HackMD
PLN Resources
Put together by @bmann as an attempt to map PLN resources, especially as they overlap or intersect with IPFS Community Resources.
"a web3 version of YC that focuses on research-heavy projects"
From the directory home page:
- Initial Building
- Networking
- Talent
- Research and Engineering
- Funding
- Adoption
Boris Commentary
This is all kind of Boris commentary but I'll add some specific stuff up here.
We spent time including links to PLN resources as part of Fission onboarding. It doesn't seem like this has been carried on to other companies.
How do I find out when new people / companies join?
I helped facilitate a session at Lab Fortnight in Lisbon in November 2022, that was "how do I find out what's going on in the PLN". Technically this was part of PL Founders / hosted by PL Ventures, but lots of PLN / Spaceport folks there too. There were good discussions, but no follow up (including by me! I plead exhaustion from the fortnight).
My big feedback then was – how do we actively collaborate with members of the PLN? How do we surface initiatives, gain adoption / support, and execute on projects / working groups / installs / whatever.
Mostly I just give up and do things myself, because I don't see any collaboration happening. I see top down initiatives that then get launched and then I give feedback.
Any collaboration that does happen seems to be in Working Groups, and I tend to use Filecoin Slack channels plus Github for that. Which isn't great for non technical topics. But it's better than 1000 Notion pages that I mostly don't have access to inside the PL corporate Notion account.
I ended up setting up a PL Network Mastodon server. I didn't ultimately push it very hard, and no one seemed excited about it, so I gave up. I still run it, and I use it for Fission and my team's business accounts. But when a network supposedly with 3000 members with supposedly people interested in decentralization DGAF about a decentralized social network, I get really discouraged.
Directory
It's pretty great! Now we need a reason to come back here regularly.
How do you make this a destination? A hub for new information? A default place that I goto when I'm looking for PLN wide info.
Again this is a matter of community building and activation. What makes me come back here as an individual? as a company? as a founder?
PLN Discord
@bmann I was recently told that "PLN is going to move to Telegram" because "Discord isn't working for us. People at PL seem to treat using Discord like going to the dentist - no one likes it and most people avoid it if they can"
(and some comments on other chat systems)
There's a Discord that never really got activated. Synchronous chat with bad search and slow response times for questions that do get asked make for a bad experience for everyone. Discord now has forums, which might be a better fit to build this out with.
One could also use Discord's extensive role system as different ways to organize and mention people.
Realistically all of the activity is in the Filecoin Slack, which is actually PL Slack + Filecoin Slack + IPFS Slack. There is an IPFS Discord which is theoretically "community", but it tends to be support focused.
The Founders at PL Telegram group is run by PL Ventures and mostly seems to be for 2 person startups / those just coming out of accelerator programs. Telegram is a crypto centric platform that now also has forum-like features.
Realistically, for a global networked org, is "chat" the right interface for everything? No. Both the Filecoin and PLN communities have no space for long form asynch communication. Filecoin has one or two Github Discussions but real comms happen in the Slack.
The IPFS Community has a Discourse forum that is also not really being developed and ALSO is mostly just help / support traffic.
Should a single paid for Slack be the backbone of three ecosystems? No, it should not.
PLN Handbook
https://protocol.almanac.io/handbook/protocol-labs-spaceport-JzKymu
Runs on Almanac. You can get edit access if you want, but not really promoted or activated to have others in the PLN work on it.
Why is this not handbook.plnetwork.io or something memorable?
Has some great material in it, when I remember to go here.
I remembered it existed so I filed an idea in Ideas Hub about adding search https://github.com/orgs/memser-spaceport/discussions/14 – it's been a week and no one has commented or reacted on this.
Ideas Hub
https://github.com/orgs/memser-spaceport/discussions
@bmann: I suggested this, as part of looking to get transparency and collaboration from across the PLN. What do PLN members what? What do they think is missing?
Hasn't really launched or been pushed for adoption.
Ideally, this is a central place where priorities for the PLN and member companies are listed. People look for collaborators, supporters, funding, and work to launch things of benefit for the PLN as a whole.
This could range from shared infrastructure, to software, to events to work on together.
How do we co-create the network?
PL Network Events
Code: https://github.com/memser-spaceport/pln-events
This is pretty interesting! PR to add your event, code is open source. There again isn't any adoption outside of "core" controlled companies (e.g. PL, Filecoin, etc).
How do we find out what PLN companies are going to which event? How do we collaborate on shared events, shared funding, shared accomodation? How does the PLN help us be more awesome at events?
Unclear what's being done to get adoption.
Launchpad
Training / onboarding for prospective and new hires.
@bmann Technical curriculum doesn't meet Fission's needs, others we've talked to. We've tried to get Fission code into part of training curriculum.
Mosaia
Service provider list. Why is this not just an Excel spreadsheet shared by founding teams?
Talent
@bmann Mostly run out of, and for core PL. Fission didn't really find it useful.
Marketing Council
Becky says it's great
