Notes on the Formation of a Metaverse Coordinator Work Stream

--- ###### tags: `GitcoinDAO Metaverse Coordinators Group` --- # Notes on the Formation of a Metaverse Coordinator Work Stream ### Core Values - [Kevin's original MC announcement and project history](https://gov.gitcoin.co/t/calling-all-gitcoindao-metaverse-coordinators/8902) - [Let's create a stigmergic feedback loop](https://gov.gitcoin.co/t/a-vision-for-a-pluralistic-civilizational-scale-infrastructure-for-funding-public-goods/9503) - [Kevin's Moonshot north star written from the future.](https://gov.gitcoin.co/t/moonshot-collective-target-state/9648#here-is-a-vision-of-what-things-could-look-like-in-2025-3). MC needs to define it's north star. ### Priorities 1. Secure clear funding streams for the creation of radical new art. Identify that creative producers are high-value generators, *visionaries and shamans that can peer behind the veil.* 2. Align/support/promote these creations explicitly to the core principles of GitocoinDAO, ie: in service to public goods funding. - This involves **a clear articulation of a regen cryptoeconomy to overturn the trad structure of artistic generation**: ie, self-serving, egotistical, Now-Me focused invisible (private) labors that are manipulated by rivalrous curatorial/collector networks. - **A clear purpose to collaborate with other Gitcoin work streams** to articulate am aligned roadmap for this vision, to make it real: products, progressive decen, governance, MMM - We might illustrate these integrations with other initiatives, illustrate the bigger picture. - This will impose **specificity and design constraints** on the Metaverse Coordination work stream. - Understand the value to other work streams. - Clarify the local articulation of KPIs in relation to this bigger picture. - Distinguish overlap with other projects to avoid redundancies. ### What is the Metaverse? What is Metaverse Coordination? What defines this work stream? - Are we trying to tap into existing "markets" and memes? Or are we brave enough to articulate an alternative vision? - *I would like to choose the later.* Solarpunk ethos: *we don't have time to fuck around with trying to change the direction of the war machine.* - This metaverse is not a reference to *Snow Crash,* the company formally known as Facebook, or the Web3 Second Life experiments like Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, The Sandbox, etc. Let's not exclude these interfaces as arenas of consideration, but **we coopt this association as a [détournement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9tournement), to reclaim this image for our own purposes.** - ***Metaverse* for our purposes identifies an *interface* between the virtual and physical**: - Virtual and physical economies. - Digital avatars and meat-space corporeal embodiments. - A scrim, threshold, membrane, portal between worlds. - Not just digital, not just physical, but all of the above. - Cerebral [protoplasm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protoplasm), [fascia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascia) surrounding our collective vision of hope, a return to the root of [aether](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aether_(classical_element)) as a [pneumatic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneuma) force for creative activity in the human organism inside and out - ***Coordination* defines the building and stewarding of a bridge** between: - These grandiose ideologies, always striving to increase the *definition* of our articulations (see note below). - The mechanisms that will facillitate the *realization of our collective vision*. - Focusing on the interface as the [covalent](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/valence#English) threshold (UI) between these visions and values. - A war against **Moloch**: - Moloch rises in language; *Moloch is language* - Moloch rises in the interstice; a trickster and wielder of illusion/delusion/hallucination - Moloch rises in human coordination failure; *Moloch is this failure* - We need more than mere tools/weapons. **We must foster clarity of vision** to transcend the fearful superstitions that have plagued our civilization since the beginning of time. We require an understanding of all the topological layers of the Matrix/Metaverse/Reality Tunnel/Ontogenetic Model. - Metaverse Coordinators might focus on **reflexive critique to combat Moloch from within and without simultaneously**. - Keeping up to date with other work streams. - Focusing on furthering the articulation of our shared values. - Dedicated to broadcasting the ideas to new audiences (not yet entrenched within the familiar memes) in a tactful, nuanced manner. ### Identifying New Audiences - **Beginning with the lowest lift**: - LARPers, gamers, role players: building their own worlds. - Media visionaries, artists, radical thinkers: actively deconstructing their own compartments/identities. - Crypto noobs, the mechanically inclined hopeful, the seekers/wanderers/nomads in the wastelands of Web2: those looking for an *opening,* trying to adapt old specializations for greater purposes. - Graduating to new audiences in a **slow and careful manner**. - Eventually **infusing these ideas into the greater ecosystem for everyone's benefit**, but not too fast or too broadly! ### How to Identify the Value being Created in this Work Stream? - How do we quantify subjective values? - How to articulate metrics for experiences dependent upon personal engagement and idiosyncratic world-building? - How to create an immersive world without becoming a tyrant of lore or mining the attention of the users? (To avoid Web2 trauma patterns) ### Notes on *Definition* - We might practice an internal alignment towards ever increasing definition of our values, terms, and tools. - I offer a conceptual tool for thinking about this. - *Definition = Resolution + Fidelity + Velocity* - The screen + the image on the screen + the latency for comprehending that what is being seen is an image on a screen (not just a blank screen or an immaterial image). - Metaverse Coordinators strive to defy physics (as a set of definitions), to **break the laws of space-time.** - Organizing a canonnical lore that continues to drive deeper into core philosophical concepts for understanding *why we are doing what we are doing*. - Enlisting contributors that are courageous enough to plow *head-first* into an uncertain future without hesitation (towards an ethical reconsideration of YOLOing?) - These two roles will work together to harness the power of these seemingly mutually exclusive or radically divergent propulstion, while focusing on the interface as a *perpetual motion machine* or *value generator*. - Does this differ from the flywheel analogy? A generator can also be a motor. ![](https://i.imgur.com/oSBoVaf.jpg) *A Chinese army 2-hand crank generator for field use. MC provide the crank and the hands to support the labors on the table surface.* ### Compensation/Roles - How are contributions **permissioned?** How do we structure the workstream? How do we clearly articulate the KPIs? More on this below. - **Artists need to be highly valued.** Help me think about this! - Contributions might be determined by the community. How does Gitcoin accomplish this? - Tokenstream.party - Coordinape - Govrn - NFT sale splits - Bountry tools like [Dework](https://dework.xyz/)? - ??? - TW's position: do what you love and the money will follow. - Can TW's compensation be determined by someone else? Should it? - **TW wants to focus on the philosophical ideas, continue to identify new opportunities for value creation, and get deep into lore/creative content (world-building).** - IMHO, the core contributors of the work stream will support each individual to focus on what they love to do so they can do it at maximum capacity. This means **enlisting non-creative roles at genesis**. - In RaidGuild terms, this project needs a **Cleric,** an accounts manager. Responsibilities include: - Relaying essential practical information back to the DAO to provide transparency for ops - Admin the money flow for the work stream - Work with individuals on their economic needs/concerns - Operate the levers of the work stream DAO, [tokenstream.party](http://tokenstream.party/), or whatever compensation mechanics are in place, etc. - This role is differentiated from a **Monk**: a project manager. We to fill this role as well! Responsibilties include: - Collecting and archiving essential documentation, assets, and supplemental materials. - Organizing assets and project progress into shared project spaces, kanban board, etc., for both internal use and external scrutiny. - Bonus! Conduct meetings in an agile/scrum fashion (where appropriate) to keep the work moving forward in a productive way. ie: RaidGuild has been writing the comic and UG through a software development process and this has served us quite well. - Supports essential backend operations for the work stream, such as summoning the DAO, executing txns, overseeing onboarding/offboarding of contributors, planning sprints and workshops, etc. ### Projects #### [DeathGuild](https://medium.com/@traviswyche) >- TL;DR = >- It might no longer be appropriate to receive funds from MolochDAO. TW wants to give it over to a community somehow. >- TW wants to decentralize this project into a transmedia initiative and I already have contributors in mind to onboard into this workstream. >- Lots of opportunity to work with NFT artists, podcasters, experimental artists, etc. Art as a public good! >- Also to provide valuable feedback to the greater GitcoinDAO community and the larger ecosystem on core philosophical issues. Knowledge as a public good! >- DeathGuild is too long-form for a common audience to access. We might use the interview process to gather information that generates content for the transmedia workstream, which would refer back to these core ideas to evaluate their applicability/efficacy. - **TW wants to offer up this project to the Metaverse work stream,** if they want it. No ownership/credits needed. Most important is continuing to get eyes on the work and identify/generate/support value in the community. Does Gitcoin want it? - Use this as a schelling point for understanding larger/deeper philosophical issues in Gitcoin lore. - **Lots of ripe transmedia bits** to explore here: - Each article minted as an **NFT** via Mirror or other means. Revenue split between contributors and public goods. - Each article includes **unique art** in response to the content. Revenue split. - Each article turned into a **podcast**. Integrates with existing work streams to disseminate ideas to the wider ecosystem. NFT minting? Revenue split. - Liquidiot (Bankless, RaidGuild, etc.) is helping TW with a DG podcast MVP. - [Curtis Tamm](http://curtistamm.net/) (friend, sound artist) is creative a more abstract audio supplement. Needs to be pilled and brought into the fold = more bridges to the trad art world! - Interviewees could be turned into **legendary rarity PFPs**. NFT collectibles work stream. Gift to the interviewee and/or revenue split. - DeathGuild meme itself needs to be sacrificed, but maybe *Death as a meme* is strong? **An opportunity to focus on the darker layers of the metaverse while staying hopeful?** - Lots of content to infuse other marketing agendas. - Currently operating on a MolochDAO grant. Would be great to strategize on grant-matching to generate more value for the Metaverse work stream and public goods funding. Profits could be poured into the matching pool or to dogfood our own tools. #### Comic #4 - TW really wants to make it! Even if in collaboration with another DAO (not RG). - A more extensive book dedicated to the last 3 stages of the proposed *Journey of the Hero* timeline. - Dogfood the Universe Guide ideas to begin open-sourcing the narrative and identify other access points for contributions. - Continue to raise the high water mark for the group! #### Universe Guide - Define it's core value: - What it is - Why it is - How it works - Who it works for - To identify the potential pain points, access points, potential openings for accessing the lore and content. - Creation of task list boards for specific elements: - Character creation - Landscape ideation - Articulation of artifacts - Templates for all of the above that ensure a clear reference back to **real cryptoeconomic ideas** so the project doesn't spin out into pure fantasy. A bridge between the imagination and the concrete. - Developer tasks: DAOists jamming on the mechanics for how the contributions are made, PRs/changes merged, etc. How individual contributors can change canon right away. - Ongoing research for understanding existing tools and how to integrate them into the UG for our purposes ##### Universe Guide as UX Reseach - We have identified the problem space. - We have moved into the discovery phase. - Let's start elaborating hypotheses, moving towards succinct potential solutions. - exploring other tools - appropriating existing features to frankenstein an MVP - conducting user research (within our own ranks?) to parse down the MVP features - Success defined by the applicability of our specific problem: - Open-source narrative generation - Collectively-owned IP - Transparent decentralized contributions - To produce novel, exciting transmedia bits - That support public goods funding! - End Goal: A user-friendly, awesome looking, deeply considered Metaverse Coordination interface for aligning GitcoinDAO values behind transmedia outlets (?). *Work in progress!* - Create a legacy of continuously identifying new openings, new opportunities to explore interesting problems, to probe deeper into the center and away from the superficial. - To serve as a potent onboarding tool for a unique kind of contributor into the community, straight to the core issues, in a carefully considered way. ##### Project Parameters - Must clearly identify where the RG contributions end and the Metaverse Coordination work stream begins. - We might articulate a roadmap sooner than later. - How to make best use of our time at Eth Denver? - Participate in the hackathon? - How to gather learnings/feedback about the various deliverables (and especially the comic) during the IRL convention? - TW is willing to conduct 1:1 interviews to evaluate the comic, gather sentiment on the larger initiatives, etc. Do any user feedback mechanisms currently exist? - These learnings should be integrated into the Universe Guide, to provide a clear document of the GitcoinDAO community and MC work stream to consider what elements of the UG need to be continued, elaborated further, and perpetuated in best service of the core values (public goods). - MC would be the stewards of the project. - RG wants to know when the raid is complete and that it was successful (so we can celebrate!) - Provides structure for beginning Comic #4 ASAP ##### References - Tool/Structural References: - [HeroDAO](https://mobile.twitter.com/hero_dao) - [StoryDAO](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eHfJ5LiVsMocedrKHkQe88TMyEr_jBrP/view) - world-building tools for D&D like [World Anvil](https://www.worldanvil.com/) - avatar/PFP [character creation tools](https://rarity.tools/metahero-generative) (as a way of understanding the allure of NFTs more generally) - Combining the functionality of these tools into the UG will provide the mechanics: Web3-DAO tools in service of open-source lore generation in service to this work stream's specific ambitions.