The Universal Encyclopedia of Cardano - ALDEA WIKI Phase 2.0 (English - Portuguese - Spanish)

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

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

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

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

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

ALDEA WIKI will gradually expand its content to all the main languages spoken in the world, becoming a place where people of any language can learn about Cardano. A place where no one is left out.

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

[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.”

We have a dependency on MediaWiki, which is the engine that Wikipedia and us use to power ALDEA WIKI. The software is free to use and it is very stable. We haven't had any issues since we started operating in 2021.

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

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

Project will be fully open source. So will be our outputs, we will use the Attribution License (CC BY), which allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon our work, even commercially, as long as they give appropriate credit for the original content. This ensures that anyone or any project can freely use the content but in a responsible manner.

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

Dear voter, first and foremost, we want you to know that we take the idea of creating a Universal Encyclopedia of Cardano and everything related to blockchain technology seriously. It's an immense task that, when completed, will be thanks to the collaboration of the Cardano community worldwide. However, what we're doing now is laying the groundwork. Our final plan aims to generate a foundational 'Mother' content base that covers the widest spectrum of possible inquiries in a minimum of 7 languages, starting with Spanish, Portuguese, and English. This content will consist of 100 well-developed foundational articles (Cardano, blockchain, cryptocurrency, smart contracts, etc.) and a glossary of 400 terms with less extensive elaboration (asset, bridge, hash, layer, etc.).

This is a funding request for the second phase of the project, where we conclude the creation of incentivized content in Spanish and initiate the first phase in Portuguese and English.

The number of rounds in which Aldea Wiki participates will be related to the number of languages the community decides. Starting with the most spoken languages globally, we want to ensure that within three funds, we've included Spanish and Portuguese (due to their connection with Latin America, which marks Aldea's origins), English (for its universality), French (due to its widespread use), Russian (due to its large crypto community), Japanese (due to its significant community and direct relationship with Cardano), and Mandarin Chinese (due to being the most spoken language globally).

Afterwards, the community will decide whether to fund the creation of content in Hindi, German, Korean, Arabic, etc.

Each language will require two (2) funded phases: the first with support from the previous team, the second supporting the next. This way, we not only establish connections between communities around the world, but also give them a chance to go through the whole Project Catalyst experience and learn so they can later on pass the knowledge amongst their communities. After two funded rounds (to establish a work methodology, control, as well as responsible and curated content), the content generation in each language becomes collaborative or incentivized with tokens from ALDEA and other community projects willing to participate.

By the end of three funding rounds, over 110 individuals from all corners of the globe will have actively participated in the project from its inception.

An illustrative example could be:

In FUND12, the Spanish team presents a proposal for their second phase and the first phase for Portuguese and English. They will be supported during their initial 6 months.

In FUND13, the Portuguese team presents a proposal for their second phase and the first phase for the French team (or as decided by the community), and the English team presents their second phase and the first phase for Japanese. This process continues successively. This approach aids in engaging with Catalyst and fosters bonds and working relationships across the globe.

The funds requested will consistently be in the same price range (pegged to the dollar) as outlined in this proposal.

A BIT ABOUT OUR HISTORY AND OUR WAY OF WORKING:

ALDEA Wiki is an ongoing project that came to reality thanks to the community at Project Catalyst fund5 and is still growing since then. A place that is (step by step) working to gather all the information and documentation about Cardano and everything relevant to the Blockchain world in all the main languages spoken in the world. When we talk about information, we mean articles in the widely recognized wikipedia style and format.

A place whose content is created by its own community with high standards of quality and responsibility.

Free, simple, educational, and adaptable content to any other format. Content for the entire community that will welcome in to the millions who are still unfamiliar with it. A space that transcends all language and communication barriers.

We have been in development for over a year now. During this time, we have generated high-quality content to welcome all Spanish-speaking individuals who wish to learn about Cardano. As a result, we have become the go-to destination to find and share clear, educational, and organized information about Cardano, Project Catalyst, and the Blockchain industry as a whole.

AldeaWiki aims to cover the entire spectrum of inquiries that newcomers to the ecosystem may have, as well as those individuals seeking to delve deeper into specific topics. That's why, in our initial phase in Spanish, you will find articles at all levels. From explaining what an exchange is (aldeawiki.org/Exchange) to more technical and complex subjects, such as the very concept of Blockchain for someone new to the topic (aldeawiki.org/Blockchain). Thanks to this Wikipedia format and a robust content base which we have already written, you can navigate and find answers to those terms or concepts you don't know. You can do it navigating or through our glossary of terms which holds all those concepts that can be explained in two or three lines. We aim to ensure the same type of content is available in every language.

Furthermore, excluding hosting expenses, the remaining entirety of the funds obtained (as was done in the first phase) will be distributed among the contributing members of the community for their work, including both developers and content creators. This is something that makes us proud because we believe that few things have such a direct impact on the real world as including people through work. It is a project in which the entire Cardano community benefits from more than one angle.

In this second phase, our goal is to continue to build on top of the strong foundation laid during phase 1. We strive to conclude the Spanish content and reproduce (rather than simply translating) the Phase 1 material into two additional languages: Portuguese (to foster connections with our Brazilian and Portuguese counterparts) and English (to gain global recognition and expand our reach). Here is an example of each (we chose the Oracle article as an example because we often find ourselves answering the question of how blockchains interact with the real world):

Oracle English

Oráculo Portuguese

The reproduction of content will be carried out by two teams consisting of native speakers of those languages. These individuals will be recruited from within the community, trained, and supported by the initial Spanish-content team. In this way, we foster connections among communities, expand the range of languages available, and make a real-world impact.

The working methodology has already been tested and proven. During these initial phases, each article goes through no less than 3 editors before being published (the writer, the content reviewer and the spelling, grammar, and formatting reviewer). We also consider the use of AI to improve technical aspects of the platform that are not related to content generation.

We will measure the impact by analyzing metrics such as platform visits and community engagement. We will also take into account the connections forged among the new teams.

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

In what way will the success of your project bring value to the Cardano Community? 

Just as the challenge requirements asks, our project will help to drive ecosystem growth, foster education and community initiatives, expand Cardano’s global footprint, and onboard more Cardano users.

Our main objective is to ensure that people from any language and any corner of the world have access to information about Cardano and Project Catalyst in their own language, created by their own community. To achieve this, we're forming teams from different regions and connecting them through collaborative work. The Spanish content team will train and support the Portuguese content team, which in the near future will do the same with a content team in French, Russian, or Japanese. This is an initiative from the Latin American community aiming to create bonds and relationships that span the globe, establishing a transparent and responsible work methodology while generating a Universal Encyclopedia unlike any other blockchain possesses.

This positively affects the productivity and growth of Cardano. In the short term, we will be sharing a workspace and a vision of the importance of our work in terms of education and dissemination with these communities. In the long term, the most interesting aspect is that our content is regularly updated, making it a continuously useful and reliable source of information.

How will you measure this impact? 

As for the metrics that will measure the project's performance, in addition to completing the writing of the specific articles detailed in sections below, we expect to see an increase in website visits from Brazil, Portugal, English-speaking countries and the rest of the world. We will measure the impact by tracking platform metrics using Google Analytics, considering the number of queries, new users, and geographic locations from which our content is accessed.

Additionally, while all these developments unfold, to ensure organic dissemination and genuine quality control of our materials, we've introduced something new to the project:

A Telegram Bot 🎉

Having built a solid base of content in Spanish and working now towards English & Portuguese, one of the main goals in this Phase 2 of our project, is to promote our content and allow users and communities within the Cardano Ecosystem, to access and learn from said content. In order to do so, we believe it's key to make it as easily accessible as possible. In this day and age, this is more critical than ever to promote educational content.

A Telegram Bot is a cornerstone, not only to attract new visitors, but to keep them as recurring users. A Bot that SPOs, Admins and Moderators from various Telegram Communities, can install in their Groups and have readily at hand both for their members to use on demand, as well as for them to avoid the need to have to explain over and over again the same concepts. Instead, they'll be able to leverage our Bot and provide their members with curated content that will not only answer specific questions, but also allow them to navigate through various terms and concepts following our internal links, similar to any wiki.

For now, we've created a very basic Proof of Concept (PoC) that is already linked to our database and is able to receive requests and send articles back to the user. If you want to see it in action, you can access it through the following link: @ALDEAWiki_bot

Please keep in mind this is merely a PoC and it still needs lots of improvements, to have different commands available, to make responses more precise, better formatted, maybe even to make it smart enough to understand natural language and better interpret what the user is looking for.

A small part of the budget requested in this proposal, is to work on this Bot and have it ready for communities to install it in their groups and provide added value to their members, while they help promote our content and provide traffic and active users to our wiki.

We will gradually increase the number of people from different parts of the world who will have the opportunity to learn about Cardano and its technical as well as philosophical context.

We'll remove language barriers, and as more people join the community, the ecosystem will gain strength and solidity.

The following points would be the main success criteria for our project:

1) Completing our content in Spanish: The writing of 50 new articles, in addition to the expansion of our glossary to 400 short terms, will cover a comprehensive spectrum of possible queries on everything related to Cardano, Project Catalyst, and the Blockchain industry in general.

2) The formation of two new teams of Portuguese and English speakers will strengthen ties within the community, extend the reach of our content, and exponentially enhance the organic growth of our project.

3) Replicating our content into two new languages will be another step towards our ultimate goal of becoming the Universal Encyclopedia of Cardano.

How will you share the outputs and opportunities that result from your project?

The results of our project will be published on our platform as they are generated. In addition, they will be announced on our Telegram and Twitter channels.

Almost every day, a new article or update is released. Our content is designed to be freely used by any member or project within the community. We will use the results obtained throughout the project to guide our next phase towards the languages that have the highest demand.

[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?

Answer:

Please describe your existing capabilities that demonstrate how and why you believe you’re best suited to deliver this project?

Please include the steps or processes that demonstrate that you can be trusted to manage funds properly.

This will be a second phase, the work we have accomplished is the best proof of our capabilities and how we can carry it forward. The team has been working on this project for over a year, establishing quality standards for content, implementing a simple, well-organized, and effective work methodology. Additionally, project accounting is maintained in a Google Sheet that is available for auditing at any time.

We presented sets of 15 or more articles on a monthly basis. The writers would choose articles based on their areas of expertise:

For tracking and documenting the ongoing work, we created a workspace on Trello where the writer and reviewer would coordinate the completion of the article for subsequent formatting and polishing. Once the process was completed, the corresponding payment was made:

All payments for completed tasks are recorded in a Google Sheets spreadsheet:

We will validate these achievements by presenting the teams created and the content generated.

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

Milestone Description: Content & Platform development - Months 1 & 2 - 10,771 ADA -

• Completion of content in Spanish (50 articles + 200 glossary terms + updates to Phase 1 articles)
• Platform development (engine update, multilingual configuration, remove SpamBots, Shorten URLs)
• Telegram Bot testing

Budget breakdown for the milestone

• Platform development: 2,727 ADA
• Spanish content closure: 6,136 ADA
• Logistics, manteinance & extra tasks (detailed under "Tasks by Role" section): 1,908 ADA

Milestone output(s)

• These are the 50 new articles to be written in Spanish: Aiken, Babel Fees, Bitcoin, Chainlink, Charles Hoskinson, Criptografía, Cypher Punk, Código Abierto, Demeter.run, Defi, Djed, Dreps, Emurgo, EVM/KEVM, Ethereum, Fintech, Fund1, Fund2, Fund3, Fund4, Fund5, Fund6, Fund7, Fund8, Fund9, Fund10, Helios, IOG, Kachina, KYC, Lighting Network, Lucid, MakerDAO, Marlowe, Mesh, Minotaur, Mithril, Mixer, NFT, Op-Shin, Plutarch, Plutus, Pool.pm, Satoshi Nakamoto, Software Libre, TheDAO, Tiered fees, Tokenomics, Trading, Vasil.
• *These are the 50 articles that have already been written, corresponding to the first phase of the project (some of them will need an update during this phase): Altcoin, AtalaPrism, Basho, Billetera (wallet), Blockchain, Byron, Cardano, Contratos Inteligentes (smart contracts), criptomoneda, DAO, Dapps, Daedalus, Decentralization, DineroFiat, Exchange, Forks, Fundación Cardano, Gobernanza, Goguen, Haskell, Hydra, ICO, Identidad Digital, Llaves en Cardano, Mainnet/Testnet, Metamask, Metaverso, Milkomeda, Minería, Moneda estable, Muesliswap, Oráculo, Ouroboros, P2P, Project Catalyst, Proof of Stake, Proof of Work, Shelley, Solidity, Stake Pool, Staking, Sundaeswap, Token, UTxO/eUTxO, Uniswap, Vitalik Buterin, Voltaire, White paper, Yoroi.

*We've been moving forward with content creation in hope that this second phase would receive funding at Fund12.

Regarding the development of the platform, we have 3 items to solve or improve:

• 1) SpamBots: Our goal is that in the future, anyone who wants to write content in good faith on the platform does not need any permission. Currently, we are facing an issue with spambots, which is common for the Wikipedia engine. These bots create accounts and alter the content. We have addressed this problem by restricting automatic editing permissions, which is not an issue at the moment since we have a manageable number of new collaborators. However, we are requesting funds to solve this matter, keeping the future in mind.
• 2) Multilanguage Extension: This is crucial. Currently, for sample articles, we use the "oracle_Eng" format. However, the idea is that visitors to the site can choose their language and see the corresponding content. If they choose Spanish, they will see "Oráculo," and if they choose English, they will see "Oracle."
• 3) Shorten URLs: Currently, the links to our articles appear like this: "https://aldeawiki.org/index.php?title=Cardano." We want to install this extension to make them simpler to share, for example, by typing "aldeawiki.org/cardano."

Telegram Bot:

A Bot that SPOs, Admins and Moderators from various Telegram Communities, can install in their Groups and have readily at hand both for their members to use on demand, as well as for them to avoid the need to have to explain over and over again the same concepts. Instead, they'll be able to leverage our Bot and provide their members with curated content that will not only answer specific questions, but also allow them to navigate through various terms and concepts following our internal links, similar to any wiki.

For now, we've created a very basic Proof of Concept (PoC) that is already linked to our database and is able to receive requests and send articles back to the user. If you want to see it in action, you can access it through the following link: https://t.me/ALDEAWiki_bot

Acceptance Criteria: Milestone 1 (months 1 & 2): The writing of the last 50 articles in Spanish should be completed, as well as the expansion of the glossary to a total of 400 short terms. For inquiries, this is our current glossary: Glossary.

Regarding the development of the platform, we should update the engine to its latest version, solve the issue of 'spambots' creating users, and install extensions for multilingual support and URL shortening to make our content easier to share.

The Bot should have been tested in community telegram groups.

Milestone description: Expansion of teams and languages - Months 3 & 4 - 13,726 ADA -

• Teams formation (recruitment and coaching).
• First half of Portuguese content (25 articles + 100 glossary terms).
• First half of English content (25 articles + 100 glossary terms).
• Telegram Bot Development

Budget breakdown for the milestone

• Telegram bot development: 1,364 ADA
• Spanish glossary closure: 2,745 ADA
• Logistics, manteinance & extra tasks (detailed under "Tasks by Role" section): 1,908 ADA
• Training, coaching, & ongoing support of the two new teams: 1,818 ADA
• First half of Portuguese & English content: 5,910 ADA

Milestone output(s):

• These are the first 25 deliverable articles in each language: Cardano; Project Catalyst; Blockchain; Token; Cryptocurrencies; Wallet; Exchanges; Smart Contracts; Decentralization; Dapps; DAO; P2P; PoW; Staking; PoS; Governance; Oracles; Djed; Forks; Byron; Shelley; Goguen; ;Basho; Voltaire; Vasil.

Acceptance Criteria: Milestone 2 (months 3 & 4): By the end of this stage, we should have recruited at least 5 committed speakers of each language who, under the guidance of their respective leaders, complete the first half of the content in their respective languages.

The Telegram Bot should have more commands to perform more specific searches, not only in titles but within the text of the articles to provide suggestions, etc.

Milestone description: Closure: - Month 5 & 6 - 10,999 ADA -

• Second half of content in both languages (25 articles + 100 glossary terms each).
• Telegram Bot Development

Budget breakdown for the milestone

• Telegram bot development: 1,363 ADA
• Logistics, maintenance & extra tasks (detailed under "Tasks by Role" section): 1,908 ADA
• Training, coaching, & ongoing support of the two new teams: 1,818 ADA
• Second half of Portuguese & English content: 5,909 ADA

Milestone output(s):

• For the second half we prefer choosing them when the time comes depending on the demand but these could be the second batch of 25 articles in each language: IOG; Cardano Foundation; Emurgo; Charles Hoskinson; Satoshi Nakamoto; Vitalik Buterin; Bitcoin; Ethereum; Binance; Stable coin; Altcoin; Dreps; Mainnet/Testnet; Ouroboros; Plutus; Hidra; Marlowe; NFT; DeFi; FinTech; Metaverse; and the history of the Project Catalyst Funds from 0 to 10.

Acceptance Criteria: Milestone 3 (months 5 & 6): By the end of this stage, the second half of the content in both languages should have been written.

The Telegram Bot should integrate with an AI tool capable of conversational natural language processing, delivering responses extracted from the articles in the same language.

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

Team in detail in alphabetical order (these links will take you to the team members' profiles on the platform, click on them for more information).

• Alankaza -Editor-
• Amaru -Spanish Team Leader- General Maintenance and tasks-
• ASH -Editor-
• C₳rlos9 -Editor-
• Cristhianhcr -Editor-
• Fazromano -Portuguese Team Leader-
• Jotape -Editor-
• Juankukuriku -Editor-
• Julian (Apolo) -Editor-
• Kelochain -Editor-
• Manuelgirbal -Editor-
• Matifalcone -Developer & Project Leader- General Maintenance and tasks-
• Martin-ITZA -Editor-
• MRTN -Project & English Team Leader - General Maintenance and tasks-
• MoxiePool -Editor-
• Muxcortoi -Editor-
• Pablomoya87 -Editor-
• Quixote Pool -Editor-
• RcerrudPTY -Editor-
• Ssssaaamm -Editor-
• TOPO -Developer & Editor-
• Valentina -Editor-

TASKS BY ROLE

Editors:

1. Creation of assigned articles while adhering to the work methodology and established guidelines.
2. Article review.

Developers:

1. Address any technical issues that may arise on the platform.
2. Installation of extensions.
3. Bot development.

Team Leaders:

1. Talks and guidance for new members
2. Team coordination for content creation
3. Spelling and ensuring each article adheres to the established format (title, menu, image, references, signature)
4. Data entry into expense sheets
5. Team payments
6. Maintenance of workspace (Trello template)
7. Proposal presentation
8. Audits for Project Catalyst
9. Creation of a multi-signature wallet and recording of its transactions
10. Platform metrics registry (visits, clicks, new users, etc.)
11. Mentoring the New Language Team Leader

• Creation and management of the team's Telegram group
• Creation and management of expense spreadsheet
• Creation and management of Trello workspace
• Support during proposal presentations in Catalyst

*We will be conducting interviews to include new members for both Portuguese and English teams. If you are interested in working with us, please contact us through our Telegram group, AldeaWiki Initial Chat :)

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

Phase 2 will take 20-24 weeks.

We are requesting funds for ALDEA Wiki | Phase 2 - Spanish - Portuguese - English.

USD 20 Hourly Rate - ADA = 0.44

• Engine Update, Configuration, URL Shortening, Spam Bots, Multilingual Support: 60 hours -> USD 1,200 - ADA 2,727
• Telegram Bot (testing, implementation, development) : 60 hours -> USD 1,200 - ADA 2,727
• New Content in Spanish (50 new articles): 125 hours (2.5 hours per article) -> USD 2,500 - ADA 5,681
• New Content in Spanish: Glossary (essential), 400 terms - selection and creation: 60 hours -> USD 1,200 - ADA 2,727
• Update of Phase 1 Spanish Articles: 10 hours -> USD 200 - ADA 454
• Logistics, Maintenance, and Extras (7 hours per week x 24 weeks = 168 hours) *USD 15 Hourly Rate -> USD 2,520 - ADA 5,727
• Training and Coaching for Portuguese and English Teams (supervision and support throughout the phase): 80 hours (40 hours each) -> USD 1,600 - ADA 3,636
• Content Reproduction in Portuguese (50 articles - 2 hours per article = 100 hours) + 200-terms Glossary: 30 hours -> USD 2,600 - ADA 5,909
• Content Reproduction in English (50 articles - 2 hours per article = 100 hours) + 200-term Glossary: 30 hours -> USD 2,600 - ADA 5,909

Total: - ADA 35,497-

We're taking ADA at today's value, which is 0.44Usd. In case there are surplus funds, we'll allocate them to generate more content and reduce the budget in the next phase.

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

We believe that the cost-benefit ratio in this project is highly positive.

Since a significant portion of our project focuses on creating written content, which will be produced by individuals from different parts of the world, we have set an average international rate of $20 USD per hour (and $USD 15 for maintenance and extra tasks). However, this rate is only indicative, as we understand that tasks such as writing an article may require double the estimated time. Similarly, for maintenance, coaching, and development tasks, we use the same hourly rate, even though we are aware that the international average rate is much higher. We anticipate that we will dedicate more hours than proposed in the budget to efficiently fulfill the necessary tasks.

To conclude, the funds we're requesting represent 0.6454% of the funds available in the challenge and 0.070% of those available in the Fund. We believe that allocating this amount to boost the community in creating the Universal Encyclopedia of Cardano vastly outweighs the cost-benefit ratio and is worth giving the opportunity.

AldeaWiki is a project that began collaboratively, and we want to ensure that this spirit is always present because endeavours undertaken with love and dedication tend to yield better results.