SPO Learning Support Community DAO

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We will evolve a learning DAO with our existing SPO programme incubator community that ensures their ongoing support, and codify our experience to create a knowledge-base for future DAO developers.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

We have a long track record of designing and delivering incubator and scale-up programmes for tech based businesses.

The members in our ongoing SPO scale up programme have deep technical expertise, & experience of supporting and delivering each other within the Catalyst Ecosystem

[GENERAL] Requested funds in USD.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

This challenge is about making Cardano the go-to choice for building DAOs, and the creation of the tools and infrastructure to enable effective and worthwhile DAO's. 

We see two aspects of this challenge:

1 – making Cardano the platform of choice for building DAOs

2 – creating tools and infrastructure.

Making Cardano the platform of choice for building DAOs

In this challenge, we see the need to support the SPOs they are the reliable, high-availability backbone of the ecosystem that will be necessary to attract DAO creators from Ethereum.

A part of the challenge faced by SPO’s is that they often work alone or in small teams and as such can feel separate and unsupported.

And while being an SPO allows for growth and reward with compensation in many areas, there is no clear path nor support for taking on this role. Consequently, there is a real risk that many smaller independent SPO’s may leave over time and thus degrade the quality of the network.

Creating tools

There are few tools and methodologies at present that showcase why Cardano should be the DAO platform of choice. This creates a barrier to entry for potential DAO creators.

Your reasons for approaching it in the way that you have

Our solution is two-fold:

1 – evolve our current learning cohorts into an SPO support community, governed as a DAO

2 – codify the process by which the SPOs create their DAO and make this available to the wider Cardano community

1 - Creating the SPO Community DAO

We are approaching the conclusion of our Fund 7 project, Small SPO Impact Business Programme, where a cohort of SPOs are learning and using the business-related knowledge and experience to run successful SPO operations.

Due to the experiential learning nature of the programme, this cohort have recognised the value of the support that they have gained from each other.

To continue the experience, we will invite the team to understand how the support has been offered and experienced, and to formalise it in a learning and support community: and to do this as a DAO.

The platform will be a self-sustaining and supporting community – its learning organisation – achieved through a pathway from individual SPO excellence to group excellence and knowledge sharing, to a self-sustaining collective.  

Our approach follows our roadmap for Cardano SPO’s, and builds upon our Fund 7 and Fund 8 funded proposals.

Fund 7 – Small SPO Impact Business Programme

Fund 8 – SPO Incubator Rollout

Fund 8 – Inc. Train The Trainer Africa MVP

We believe that such a platform is essential for the survivability of the Cardano network through the excellence of the SPO community – but that this community needs to be formalised, and what better way than as a DAO.

It will be a self-organising, self-governing, journey from isolation to community, where the members identify their learning, development and support needs, and ensure that they are delivered.  

2 - Codifying our learning experience

Given the experience of Edify CoLabs and the SPOs, we will codify our collective experiences and methods of creating the SPO Learning and Support Community to create a set of tools that prospective groups can use to create a Cardano based DAO.

Describe the value that the solution will add

The SPO Learning and Support Community DAO will add measurable value to the SPOs that use it.

The value add will come in the form of:

• The increased health and welfare experienced by the SPOs in the community
• The ongoing learning, development and growth experienced by the individual people and their businesses
• More effective businesses as the essential SPOs are guided along the growth journey 
• As a consequence, value will be created as DAO creators see the attractiveness and robustness of the Cardano ecosystem.

This results in better positioning for Cardano to attract better DAO developers.

Describe the scalability of the solution 

Our vision of scalability for the SPO Learning and Support Community is to provide an environment that attracts existing and potential SPOs with the support and guidance needed to create their own high performing organisations. 

Describe the sustainability of the solution 

Our view of sustainability is using the knowledge and experience of the Cardano SPO community to provide a place for growth and reward, both monetary and emotionally.

Business sustainability

We will deliver long term business survivability of technical companies in the Cardano ecosystem by ensuring that the Cardano ecosystem is underpinned by a community of high performing SPOs.

Environmental sustainability and impact

The community will provide a clear understanding of purpose and impact, and by working with environmental sustainability goals will deliver commercial and cultural impact.

Who your project will engage, or who its stakeholders are

Our project will have multiple stakeholders:

SPOs within the SPO learning community DAO project

Other SPO’s within the Cardano ecosystem – who would be welcomed into the experiment at any time that worked for them 

The overall Cardano ecosystem will benefit from the halo-effect of having a high-profile successful SPO community

Catalyst developers – those people that have the potential to grow successful impactful businesses on the SPO derived infrastructure

Businesses and organisations who want to participate in the ecosystem – by using the Cardano layer 1 DAO service provision

How your project will be implemented

The project will be implemented in phases:

Towards the end of Fund 7 and during the Fund 8, funded SPO programmes, the team will invite programme members to form a working group to set the parameters of the Learning  and Support Community DAO.

Following this, with the knowledge the cohort will have gained on setting an impact related vision and strategy, they will be ready to produce and agree upon a strategy paper charter that describes how they envisage the DAO and its operations.

It will be a learning organisation designed to encourage growth and enrichment of the SPO community, thereby and securing the future of the Cardano network.

What you will produce

We will produce two products.  The first is the SPO Learning and Support Community.

The second will be the tools and methodologies for the creation of an effective functional DAO.

What will happen as a result of your work 

The emergence of the SPO learning community will support existing SPO’s on their journey within Cardano.

It will encourage more developers to take on the role of SPO,

It will provide the reputation of the Cardano infrastructure that will attract creators of DAOs to the ecosystem.

Explain what's unique about your solution, and what value it brings to the Cardano ecosystem.

Despite having more than half a century of experience working in the field of learning, development, mentoring and coaching, we have not experienced a learning organisation that has been encoded as a DAO.

Explain who will benefit. Does your proposal primarily benefit 

The beneficiaries of the project will be:

1. SPOs – the SPOs will be the beneficiaries of the enduring learning and support experienced in their community
2. IOG – the Cardano ecosystem will be enhanced by the presence of high-quality and experienced SPOs are vital parts of their network infrastructure
3. DAO developers - through the understanding of good community practices and mechanisms discovered by the group

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Cardano needs a robust and resilient community of SPOs to provide the network infrastructure on which dApps and DAOs can reliably operate.  This proposal will enable that community.

It will also create a set of tools and methodologies that can be used by DAO developers as they enter the Cardano ecosystem. 

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

That the SPO community will fail to recognise the benefits of being a part of a supportive community.

• We have anticipated this risk and have already engaged with the SPOs in our Fund 7 – Small SPO Impact Business Programme
• Our Fund 8 – SPO Incubator Rollout project is continuing to build the nascent community of SPOs

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

This is a project that will be led by the SPO members in the Edify CoLabs SPO programmes, and facilitated by the Edify CoLabs team. 

Its timing is related to the current Fund 7 programme and the coming Fund 8 programme.

The project timeline and milestones can be found on the project roadmap Miro board.

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOpxy9M0=/?share_link_id=443860407334

While this project is dependent on successful funding, the indicative timeline is shown in the roadmap.

The key milestones will be:

• Commitment to the community by the Fund 7 cohort
• Commitment to the community by the Fund 8 cohort
• Publication and agreement to the community charter
• Determination of, and agreement to, the governance rules of the community
• Creation of the technical scope of work of the DAO
• Development and launch of the community as a DAO
• Publication of the tools and methodologies used in the launch of the DAO

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Facilitation of the development of the community charter – 8 hrs

Scoping of the community charter using learning organisation principles – 8 hrs

Writing of the DAO SoW – 8 hrs

Codification of DAO tools and methodologies – 40 hrs

Total 72 hrs

At £150/hr

£10,800

Public Update Channel: we will use our Twitter channel: @edifycolabs for updates on project progress

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Harry Hellyer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/harryhellyer/

Harry will facilitate the SPO cohort to create the community charter and its governance rules.

NED, and chairman, executive and business coach specialising in full value-based impact innovation programmes for enterprises and organisations.

Founding partner of 50th Generation – one of the UK's first Social Business Generational Accelerators – 2014-2018

Credited for supporting the development of the NHS's first Sustainable Development Vision and Strategy programme.

Coached Fellows on the Cambridge University, Programme for Sustainable Development,

Coached Fellows and Lectured for the Cambridge University, Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning - Social Enterprise

VP and director of strategy, marketing strategy and business development for several global IT, media and telecoms companies.

Alan Casey

www.linkedin.com/in/alanhcasey

Alan is a specialist in technology – business process integration.  He will support Harry in the facilitation of the charter, and the writing of the technical scope of work for the development of the DAO.

Manager of a sovereign national grid control centre during a period of technological and cultural change.

Founder and consultant in an organisational effectiveness measurement system deployed into a global advertising and marketing communications network.

Founder of a conversational AI company creating systems that evaluate and improve competence in key organisational skills.

Member of the Edify Community.

Fellow of the RSA.

Jude Ugwuegbulam

https://www.linkedin.com/in/judeugwuegbulam/

Project manager

Cardano blockchain developers

We will be partnering with recognised experts in the Cardano community on this project.  We will collaboratively investigate the requirements of the business case and how they can be met by the Cardano blockchain capability.

We are presenting multiple proposals in this fund as well as in previous funds here is an explanation of the workload management.

we are part of a catalyst entity called EdifyColabs. This is formed of other catalyst members where appropriate. And it. is backed by our off-chain business Edify Business Ltd - website link enclosed. As such we have a direct team of 5 staff - all of which are working to deliver our Catalyst proposals as appropriate. we currently have 5 funded proposals running across F7 and F8 all of which are weekly programmes in our core delivery space of consultancy coaching and use case design and delivery.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

This project continues the Fund 7 and Fund 8 SPO incubator pilot and roll out projects.  

We intend to submit a Fund 10 proposal for the ongoing evolution of the SPO Learning and Support Community into an SPO Academy, supporting the learning and development requirements identified by the SPO community.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

We will employ a project manager to oversee this project and will publish updates in our public project Miro board – link here.

The project will have a project plan with key milestones and task completion dates.

The key milestones and dates that we will track are shown in the project plan here.

The metrics that we will use to measure the project will be:

·      The number of contributing partners to the programmes and qualifications

·      The number of project milestones, identified and reported on here.

Public Update Channel

 We will post progress updates on our projects on our EdifyCollabs Twitter channel: @edifycolab

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success is the launch of the Scale-Up Academy by IOG.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This proposal continues the work begun in the F7 project, Impact Innovation Accelerator.

https://app.ideascale.com/t/UM5UZBrdv

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

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

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

SDG subgoals:

Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

#proposertoolsdg