---
# System prepended metadata

title: 4. Building the Road Ahead
tags: [forum]

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---
title: 4. Building the Road Ahead
tags: forum
---

# Building the Road Ahead

The time to learn has never been better.  Everyone is online and everything is online. To serve this hungry and growing audience we are generating new forms of reference material and exploratory products designed to inspire and engage the community in a bright vision of the future. 

Planning the rest of the year includes setting ambitious goals.  An attempt was made at matching DevRel OKRs when appropriate.  Some inspiration was also taken from the nearcore team.

This is **part 4 of 4** in a series

1. [Build a Story](https://hackmd.io/@near-edu/building-the-story)
2. [Build the Team](https://hackmd.io/@near-edu/buliding-the-team)
3. [Build the Tools](https://hackmd.io/@near-edu/building-the-tools)
4. **Build the Road Ahead** (this post)

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### North Star

1. Increase the number of successful **apps running on MainNet**
2. Increase the number of developers deploying and improving their **apps on TestNet**
3. Generate and maintain content and tools that will allow devs to self-serve and be successful


### Key Results

Growth

- Increase the number of people teaching about NEAR -> **1000 by end of 2021**
- Increase the number of people learning about NEAR -> **10,000 by end of 2021**

Engagement

- Increase the number of people earning certifications -> **500 by end of 2021**
- Increase the number of student demos on TestNet -> **100 by end of 2021**

Visibility

- Education team activities are communicated to all stakeholders in a timely manner
- Feature requests can be publicly tracked and prioritized
- Feedback is proactively collected from the community


### Objectives


- **Community-driven education**
_Engage the community to scale educational efforts and drive innovation in onboarding_

    - **Increase number of NEAR educators**
    _Capture and promote expert instruction from internal teams while we train other educators.  Examples of this in progress are Live Contract Review and Live App Review series on YouTube_

    - **Improve contract development onramp**
    _Developers are one of three legs of the stool we stand on: developers, end users and infrastructure_

    - **Partner with other educational institutions**
    _We must identify, prioritize and enable key educational partners in the ecosystem to make the most of teaching the world about NEAR_

    - **Maintain a comprehensive picture of the     platform**
    _We have a large surface of innovation and are still growing.  Sensemaking will remain a priority for newcomers and veteran community members alike.  This captures "understanding the whole"_

- **Ease of use everywhere**
_Remove any hurdle between participants of the ecosystem and their goal_

    - **Developer path from zero to hero is easy**
    _We must capture the attention of developers the way Stripe has consistently done with immediately accessible examples and documentation_

    - **End users should not realize they're using blockchain**
    _We must deliver orientation and onboarding experiences that do not intimidate end users with technical jargon but instead focus on the value of web 3 by painting a picture of the future of 10 or 20 years from now._

    - **Onboarding for internal teams is easy**
    _We must attract, recruit and onboard the world's most capable talent to help us realize our vision._

    - **Onboarding for technology partners is easy**
    _We must support key technology partners with world-class documentation and examples to help them quickly plug into our platform and make the most of it_

### Sample Metrics

MainNet

- Unique contracts deployed on MainNet
- Number of builders on MainNet
- Number of active accounts

TestNet

- Unique contracts deployed on TestNet
- Monthly active developers on TestNet
- Weekly returning active developers on TestNet

Other

- Engagement metrics across all educational output and events


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# now what?

**Now we need your help.**

If you are interested in *earning* while helping other with their *learning*, please fill out this form: 


:::warning
## [:moneybag: Earn by Helping Others Learn](https://near.org/educate)
:::


# doing what exactly?

- **inspiration** -- do you have fresh ideas and energy?
- **inclusion** -- can you speak English and another language natively?
- **integration** -- will you make meaningful (technical and non-technical) contributions?

If so the join us! Earn by helping others learn NEAR today.