Media campaigns are documented.

Launch and presentations (First 20 presentations)

• Description: 
• Officially launch the program. Begin promotional activities to engage the Catalyst funded proposer community and host the first series of mentorship workshops.
• Outputs: 
• First presentations conducted on a Zoom call
• promotional campaign on social media conducted
• On-boarding of new presenters 
• Acceptance Criteria: 
• Video and documentation of the first presentations.  

Ongoing S3 presentations (Next 40 presentations)

• Description: 
• Conduct weekly meetings with community presenters.  
• Execute the Social Media campaign.  
• Disburse funds to the first 20 presenters.  
• Conduct mid project review of all stakeholders (team members, audience at meetings, etc.)
• Outputs: 
• meeting recordings, 
• social media posts, 
• Roster of presenters, 
• documentation of presentations,
• Acceptance Criteria: 
• 60 completed presentations. All outputs documented.

Final presentations and Project Closeout

• Description: 
• Conduct final 19 presentations and build a Project Closeout report. 
• Outputs: 
• final meeting recordings with documentation, 
• social media posts, 
• roster of presenters, 
• Project Closeout report
• Acceptance Criteria: 
• All 79 presentations completed and project Closeout report completed.

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

Pattern Presenter: 

Anyone in the community who is willing to study and present one pattern, principle or concept of Collaboration and Governance. There will be a limit of 10 presentation for any one person.  

Open invitation to wider community:

Meeting Facilitator:

Facilitates weekly meetings where presentations are conducted. 

ODIN members: Newman Lanier, Nori Nishigaya, Randall Harmon

Project Administrator: 

Conducts the operational business of the project - communicating with the presenters, preparing the documentation, and doing the treasury disbursements, and all other tasks to keep project running smoothly.

Newman Lanier

Catalyst Administrator: 

Conducts the Catalyst milestone reporting.

Nori Nishigaya

All team members can conduct multiple roles.  

--Bios--

Nori is the Founder of the Salmon Nation Decentralised Alliance (SANADA), co-founder of Bridge Builders, and a founding member of Andamio. He organizes meetups and events as a Cardano Ambassador and is a serially funded proposer. Nori brings over 30 years of experience in software development, agile methodologies, leadership in managing teams, and founding and running technology startups. His passion is discovering and sharing governance and organizational best practices for radically decentralized and self-managed communities through experimentation and hands-on practice.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishigaya/ 

Newman is a professional with a diverse background spanning various roles. Having worked as a Project Facilitator at Cardano's Project Catalyst, Newman contributed since Fund7. As an Educational Technology Specialist at Duke University, Newman designed, developed, and implemented online courses using Blackboard and Moodle Learning Management Systems. His skill set includes project management, team leadership, and meticulous project planning, positioning Newman as a versatile professional ready to drive innovation and streamline organizational processes.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/newman5/

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

There are five paid roles for the project.  

• Pattern Presenter
• Meeting Facilitator
• Project Administrator
• Catalyst Administrator
• Social Media campaign builder

In order to keep the project attractive to funding, we compensate with honoraria or “Paid below the customary rate”. We feel that people want to commit to this project, but can’t completely volunteer the time and resources.  

Additionally, we are asking for funding for additional resources: Accounts for Zoom, OpenAI ChatGPT4, Video hosting service, and a paid promotion budget. 

See this budget for more details - Governance and Collaboration Presentation Budget

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

In preparation for CIP-1694 governance actions, this is a direct, effective way to incentivize the Cardano community to study and to engage with the governance and collaboration principles and concepts. These patterns are a documented way to improve organizational effectiveness and outcomes. If our projects, working groups, MBOs and collaborators use these patterns, they will be better.  

The value is increased because the project will encourage community members to study and publicly share the patterns. This is an open and decentralized project. It abides the open source ethos - every community member is encouraged to participate. 

The administrative role's cost are less than half of the total budget. Honorarium, monetary 'tokens of appreciation', to compensate in order to keep costs low and encourage community participation.