Grow SA Cardano Community

[IMPACT]

Solution components:

Our solution will be made up of 3 phases:

1. Phase 1: Research and detailed design of our solution

1.1 During this phase we will learn more about the available content, training and support for the catalyst project and how Ada can be used or exchanged into ZAR within South Africa. We will initially focus on an overview of Cardano and Catalyst then zoom in on the roles of the proposers, referrers and CA's to onboard our communities. This is because starting on catalyst is not easy as there is a lot of long videos and other lengthy literature to wade through while trying to understand where to get started.

1.2 During this research phase we will also find the best way to provide ongoing support to the community that we onboard. We aim to leverage existing communication channels so that we do more noise and confusion as to where people can collaborate with the Catalyst and Cardano community.

Progress to date: already started our research and learning experience during Catalsyt 8

2. Phase 2: Create / Source learning content

2.1 Creation of simple bite sized videos/infographics offered on either or all of a new youtube channel, a new web site that we create and/or the catalyst school and catalyst community site.

2.2 Creation of workshop slides that will be used to onboard the community in the online workshops, in person meetup and refer people to the bite sized learning videos / infographics and communication channels for further training and support.

Progress to date: during research we are already finding contacts for existing content and training sites eg Catalyst school and Catalyst community site.

3. Phase 3: Deliver 3 online and 1 in person meet up

3.1 Confirm coordination and execution plans with selected blockchain community facilitators/managers/leaders. Progress to date: Already reached out to SAFBC, SANBA and BAC leaders who love the concept of introducing their communities to Catalyst

3.2 Agree branding, marketing and distribution of invitation current community leaders for SANBA, SAFBC and BAC.

3.3 Deliver online workshops, record and edit video for sharing on public platforms (if allowed by the blockchain community leaders)

3.4 Host the in in person meetup for the Blockchain Africa Conference Community using the Blockchain Africa Conference Organizers to plan and execute this event. Progress to date: Idea already discussed with Sonya Kuhnal

Initial Audience:

Blockchain communities in South Africa e.g. South African Financial Blockchain Consortium (SAFBC), South African National Blockchain Alliance (SANBA), Blockchain Africa Conference online and in person meetups.

Ideas to expand the community post this proposal delivery:

Approach Local NGOs, including tech NGOs
Support enthusiastic community members to hold workshops for groups of people that they get together to introduce to catalyst
Run marketing Campaigns to invite people to the After Town Hall (ATH) sessions hosted by the Catalyst team and the Africa Town Hall team. The ATH sessions will be called something like "Catalyst Jump Start" and we could use the content created during this proposal to speed up people's participation in the Catalyst Community.

Impact for audience:

Training and support: Provide a quicker route for our audience to start participating in Cardano's Catalyst Community. Instead of taking weeks of figuring out where and how to start, people can use our online workshops and videos as well as support channels to get started quickly. We will mentor people to get started and usher them through the program so that they do not get overwhelmed and abandon their journey early on.
Coaching and Mentorship: The training and support that we provide to the new community members that are onboarded will enable these community members to participate seamlessly in Catalyst and bringing their best ideas to life. We will usher them through the proposal stage of how to propose ideas that can be funded by the Catalyst project without the community having to contribute financially in order to get started.
Job opportunites/income streams: The attendees of our workshops will be exposed to ways of earning incomes by participating in the Cardano/Catalyst community.
Benefit to the Blockchain community leaders of SANBA/SABC/BAC: These organisations will be seen as providing value to their members through the workshops and meetup that we will host with them.
We will increase awareness of project Catalyst as the most active open innovation platform
We will research and create (if needed) tools and services for quicker onboarding of referrers, proposers, CAs and potentially mentors
We will assess the existing text, video and audio materials and decide whether to reuse or create new content
Our solution aims to increase the number of referrers, proposers, CAs and potentially mentors in the ecosystem to enable shared success

Metrics alignment:

1. Increase signups to Cardano ideascale as we aim to get more people to participate in the Cardano Catalyst Project. Target at least 5 new proposals per workshop. This equates to at lease 20 proposals from us executing and delivering on this idea.
Increase attendance at townhall sessions as more people will be aware of Cardano and Catalyst. During our 4 planned session, we aim to encourage at least 100 people to join the town halls.
We will refer our community members to the Catalyst School sessions so that they can be guided through the Catalyst innovation process
We will host weekly Swarm ATH sessions in Month 3 so that attendees of our workshop can still have a reason for joining the town hall session and still have a place to ask further questions that they may have
We will introduce our attendees / new community members to the existing community support channels for Catalyst thereby increasing the membership of this online support channel/s

Innovation process:

1. Number of referrers will increase and people will spread the word of this amazing opportunity to innovate the current systems of our world (target at least 20 new referrers)

2. We will stress that proposers use mentors or even host ATH sessions of their own to ensure good quality proposals are submitted. This will hopefully translate into more 4-5 star proposals being submitted.

Influencers in blockchain
Risk: We are currently not influencers in blockchain so this may not attract people to the online workshops.
Mitigation: Request Anushka Soma-Patel and Allison Fromm to be present at the workshops and meetup as current influencers in the blockchain ecosystem
Access to people that will attend the workshops
Risk: We do not have access to groups of blockchain enthusiasts.
Mitigation: Anushka Soma-Patel has started to connect us with leaders from SAFBC, SANBA and the Blockchain Africa Conference.
Cardano Nay-sayers
Risk: How will we deal with Cardano Nay-sayers that attend our online workshops and in person meetup as we are not overly familiar with the blockchain world and may not have immediate answers to some of the questions.
Mitigation: Invite Anushka Soma-Patel and Allison Fromm to field these questions. Refer people to the telegram and discord channels. Confidently say that we need to consult with the experts to get an answer.

[FEASIBILITY]

Timeframe, Plan of Action and cost

Month 1: Design Thinking Sprint which includes research, designing and defining the new member experience.
Output:  Design thinking workshop artefacts, customer experience map as well as detailed execution plan.
Cost: USD 11520
Month 2 and 3: Finalize training material to be used which includes drafting content for online videos, drafting content for f2f real time virtual workshops, drafting content for f2f in person meet up, creation of training videos*, editing of training videos and finalizing the website, social media and marketing content.
Output: Training videos, Workshop Content, Website, Marketing and Social Media Content.
Cost: USD 23800
Month 4: Host 3 online workshops and 1 in person meetup which includes administration tasks for coordinating, setting up and running the workshops, costs for the presence of experts at workshop as well as for their mentorship time, editing of workshop videos for youTube and hosting of 1 in person meetup event to evaluate whether online or in person workshops are more effective in onboarding community members.
Output: 4 Workshop videos and a summary of how many people attended the workshops, signed up on ideascale, signed up for new ccvault wallets, submitted proposals using this team as their referrer.
Cost: USD 9880

*Training Videos: The training videos will be bite sized videos on how to get started on Project Catalyst in the roles of referrer, CA's and proposers and well as how to setup the wallet, ideascale and community engagement platforms to ensure effective participation in Catalyst. We will need to include a video on how to convert from ADA to fiat currency so that people who earn ADA and have nowhere to spend ADA, can covert to fiat to spend their earnings. These will be 3-5 minute videos similar to the Da Vinci videos created by Tina for Girls in Tech South Africa

<https://www.youtube.com/embed/playlist?start=?list=PLeyZ-2ruHmSoyc2JvrNPKbMYgQydNohYO>

Timeframe, Plan of Action and cost

Month 1: Design Thinking Sprint
Cost: USD 11520
Month 2 and 3: Finalize training material to be used
Cost: USD 23800
Month 4: Host 3 online workshops and 1 in person meetup
Cost: USD 9880

Total Budgeted cost is USD 45200.

Our team recognizes that our work can be used by the community to quickly onboard more Catalyst community members in a short space of time. We therefore know that the outputs of this project will be widely leveraged across the globe as we continue to engage NGOs and Blockchain communities into the future.

We are also aware of the fact that the budget for this proposal exceeds 15% of the total budget for this challenge. We therefore made a tough decision as a team to reduce the amount requested for this proposal to be a max of 15 % of the total budget for this challenge so that we can pursue our goal of creating a speedy onboarding experience for future community members and getting more South African participants being active in the Catalyst community.

We therefore request USD30000 funding. Thanks for supporting our proposal!

Lorraine administration and research. Will create workshop material. Will learn to create and edit videos during this project.

Anilla administration and research. Will create workshop material. Will learn to create and edit videos during this project.

Tina Social Media and Web. Will lead the creation and editing of videos during this project.

Feroza Design Thinking. Will also assist with research, video creation and editing as well as workshop materials.

Anushka Referrer and mentor

Alison Fromm Specialist Cardano Community Member

Leaders of the blockchain communities: SAFBC (TK), SANBA (MF), Blockchain Africa Conference (SK)

[AUDITABILITY]

Month 1: Output:  Design thinking workshop artefacts, customer experience map as well as detailed execution plan.
Month 2 and 3: Finalize training material to be used.
drafted content for online videos
drafted content for f2f real time virtual workshops
drafted content for f2f in person meet up,
training videos created and edited
website updated
social media and marketing content created.
Month 4: Host 3 online workshops and 1 in person meetup
4 Workshop videos created
summary of stats of how many people attended the workshops, signed up on ideascale, signed up for new ccvault wallets, submitted proposals using this team as their referrer.
Created and published bite sized learning for proposers, referrers and CAs of where to get started, how to create their wallets and how their ADA can be stored or converted into ZAR
Delivered 3 online workshops and 1 in person meetup hereby increasing membership and participation of the Catalyst/Cardano community.

This is our first proposal. We are considering leveraging the Catalyst school if possible.

SDG Rating

8 decent work and economic growth as a major barrier to people building out new businesses and business models is the lack of funding. Catalyst helps overcome this problem

bookmarked!