Penny Lane Liverpool Philosophy Hub

Work with established community philosophy networks, to build a philosophy-based Hub and lead philosophy discussion within Catalyst.

Vanessa Cardui and Stephen Whitenstall are skilled community facilitators; ex-members of Liverpool PIPs; and active within Catalyst.

Summary

This project addresses the challenge by meeting people where they are, and engaging them with Cardano through what they are already interested in - in this case, philosophy.

We aim to build one new community hub focused on philosophy, by leading sessions about the philosophy of blockchain with a grassroots philosophy community in Liverpool, England. From there, we aim to

1. bring this community into Catalyst to directly engage with Catalyst members and develop  philosophical discussion and engagement within Catalyst
2. produce learning materials to enable a network of similar community philosophy groups to self-lead their own sessions and come into Catalyst by the same route, thus expanding the hub to include 40 new users and 10 new organisations
3. translate the learning materials into one language other than English, so that a network of non-English-speaking philosophy groups can follow the same route into Catalyst, leading to the engagement of another 5 new organisations.

Project detail
 Philosophy In Pubs, or PIPs https://philosophyinpubs.co.uk/ is a network of groups of ordinary citizens  who meet regularly to engage in the practice of philosophic dialogue. The groups are influenced by "community of enquiry" principles, and aim to be critical, caring, creative and collaborative. The groups - particularly the original one, in Liverpool, England - attract many working-class, autodidact people who are interested in grass-roots philosophy outside of academia.

This proposal will work with members of the Liverpool branch of PIPs, to deliver a series of 10 sessions exploring the philosophical implications of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, Cardano, and Catalyst. We will inform people about the philosophical background to blockchain in general and Cardano in particular; and invite them to discuss the philosophical implications of things such as digital ID, self-sovereignty, decentralisation, and more. (The exact content of the sessions is in the process of being agreed with the PIPs group; and we intend the sessions to be supported by QA-DAO's Ekphrasis GitBook (https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io), where philosophical and academic material related to Cardano is collated. (See https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Ekphrasis-Gitbook/382334-48088 for QA-DAO's related Fund 7 proposal to resource the GitBook until April 2022, after which we intend for a member of PIPs to take over.)

At the end of each session, the group will decide on a provocation or discussion point which will become the theme of a regular weekly breakout room at Saturday Swarm or After Town Hall. Members of the PIPs group (who are already comfortable with meeting on Zoom, as they have been meeting this way throughout the pandemic) will help to facilitate the discussion with members of the Catalyst community, producing cross-pollination of ideas, creating a space for the discussion of philosophy within Catalyst, and onboarding PIPs members into Catalyst.

In the final 2 sessions, members of the PIPs group will work with the facilitators to create a toolkit /learning resorce /playbook (containing background reading lists, session-plans, games, pecha kuchas, talking points, provocations, etc) to enable other grass-roots pholosophy groups around the UK and beyond to self-lead a similar set of sessions themselves. The toolkit will be made available via the existing PIPs network of around 20 groups all over the UK; and via the U3A (University of the Third Age) network (https://www.u3a.org.uk/) in the UK. It will also be translated into one other language (probably French, though this is still to be confirmed) so that it can be shared with a primarily non-English-speaking network such as Cafes-Philo (https://www.cafesphilo.org/).

After the sessions finish, the project aims for one member of Liverpool PIPs to take on the running of QA-DAO's Ekphrasis GitBook https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io/ekphrasis/ - collating philosophical content relevant to Cardano, and leading and stimulating philosophical discussion and enquiry within Catalyst via Discord, breakout rooms, etc - for a period of 3 months.

KPIs

1. Outcomes and definitions of success

• Participants report increasing knowledge and confidence about blockchain in comparison with how they evaluated themselves at the start (after 3 months)
• Onboard 10 participants into Catalyst via attending Swarm sessions / AfterTownHall (after 3 months)
• Enhanced philosophical interpretation of blockchain technology, and increasing philosophical discussion and debate within Catalyst (after 6 months)
• Increased awareness of Cardano in up to 30 other community philosophy groups across the UK and Europe, among French speakers and English speakers (after 12 months)
• Building sustainable and lasting connections between Catalyst and PIPs (after 12 months)

2. Outputs

• A series of 10 sessions in Liverpool discussing the philosophical background to Cardano and blockchain
• A weekly Swarm or After Town Hall breakout room, where people from the Liverpool sessions engage with the wider Catalyst community. This breakout room will be recorded, timestamped, and summarised, and widely publicised throughout the Catalyst network;and questions from it will be seeded in Discord for further debate by the community.
• Production of a toolkit/ learning resource / playbook /guide to enable other community philosophy groups to self-lead a similar course of sessions themselves, and to then join the philosophical community in Catalyst. This toolkit, consisting of session plans, provocations, reading lists, etc, will be shared with the wider network of PIPs groups (around 20 active groups around the UK); and with the network of U3A (University of the Third Age) philosophy groups in the UK. It will also be translated into one other language: this will probably be French, to enable it to be used by the cafes-philo network, which is mainly French-speaking.
• One ongoing Catalyst Community Hub with a philosophy focus; including an individual from PIPs taking over management of QA-DAO's Ekphrasis GitBook https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io/ekphrasis/ for a period of 3 months after the end of the project, which will form the Philosophy Hub's platform.

Budget

• 10 sessions x $397 per facilitator per session, x 2 facilitators $7,940
• Documentation of the project via GitBook $3,970
• Meeting space in Liverpool, 10 sessions $665
• Zoom account to enable group discussion outside of sessions $160
• Publicity/marketing the project's sessions, in Liverpool and within Catalyst $1,325
• Timestamping, summarising and publicising the video of regular Swarm or ATH breakout room - $265 per session x 10 sessions $2,650
• Cost of producing a toolkit/ playbook /guide to self-leading similar sessions: $5,295 (Breakdown below)

                             o $330 per session x 2 PIPs members x2 sessions to help devise it $1,320
                             o Writing and layout: $1,985
                             o Translation into 1 additional language $1,325
                             o Host longterm on PIPs website, and publicise/promote $665

• Costs for a PIPs member to manage Ekphrasis Gitbook and lead engagement on philosophical topics within Catalyst for 3 months after the end of the project: $ 3,750

Total $25,755

Project Timeline

• Late Feb to late March 2022 - publicising the project in Liverpool; session-plan finalising
• Early April - mid July 2022 (allowing break for Easter): Sessions with PIPs; mix of in-person and online as required; and Swarm breakout rooms to bring the PIPs participants and their ideas into Catalyst
• July 2022 - planning and devising toolkit/resources for self-led sessions
• August 2022 - producing and translating self-led toolkit, and publicising to othergrass-roots philosophy groups so they can lead similar sessions in their own groups
• September- December 2022 (after end of the project) - ongoing philosophy engagement in Catalyst, led by a PIPs member, via Ekphrasis Gitbook, occasional Swarm sessions, Discord, etc.

Risk assessment

• Risk that not all PIPs members engage with the subject-matter of the sessions. We are mitigating this by working with PIPs to plan the session topics, and ensuring a focus on philosophy; and by facilitating sessions in a shared way, so that PIPs participants shape the direction that the project goes in, and co-lead some sessions, which is something PIPs members are very accustomed to doing. We are also structuring the sessions so that people do not have to attend every session, and can come to the ones that interest them most.
• Risk that the sessions compete with PIPs' own regular meetings, so that members don't have energy for both. Again, we are mitigating this with input from PIPs. PIPs have run external courses with other organisations before, and have experience of how to manage these to ensure sessions don't override their core regular activities (e.g. they sometimes focus their regular sessions on "spin-off" topics from the external course, which helps with their session planning).
• Risk that the toolkit we produce would not be used. We are mitigating this by working with PIPs to publicise and share it. Liverpool PIPs is part of a network of around 20 other active PIPs groups, and also has links with the network of U3A philosophy groups across the UK (University of the Third Age - an organisation for older people's continuing education https://www.u3a.org.uk/)   - they feel there would be wide interest in a learning resource/playbook/toolkit for self-delivered sessions. We are also translating the toolkit into one other language - probably French, but TBC depending on responses to our outreach - in order to reach grass-roots philosophy groups in Europe such as Socrates Cafe and Cafes-Philo (https://www.cafesphilo.org/).
• Risk of sessions being disrupted by COVID. This risk is minimal - further lockdowns in the UK seem unlikely at present. But if they do happen, PIPs have been meeting on Zoom throughout the pandemic, and it doesn't present a barrier for them if we need to deliver online.

Team experience

Vanessa Cardui (@CallyFromAuron) is a skilled peer facilitator and community engagement manager. She has over 20 years' experience of participatory work with communities, including writing learning resources for adults, and has led a range of groundbreaking publicly-funded community engagement projects in the UK with working-class urban communities. (see for example Creation of a Community, a community archiving project on a working-class estate in Cheshire, England, exploring class, race and Carnival Queens! https://creationofacommunity.wordpress.com/ ) She is currently leading on a Fund 6 funded proposal, Homeless Hub (https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Homeless-Hub/367891-48088 ). She is from a working-class Liverpool background and is an ex-member of Liverpool PIPs, so has a solid understanding of both the PIPs community, and the wider working-class Liverpool community that it is rooted in. And as a relative newcomer to Catalyst, she has an understanding of what support and information newcomers might need.

Stephen Whitenstall (@swhitenstall) is an experienced peer facilitator with 30 years experience in business, community and academic projects. Stephen has a First Class Honours degree in philosophy and was drawn to Cardano by an academic interest in distributed governance . He has documented the philosophical underpinning of Cardano in an Ekphrasis GitBook (https://quality-assurance-dao.gitbook.io/ekphrasis/ ) and recorded recent community discussions such as Bridge Builders on the QA-DAO blog (https://quality-assurance-dao.github.io/blog/2021/10/16/edition-one/). An active former member of PIPs he can combine knowledge of the local Liverpool community with current activity in Catalyst.

Penny Lane is a project of QA-DAO (https://quality-assurance-dao.github.io), an ongoing open source project that provides support for the Cardano Project Catalyst Community. Penny Lane's project documentation will follow QA-DAO ideals of open-source transparency and auditability.