Community Governance Oversight

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Overview

As Project Catalyst evolves through rapidly scaling funds, improvements to and innovations in Catalyst Governance processes need oversight and assessment from the community.

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Community Governance Oversight Proposal Intent

This proposal's intent is to provide community oversight of improvements to and innovations in Catalyst Governance (incl. the Catalyst Parameters Pilot below) by collecting feedback and providing tracking, documentation and analysis of any proposed changes.

A complementary proposal "Catalyst Audit Circle" ( https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Catalyst-Audit-Circle/381354-48088 ) will provide oversight on funded proposals and fund ongoing liaison with the Catalyst Auditing working group.

In Fund 8, four governance processes will be live. Three of them are addressed by this proposal, viz:

1. Challenge Setting.

2. Catalyst Circle problem sensing.

3. Modifying the governance parameters in Catalyst via Catalyst Circle and a Technical Counsel. (see below for more details)

The intention of this proposal is to provide oversight on these three processes by the Community Governance Oversight Group.

The fourth governance process, Funded proposals, will have oversight by the complementary proposal Catalyst Audit Circle ( https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Catalyst-Audit-Circle/381354-48088 )

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The Community Governance Oversight Process

1) Effective communication via surveys & workshops

The Community Governance Oversight Group (hereafter, "the Oversight group") will create internal & external surveys that will provide analysis of the quality of decision-making of each governance process outlined above. These will be included in the final report for each governance process.

Internal surveys

Internal surveys will be directed at self assessment / lessons learnt by those who organize each governance process (the governance processes are Challenge Teams, Catalyst Circle & the Technical Council.)

External surveys

External surveys will be directed at the Catalyst community and their reception of each governance process ( e.g. The governance processes are Challenge Setting, Catalyst Circle Problem Sensing & governance parameters setting.)

Workshops

Members of the Oversight group will facilitate workshops After Town Hall to complement feedback monitoring and survey design.

2) Facilitation of internal retrospectives

The Oversight group will facilitate internal retrospectives that will address issues highlighted by the surveys and workshops, and identify improvement recommendations.

3) Final Reports.

The Oversight group will document and track the activities of any improvements to and innovations in Catalyst Governance making these easily accessible to the community.

Final reports checking whether actions to resolve or improve have been executed and recommending further improvements.

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Catalyst Parameters Pilot

IOG have announced a Catalyst Parameters Pilot with the goal to decentralise the current governance process in respect of parameter changes to Project Catalyst.

See Harris Warren's presentation on Catalyst Parameters governance process at Catalyst Circle V2 Meeting #2 - https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io/catalyst-circle-oversight-v2/meetings/meeting-2-november-25th-2021#harris-warren-presentation-on-catalyst-parameters-governance-process-29-22

The strategy is to iterate a parameter change process between Catalyst Circle, a Catalyst Technical Council and the wider community.

Success criteria

An overview of success criteria was presented by Dor Gorbash on 8th December 2021 at Fund 7 Town Hall #5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzDbPznG-AE&t=2443s

The Voltaire Principles & Catalyst Parameters - Pilot Slides - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ikMLaCmgSDnM12-F5XquvXGbIJdhqwg_4SiolT--YHc/edit?usp=sharing

Catalyst Technical Council

The Catalyst Technical Council will comprise of :

Dor Gorbash, Kevin Hammond and Professor Roman Oliynykov

• https://iohk.io/en/team/dor-garbash
• https://iohk.io/en/team/kevin-hammond
• https://iohk.io/en/team/roman-oliynykov

These experts will initially be appointed by IOG with the intention that, in time, they will be elected and establish a bicameral governance system with Catalyst Circle.

In time this will entail an expanded role for Catalyst Circle Administrators ( see https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/CC-Admin-Team-Scope-Expansion/384245-48088 ) and also necessitates a requirement for community oversight as outlined in this proposal.

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Community Governance Oversight Objectives

The Oversight group will seek to ensure that :

1. No central entity or authority controls improvements to and innovations in Catalyst Governance.

1. Key groups are fairly represented - such as Voters, SPOs, Toolmakers and Maintainers, Funded Proposers, Community Advisors, Challenge Teams and Cardano Ambassadors .

1. Activities of participants in any governance changes are accountable to the community.

1. The risk of adversarial capture is mitigated.

1. That governance is transparent and understandable through accessible, timely and widely distributed documentation and communication.

1. Will assess whether improvements to Catalyst Governance have :

• a) recruited capable participants,
• b) access to impartial data and analysis,
• c) robust methodologies,
• d) clear rules and policies.

      7. Formal security and emergency mechanisms are developed and implemented.

      8. Governance culture is legitimate, stable and lively.

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The Team

The Catalyst Audit Community (up to 8 paid members) including :

Eric Helms - SCATDAO - Founder of Smart Contract Audit Token. Fund 5 Winner for Scaling up Cardano DeFi. Fund 6 Winner for Improve and Grow Auditability. CPA with over 10 years of audit experience in Big 4 as well as Fortune 500 Companies.

George Lovegrove - PACE, Funded proposer in F6: Improve and Grow Auditability.

Jo Allum, Auditability Challenge Team Lead, Funded proposer in F6: Scale-UP Cardano's Community Hubs (Cardano Canvas, Cards & Calculator).

Matthias Sieber (@matthiasksieber) - CEO Loxe Inc., Circle V2 representative for Cardano Foundation. Funded proposer in F6: Atala PRISM DID Mass-Scale Adoption, F6: DApps & Integrations, F6: Scale-UP Cardano's Community Hubs, F6: Developer ecosystem

Ron Hill - founding board member and CEO of SPOCRA (Stake Pool Operators Trade Guild). CQE, CSSGB, Industrial & Systems Engineer, Continuous Improvement Professional and Serious Change Agent.

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.

Stephen Whitenstall (@swhitenstall) - Quality-Assurance DAO, Circle V2 representative for funded proposers. Funded proposer in F6: Improve and Grow Auditability.

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Roadmap

Present - December 2021 to January 2021

1. Members of the Catalyst Audit Community will continue to meet and collaborate with IOHK in the Catalyst Auditing working group (a bi-weekly meeting to unpack decentralised auditing) to prepare for the formation of the Community Governance Oversight group and the Audit Circle.

After Funding - February 2022 to April 2022

1. The Oversight group will be formed
2. The Audit Circle will be formed.
3. Members of the Oversight group will collaborate with IOHK, the Catalyst Technical Council, Catalyst Circle V3 and Circle Admin to develop and implement an oversight process for 1) Challenge setting, 2) Catalyst Circle problem sensing and 3) modifying Catalyst governance parameters and set precise criteria for each success metric. Audit Circle will provide a complementary service for funded proposals.
4. The group will produce a report for each governance processes that will provide an assessment of whether they meet the success criteria.
5. A Fund 8 proposal will be prepared by the Oversight group and submitted in an appropriate Challenge to resource its ongoing activities in proportion to the scope of Catalyst governance changes in Spring 2022.

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Metrics / KPIs

Develop and implement an oversight process for Catalyst governance changes.

1. Conduct 6 surveys
2. Facilitate 3 retrospectives
3. Produce 3 reports

Prepare a Fund 8 proposal to resource the ongoing activities of the Oversight group in proportion to the scope of Catalyst governance changes in Spring 2022.

1. Prepare a Fund 8 proposal which will include a report informing the community about actions taken following the retrospectives, which will be published in June 2022.

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How this proposal will impact the challenge metrics

Number of funded proposals audited

This proposal will impact the auditing of all Catalyst proposals as it will implement oversight of Catalyst governance changes that affect how proposals are submitted, assessed and voted on.

Number of reports, articles and videos/podcasts

This proposal will develop and implement an oversight process for Catalyst governance changes.

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Budget

Budget breakdown:

A) Meetings :

Remuneration for members of the Oversight group : $1000 per person (up to 8 members) for a total of 12 hours' work per person : comprises meetings (1 hour twice a month - approx 6 meetings over 3 months) and preparation (communications, working sessions, etc. : 1 hour twice a month).

Subtotal : $8000

B) Fixed Costs :

Internal/external communication and organisation tools: ($1000)

1. Video conference/meeting (Zoom/hangout) x 3 months
2. Google form / survey design
3. Web hosting, Domain purchase
4. GitBook subscription.

Subtotal : $1000

C) Deliverables / Outputs :

1 Surveys

6 surveys (3 internal & 3 external) over 3 months -

$ 4800 for 6 surveys or $800 per survey

This will be divided between members according to the amount of work they contribute to creating, disseminating and analyzing a survey, presenting it at After Town Hall and facilitating discussion.

2 Facilitation of internal retrospectives

Facilitation of 3 internal retrospectives over 3 months -

$ 2400 for 3 retrospectives or $ 800 per retrospective.

This will be divided between members according to the amount of work they contribute to the retrospective including interpretation, synthesis and identifying improvement recommendations.

3 Production of reports

Production of 3 final reports one on each area of governance (e.g. Challenge Setting, Catalyst Circle Problem Sensing & governance parameters setting.) at the end of 3 months -

$ 2400 for 3 reports or $ 800 per report.

This will be divided between members according to the amount of work they contribute to the report writing including checking whether actions to resolve or improve have been executed and recommending further improvements.

4 Preparation for a Fund 8 proposal

Preparation to support the submission of a Fund 8 proposal to resource its ongoing activities in proportion to the scope of Catalyst governance changes in Spring 2022.

$ 500

Subtotal : 10,900

Requested funds in USD $ 19,100

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Risk Analysis

Sustainability - the proposal will have insufficient resources to address the scope of Catalyst governance changes.

The Oversight group recognises that this is a pilot project and one of its KPIs is to prepare a Fund 8 proposal to resource its ongoing activities in proportion to the scope of Catalyst governance changes.

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