EIR Amber Brandner | April 2022 | Ecosystem Report, NearSpace, Grants Team, and More

Education Fellowships
1

The list of Aprils Developments: As an EIR with NEAR there are several ways I have been engaged from NEAR Education specific to finding ways to help optimize the ecosystem and developing relationships to move great ideas, projects, and partnerships forward. There are some exciting things in development. Even a few things not yet mentioned here. I have continued to learn about the ecosystem, the projects, the founders, the technology, and connect the dots as this is so much a part of us aligning in our missions. I work closely with Daniel Haboush, so much of our report will be the same, shared accomplishments.

Project title: NEAR Ecosystem Report by Growth and Transparency Team (NEAR EIRs + University Collaboration in research, storytelling, and project design.)

One-liner: We are creating the first NEAR Ecosystem Quarterly Report a report led by a diverse team of researchers, designers, and storytellers with the goal of translating data that provides continuity and perspective to the growth and development of the NEAR ecosystem.

The team is comprised of students from NYU, Emory, UCSD, and UCSC.

Lead Mentor: Heidi Rataj Associate Director C4H Design Lab at UC San Diego

Core Team: Project Directors Amber Brandner, Entrepreneur in Residence, NEAR Foundation and Daniel Haboush Entrepreneur in Residence, NEAR Foundation

Project Summary: The NEAR Ecosystem Report is meant to provide insight to teams, core community, curious individuals, entrepreneurs, colleagues and industry experts. We want to inspire open dialogue about our current challenges and opportunities, share emerging and existing solutions, and understand ecosystem growth and gaps.

  • Generating insights from on-chain & off-chain data.

  • Interpreting correlations between different variables.

  • Looking at the rate of change of metrics (2nd/3rd order effects)

  • Highlighting entrepreneurial accomplishments & ecosystem wins.

  • Discussing challenges and solutions the network is facing.

  • Using principles of storytelling to narrate this information in a way that is easier to digest.

  • Designing graphics & charts that are easy to interpret

  • Dissecting trend

Overview Update:

  1. Growth And Transparency Report launched for applications at https://www.absolutesum.co/nearreport

  2. Team formed on April 6th the first session took place, onboarding, using Notion, Typeform, and Gdrive tools.

  3. Survey Deployed 93 responses to date >>> Please Take Survey: This typeform has moved

  4. Each week key learnings and research is shared request access here if you are curious https://www.notion.so/Weekly-Research-Insights-c03f59391d07465892a56f609f122904

Team tasks/Milestones Completed:

  • Name Assigned to Completed Date Created Status
  • Review design brief Week 1 [April 4-10]
  • Get familiar with NEAR ecosystem & ecosystem map resources Week 1 [April 4-10]
  • Open your NEAR wallet with a human-readable name Week 1 [April 4-10]
  • Define roles and responsibilities of team members Week 1 [April 4-10]
  • Download report examples and identify what makes a good report Week 1 [April 4-10]
  • Review survey Week 1 [April 4-10]
  • Develop questions for ecosystem expert interviews in week 2 Week 1 [April 4-10]
  • Prepare 2 minute takeaway presentation from 3 articles/videos assigned Week 1 [April 4-10] Deploy Survey Week 3 [April 18-24]
  • Format data/research for use in future reports Week 4 [April 25-May 1]
  • Finish survey, identify deployment plan and format Week 2 [April 11-17]
  • Write up Interview Questions M Max Perel-Slater Week 2 [April 11-17]
  • Schedule interviews with NEAR experts Week 2 [April 11-17]
  • Identify opportunities for project features and stories, ecosystem wins, etc. (example Iandian.io) Week 3 [April 18-24]
  • Conduct interviews with NEAR Experts. Team conducted Primary Interviews with Cameron Dennis, Matt Lockyer, and Shashi. Week 3 [April 18-24]
  • Resources for Content Strategy Week 3 [April 18-24]
  • Explore how to create a Web3 incentivization/proof of participation in report Week 3 [April 18-24] Identify key metrics to include in the report Week 4 [April 25-May 1]
  • Analyze survey data Week 4 [April 25-May 1]
  • Synthesize survey findings Week 4 [April 25-May 1]
  • Synthesize and analyze interview findings Week 4 [April 25-May 1]
  • Schedule meeting with PM Grace to establish report outline Week 4 [April 25-May 1]

Project: NearSpace: Ecosystem Innovation.

Collaboration for Ecosystem Challenges

Team:: Amber Brandner and Daniel Haboush, in collaboration with Nearweek.

Launched NEARSPACE Official Twitter for Ecosystem innovation with plans to launch additional spaces. In the first month we hosted on NEARWEEK Twitter and now have established a dedicated channel. Each month we host two NEARSPACE Ecosystem Innovation, we create a follow-up report, and we engage a telegram space to continue the connections and creations. It is a mastermind space meant to help provide solutions to problems the community faces, engaging members and leaders of NEAR.

  1. 64.3K impressions over this 22 day period

  2. In the first two weeks 129 followers with organic growth x.com .

  3. Over 200+ RSVPs for Spaces,

  4. 197 people tuned in to our last space: x.com.

  5. Published follow-up reports with resources and key insights NEARSPACE Recap’s: http://bit.ly/3kjcimM.

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3. Submitted Grant Proposals waiting for approval or next steps (see notes)

  1. NEAR Startup + Entrepreneur Course to NEAR Education Grants. We engaged an expert startup educator, NYT best-selling author Brant Cooper for the course content and an expert online course builder to design the multi-media structure of the course. (We submitted a grant proposal and design breif and are currently awaiting additional question posed by Shashi and opporuinty to provide any clarity so we may move grant. Have also spoke with OWC about integration.) https://leanentrepreneur.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/brantcooper/

  2. Joyfully: Experienced entrepreneur Mark Bishop applied with www.Joinjoyfully.com a platform uplifting others and spreading web3 education as a connection point. (ES)

  3. Ourverse a digital course built on Unreal Engine and a Mocap suit, meant to onboard the masses to understand Web3 and regenerative finance. (Shashi requested time to ask questions and get feedback 2 weeks ago, document is available for review since, awaiting his input) (EDU)

  4. “Metagame Questing System” a questing platform where people, projects, daos etc can list quests and rewards users for accomplishing them. (ES)

  5. Following up on previous submissions EarthDefenders founder also brought on The World Hemp Alliance.

  6. The community of NEAR is amazing, we have been developing relationships, and discovering synergies with people in the NEAR ecosystem. Examples include (new UX research DAO, regional hubs, OWS, OWC, Marketing and Community Rebecca, Matt Lackyer with Proximity, NearWeek Rasmus, LATAM Hub, the legal guild and more).

  7. We are building out an ecosystem map, as a tool to use and provide as a reference as we continue to engage with and learn about all the things going on in NEAR. We are also continuing to advise projects before submitting grants in helping align the mission and identify milestones, connect the dots in the ecosystem, and creating better models through collaboration moving forward. Some Projects in development Include Green Blue MarketPlace, NEAR Mexico City, Our Hidden Worlds, Union finance, Terbo, and Meet with Wallet, a Web3 native calendar scheduling solution, right in your wallet!

  8. Decentralized Grants Team: A team of 5 EIRs on a decentralized grant project for the foundation, developed design brief and strategy of support for grant and

  9. WEB3:Breaking it Down, Digital Event exploring the possibilities of Web3. Panel discussion. Personally, Designed graphics, curated panelists, will be representing near in moderating a panel (amber) and panelist (daniel). May 11th hosted with Singularity Group. Also Submitted event to the community events listing page. Web 3: Breaking it Down and Exploring Possibilities Tickets, Wed, May 11, 2022 at 11:30 AM | Eventbrite

  10. Applied for a small grant for airdrop funds for new wallet creation. Spoke with Sherif and set up https://neardrop.io/

  11. Connected on weekly calls for alch3mst DAO coming to the formation with folks from Global Unity, Mankind Project, Harmony, DreamDAO, Civics Unplugged.(web3 impact ecosystem at large)

  12. Last but not least, we have been working closely with the team at Landian in developing a partnership. Landian is a Metaverse building for the future build on NEAR. We are developing a staged approach to partnership and have engaged with various individuals within leadership on this project. There are a number of collaborations between NEAR and Landian which are emerging. Due diligence and strategic ecosystem mapping has been underway with Kinext and Landian team.

  13. We submitted Xpo Crypto Medellin for consideration of key sponsorship. (awaiting response)

  14. In the month of April also attended Bitcoin Miami, the Celsius event connected with the team, the Chainalysis event met and spoke about NEAR with several guests, attended Nori event connected with CTO.