Uganda Business & Technical Hub

[IMPACT]

This is a proposal to launch a co-working and computer lab space as a local Cardano community Center.

We will run marketing campaigns in universities, high schools and on social media to promote our monthly educational seminars that will be open to the general public, start an online community on Telegram & Whatsapp and schedule meetups that bring like minded people to engage in discussions to spread the word about Cardano.

In addition to this we are preparing hands-on and practical education for students, tech professionals and individuals seeking to change careers.Courses will range from Linux Basics, Linux Server Administration, running your own Stake pool and Introduction to Haskell. 

Setting up community Centers in the region will enable us to connect entrepreneurs with the required technical talent to build their local solutions on the Cardano blockchain. 

This will also provide local developers with employment opportunities and the community will benefit through learning more about the Cardano blockchain.

We believe through this education, solutions to local problems will merge. 

With an already existing Cardano Blockchain Kampala meetup group, we believe that having a physical location will increase participation of current members as well as drive adoption & awareness since many Ugandans still believe in the physical aspect of collaboration.

Upon completion we will be in the position to showcase our progress in one of the Cardano Weekly Townhall meetings. 

We foresee challenges in a variety of categories ranging from infrastructure to the social bias in regards to anything crypto related being labeled as a scam. 

1. Gaining Trust - we will strive to educate the community as much as possible on how to spot crypto scams and will refrain from giving investment advice. 
2. Internet interruptions- we will eventually have to get a secondary ISP if the interruptions are beyond reasonable doubt
3. More than expected interest or vice versa - In the event our learning lab generates more interest than expected we will add a third table for users to bring their own laptops.
4. Convincing Ugandan Cryptocurrency Traders to sell their current crypto holdings and buy ADA for staking - lobby the current local crypto currency exchange Yellow Card Buy Bitcoin in Uganda with UGX Instantly and Securely to list ADA

[FEASIBILITY]

------Roadmap----

 On Going

1. Creating a educational material for newbies to Blockchain, Linux and Haskell in both English and Luganda (most widely spoken native language in Uganda) https://github.com/AdafroLabs 

0 - 3 Months

1. Marketing Campaign - distributing posters in universities, high schools and tech co working spaces & schools.  
2. Recruit a team i.e. Part time Community Manager, Marketeer and two instructors. 
3. Translating the existing intro to blockchain educational material, the Cardano Stake Pool Operator course, teaching Linux fundamentals and server administration lessons.
4. Put together investor educational material for Ugandan crypto traders to teach them about ADA as a crypto currency option and how they can make passive income with staking their ADA
5. Purchase computer equipment & furniture
6. Create social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and a Youtube channel. 
7.  Work out pricing of courses, lab use, daily/monthly passes i.e sources of income to help the lab be financially self sustaining. 

Expected Lab launch date: August, 2022. Exact date to be confirmed 

3 - 6 months

1. Organize educational seminars monthly for community members i.e inviting speakers(Fletcher) 
2. Acquire a space and set it up
3. Open for business. Business hours 8:30 am to 9:00pm
4. Receive the first cohort of students for the 3 programs of study.
5. Posting of our educational material on both our YouTube channel and git book for notes (translated to at least one local language i.e Luganda)
6. Create a mission driven stake pool. 

6 - 12 months

1. Open lab sessions - for learners to practice skills learnt, ask questions and research more without being capped by expensive data plans.
2. Increased stake pool delegator outreach to ADA holders around the world to reach our goal of a self funding lab operation.
3. Inviting Senior Cardano community members to give lectures about the blockchain industry as a whole.
4. Partnerships with other African & East African Cardano communities.e.g Lido Nation(Kenya) and WADA
5. Begin research into adding Plutus & Haskell programming courses - Cardano community input needed 

2+ years

1. Providing Cardano based companies like Waya, Landano and Empowa advisory and consultation services when entering the Uganda market. 
2. Providing businesses in other industries like Agriculture & Health care a place to educate their leaders on how the blockchain can transform their operations. 
3. The stake pool is generating rewards, these rewards will 100% be used to fund the lab's activities since we aim to be eventually self-sufficient. In addition to this we hope rewards can also help subsidize costs for lower income students.
4. Provide incubation space to foster the creation of Dapp & DefI start up companies solving local problems.

----- KPIs / Objectives ------

1. A fully functional computer lab
2. Grow membership of the Cardano Blockchain Kampala Community from 30 to 100 members
3. Engaging at least five to ten high school and university student associations. This will serve as a good ground to promote the Lab to students for their holiday programs. 
4. Fifty Learners signed up for the two cohorts in the year. 
5. An ADA Listing on the local cryptocurrency exchange app. YellowCard.

-----Budget breakdown-----

• Rent (3 months) - $500/month - $1500
• ISP - Speed - Roke Telecom 40Mbps - $350/month
• Furniture - 2 long tables - $140 & chairs - $210 
• Whiteboard - possibility to borrow/receive donation
• Projector - $500
• Extension cords - possibility to borrow/receive donation
• Raspberry Pi 4(10) - $1200
• https://www.okdo.com/p/raspberry-pi-400-all-in-one-personal-computer-kit-uk-keyboard-layout
• Monitors(10) - $1260
• hire 3-4 staff = $1500 for 3 month(s)
• Advertising(printing flyers, social media, school visits) - $1500 
• Servers(2) - $1500
• Miscellaneous (unexpected costs) - $340

Percy: A Cardano Community member, works full time as an IT System Administrator at a Construction & timber retailer in Victoria BC, Canada with experience in a variety of IT Areas like System Administration, Technical Support & Day to day IT Operations Management and entrepreneurial ventures in Uganda like Retail (Beauty Cave Ug - instagram page @beautycaveug - the ultimate hub for authentic beauty cosmetic products).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/percy-a-muhirwa-a5aba7149

Jerry: Currently the Open Source Community Africa, Kampala Lead. He has a substantial amount of programming experience within Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. He also has experience facilitating technical sessions at Code-Hub UG.

https://ug.linkedin.com/in/kakoozajerry

[AUDITABILITY]

0-3 Months - 

1. Recruit team members i.e community manager, marketeer, two course instructors 
2. complete course materials for Intro to Linux, Linux Server Administration & stake pool operator courses both notes and videos. 
3. Create a landing page to sign up for our first information session. This will help us gauge interest for the space and plan accordingly 
4. Market our first information session by distributing flyers in two universities and two high schools. 

3 - 6 months - 

1. Number of Cardano Blockchain Kampala community group - Participation and engagement metrics of current and new community members.  
2. Number of students signed up for the courses. 
3. Number of Youtube views from viewers in Uganda. 

6 - 12 months - 

1. Launch another revenue source for the Hub for instance selling hardware wallets and general merchandise(t shirts, baseball caps etc) to further increase financial sustainability of the Hub
2. Have ADA listed on the Yellow Card App - A local cryptocurrency exchange app. 
3. A fully functional stake pool and the amount of ADA delegated to the Pool. 
4. The creation of an idea board for potential enterprises that can be started to solve local problems.
5. One partnership with a reputable organization so as to increase credibility of the Hub. e.g. An Education institution, Mastercard , Ministry of Education Uganda and National Information Technology Authority - Uganda(NITA U) a government entity to coordinate, promote and monitor Information Technology(IT) developments in Uganda within the context of National Social and Economic development.

What success looks like ?

1. Grow membership of the Cardano Blockchain Kampala Community from 30 to 100 members
2. A YouTube channel with all our technical lessons, stake pool delegation and general blockchain explainers educational material. 
3. An open source Github with documentation(in English and Luganda languages)
4. New startup ideas solving local problems born from the hub.
5. A block producing stake pool earning rewards & rewards being used to fund the lab's operations & expansion
6. A Hub that is profitable enough to fund its activities and have profits saved up for future Hub projects. 

https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/384860 (Un funded) 

This was a previous proposal that unfortunately did not get funded. This proposal relates to the Hub proposal in that it incorporates the community building aspect together with the technical education.

SDG Rating

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

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.