Ecosystem Map-Community Wayfinding

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

The Cardano ecosystem is rapidly growing. As new projects, groups, tools and organisations arise a broad and diverse ecosystem emerges. The issue of a wide-angle view of this ever growing ecosystem becomes difficult to individually visualise. 

Projects like Cardano https://www.cardanocube.io/ provide a first generation solution to help the Community to navigate. 

We want to develop a second generation community mapping solution focused on building an open source based interactive map of the Cardano Ecosystem.

As committed community members, we are already working on an initial Proof of Concept (PoC) of our envisioned map.

The code for the PoC can be found here: https://swarmlab2.gitlab.io/ecosystem-map/ 

The first example map here: https://catalystswarm.com/ecosystem-map/

Early development of the PoC was funded by the Catalyst Swarm Fund. Additional funding is now being sought to progress development to help us realise our vision of a visual, interactive Cardano ecosystem map.Therefore we ask the Community to fund our initiative and to allow us to build the map out :)

Our map has a high focus on visualisation and interaction. We will design a novel and hopefully unique experience through which users can explore the Cardano Ecosystem.

The map will be based on the concept of Project Nodes.The size and colour of the nodes will be adjustable and the interconnections with other nodes, updatable and modifiable.

The 3D visualisation is driven from simple data that is queried live using GraphQL to produce the relationships between the data instances on the map. The 3D environment is interactive and has a basic physics system to allow interaction with the “planets” including navigating through the 3D space, dragging and pushing the “planets” and potentially expanding nodes to fill the space with more complex and detailed structures.  The current dataset is harvested from community requested data, and as adoption grows, richer metadata around projects and their relationships can be explored, increasing transparency and cross-pollination within the Catalyst ecosystem.

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

With the Ecosystem Map, SwarmLabs creates its first product for the Catalyst & Cardano Ecosystem. The challenge is a general call out for builders, devs and creators to engage with Catalyst and provide value to the Cardano community. We believe that working on mapping and providing the community with a visual wayfinding tool of the expanding ecosystem will help with discoverability on a  project-by-project basis as well as the understanding of the general ecosystem. This is an under-represented part of the Cardano landscape.

Planetary maps have been used to great effect over time. Continuing development of this ecosystem map will create a new product that offers new and existing users of Cardano to better navigate, explore and engage with the projects and groups working on Cardano. By providing a discoverability pathway through mapped links we will increase the quality of existing products through increased project awareness.

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

As the SwarmLabs initiative is a very young one, the main risk would rely on effective coordination & management of the participating developers. As we envision new ways to engage & include developers in this project, we will first have to  experiment with project management structures.

To mitigate this risk, we count on AIM’s & Fluid7’s experience and expertise in managing dev teams around projects.

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

Q2 2022

Initiate a first Project Team & Collaboration - Done

With Giovanni [EASY1], Jonathan Adjei ( Fluid7 ) & Felix Weber

Swarmlabs Pilot #1

Identify a top topic

Initiate a first collaboration to ideate & brainstorm on a Ecosystem Map design - done

Create first Project Structure on Gitlab - done

https://gitlab.com/swarmlab2 

Create a first PoC Ecosystem Map - done

https://swarmlab2.gitlab.io/ecosystem-map/ 

Setup Project Management Structure on Swarm Dework & Discord - done

https://app.dework.xyz/catalyst-swarm/swarmlabs-ecosyste 

( Executing Team has own private channels on the Catalyst Swarm Discord Server )

Expand the Team & find collaborators - done

AIM & Handshake joined the Project

Submit & Formulate a Proposal for Project Catalyst Fund 9 to enable resources for further development - Done XD

>> Ideascale link <<

Implementing Swarm Treasury & Accounting system to SwarmLabs and the Ecosystem map project - done

https://discord.com/channels/832894680290951179/973497013519925278/986542271790985227 

Q3 2022

Outsourcing work & engage community via the Catalyst Swarm Bounty Board

Implement GMBL rewarding concept to recognize & reward contributors to the ecosystem map project development 

Expand the Map to ~30 Projects

Integration - Setup Automated processes for any projects to join the map

Maintain transparent Project Development on Dework 

Set up Hover Menu (Modal)

Modal visual and interaction design

When cursor moves over a Node, Modal for node appears

Modal includes hyperlinks to related projects ( Link to: Website, Twitter )

Build Sign up PoC

Create a process for projects to add themselves to the map ( self sign up )

Q4 2022

Hopefully being Funded XD

Adapt & implement Treasury & Accounting systems for the Ecosystem Map Project

Start to pay developer for their work in developing the Ecosystem Map

Having a short stop & reflection on earned experience

Extend the Bounty Board to further increase outsourced work from the wider community, to grow participation and increase the speed of project close out.

Front end level up

Improve the front end of the ecosystem map with features such as

• Web page interactions/navigation
• Design & visualisation for site or app embedding
• Map filtering and searching
• Highlighting chosens areas of interest
• 
  

Micro level up

Expand node function to explore deeper into Projects

https://vasturiano.github.io/3d-force-graph/example/expandable-nodes/ 

• Implement People as nodes
• Switch presentation modes
• Node size relative to project Funding | No. of Proposals | Longevity
• Pipe diameter relative to Funds transferred | Code produced | Impact

Macro Level up

Due to the sign up process developed in Q3, we are able to target as macro map

Example:

https://vasturiano.github.io/3d-force-graph/example/large-graph/ 

Categorisation & clustering of the Ecosystem

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

This budget breakdown covers a timeframe of 4 months from August to November 2022

Project Management

320 hours over 4 months  ( 40 usd per hour ) 

= 12800 usd in Ada

Project Coordination & Collaborations

320 hours over 4 months ( 40 usd per hour ) 

= 12800 usd in Ada

Development

640 over 4 months ( 50 usd per hour ) 

= 32000 usd in Ada

Front end - Design

320 hours over 4 months ( 50 usd per hour ) 

= 16000 usd in Ada

Treasury Management 

10 hours per week for 4 months ( 40 usd per hour ) 

= 6400 usd in Ada

Media & Marketing 

Creating content & videos to introduce developed tools & systems to the Cardano Community

3 short videos a 1500 usd

= 4500 usd in Ada

Bounties

Public tasks to engage contributors to the proposals implementation

Available Bounty budget of 1000 usd per month for 4 months

= 4000

AuraDB Hosting

6 months of cloud hosting ( 130 usd per month )

= 780 usd in Ada

Additional Tools and services ( + contingencies )

= 2500 usd in Ada

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

Catalyst Swarm - Coordinations

Bridge Builders - Design advice & consulting

Fluid7 - Project Management 

AIM - development & coding

Jonathan Adjei - Director at Fluid7

Jonathan Adjei is a Catalyst Community ( OG ) Member since early Catalyst days and director at Fluid7, very engaged at Catalyst Swarm & Gimbalabs and helps this Project to have a clear and strong project management in place. Jon will 

Felix Weber - somehow lead at Catalyst Swarm

Felix is the guy who brings the network and the glue to the project, making sure everyone has everything needed to successfully collaborate on the Proposals execution

Phil Khoo - AIM Architect

Phil K is cofounder of the Cardano AIM. He is a highly experienced & engaged community member at Project Catalyst since Fund3. Phil also brings great experience in coordinating & managing projects & developers to a successful implementation. Phils experience & earned knowledge from building the AIM Community Tools will add great value to this project.

Nori Nishigaya  - Operations at Bridge Builders

Nori supports this project with his long term experience as project manager at Amazon and his profound knowledge about Cardano, Project Catalyst and the Cardano Community. Nori is an excellent networker who helps to support communities and projects to succeed.

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

As we currently don't envision a business model for the Ecosystem Map, to further develop & improve the map, we may rely on future funding from the Cardano Community via Project Catalyst 

[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 development of the Ecosystem Map is fully open source, hosted on the SwarmLabs Gitlab. https://gitlab.com/swarmlab2  

The Project Management will be tracked via Dework & Discord Integration on the Catalyst Swarm Discord & Dework Server

Dework: https://app.dework.xyz/i/0m6XgGE7wrVTyzZcV2Q6oR 

All transactions & payments are fully tracked and documented via the Catalyst Swarm Treasury & accounting system on Discord & Github. 

https://discord.gg/6jk8mVuYqA 

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

Success of this project will be defined by an accomplishment of above mentioned KPIs & OKRs. Further we envision to have this project as a pioneer & pilot project with SwarmLabs to build an inviting environment for developers, project manager & designer to engage and build in a collaborative spirit on Community Tools & platforms

[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 a brand new Proposal from SwarmLabs :)