See this topic for the latest version of the Community Engagement Program
During the course of the last couple of weeks we have been working on a CEP (Community Engagement Program). We plan to start the CEP next week, but would appreciate your input to the proposed process prior to doing so. By commenting into this thread with any concerns, thoughts, suggested improvements, you will provide us with a fresh perspective which will further refine the process.
The CEP is essentially an experiment to see if this way of working is both effective and scalable moving forward, only by running cycling through this way of working will we truly understand its feasibility. The CEP will not replace the bounty program, which is more effective for smaller and specific pieces of work.
The purpose of the CEP is to match developers with immediate and fundamental SAFE Network requirements. This will take the form of a community funded âKickstarterâ like process to encourage developers, artists and others to form teams to bid for projects, accessing part of the 5 million available MAID fund for bounties, community projectsâŚetc put forward within the MaidSafeCoin announcement, released a couple of weeks ago.
Each project will be identified up front as being in demand and then teams (or individuals) will propose a costed solution (in MAID) for each small proposal. It is anticipated that these will be mostly small (6 weeks or less) projects and will primarily cover end user applications, but may also include core components.
It is important to note that apps made as part of the Community Engagement Process will not be safecoin earning, so they will be effectively paid as core rewards. In this sense, the term âcoreâ refers more toward features/functionality seen to be of high importance to the network, as opposed to applications as found in the most wanted app threads on the forumâŚetc⌠The CEP will not compete with app funding or crowdfunded projects providing applications on SAFE. It is purely for projects deemed to be core requirements of the network.
Applicants will be responding to a set of requirements established initially by MaidSafe and adapted as take into account community feedback to the process. The community themselves will of course complement and expand on this process as it becomes more established, incorporating community based proposals. It is the intention that CEP projects will be 50% funded by MaidSafe and 50% by the community. If applications achieve less than 100% of the projected costs, it is up to them if they proceed. MaidSafe will assign a member of the company, whose skills and experience best suit the project, to oversee and act as the main point of contact.
In time, we anticipate that a number of these proposals will run in tandem, however, we intend on only running one project at a time initially as the process is established.
Process
It is suggested that keeping the approach simple and using as few new tools as possible would be advantageous. Using the forum would keep community communication in one place and will ensure maximum participation. The following is proposed:
- Under the âFeaturesâ category, two new forum sub categories will be created: âProjectsâ and âProposal applicationsâ. These forum threads will be more heavily moderated than other parts of the forum to keep the discussions very specific.
- New and desirable features/apps are identified and approved by MaidSafe and/or the community, by voting. These will be documented and added into the âProjectsâ sub category within the forum. Each new feature will have its own thread where the community and the prospective applicant(s) can ask questions to clarify any points.
- An applicant has two weeks (application period) to submit a proposal for their chosen feature. Applications will be posted in âproposal applicationsâ and each will have its own thread within which anyone in the community will have the opportunity to question the applicants about any part of their proposal.
- At the end of the application period, a MaidSafeCoin wallet will be set up for each of the proposal applicants. These wallets will be controlled by MaidSafe.
- Both MaidSafe and individual members of the community will vote by sending MAID to the most compelling application if it is something they are willing to support. This voting period will last for 1 week.
- The successful applicant will be the one whose wallet has collected the most MAID and the total of all wallets that relate to new feature/app request will be transferred into the wallet designated for the successful applicant and paid on completion of the work and/or agreed project milestone.
Potential Projects
The project of the highest priority is a SAFE Network specific browser, providing a secure way of enabling access to publicly available data is of primary importance. Consequently, this will be the first project that we run through this process. Other potential projects are as follows:
- Core â setup GitPay type system for MAID & later safecoin
- Core â Integrate and build payments/vote and sign off site for CEP process (edited to fix typo)
- C.I â Increase tier 1 and 2 coverage to include further OS support / architectures (mirror rust release of compilers and std lib triples)
- C.I â Docker deployment (poss 80% complete)
- Vault deployment â Azure integration
- Vault deployment â Amazon integration
- Vault deployment â Google integration
- Vault deployment â Arm (hard float and soft float) Integration (likely just test and package)
- Client â iPhone package SDK
- Client â Android package NDK
- Messaging app
- Multi protocol crust
Proposals
The content of each proposal is up to each applicant. Demonstrating experience, the cost, capability and competency (maybe even a proof of concept) is likely to resonate well with potential supporters. The proposal could take many forms, if you are unsure what works best Kickstarter offer some advice in this area.
Funding
- Like any other community member, MaidSafe may choose not to support any of the proposal applications. It may also be the case that some projects are 100% funded without MaidSafeâs support. Alternatively, there may be some projects that MaidSafe funds without community backing, if itâs desirable for the core protocols and network.
- All applications will be costed by each applicant.
- The project payment will be made upon completion by MaidSafe and with any community groups/admins of the CEP.
- Part payments may be also be made in larger projects, once agreed milestones have been met.
- The MaidSafe project lead will verify that the agreed project objectives/milestones have been met on behalf of the community. This will include running proof of concept and/or finished projects on a test net, or on the main network (if running by that time), for acceptance by the wider community. Part of this process will involve a basic security audit on the code.
- If project proposals end up overfunded then it will be expected they also achieve any stretch goals laid out in their proposal. We also anticipate a faster more focussed delivery in this case.
- Just to be clear, MaidSafe are not soliciting private approaches for MAID funding, proposals should only be sent in response to a request for proposal.
Notes
- Features or fixes that integrate directly with or are part of the core libraries must adopt the dual license and the applicant must agree to the contributor agreement.
- Applications and libraries that do not use the SAFE core libraries API are free to choose any acceptable open source or Creative Commons license.
- Project support may be withdrawn by the community, and/or MaidSafe, if a project misses agreed milestones, falls into a period of inactivity, or something outside the projectâs control makes successful delivery untenable.
Thanks for your help!
