Open Standards & Design Patterns

[IMPACT]

The proposer will work a fixed number of hours per week over a period of 6 months, focused on improving interoperability within the ecosystem. Each month will be a complete iteration of work: from planning to delivery, each with a specific focus. The work will include research, documenting, collaborating with other projects, coordinating efforts to define standards and sharing the results.

For example, there are several projects working on authentication using the cardano blockchain. One iteration could focus on documenting and describing different solutions and design patterns in an overview. 

Possible directions:

• Cardano based Authentication & Authorization
• Interoperability within catalyst
• Catalyst Data infrastructure
• Open Dapp Frameworks
• Metadata Standards
• Tokenmics for open source contributions

Preliminary work has been done in all these areas, priorities will be aligned with relevant stakeholders.

As the Challenge brief states:

“This challenge is about openness, standardization, and interoperability across open source projects funded by the community”

Therefore this proposal aims to work with existing projects that are building solutions and seek to support emerging standards and document common design patterns and infrastructure.

The goal is to dedicate a fixed amount of time to improving interoperability within the Caradano and Catalyst ecosystem. The focus will be on promoting a vendor neutral ecosystem.

The space and the projects in it move fast and several groups are often working on similar solutions. It is hard to predict what will be most valuable to focus on in 3 months time and beyond. For this reason the work will be done iteratively and in an agile manner. A main subject will be chosen at the start of each month with input from relevant stakeholders. This way the work can prioritize what is most relevant at that time.

The proposal relies on the willingness of other projects and proposers to collaborate with this effort. The proposer has already worked with several other open source developers in the Catalyst ecosystem and several have shown to be interested in this effort. 

The outcomes of the work might be overlooked or only impact the involved projects. For this reason each iteration of work will include a public session to share the work. Some budget will also be allocated for rewards, which can be given to people who help share the outcomes.

[FEASIBILITY]

The total duration would be 6 months, 12 hours a week.*

The work will be split in iterations of 1 month. Each iteration would include some output in the form of a report or public documentation, a presentation of the deliverable and an alignment session for the next iteration with key stakeholders.

Work will be done using agile principles focusing on delivering value in small increments. Each iteration will include an upfront goal and a reflection of the iteration at the end, to improve the process continuously.

*These hours will be matched with additional voluntary work in the community to participate in the public debate and stay up to date with other projects.

The budget for the proposal consists of a fixed payment per month per iteration completed. Additionally there is a budget to reward contributions from fellow community members who help bring the proposal to a success.

Monthly payment: 3000$ 

With 48 hours per month this equates to 3000/48 = 62.5$/h

6 months total: 18000$

Contribution rewards: 2000$

Total budget: 20.000$ (4% of the total challenge budget)

All other costs made during the course of the proposal (subscriptions, literature, hosting) will be paid using the monthly payments. (This format was chosen to minimize overhead cost of administration)

The monthly payments can be distributed per iteration upon completion of the previous iteration. Contribution rewards can be partially distributed up front and/or on a per need basis. This approach should limit the risk for the community. 

Team: Sosha (SofiH)

For external references and verification:

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOdUcZlU=/

Basic academic background in the fields of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence & Computational Logistics (Bsc. Artificial Intelligence, UvA). Professional experience with software development and applied AI in the domains of Education (EdTech) & Health (e-Mental Health). 

The use of open standards and interoperability between applications is an essential part of the EdTech domain. From a (inter)national, technological perspective the educational ecosystem is a fairly decentralized ecosystem. From student data moving between applications to fair assessments and accreditation of their efforts, all of these elements relate to our ecosystem. 

Technical knowledge of Cardano, experience with node operations, constructing transactions. Familiar with several projects working on foundational components both for the Cardano and Catalyst ecosystem. Contributed to Cardano API infrastructure project (Dandelion)

[AUDITABILITY]

The work will be tracked using a Miro board:

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOFQqPZY=/

The board will evolve during the work and all other material will be gathered and referenced here to create a singular overview.

Each iteration of work (1 month) will conclude with a public deliverable and some form of public presentation (ATH, Swarm, etc). At the start of each iteration there is a session to set the focus for that month. Participants who will be invited include challenge team members, circle representatives and contributors of open source projects. The decision for the focus per iteration will be recorded and explained.

Engagement and interest in these sessions and the deliverable can function as a form of auditing and tracking progress.

Collaboration with a number of different projects resulting in six tangible deliverables (articles, standard drafts, proof of concept) which are used by others as a building block. Continued and growing engagement in public sessions and with stakeholders throughout the six months.

Past the scope, continued collaboration between projects engaged during this proposal. Improved documentation for developers to understand the design of decentralized solutions.

A timeline and overview of previous proposals:

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOdvGm3c=/

Previous relevant proposals include promoting the Open Source ecosystem through the Challenge Setting, proposing and guiding the Open Source Developer Ecosystem Challenge in F6 & F7.

This proposal is a continuation and adaptation of a funded F7 proposal. The previous proposal aimed to provide consultancy for existing projects on technical topics. These can be considered as a pilot for this new proposal. The format is similar though some insights have led to the following adjustments: 

• longer duration & single proposal to decrease overhead cost
• more time commitment per week
• more flexibility to align the focus with other projects

Community Consultancy: Tokenomics (funded, ongoing)

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384043

Community Consultancy: AI & Data (not funded)

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/382539

The funded proposal is still ongoing and has already received positive feedback. It would be completed before this new proposal starts. There are no dependencies for this new proposal.

James Dunseith (Gimbalabs), who has been receiving consultancy through this effort left the following reference:

“In every experience I've had working with him over the last 12 months, Sosha brings an interdisciplinary approach based in his broad technical expertise and careful attention to all that is human in our work. He comes to conversations first as a listener, and because he is so consistently present, he is able to notice details that I overlook. Most important to me is - owing to Sosha's consistency and domain expertise - that he is able to say "hard things": giving constructive feedback and straightforward assessments, even when it's hard to hear. This is how Sosha helps people to grow.“