[IMPACT]
For the initial version see here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/171G2dv3AGKNKGetDa5y0itDcq-TbXU7rWoezu1WcaIM/edit?usp=sharing
Project Focus
The main premise of project watts is on individual empowerment. We hypothesize that support, love, and free rein are the best way to provide value to the world. For each individual, they are their most powerful asset. This is why we are self experimenters and are dog feeding this philosophy with ourselves. The knowledge that we are internalizing is enabling us to become agents of change in our world.
Community Integration
We are starting to integrate into the community and aim to enhance efficiency and collaboration between the catalyst community. In a talk with members of rootsid and IOG present, the general theme emerged of
a) missing expertise, non-cross-functional teams
b) multiple teams working on similar problems
Plans have been made already in the area of UX specifically to start addressing this. We will be looking to support this effort and generalize it out further. It has been a true joy to meet and collaborate already during this funding cycle, and we look forward to working together with more of the community to bring positive change to the world.
Workshops
We are building workshops in order to impart our knowledge and wisdom and to serve as a marketing and onboarding tool to our digital platform we are building. This will be one source of revenue.
Solid Technical Foundations
The digital platform will be build on a special-purpose model of computation that will radically change the way that software is engineered. This will lower the barrier for people to engage with programming and will have positive effects for intellect. It will be possible to build applications that are inconceivable today and require vast sums of money and time.
Minimal Viable Product (MVP) - Social Network of Trust
Our MVP will include a protocol that will allow trust between DIDs to be established. It will contain such interesting features as being able to prove that a third party proof is provable to other third parties in a zero knowledge manner, allowing for privacy preservation. There is much interest already from many teams in the Cardano community, and we have already partnered with Rootswallet to deliver a solution that meets their needs. Additionally, we will be developing and shipping our own Web3 interface, which will allow for the exploration of relationships between different entities in new and exciting ways. We will be running a governance experiment on the protocol that will be a second source of revenue.
Here is a great read from Chris on trust and the web3 space. https://chris-granger.com/2021/12/09/is-web3-anything/
We are delivering a solution based on the exploration of novel thought in human interaction, UI/UX, Computation and performance.
Meta data and semantic computing are at the heart of what we care about. Our work will eventual spin of an opensource Cardano metadata server <https://github.com/michaelpj/CIPs/blob/cip-metadata-server/cip-metadata-server.md>
We are commited to designing for, building, and eduction of, true decentralized systems. This is a good read for why the current state of web3 is not there yet. https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
We care deeply about quality. Among other practices we are exploring model checking and TLA+ for specifying the critical parts of our system. https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/tla/tla.html
There are few risks that seem to dominate the work that we are aiming to do here These are common in the industry.
a) Developing a product that doesn’t solve the correct problem
Timothy has had experience in waterfall, agile, open source, TDD; studied indie game development. He has been involved in digital and mechanical product design, production and consultation. He also has extensive first hand knowledge of mental health, psychology and sociology. Niels has two decades of experience working with design and consulting on product development.
Our belief is that by leveraging our skills and focusing on experimentation, continuous learning and pivoting that we can develop a product of true value.
b) Not having the skill to deliver due to team dynamics, skill or financial reasons
This is a tricky one. The main way we are mitigating this is by having a focus on communication with each other. Talking about difficult topics is a skill that all world class leaders have. Timothy has been working at this for over three years and is developing his own workshop courses and materials. All team members will be required to have a life coach. We already have a large network available of shamans, energy healers, bio hackers, yogis and therapists.
c) Burnout, stress.
See b
[FEASIBILITY]
Our years in the industry, as well as curiosity and continuous learning from a diverse set of fields, gives us confidence that we can deliver.
The following few sections detail some of the thinking behind our approach to delivering on the goals.
Vertical Slicing
As is being found to be best practice in industry, and as demonstrated by geniuses throughout the ages, you cannot design coupled components separately without expecting suboptimal solutions. In order to mitigate this, you design and explore the entire space together. Doing everything at once would be infeasible, so we take a thin squiggly line through the stack, which we will call the vertical slice. We have decided to make this vertical slice an MVP for auditability and accountability reasons.
Prototype vs production
Another key thing is the concept of prototyping and production phases of development. Both of these phases are interleaved and serve different purposes. Initially, prototyping will dominate the time invested, and this will shift to production when the underlying systems and algorithms have been finalized. Prototyping is important to do first, because of the exponential and compounding ramifications for everything else to come in the production phase.
Bootstrapping
Somewhat counterintuitively, we don't start with developing the compiler and algorithm behind it. The use cases are so broad and generic, the abstractions so difficult to grasp, that we delay this until we have more knowledge that will come through engineering and building out the thin slice. The MVP takes into account our understanding of the problem so far and is production ready in that it is a product of quality that can stand on its own.
Don't Cling!
We are willing and expect to throw away this bedrock when its foundations are invalidated. This will necessarily happen, it's unlikely to get the bedrock correct by fluke. Many programming languages are written in another language or abstraction first, and then later rewritten in the language itself. This is much easier to do than to try writing the language in the language while creating the final language.
Purpose Driven
The human element and real world use case is what drives us. We will measure to understand how our hypothesis and tools are affecting users and the world around us.
We now go on to describe the planned features of the MVP and the timeline.
The MVP will be delivered as a web application written using https://thi.ng/. All code and features will be open source. We will provide a minimal Conversational UI and minimal Gravity UI for adding and viewing relationships between data. While the MVP will probably still expose generalized semantic data, we will be focusing on a specific use case of communicating and viewing trust. This exploration means doing a deep dive on security, identity, privacy and anonymity. We will deliver a small educational piece through the conversational UI that will allow us to have educated users that can make trade-offs of these elements. Our algorithm will be transparent and parameterizable. There is no need for a centralized server. All data is the users. We will design and incorporate a mechanism for backup. We will design and deliver a mechanism for distributed 2-Factor Authentication (2FA). This client side architecture and 2FA for verifying and proving means that we are about as decentralized as you can get. The user has all the control. And will be somewhat educated :). Additionally, we will be designing for parameterized account recovery, delegation of control and caching.
Overview of Deliverables
1 x Production ready MVP including Gravity UI POC (In network energy distribution visualization) and Network of Trust (S.N.O.T) modules
- Open source code
- Open source Sketch files
- Design Streams & VLogs
- Designed for security and distributed computation (decentralized, scalable, local first)
- This MVP is not designed or engineered as a throw away, but for continued growth and expansion after incorporating our learnings.
1 x Non profit
- Financials & meeting minutes online
Workshop design materials
Multiple workshop offerings for the community
Estimates
Github repo with TLA+ specs 1 -2 Weeks ————— (ongoing)
Prototyping for the underlying system and mechanics – 1- 6 months (ongoing)
Business entity formed (researching NPO) ––––––– 1 - 6 months
Design of conversational UI components –––––––– 1-3 month
Design of gravity UI ———————————–– 1-3 month
Setup cloud test and production environments ––––– 1 - month
Go live ––––––––––––––––––––––––– 1 - 3 months
Explore integration and collab ————————— (ongoing)
Development of web app features ———————– 1 - 12 months
First Workshop —————————————— 1-3 months
Multiple day, In depth Workshop ———————— 6 months
Team Expansion
Product Segments
Gravity UI / Visualize Trust
Search / Filter for entities
Rating an entity, including semantic comments
Invite user
Sync datasets (Dependency on notification module)
Reply to ratings (Dependency on notification module)
Customizability of algorithms for rating, search, and visualization,
Security module - Summarizing changes, Two factor checking of trust credentials
SSI Data Manager (Basic) - You must be able to set privacy type (secret, private, temp open, public)
Integrating into Cardano as a Fat nodes (extensible for incremental update and light wallet support)
How will users interact with our product?
Our product is a web application, so a user will navigate to a URL in their browser. After doing this, they will have a chat-like experience. They will be guided through the application, which will slowly guide the user to understand how and why to take responsibility for their data. The user will be able to add rate and add information about entities they have interacted with. The graph of information can be viewed in a tabular form or via our gravity UI option. This will allow the user to play with data and to see truth emerge. As he changes the filters or algorithm over his data set, he will be able to see the results updated in real time. This should allow him to visually see e.g. which connections could be unhealthy, or where opportunities for healing or collaboration are. A user will be able to have their dataset automatically sync with others. Collaborating with others is at the heart of what we think about. We aim to grow the network with a culture and philosophy that is positive, supportive and collaborative. Users should be able to find connections for work, learning and play.
Our cost estimate is based on 6 months of work. This time range has been picked to allow to us to find a flow and show our dedication. We believe this time range will be enough to have a rough MVP shipped that we can use. This is a very ambitious goal. The whole team is responsible for the running and development of Workshops, but we will initially have a dedicated team of three.
Patricia Mayer, Workshops & Coaching
6 months * 3500€ = 21000€
Christin Schmidt, Workshops & Coaching
6 months * 3500€ = 21000€
Steffen Wehning, Workshops & Coaching
6 months * 3500€ = 21000€
Timothy Eichler, Development
6 months * 5000€ = 30000€
Niels Kijf, UX
6 months * 6000€ = 36000€
Hiring Plans
We are in the process of finding development support and have two developers in mind.
Because these are tentative, we have reduced the funding period to just 3 months.
The funds will be used for the express purpose of supporting the development team expansion.
Software Engineer, user experience innovation - 10+years
3 months * 6000€ = 18000€
Software Engineer, computational design - 20+years
3 months * 8000€ = 24000€
Timothy Eichler - Distributed Software Engineer and Consultant
Timothy spent two years doing volunteer work with the Oceania Leadership Team and STFEurope. Thereafter, he began his formal studies in Mechanical Engineering. He gained experience working as a junior engineer in the mining and automation industry. He quit in the final semesters to work as a self-taught developer. He has been working as a full stack developer at ambient.digital and as a consultant developer for ThoughtWorks. Most recently he started Dreamorganism and has been developing his own communication course after professional courses left his curiosity unsatiated. His broad experiences and curiosity allow him to believe he can revolutionize the software industry.
Social UX pioneer > Niels Kijf - Founder Social Design Academy
Niels (Master Digital Media Design, Oxford) is a digital design innovator. He started the Social Design Academy to deliver UX 3.0 education. Our current software design is still targeting the individual, yet web3 is designing shared experiences for groups, a fresh new field that needs a new educational program. Leveling up UX into Social UX is one of the Social Design Academy missions for 2022.
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/nielskijf/>
Patricia Mayer
Patricia Mayer holds a master’s degree in history of South Asia and English Literature and Linguistics. Her deep interest in different cultures, human life and languages influenced her choice of studies and her further path. After a detour into the world of office jobs that brought her diverse skills such as: content writing (SEO), organizational and counseling skills; she worked in the social sector with refugees, children and high-school graduates and has teaching expertise. She now combines these skills with her work as a shamanic energy healer in workshops and training in nature. Her work is deeply influenced by yoga philosophy and different mystical traditions.
Steffen Wehning
Steffen Wehning holds a bachelor in Biochemistry and is currently completing his masters in exercise science and coaching. As the creator of Hack My Health, he helps support people to make changes for their long term health and performance. He has a special focus on nutrition, longevity & the Mind-Body-connection. Furthermore, he sees himself as a "medium" translating cutting-edge research results into action in related areas such as Nutrition, Psychology, cross-sectional ares, i.e. clinical psycho-neuro-immunology (cPNI), and the effect of diet, habit- and/or lifestyle-changes as a treatment for chronic stress and diseases.
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffen-wehning/>
Christin Schmidt
Christin Schmidt holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Florida. Her last job has been supporting a purpose company producing organic food and to grow their business. She makes the world a brighter place by opening hearts and bringing people together. She brings sustainability projects to life with her expertise in designing more sustainable, environmentally friendly, supply chains.
[AUDITABILITY]
We are still finalizing the metrics we will be measuring, and this will be an ongoing process. For auditability, we will:
- Make financials transparent
- Open channels of communication via discord
- Development will be open on GitHub.
- Co-design Sessions
- Video and Web Logs
Some KPI’s
Challenge KPI’s
- Number of Partnerships formed
- Interest & Integrations of our api / protocol
- Growth in our community channels
- Trust requested by other dApps in the Cardano ecosystem
- Growth of our team
Platform KPI’s
- New users trying out the platform
- Users returning to the platform
- Number of decentralized trust registries that pop up
- Number of entities added per user and trust registry
- Number of queries
- Number of real world Connections and relationships formed
Quality of formed relationships improving.
What does success looks like:
- Legal entity formed
- MVP live with a small set of beta users
- Workshop run with memebers of catalyst community and outside parties
- Expansion of core team
- Spreading our Engineering and Life philosophy
- Mentor / mentee relationships forming, individuals being supported to be their best selves
The Conversational Interaction Design is being developed by the Social Design Academy (<http://www.socialdesignacademy.io> The design of the Inwallet onboarding proposal was previously funded https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/367120.
SDG Rating
SDG goals:
Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development
SDG subgoals:
10.1 By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average
10.3 Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard
12.3 By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses
12.a Support developing countries to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity to move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production
16.3 Promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
16.6 Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
17.15 Respect each country’s policy space and leadership to establish and implement policies for poverty eradication and sustainable development
17.17 Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
3.1 By 2030, reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births
3.2 By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age, with all countries aiming to reduce neonatal mortality to at least as low as 12 per 1,000 live births and under‑5 mortality to at least as low as 25 per 1,000 live births
3.4 By 2030, reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being
3.5 Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
3.7 By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes
3.8 Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all
4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre‑primary education so that they are ready for primary education
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
4.6 By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
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
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
Key Performance Indicator (KPI):
10.1.1 Growth rates of household expenditure or income per capita among the bottom 40 per cent of the population and the total population
10.3.1 Proportion of population reporting having personally felt discriminated against or harassed in the previous 12 months on the basis of a ground of discrimination prohibited under international human rights law
12.3.1 (a) Food loss index and (b) food waste index
16.3.1 Proportion of victims of violence in the previous 12 months who reported their victimization to competent authorities or other officially recognized conflict resolution mechanisms
16.3.3 Proportion of the population who have experienced a dispute in the past two years and who accessed a formal or informal dispute resolution mechanism, by type of mechanism
12.a.1 Installed renewable energy-generating capacity in developing countries (in watts per capita)
16.6.2 Proportion of population satisfied with their last experience of public services
17.15.1 Extent of use of country-owned results frameworks and planning tools by providers of development cooperation
3.1.1 Maternal mortality ratio
3.4.1 Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease
3.4.2 Suicide mortality rate
3.5.1 Coverage of treatment interventions (pharmacological, psychosocial and rehabilitation and aftercare services) for substance use disorders
3.5.2 Alcohol per capita consumption (aged 15 years and older) within a calendar year in litres of pure alcohol
3.7.2 Adolescent birth rate (aged 10–14 years; aged 15–19 years) per 1,000 women in that age group
3.8.2 Proportion of population with large household expenditures on health as a share of total household expenditure or income
4.2.1 Proportion of children aged 24–59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex
4.2.2 Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age), by sex
4.4.1 Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill
4.6.1 Proportion of population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed level of proficiency in functional (a) literacy and (b) numeracy skills, by sex
5.5.1 Proportion of seats held by women in (a) national parliaments and (b) local governments
5.5.2 Proportion of women in managerial positions
5.b.1 Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex
8.3.1 Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex
#proposertoolsdg
