[Closed] August 2023 - NEAR Editorial Academy (NEARWEEK)

Marketing DAO Marketing DAO
,
1

NEAR Editorial Academy Proposal

Introduction:

The NEAR ecosystem is a fully open-source ecosystem that thrives on the collective knowledge, collaboration, and continuous education. Recognising this, I’m excited to propose the initiation of ‘NEAR Editorial Academy’: a 6-month program that seeks to empower any participants interested within the NEAR ecosystem to enhance their content creation skills, while fostering the growth of the NEAR community.

NEARWEEK: NEAR Newsletter | NEAR Social | BOS Editorial (dApp) | Twitter | Medium

Course Outline:

Under the mentorship of NEARWEEK, ‘NEAR Editorial Acadamy’ curriculum will focus on:

  1. Harnessing the capabilities of AI (GPT-4, waifu2x, Hemingway, Fireflies, etc.) to enhance content output.
  2. General editorial mentorship rooted in the principles of the marketing landscape, learning how to produce dev-related content (without needing to be technical yourself), and copywriting.

Eligibility & Enrollment:

  • Open to anyone interested in the NEAR ecosystem.
  • Prerequisites:
    • Possession of a telegram account is required. (all workshop discussions will be made in a public groupchat /TBD/)
    • Willing and able to join public (and potentially recorded) Google Meetings
    • GPT-4 subscription is highly advantageous but not essential

Feedback & Quality Assurance:

At the end of the program:

  • Participants will be given an anonymous notion questionnaire to evaluate their experiences at the end of the program.
  • Feedback will be consolidated and a summary of the findings will be shared publicly by NEARWEEK to ensure transparency, room for evaluation, take-in criticism and learn about any failures and potential improvements.

Opportunities Post-Completion:

  • NEARWEEK views itself as a stepping-stone for ecosystem growth, not as an end product or platform in itself. In practise, this means that we’re on the constant look-out to cultivate talent and ideas within the community, and to connect them to opportunities within the NEAR ecosystem (not just NEARWEEK, as a media platform).
  • Where relevant, NEARWEEK will strive to make meaningful introductions and recommendations to our partners for outstanding participants.

Budget & Deliverables:

  • Budget:

    • 500 $NEAR a month for educational content (3,000 $NEAR)

    • Breakdown:

      • x1 2-hour public workshop each month: 300 $NEAR
      • 1 on 1 sessions as required: 100 $NEAR
      • Adhoc feedback on student writings by Hero: 100 $NEAR

    • 2,000 $NEAR x1 for marketing distribution across 6 months (2,000 $NEAR)

    • Total: 5,000 $NEAR

  • Duration:

    • A singular 6-month education term with potential for renewal based on outcomes and feedback.

Timeline:

The program will commence on 1st September 2023 and span 6 months.

About Myself ':

As the Editor-in-chief of NEARWEEK, I hope to make my experience and insights available to the wider community:

  • Helm NEAR (BOS) editorial content on Medium
  • Stewardship of the Official NEAR ecosystem newsletter (subscribe.nearweek.com)
  • Advocacy for both emerging startups and established players in the ecosystem
  • Dedication to fair and unbiased coverage, and transparency around decisions where this has been impossible to uphold (find a recent example here)
  • A passion for public goods within the NEAR ecosystem
  • Deep community integration and insights
  • A vision to make NEAR BOS the first and best Layer-X of the Open Web, drawing both liquidity and talent.
  • BA, English Literature (King’s College London)

In essence, NEARWEEK envisions the academy as a perfect way for nurturing the next generation of NEAR writers and contributors among the community. Given the nature of NEARWEEK operations + variety of funding sources, we’re in the fortunate position where any success within NEAR translates back to us hitting our KPI’s and milestones.

To be clear - 5,000 NEAR is being asked from Marketing DAO for a 6-month proposal with no specific KPI’s or deliverables. However, if community feedback is negative - this will be made clear at the end of the 6-month term.

I hope the council, advisors, and rest of the NEAR community make known if they would like to see ‘NEAR Editorial Academy’ funded.

If you do not think this is a good expenditure of ecosystem recourses, please let your voice be heard. That’s completely okay - believe it or not - we can go ahead and give that NEAR to an opportunity the community would rather see funded.

Warm regards,

Hero - Editor-in-Chief, NEARWEEK
NEARWEEK Wallet ID: heroes-vault.near

Edit history

  • 11/08/2023 : fixed budget breakdown after posting.
  • 11/08/2023 : Ibid.
20 Likes
2

Fully support this initiative. Anyone who has followed the NEAR ecosystem will know of the contributions NEARWEEK has made, and of course, about Hero’s involvement in it. We need more high quality contributions not copy pastas, this seems a great way to accomplish it :slight_smile:

Awesome Cat GIF

7 Likes
3

Great initiative, fully in support of this. This would enable an open system of community recognized NEAR content creators. A great way to empower enthusiasts within the NEAR Community

5 Likes
4

Fully support for @achildhoodhero and this NEARWEEK’s Initiative

3 Likes
5

Hi @achildhoodhero thanks for the proposal. I generally like what you’re aiming to do here. I think we need support to help develop more contributors who can write effectively about NEAR, BOS, governance and other key initiatives in the ecosystem could be a highly valuable initiative over the long term.

That said, here’s the MDAO situation at present:

For August, MDAO must allocate funding with a focus NDC election and BOS. Currently:

  • We have $203K+ in funding requests coming from the community for August
  • We have ~$46K to deploy
  • We cannot fund everyone
  • The funding we allocate is limited and must directly and primarily align with ecosystem KPIs – which are NDC election and BOS content

Additionally:

  • We also have not supported funded any proposal that is for more than one month during this current review period (we are now reviewing all proposals submitted up through 8/11 in one batch).
  • We have turned down and closed quite a few proposals for being out of scope for this month b/c the focus is not on NDC and BOS.

I understand the need to propose for 6 months, but I think approving that will mean we need to wait until after the elections. As an alternative, is there a revised amount that could be requested for one month along with a focus on teaching participants how to write effectively about BOS?

Curious also to hear the opinions of other council.

3 Likes
6

Yassssss :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::revolving_hearts: I need more characters so yasssss again :ok_hand:t4::pray:t4:

3 Likes
7

Hey @so608 ,

Thanks for your response!

Writing effectively about NEAR (BOS) is a given at NEARWEEK. Please have a look at a selection of our previous repertoire as a reference:

Given that NEAR is the BOS, when I mention the focus will be NEAR - I automatically mean BOS (not just NEAR Protocol as an L1).

Everything from Web3 components to Gateways, from NEAR Horizon to DevHub, and surrounding the NDC elections covers NEAR as the Blockchain Operating System.

If there is any specific focus you would like to see within NEARWEEK teaching to write about NEAR (BOS) - that can certainly be explored! Just let us know :slight_smile:

I requested funding for a 6-month period so that NEARWEEK can set-up a series courses that flow into each other, and we’re also confident in our ability to offer opportunities to students that show commitment to attending each of the courses.

@Chloe thanks!!! Always great to see a friendly face :')

3 Likes
8

love the initiative!

I would certainly be interested in participating if this goes ahead :slight_smile:

3 Likes
9

Hi @achildhoodhero i have reviewed your proposal and seen replies to comments. We have discussed your plans today in our council call and would like to be working more closely with NEARWEEK in the future.
The marketing DAO has a policy to fund new applicants for one month to enable us to see results before we will consider a longer funding period.
Currently the Marketing DAO has a limited budget for this month so i am requesting that you resubmit your proposal in September when we are expecting an increased budget.
Thanks in advance for your understanding.

2 Likes
10

Hi @achildhoodhero – thanks for the reply – noting your responses and also community support for this. From what is outlined here, this is an initiative that has the potential to benefit the community, but I think we need additional detail so we have KPIs we can track (we are required to establish those with new projects and then review them in order to allocate future funding).

It’s clear you’re an OG/established person in the ecosystem, but it’s still important we allocate for one month and then review before we allocate more funding. We have seen in the past that it is problematic to allocate funding for long-term projects without milestones to unlock future funding in place. This is no commentary on you or your abilities, no doubt there, but we need to operate in as level a playing field as we can.

Here’s what would help me support this in September:

  • Propose a 1 month scope that we can review in the Sept 1-10 review period
  • List metrics beyond the amount of content produced. What does success with this look like? How can we as allocators of the funds track the impact and value of the funds back to the ecosystem in a meaningful way? Giving us this info will help us help you!
  • Tell us how many participants you anticipate in the first cohort. How will this affect content produced, feedback sessions, etc. It seems to me that it’s a very different proposition to work with 5 participants vs. 100. Can you explain how you’re thinking about this?

Thanks!

2 Likes
11

Hey @achildhoodhero,

Thank you for the proposal. I’m not able to support this proposal in its current form at the moment.

Just echoing the response of @so608 with my feedback below:

  • We’re unable to fund proposals for 6 months at a time
  • Giving specific details on the number of workshops, speaker(s) info, and the curriculum
  • Outlining specifics for content topics, format, length, promotional deliverables, etc would help us to approve your re-submission.
  • Providing more detail on the purpose of 1 on 1 feedback sessions (as needed)
  • Outlining potential outcomes (estimate the impact on the ecosystem)

Having seen plenty of the quality work that comes through NearWeek, we’re looking forward to the resubmission.

2 Likes
12

Thanks for putting together this proposal Hero.

I am disappointed in the outcome. Here are some of my personal views:

  • For as long as some Council Members have been sitting on Marketing DAO, they’ve been touting their skills as ‘life long professional marketers’. Particularly, when probed, they claim to also support NEAR projects with their marketing needs. In reality, no MDAO Council member is active promoting NEAR and MDAO has failed at do much at all to promote content creators (Where are the bounties @Klint , proactive recruitment of talent, why no one showed up to the Content Creators Working Group set up by Plug from Banyan?).
  • NEARWEEK is stepping up and creating resources to enable other content creators create better content. Massive need for it, specially in a rapidly evolving landscape of new AI tools, needs to create developer content, etc. To me it is easy to see how this is one of those 80/20 investments where you can get a multiplier (from every content creator that goes through program).
  • The ratio between value generation and cost are probabley the best value for money I’ve ever seen. An entire 6 month program, run by the people with most experience in the ecosystem, for only less than 5000 NEAR (just over $5000 a today’s prices)?! Just Marketing DAO Councils are taking $16,000 - a whopping $64,000 for the same six month period.

The last point illustrates the State of Affairs. There are two market forces at play here:

  1. Amount of quality proposals. IF the amount of quality proposals that can justify grants is greater than $50,000 (current cap), then MDAO is able to ask for more funding. On this point, it should be obvious that it is in everyone’s best interest to fund the very best to be able to show great ROI.
  2. Trust and performance of MDAO itself. Sadly, this is something that has been brewing publicly for a long time. Now applicants are paying the consequences of a Council group that is completely out of touch with NEAR ecosystem, and being treated with utmost caution by the ‘adults in the room’ (NF + Community Treasury, etc.).

It is unacceptable to have proposals such as this one being rejected while the Councils double their income. What are the KPIs that Council members are being measured on to determine remuneration? It seems to me like MDAO is falling short of a lot of the objectives and KPIs laid out on the Charter.

8 Likes
13

Hey @Klint @so608 @cryptocredit,

I want to write and thank you for your time and feedback around this proposal. NEARWEEK will draft a new proposal in September, and we will make sure to answer any additional questions vocalised above.

Massive shoutout to @satojandro @mitko @Chloe @bailey12 @Naomi @JohnX for your proactive support around this proposal! It’s been heartwarming to see such positive feedback from the community around an idea of mine, let’s try to turn this into reality next month :')

Speak soon,

H

3 Likes
14

Hi @achildhoodhero I think it’s important to reiterate here that this proposal is not closed due to lack of interest in figuring out a way forward. As often happens with funding situations, there are a lot of factors that go into each situation. I’ll reach out directly to discuss.

Thanks @satojandro for posting your thoughts. It’s frustrating to see your continued attacks on individual council members and the MDAO in general. You have a right to post what your personal point of view is of course. From my vantage point understanding the history, personal dynamics involved and your choice to step down from the council, this seems to me to be an unfair assessment of things and written more to drag people down than to find a constructive way forward.

I encourage anyone in the community who has questions for the MDAO to reach out to us marketingdao@proton.me.

15

The constructive way forward is to resign.

I appreciate the work you do, and I am grateful for the rest of the Council members dedicating time and effort to the DAO. But it has been a VERY long time. You are well aware of my grievances (since at least March) this year. Role was not meant to be forever…

Much love,

AVB

16

i think this is a great idea

1 Like
17

The NEARWeek team is the lifeblood of the NEAR ecosystem, I hope that this proposal can be funded next month, so that we can onboard more NEAR native content creators and increase the distribution of news both inside and outside of the ecosysytem.

3 Likes
18

I support this initiative, as a content creator on NEAR I think this is a great way to bring the spotlight to creators within the NEAR ecosystem which would in turn bring in sustainable growth and collaboration.

3 Likes