Interview Cardano=Know Our Builders

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Publish 9 long-form articles (1,750 - 3,500 words) of in-depth interviews of individuals and teams helping to build Cardano once per month over a period of 10 months. Our vision, if we are given this opportunity, is to put these extensive interviews and lessons learned from them into writing and publish them in a first-of-its-kind catalogue in the Cardano space to add as an asset to the community for education, inspiration, connection, and cooperation.

How do we perceive the problem?

The individuals and teams building on Cardano are busy maintaining the tools we love, and creating the products of tomorrow. The community at large lacks insight into the bigger stories.

Why our approach?

We seek to understand and offer the community articles that provide insights into the backgrounds, contexts, and visions that are fueling the builders in Cardano.

Coming from a background in memoir ghostwriting, I know firsthand that through the process of interview, story architecture, and ultimately publication, a reader is left with a fuller picture of what truly defines and drives a person. Readers will not only find this kind of writing captivating and entertaining––both secondary to our goal––but, more important, will find themselves exploring within these longer-form pieces a richer view of the valuable and all too often hidden elements that make up the foundation of our tomorrow, and can help us better determine where we put our efforts, build our relationships, and at times (not financial advice) where to invest.

Who is our target reader?

The public at large who are learning about the blockchain space, and Cardano community members who are themselves builders and investors in the ecosystem will benefit most from these fresh perspectives of the architects of the dApps, products, and integrations across Cardano.

How will we implement it?

Being active in the Catalyst and users in the greater ecosystem, the team at Lido lend their connections, relationships, and experience in contacting the right individuals to round out our list of 9 individuals and teams featured over 10 months of publication. As the catalogue of stories rolls out, Lido aims to learn from our readership by paying attention to the comments below the articles, and on social channels, to allow our community to participate in suggesting possible interviews/articles for the future. After finishing the collection, and gathering all stats and community input, we'll re-evaluate, assess, and prioritize according to our findings to figure out how and at what speed we’ll build out the catalogue.

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

The Campaign Brief states: “The more interesting and useful the products and integrations are that can be built in the ecosystem the more reasons people have to interact with the Cardano blockchain…”

The rich tapestry of lives and experiences that make up the worldwide landscape of the Cardano ecosystem is vast. As we follow the Campaign Brief in another place, we read that we “need to change our perspective on the nascent experiment and enable it to grow up.” 

The Product:

These 9 stories are the first of an ever expanding product: namely, a catalogue of long-form pieces introducing the ideas, concepts, and lives of an ever-growing list of those involved in creating dApps, products, and integrations on Cardano. Such a catalogue, we’re convinced, can be a priceless asset to the community. We hope it to be a fountain of inspiration to tap into knowledge and ideas, as well learn about potential co-collaborators.

Art is often the catalyst for innovation. As these pieces are published, the community finds a new way to understand who is behind all of the technologies and products Cardano offers. This unique vantage point will be the fertile soil of fresh insights that will no doubt inspire further innovation. We are writing this proposal because we want to lend a hand in helping to educate anyone learning about Cardano to find their way around the wealth of talent that makes up the most decentralized community on the planet.

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

The risks would be that all the interviews may not be able to be set up on course to execute on the publishing schedule of one article every month, over 10 months.

To mitigate this risk, we are scheduling all interviews two months before the article publishing date to give plenty of lead time for writing, editing, and publication.

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

Pre-Writing:

Utilizing the Lido team's well-founded research skills and relationships, Benjamin will connect with, schedule, interview persons/teams involved according to the roadmap below.

Detail on lead-time:

There will be a 2-month lead time for writing each article, thus, we will publish all 9 articles beginning at the end of month 2, then once per month till the end of the full 10 months.

Publication:

The team at Lido will then make final edits, post the article, alert readers throughout our social media accounts, and begin connecting with commenters after the posts go up.

Roadmap:

• 1 Month: Achieve selection and confirmation of first two story subjects and the interview of the first. Later in the month, draft first article to be later published and cross-promoted on social channels
• 3 Months: Achieve selection of next 2 story subjects (4 in total at this point), 3 Interviews finished, 2 stories drafted, and 1 article published, cross-promoted on social channels
• 10 Months: Publication will have taken place between end of month 2, to the end of month 10. Thus, 9 new long-form articles published before June 30, 2023.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

$8700 - Writer work to include the following:

1. Research (*travel, pre-interview prep, & study of relevant field)
2. 25+ Hours of Interview
3. 35+ Hours of Transcription (for quotes & story arrangement)
4. Write 9 original long-form articles featuring builders on Cardano
5. We are also budgeting such that some articles may require in-depth, longitudinal investment of time, travel, interviews, and research.

$2300 - Administrative costs covering edit process, publication, tags and SEO optimization

$FREE - Share published content through our distribution channels, including popular twitter spaces, micro-podcasts, and in any applicable newsletters or other channels

Total: $11000

*Travel, in our case, is used to conduct infrequent but necessary site visits for insight collection outside the scope of interview. This tool allows us to maintain journalistic integrity and bring a disproportionately high value to the reader compared to the small addition to our budget.

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

Lido - as Cardano enthusiasts we see ourselves as a growing collective of dreamers who believe in providing insightful education about Cardano in plain English, Swahili, and Spanish. Most online blockchain content is written by and for developers and finance geeks. We break down complicated technical ideas for everyday people, and provide relevant news in quick bites, and build tools that everyone can use.

Our website is a resource of articles and rich Catalyst data for anyone wanting to glean insights from all the happenings within this experiment in decentralized governance. We want to make these insights accessible to as many people as possible.

Benjamin is a creative, a musician, and a writer who sees human progress as the result of individual transformation and societal change. He sees the time he spends on Cardano as an extension of both and an opportunity to learn from its vast community.

Darlington is an engineer by day and at all times a dancer, humanitarian, idealist and entrepreneur. Darlington has deep knowledge about blockchain technology and broad experience in the Cardano ecosystem.

Linked-In pages & related sites

https://www.linkedin.com/in/profd2004 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/lido-nation 

https://www.thewriterbenjamin.com 

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

After we are finished with the project, we’ll assess the progress, and plan for the best way to continue on, which may at that point (difficult to see that many months out from now), include further Catalyst funding.

[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?

Measuring Progress:

1. Subject Selection: Selection of 9 individuals or teams, each at least 2 months prior to publication.
2. Publication: First story published and promoted across all socials within 2 months of the start of the project.
3. Pacing: We will account for 1 article to be written per month, and also keep attention on interview, draft, and editing schedules simultaneously.

As this style of interview and writing has been my profession for almost a decade, I feel quite competent to adhere to such tracking/execution.

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

Success is defined by reaching the following goals for these three metrics

1. Selection: 9 Individuals or teams are selected/interviewed for the stories
2. Publication: We post 9 new long-form stories of builders on Cardano over 2022/23
3. Pacing: We post the articles at a pace of 1 per month (9 total)

[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 is not a continuation. Though it does build on Lido’s educational mission and reputation, it is also a stand alone product that adds a distinct section to our library with a new format for our readers.