Indico: Knowledge Brokering

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

We are solving Cardano's lack of collaboration by building a system that incentivizes everyone to document knowledge and drive cooperation in a shared marketplace.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

IOG had a problem with finding their own knowledge and working together across departments. As six students in the blockchain program at the University of Wyoming, IOG approached us to create a solution. Our project, Indico, is the result of months of work to solve the problem.

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

How We Perceive the Problem and Approach its Stakeholders

The professional services group at IOG came to us with an internal documentation problem. They were struggling to manage their own documents which caused inefficient internal collaboration. We saw the problem differently. It is not a problem of proper documentation, but rather a lack of motivation to document and share knowledge. Realizing an opportunity for IOG, we started a company and devised a method to document more efficiently by monetizing the sharing of knowledge in a collaborative marketplace.

Documentation takes time and has value, yet it is not properly incentivized by organizations. Put simply, when you create a successful process, you are not incentivized to document or share it.

This problem is not limited to IOG; many industries, organizations, and projects have similar issues, including Project Catalyst. There are 900+ projects that have been funded on Project Catalyst. How many of these projects could have benefitted from sharing knowledge with each other, especially if they were similar? Each of these projects have valuable insights that are not being shared.

Only 1.3% of proposals have been funded, completed, and implemented on Cardano. Imagine if the thousands of proposed projects were able to share their valuable insights with each other and were incentivized to do so. This could create a higher rate of completion for funded projects, of which only about 15% have been completed, as well as increase the overall quality of Catalyst projects. It is not easy and there is no incentive to share and collaborate on Project Catalyst, and the entire Cardano community would benefit from an improved collaboration process.

We see a lot of people creating multiple versions of the same idea when they could be creating value together instead.

How Our Project will be Implemented

To solve Cardano's knowledge problem, we wish to build a blockchain-enabled ecosystem. In traditional ecosystems, the tragedy of the commons is frequent. The tragedy of the commons refers to an economic phenomenon in which individuals are incentivized to extract value from shared resources, such as a knowledge index, but are not incentivized to contribute to the shared resource.

In the current iteration of ecosystem and platform business models, this is a common occurrence. Users can game the platform to the detriment of the public, which in the case of a business ecosystem, is the knowledge base of it's individual users. This nature of value extraction often leads to a decline in the system and eventual failure. Knowledge management systems often experience this problem as contributors are burdened by documentation and do not receive proper incentives to continue, leading to a significant decline in value added by such a system. 

As an example, imagine a group of Cardano dApp developers have an innovative process they utilize in their designing phase. Right now, the company has no incentive to document or share this process as it gives them a competitive advantage. If there were a method for this process to be documented and shared, then all parties in the Cardano ecosystem could utilize and benefit. However, no company will do this without compensation.

Indico is a blockchain-enabled ecosystem which allows a process or knowledge item to be monetized by an individual or company and provide continuous royalties as the knowledge item is used by other community members. Maintenance of a competitive advantage is a reasonable argument against sharing knowledge or processes, however, many non-advantageous knowledge items exist yet still remain underutilized. Incentivizing the documentation of knowledge and successful processes will enable a collaborative marketplace and strengthen the Cardano ecosystem as a whole.

Our Desired Outcome

With a decentralized and sustainable knowledge(1) documentation system, we can incentivize individuals to participate in an ecosystem(2) of knowledge collaboration(3). An incentivization structure is both feasible and sustainable via a blockchain due to its immutable and recursive nature. Incentivization promotes individuals’ participation in the ecosystem and a smooth transition towards competitive meta-organizational(4) structures. We are not building a proprietary blockchain, but we wish to develop interoperability of our marketplace between as many layer-1 blockchains as possible with Cardano as our main focus.

Definitions

1 We define knowledge as intellectual properties, interpersonal networks, skills and expertise acquired through education and experience, and the ability to integrate and coordinate one’s experiences with others.

2 We define an ecosystem as a dynamic community of individuals and organizations with mutually beneficial relationships that consist of both collaboration and competition.

3 Knowledge collaboration is defined as the co-creation and transformation of knowledge between parties while sharing, combining, modifying, and integrating existing knowledge possessed by the parties. Knowledge brokering is defined as the organization and negotiation of knowledge between parties. 

4 We define meta-organizations as business structures and groups that collaborate with higher standards than those possible on a traditional intra-organizational level.

Relevant academic articles:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355092879_Blockchain-based_Federated_Learning_A_Comprehensive_Survey

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.3250

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

We will address the challenge problem by providing a dApp to incentivize collaboration. This dApp is a decentralized seeker-solver network for Cardano. A seeker-solver network is a collaborative system where problems are presented and solutions are exchanged in return for value.

• This network includes an incentive structure in the form of a marketplace where market participants determine the value of the knowledge they exchange. This provides problem solvers with a platform to share their knowledge and receive compensation while also giving quick solutions to already existing problems.

• Implementation of our system on the Cardano network will bring impactful use cases that include a heightened capability for collaboration and innovation and the accessibility of unexplored value by Cardano ecosystem participants. This will accelerate Cardano's adoption rate through user onboarding.

• We are building a marketplace for knowledge work(1) where every member is represented individually and within the ecosystem as a whole. This mitigates knowledge exploitation while providing incentives for collaboration.

• We view innovation relative to what has been accomplished with current platform-based organizations. The capacity for innovation is greatly increased when problems are solved using knowledge and expertise from those outside the problem-related industry.

• Search before you solve. We see an opportunity to increase mutually beneficial collaboration by incentivizing horizontal thinking across industries. Put simply, rather than spending valuable time and resources trying to solve a problem internally, it is far more efficient to find solutions from outside entities who have often already solved similar problems.

1 We define knowledge work as unique knowledge sets that typically allow individuals such as programmers, engineers, academics, ect. to monetize their experience and abstract ideas.

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

Risks - How We will Address Each Risk

Initial Costs: This is a big project with a complex problem and solution. This means we will require a scaling of our technical development team. This fund will not sufficiently cover the entirety of this project; however the fund 9 catalyst funding will help us scale our team to develop an operational and high quality MVP (minimal viable product) and provide the Cardano Community with a secure and useful dApp. 

Solutions - 

• We will be securing external funding while development begins to cover cost that exceed those that are covered by Project Catalyst.
• We will use applications like the Marlow Playground to do as much technical work with our current team to lower the work load and expediate the timeline pre-scaling of our dev team.

Critical Adoption within the community: This is a new project with a new team that involves an abstract solution to a complicated yet important problem. This system will only be as useful as the community members that engage with it which makes capturing a critical mass of adoption a necessity. 

Solutions - 

• We will be actively engaging/informing the Cardano community through town halls, discord, blogs, events and other available channels of communication.
• We will actively be soliciting feedback throughout development and beyond to better tailor the Indico System to the community's needs.
• Nearing the launch of Indico, the team will begin a focused marketing campaign to drive user adoption using social media and seeking promotion through IOG channels. 
• Utilizing community feedback to make our user experience seamless and intuitive to mitigate confusion.

Security of user Data and I.P.: Sensitive user data, I.P. and funds will be flowing through the Indico System making it essential that we implement high quality structures and security features. 

Solutions- 

• We will conduct a robust smart contract audit evaluating all smart contracts utilized by the system.
• We will build out a competent QA team to evaluate the operational product and identify flaws to be addressed in a timely manner.
• We will deliberately avoid storing any user data in a centralized repository to avoid risk to end users.
• All employed code will be vetted, open source code, and it will be stored in a public repository.

Unforeseen Road Blocks that come up during our timeline: In any development process there will be unaccounted for and unrecognized risks and barriers.

Solution-

• We will always be transparent with our situation throughout the process.
• We will work closely with community members to ask advice as to how to maneuver these barriers as they arise.
• We respect the experience of those who have come before us and we will always be soliciting advice and feedback from the community to help ensure our project is completed on time and to the highest standards of the community.

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

Timeline -

Milestones 1 - 4: Complete by end of Fund 9

Milestones 5 - 6: Complete by end of Fund 10

Milestone 7 - 8: Complete by end of Fund 11

Mainnet Launch within the next 9 months

Milestones - 

1. Secure Funding
2. Contract with development team for blockchain infrastructure
3. Complete UI concept/design
4. Concept demo completed
5. Hardcoded backend
6. Launch demo to Cardano community
7. Web/software/app development (most likely web)
8. Frontend systems
9. Wallet connectivity
10. Sign-up process
11. Backend systems
12. Open source repository
13. API
14. Finalize smart contract functionalities
15. Begin smart contract testing
16. Local testing
17. Open-source repository begins
18. Launch on testnet
19. Complete smart contract audit
20. Finalize web/software/app development
21. Community testing alpha
22. Final sandboxing period
23. Full Cardano wallet integration (Lace)
24. Dapp certification from IOG
25. Launch full marketing campaign
26. Social media
27. Google
28. Leverage Input/Output relationship
29. Mainnet MVP launch
30. QA team build-out complete
31. Mainnet launch
32. Refinement and growth
33. Seek feedback and make adjustments based on community needs
34. Feature ideation and implementation
35. Capture 10,000 wallets as active users by the end of year 1 of operations

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Fund 9: $94,000 breakdown:

• Scale to increase technical experience by contracting development
• $24,000 for a Full Stack Developer for 3 months
• (89.02% of typical full stack developer annual salary in US of $107,839)
• We are currently searching for this position
• Smart Contract Audit
• $20,000

Pay the team for 3 months (breakdown below) = $50,000

• Frontend Developer -
• Joey Marchand = $8,333.33 
• (33% of typical Frontend developer annual salary in US of $100,984)

• Backend Developer and Chief Financial Officer - 
• Ben Krafsur = $8,333.33 
• (28.63% of typical Backend developer annual salary in US of $116,447)

• Marketing Lead - 
• Dylan Benedetto = $8,333.33
• (35.75% of typical Marketing lead annual salary in US of $93,251)

• Startup CEO - 
• Teagan Pennock = $8,333.33
• (16.27% of typical startup CEO annual salary in US of $204,898)

• Software Project Manager - 
• Matt Skrlac = $8,333.33
• (31.87% of typical Software Project Manager annual salary in US of $104,583)

• UX Design Lead -
• Isaac Riley = $8,333.33
• (26.42% of typical UX design lead annual salary in US of $126,184)

*All salary info is from Glassdoor as the average for these positions*

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

We are a group of business students and graduates from the University of Wyoming’s blockchain program. Our team is experienced with blockchain-based business applications and has a strong relationship with the Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation and its director, Steve Lupien. We have an existing relationship with IOG from an experiential learning class offered at UWyo in which IOG brought a similar problem to us initially. We are currently engaging an external development team to accelerate the launch of our system and expedite our timeline.

Specific Team Experience Breakdown

• Joey Marchand - Joey is a incoming Junior at UW pursuing a major in Entrepreneurship w/ a minor in Blockchain. He is a Navy Veteran who worked on the USS Nimitz for 4 years prior to starting his college career. His experience includes:
• Management
• Adobe XD
• Resource management
• Website design

• Ben Krafsur - Ben recently graduated from UW with a major in Finance and minor in Blockchain. He actively worked with the University on setting up and running the University's ADA Staking Pool. His experience includes:
• Fund management (emphasis on crypto)
• Modeling and valuation
• Familiarity with Solidity and Marlowe
• Personal experience with DeFi protocols

• Dylan Benedetto - Dylan is an incoming second semester Senior at UW pursuing a major in Finance w/ a minor in Blockchain. He spent 3 summers as a Beach Lifeguard down in South Carolina. His experience includes:
• Leadership
• Ran multiple company social media accounts
• Expert in sales
• High level communication skills

• Teagan Pennock - Teagan is an incoming Senior at UW pursuing a major in Finance w/ a minor in Blockchain. He is the original ideator of Indico and is the company's Chief Executive Officer. His experience includes:
• Leadership
• Personal experience with Solidity and Marlowe
• Development of no-risk arbitrage trading bots
• Extensive business strategy experience

• Matt Skrlac - Matt is an incoming Senior at UW pursuing a double major in Economics and Finance w/ a minor in Blockchain. He spent 4 years as a US Army Combat Leader prior to starting his college education. Helped lead the formation of a Veteran Non-Profit. His experience includes:
• Team leadership
• Resource allocation
• Logistics
• Base level experience with Marlowe and Python

• Isaac Riley - Isaac is a recent graduate from UW with a major in Finance w/ a minor in Blockchain. He was the Coordinator of Global Communications for the International Blockchain Stampede in 2021. His experience includes:
• UI/UX design in Adobe XD
• Well-versed graphic design
• Some development skills in C++
• Written and verbal communication skills

Advisor to the Indico Project

• Steve Lupien - Accomplished executive and educator possessing over 30 years of cross-functional leadership experience in industry-diverse public, private, and NFP organizations, spanning high technology, consumer packaged goods, and business services. Steven is a sought after thought leader on blockchain technology, and has testified as an expert domestically and internationally on digital assets. He is a founder of BeefChain.io, an innovative agtech company utilizing blockchain to improve results for livestock producers and is a founder of the Digital Asset Trade Association that assisted in helping Wyoming become the most progressive state in enabling blockchain technology.

Future Development Outlook

• We have established a relationship with the appliedblockchain development team. They have agreed to help with any additional backend development (smart contract related) as necessary and we will be keeping them in mind for potential development hurdles.

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

If we are funded through Project Catalyst, we will return for further funding if required. Currently, our plan is to build and launch the MVP within one year, but there may be a need for further funding to deploy the second and third iterations of the system with additional features the community requests. Regardless of funding outcome for this project, we as team are committed to building on Cardano and being advocates for a more decentralized future.

[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?

The progress of this project will be measured by meeting milestones on time and working with our advisors to ensure the project's feasibility. The minimal viable product will be measured against specific predetermined features that our design team estimates can be conceivably and practically implemented.

We will keep track of user feedback as a success metric. We will conduct user feedback surveys at regular intervals throughout testing and after implementation to ensure the best user experience for the majority of the community. We plan to publicly post these survey results on a quarterly basis.

We also plan to keep track of unique user interactions with the Indico system. We will gather information about the number of unique user wallets and relevant interaction data to determine a number. This will be a useful number to gauge onboarding and system use statistics to determine new features. If privacy is a concern to any user throughout testing or implementation, we recommend that a user takes reasonable privacy action such as creating a separate wallet for Indico use only.

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

The success of this project will consist of the completion of a minimal viable product and a consistently growing user base on the Cardano network. Once successful, further development will be carried out on Cardano and additional implementations and features will be explored.

KPI's:

Deliverables -

1. Successful deployment of the smart contracts on a testnet.
2. Successful deployment of the smart contracts on the Cardano Mainnet.
3. Launch of a fully functional web app (dApp).

Stability -

1. Successful audit of all smart contracts in the system.
2. Successful deployment of secure API.
3. Full functionality in the user experience from web 2 interface down to base contracts without failed transactions.

User Engagement -

1. Successful capture of 10,000 unique wallet addresses (representing an estimated 0.4% of total Cardano Community) by the end of year 1 of operation.
2. Positive user experience feedback being regularly provided.

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

This is an entirely new project and we are excited to be a larger part of the Cardano community! 

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG Goals

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

7 - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all

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

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

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

SDG Subgoals

17.16 - Enhance the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in all countries, in particular developing countries

17.17 - Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships

17.3 - Mobilize additional financial resources for developing countries from multiple sources

17.7 - Promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries on favorable terms, including on concessional and preferential terms, as mutually agreed

4.4 - By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

4.7 - By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development

7.a - By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil-fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology

8.1 - Sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 percent gross domestic product growth per annum in the least developed countries

8.10 - Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance, and financial services for all

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

8.3 - Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services

8.5 - By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value

8.6 - By 2030, substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training

9.1 - Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all

9.2 - Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030, significantly raise industry’s share of employment and gross domestic product, in line with national circumstances, and double its share in least developed countries

9.3 - Increase the access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, in particular in developing countries, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets

9.4 - By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities

9.5 - Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending

9.a - Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States

9.b - Support domestic technology development, research and innovation in developing countries, including by ensuring a conducive policy environment for, inter alia, industrial diversification and value addition to commodities

9.c - Significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2030

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

7.a.1 - International financial flows to developing countries in support of clean energy research and development and renewable energy production, including in hybrid systems

8.1.1 - Annual growth rate of real GDP per capita

8.2.1 - Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person

8.3.1 - Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex

8.10.2 - Proportion of adults (15 years and older) with an account at a bank or other financial institution or with a mobile-money-service provider

9.2.1 - Manufacturing value added as a proportion of GDP and per capita

9.5.2 - Researchers (in full-time equivalent) per million inhabitants

9.b.1 - Proportion of medium and high-tech industry value added in total value added

9.c.1 - Proportion of population covered by a mobile network, by technology

17.3.2 - Volume of remittances (in United States dollars) as a proportion of total GDP

17.7.1 - Total amount of funding for developing countries to promote the development, transfer, dissemination and diffusion of environmentally sound technologies

17.16.1 - Number of countries reporting progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the sustainable development goals

4.4.1 - Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill