Who I am and what I do in the GWG

[sarahkornfeld]

Who I am and what I do in the GWG

Hi all,

I’m Sarah Kornfeld and I have been supporting communications within the GWG. I want to share who I am, what I am doing in the GWG, and why.

HOW I GOT HERE

I came to NEAR 10 months ago because I was drawn to the creative technologists, the revolution of transparency and smart contracts, and the genuinely smart and global community I met almost instantaneously. It was also post-covid and the connection, energy, and desire to create in a confusing world was really a balm to the soul.

I co-founded RISING DAO to focus on research and content about the blockchain through the lens of the Creative Economy. We held brainstorming sessions with community members from around the globe on innovation planning, and wrote reports (after brainstorms) on how to identify and plan for partnerships in creative and entertainment projects. I’ve written a long piece about social innovation on NEAR that is being pitched to journals IRL. I raised my hand to help the GWG as a reader of the constitution and was asked to support Comms based on my background. I’ve never stated I’m an expert in NEAR, I’m a hard worker who loves working in teams and telling good stories.

MY BACKGROUND

Here’s a bit about me. I’ve been working in Silicon Valley for 25 years with expertise in communications and producing around the farthest edges of innovation. I was part of the developer relations teams to rally around the first virtual reality markup language (VRML) that became the case study for open-source VR. I was brought in by the venture capital team to the (then named company) Keyhole to help position it, and then I got a cover story about it which supported the company being bought by Google, to be renamed Google Earth. I was the first producer (in the marketing team) hired at Netflix to lead a team for broadcast news and helped to develop the industry relations group prior to the launch of the studio. I’ve been part of PR teams that supported major tech and culture brands. I’ve worked with a lot with futurists. I go where I am needed because I believe the process of innovation and the human side of creating ideas is so exciting and powerful that it’s worth my total attention. Here’s the full run down on me with all of it.

WHAT I DO IRL

I run a consulting company (www.risingpartners.com) that has an office in San Francisco, California and Rome, Italy. We support cultural institutions that are moving their collections and planning to the metaverse (we’ve worked with the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation in Venice as an example). I came to NEAR to learn more, and to understand how the experience has rewired our brains, and we are now focused on board-level training on the metaverse and web3 to help cultural institutions (those in art and also finance) really get what’s happening on-chain so that they can adapt, grow and survive in the 21st century.

WHAT I BRING TO THE GWG

I think part of what I bring to the process here is new eyes and deep experience in tech innovation marketing, and also the fact that I grew up in the theater. My dad was a leading theater director and producer in New York and he taught me a lot about listening, accepting people for who they are, and always helping people shine. Good producers help to keep the big picture in focus, force collaboration, help to tell the story and to make sure everyone is empowered to express their own talent. Communication is much the same. Developing a new way to communicate how governance matters take both producing and communication skills, and I am meeting amazing people who have all these qualities. I’m really honored to be working with the GWG and here to be of service to the process.

WHAT I DO IN THE GWG

I am focused on getting our story ready for external press (targets: WSJ, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, and others). I work on a daily basis with the core team to problem solve and plan as well as with the Marketing team (Matt, Joep, and Lex) to think through/write/edit the massive amount of content we have produced, I am a champion of the Distribution Working Group because we need all brains on board to help us out of the silo we seem to all be in and to produce public events like town halls, live streams and interviews leveraging entertainment techniques.

I am here to talk anytime.

[Niall]

Good work on the working group on the regional dao…well done

[robert]

Who I am and what I do in the GWG

Hi, I’m Robert and I have been researching & developing governance solutions:

• authored the SBT based identity system, in the Decentralized Society spirit.
  • assembled a team with Noak during the NEAR hackathon to promote that solution.
  • proposed the SBT token standard and created Proof of Concept
• architect of the road to NDC v1 governance (and beyond, notably the v2 Framework proposal - which is rather for the future).
• SBT Oracle research for identity providers.

Background: computer science, solution architecture, co-founder.

In the past: contributed to various smart contracts, co-authored the fungible token standard (NEP-141), hackathons, audits…
More in the past: commodity trading (intelligence systems), proxy solutions for private banking.

On daily basis:

• Lead Engineer at Umee | Cosmos
• Professor at University of Lausanne

My homepage.

[sarahkornfeld]

@Niall thank you very much, and also for your work!

[Kazander]

Who I am and what I do in the GWG

Hi all,

I’m KazanderDad and I have been supporting the GWG since last year. I want to share who I am, what I am doing in the GWG, and why.

HOW I GOT HERE

I came to NEAR in 2021 as I was looking to build a little project and a DAO and found the NEARverse and AstroDAO to be interesting. I then got deep into NEAR when I participated in NearCon 2022 and the Hackathon which was a great experience. We delivered a little hack called i-am-human, which has now grown into a centerpiece of the NDC voting infrastructure.

MY BACKGROUND

I’ve been working in web2 as a digital strategist for well over 20 years. At last count I had delivered 45 significant projects as a consultant for various clients. It was at that point I decided to leave the corporate environment and go into web3 full time instead. I joined a non-profit called GoodDollar and helped them with growth and decentralization strategy as well as developed their Developer Advocacy program.

WHAT I DO IN THE GWG

My role in the GWG is that of Project Manager. Or as some would call it: herding cats. With such a vibrant community, so many ideas and so much creative energy… my job is less about managing projects and more about facilitating and supporting the various project initiatives out there. Helping them find their own way and making sure everyone stays connected and empowered to achieve whatever they set out to achieve.

Some of my standing responsibilities include:

• running a daily standup call
• presenting the weekly summary to the community on Wednesdays
• keeping two trello boards (v0 and v1 sprints) and a pivotal tracker up to date and alive
• posting RFPs and bounties to the DevGovGigs board

Beoyond the general PM role, I’m also acting as the Product Owner of the i-am-human app, which is the umbrella term we use for the open Proof-of-Personhood protocol that’s emerging on NEAR.

But mostly I’m just talking to everyone that’s trying to achieve and build something for the NDC. If you are one of those and we haven’t connected yet, then feel free to send me a DM. My Telegram username is @KazanderDad

[fiatisabubble]

Thanks for the intro. I resonate a lot with your vision and journey in Web3. If there’s any involvement required from NF, I’m just a DM away

[DammnThatsCrazy]

Excellent work! Sarah!

[Ozymandius]

Who I am and what I do in the GWG

Gm all. Most of you at NEAR probably know me already - I’ve gone by Ozy since I joined the Ecosystem in May of 2020 and committed full time to making NEAR successful.

My bread and butter is crypto-economics, mechanism design, and product architecture - but i’ve done a fair share of community building and socializing as well as product evaluation and management.

For NDC:

I joined in September of 2022, to help create the Constitution and Governance Framework.

If there is a system and a mechanism for how the system operates under the NDC umbrella, I’ve most likely created, seen or edited the framework.

My focus these days is (1) upstream from the original design - in turning it into a usable product that the ecosystem will be able to inhabit in the coming months, (2) Downstream in sub-frameworks beneath the core governance structure (for communities, Guilds, and so forth) in making sure we have a holistic governance framework for the ecosystem - now and into the future.

On the Daily:

I run product at OFP, as Co-Founder and Ecosystem Architect.
I work on deal flow, and with founders at Lyrik Ventures as Co-Founder.
Researching and thinking about new concepts and products for crypto writ large, with my friends.
Supporting initiatives inside of the NEAR Ecosystem that will help make NEAR a top L1 of the future.

I also have a blog that is more of a ramble of ideas, you can find here: https://ozymandiusnear.substack.com/

[atrox1382]

Who I am and what I do in the GWG

Gm gm NEAR fam. I’m atrox1382, some of you might know me some of you might not.

I’ve been a crypto degen since 2017 and I absolutely love everything web3. During my law studies I became more and more involved in launching tokens and giving general advice to projects and founders. When I first touched NEAR I fell in love with its tech and community, since then I’ve been actively involved with NFT projects such as ASAC. But I’ve been advising a plurality of projects on NEAR on tokenomics, incorporation and various other legal & strategy matters.

For NDC:

I was here from the start and joined the legal WG at its inception. Since NEARCon I’ve taken on a more active role in the GWG by becoming a Core Contributor and being a SPOC for the Legal WG and the GWG.

I’m mainly focused on delivering a good legal framework for the Community Treasury, a process I’ve been heavily working on for several months. Other than that I will continue to advise the GWG and other NDC stakeholders on all things legal going forward

WHAT I DO IRL:

On top of the different hats that I’m wearing, I’m also simply working full-time at a crypto trading platform as a legal counsel.

I love talking to people, I run a lot of NFT related spaces. Regarding NDC you can always contact me to get in touch, I don’t bite

[joepmaenen]

Who I am

Hi all!

I’m Joep Maenen, born and raised in Amsterdam and currently working as a freelance blockchain marketing consultant. I joined the NDC part-time in mid-January to run the social media accounts, which quickly evolved into many more tasks.

HOW I GOT HERE

I joined the NDC on invitation by Matt and Blaze. I worked with Matt during my time as head of social media at NEAR Foundation, where I worked from May 2021 until about May 2022. After NF I worked as CMO at NEARWEEK, for which we received a grant from NF a few months in.
At NEARWEEK, I managed the marketing team and worked closely with numerous NEAR ecosystem projects, helping them to communicate their story to the NEAR community.

MY BACKGROUND

During my time as a political science student, I specialized in deliberative democracy initiatives like G1000, digital movements like WikiLeaks and Anonymous and the financial system and the causes of the 2008 crisis. When I heard about Bitcoin during my studies, it immediately ‘clicked’, which led to a small investment as a poor student almost 10 years ago.

In 2016, I decided to really take the deep dive into the crypto rabbit hole, which led me to found the first Dutch crypto news website in mid-2017. After a flying start and promising growth, the 2018-2019 bear market turned out to be fatal, which nonetheless never shook my belief in the future of crypto.

After this great experience, I started as head of social media at BeInCrypto, where I managed 10 teams for the 10 different languages BeInCrypto offers. A very valuable experience that made me understand how to grow, build and sustain crypto communities, taking into account and appreciating the unique cultures and characteristics that each country/region has to offer. We grew to over 100k Telegram subscribers worldwide within one year, an experience that now helps as I develop a strategy to tell the story of the NDC and foster a strong NDC community.

After two years at BeInCrypto, I wanted to move from writing about crypto, to being actively involved in a crypto project, which was when I started my position as head of social media at NEAR Foundation. I created the Marketing Activation form (RIP) which allowed NEAR Ecosystem projects to request marketing support from NEAR Foundation and I grew the @nearprotocol account from 30k to about 400k within one year.

WHAT I DO IN THE GWG

I was initially supposed to publish content on social media but quickly realized there was a lot of work to be done to funnel our audience to the right places and build our community. Creating awareness only makes sense if there’s a clear strategy for where to send and sustain our audience further down the funnel. So we decided to spend my time first creating a marketing funnel/onboarding experience for NEAR community members.

The marketing and channel funneling can be found in this Community Pulse and more on this will be shared in the coming weeks. Once this is established, there will be more focus on generating awareness in collaboration with the NEAR Foundation, NEARWEEK and other key ecosystem projects.

Feel free to reach out with ideas or feedback for NDC’s marketing strategy, we’re aware there’s a LOT to be done on this front

[Elamental]

Tremendous post. You might be the perfect person with whom to discuss my concerns. I’d love to know how to DM.

[garikbesson]

It would be great if you all guys specify your Telegram handles in your posts. Because all working communication takes place on Telegram. Many of you have different nicknames and avatars so sometimes it’s difficult to match your accounts.

And please share and pin this topic in all WGs so everyone can look at it.