Haskell-Plutus-Atala => French Devs

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Context

A few years ago, I set out for something new in my software developer career and stumbled upon the functional programming paradigm (F# then Haskell)which baffled my perception of programming. Switching to this new paradigm has brought me so much joy, "pain" and efficiency both in my personal live and career.

I mention the word pain and I would like to focus on it for a minute. Back then I was fortunate enough to have some background in English which definitely allowed me to ease my learning curve with Haskell as most support material is in English. Most software Devs in the local context of Cameroon and Central Africa are french speakers and unfortunately most high profile Devs content from Cardano such as (Plutus Pioneers Program and the Atala Prism Pioneers program) are only offered in English as of now.

Transitioning from an imperative programming paradigm to a functional paradigm almost felt like "I was relearning how to walk, but this time with my head". Switching to a new paradigm paradigm can be incredibility hard. The reality is that 99.99% of software Devs in Cameroon have never been exposed to functional programming let alone Haskell or Plutus. Java and PHP are the dominant languages. In Java you see the world around you through objects and classes, in Haskell, you see the world true functions all the way.

The last point to consider that I often hear is that you do not need to know Haskell to program in Plutus. There is definitely some truth in that statement; however, learning Haskell will set you apart and will definitely make you a far better Plutus Programmer.

Functional programming rocks. I say this with no retention as I am a software engineer with 15+ total years of experience having work with the Object Oriented paradigm for over 10 years. Haskell is a functional programming language that is built on top of Lambda Calculus and functions which are both old and proven theories / notions of mathematics. When coding in Haskell, I can reason about my code using mathematical constructs which makes everything easier and more predictable. After all, Cardano is built with Haskell and Haskell in my opinion is the real unsung hero behind it.

Solution

Our solution is very simple and straightforward. We want to recreate all 2 programs / courses and core documentation in French. We want to make the course more interactive by leveraging the work we are already doing on the ground in our Hub through our previously funded proposals Spread Plutus through Africa and Clubs + Hackathons = Cardano adoption to offered training in Haskell as a starting point for future Plutus trainees.

We think Cardano needs a huge community of developers and that is what we are building on the ground in Cameroon through our Haskell and Plutus training initiative.

=>Click here for more context about Disruptive IT Cameroon, A Wada Hub

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

Translating re-recording high profile tutorial material into French will definitely ease the on-boarding process for French speaking developers.

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

One risk is that once the course materials are translated into French, there is not enough interest in it or support for those who do engage (given that Haskell / Plutus learning curve could be steep for object oriented programmers). We will mitigate this risk by making sure we offer extra support available to the French learners through DITC and Wada education initiative and Hackathon projects funded in previous round 7. (Clubs + Hackathon & Spread Plutus) already being implemented successfully. *See GitHub links in relevant links section

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

Our plan is very straightforward: We plan on recording each course in three months slots and then publishing them to multiple Social media platform.

3 months

• Secure contract with a video content editor expert
• Plan and elaborate schedule and curriculum for each course

4 months 

• Translate Plutus pioneers course and resources
• Curate video and publish them or internal review on (Wada and DITC YouTube channels)

4 months

• Translate Atala Prism pioneers course and resources
• Curate video and publish them for internal review on (Wada and DITC YouTube channels)

1 month

• Curate the content, publish it on both DITC & Wada YouTube channels and GitHub
• Run marketing campaign in high school and technical institutes showcasing the content.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Total Budget: $21,000

• Team coordination and logistic: $2k
• HD Camera ( 1 * @ $0.5k)
• Team coordination (1 * @ $1.5k)
• Basic && Advanced Haskell video course: $6k
• Haskell devs ( 2 * @ $2.5k ea)
• Video content editor (1 * @ $1k)
• Plutus pioneers course translated video and resources : $6k
• Haskell devs ( 2 * @ $2.5 ea)
• Video content editor (1 * @ $1k)
• Atala Prism course translated video and resources: $6k
• Haskell devs ( 2 * @ $2.5 ea)
• Video content editor (1 * @ $1k)
• Curating the content: $1k

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

more details to come!

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

No, not for this same purpose. We believe we can accomplish all of the goals of this proposal through this 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?

All the material we produce for our curriculum (video/ audio/ text) will be made available on GitHub; we anticipate the following indicators to measure our progress.

• 3 months post funding:
• Video content editor hired
• Course schedules and curriculum published on our GitHub
• 7 months post funding: Plutus pioneers course video published on (DITC and Wada YouTube channels) or internal review
• 11 months post funding: Atala Prism pioneers course video published on (DITC and Wada YouTube channels) for internal review
• 12 months post funding: All videos, documents refined and published on YouTube

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

Success to us will translate into all the courses and documentation produced being published on YouTube as we mentioned above.

• We hope to have 120+ and growing number of subscribers to our Channel within the first month after publication
• We hope to have a total of 700+ views of all our combined videos within the first month after publication
• We hope to ease the on-boarding process and the learning curve for local french devs into the Cardano dev ecosystem, hence grow our Haskell and Plutus dev community

[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 could be qualified as an extension to our previously funded proposals in fund 7  

• Spread Plutus in Africa
• Clubs + Hackathon = Cardano Adoption