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Here is an extremely rough draft of what I would consider an improved Ambassador Program managed on chain for the Polkadot ecosystem.
UPDATE (OCT 3, 2024): Check out my expanded thinking on the Polkadot Forum which includes this Ambassador Program + an Ecosystem Agents Fund
The Ambassador Program should support any and all people who want to be public supporters of Polkadot to:
For this, we create a program where ambassadors are incentivized to move up in ranks by first showing the work they have done, and then showing the results they have created.
To be promoted to the next rank, we expect progressively higher levels of work and outcomes.
Full-Time Roles
Ranked Roles
Ideally the Ambassador Management role is something parallel to the ranked ambassador program. So you can be both a Senior Ambassador and a full time Ambassador Manager. This can be done, just need to figure out the right set of configs and pallets.
TODO: Determine the voting weight of each role. Perhaps copy the technical fellowship structure.
The Ambassador Management role is a salaried role which is automatically paid by the Ambassador treasury.
The Ambassador Management group can have up to 5 members, but does not need to fill all 5 spots. This number is chosen because it is unlikely that we need more than 5 full time employees to manage this program, but it would be fine to consider expanding the program if needed.
Members of the ambassador management group can only be elected through public referendum.
Members of the ambassador managers can be removed by a majority vote of the other ambassadors (taking into account voting weight), or through public referendum.
Thinking process: The idea is that the ambassador managers really should be working FOR the ambassador program. While DOT holders are required to elect a manager, ultimately the ambassadors themselves should be able to decide that someone is not a right fit.
Ambassador managers get a monthly salary matching the OECD average salary for Project Managers.
Need to find this number. This is the same logic behind the salary for technical fellowship.
Ambassador managers should be seen as a meta organization to help the success of the Ambassador program.
Ambassador Managers are not necessarily expected to be Ambassadors themselves, but of course this is preferred. The primary skills needed to be an Ambassador Manager is those of coordination, structure, representation, evidence creation, feedback, and accountability.
Ambassador Managers should really be subservient to the Senior and Head Ambassadors, and looking for them for leadership on the program. Even better is when Ambassador Managers are themselves Senior or Head Ambassadors.
Ambassador Management are expected to produce the following outputs:
The main ambassador track has 6 ranks as described above. The rank has no on-chain effect outside of voting inside the ambassador program. It is used as status and as evidence of past work and contributions to the Polkadot ecosystem.
Candidate ambassadors can be onboarded into the program by any individual Ambassador II or higher rank.
Ambassadors can be onboarded into any rank through public referendum, however this should be primarily used for the initial seeding of the program
To be promoted to the next rank, you need a majority vote of ambassadors that are two ranks higher than you. For example:
By majority vote, we mean of those who vote, not of all potential voters. We cannot expect everyone to vote in every promotion. There should just be more people saying yes than saying no.
Ambassadors are expected to have achieved different levels of work and outcomes to be promoted into the next rank.
There are no limits to the number of Ambassadors at any rank.
There is no "minimum time" needed to be spent at any rank. Ambassadors can be promoted as quickly as they are able to show they have met the criteria for promotion.
Ranks can be skipped if higher milestones are achieved which are a superset of smaller milestones, although it is generally recommended that Ambassadors aim to move through all ranks one by one. It is not a race :)
Requirements to be promoted to a certain rank:
Thinking process: $200 is 10 hours of work at $20 per hour, so this could represent doing volunteer work at a Polkadot event for a day, hosting meetups, etc… This should be spread over 5 events for 5 different tips.
Another example might be someone who writes blogs or makes videos, where the work done for a is valued at $200 or more. Obviously that evaluation is determined by the DOT holders.
Thinking process: Now we are thinking about multi-day kinds of contributions.
Thinking process: Once you reach Senior Ambassador, your goal isn't just to be paid for your work, but to show evidence of the outcomes you have achieved. You should show the Treasury that spending thousands of dollars on your work is resulting in MORE value being created in the ecosystem. These requests should generally be retroactive payments on top of previously paid work done for the greater impact that work has resulted in.
Need to tune these numbers. How hard should it be?
Thoughts on Demotion
Other than the Head Ambassador role, there should not really be any demotions once you have achieved a certain role. The role describes your PAST contributions to Polkadot and the ambassador program. So once you are a Senior Ambassador, you can be a Senior Ambassador forever without necessarily contributing at the level you were before. Ideally, we encourage all ambassadors to stay as contributors to the ecosystem with any amount of time they can spare.
That being said, for Head Ambassador, we should expect these individuals to be active in our ecosystem. It would be expected that if a Head Ambassador leave the ecosystem, we downgrade them to Senior Ambassador II. Although really I also don't think this is super important unless they are using their title in ways which are not representative of their current contributions.
Point of Clarification
Need to evaluate if this is actually what we want. I could see arguments in the other direction. My thinking is that these Ambassadors should be able to show ADDITIONAL contributions being in the program outside of their normal job, and their contributions to the program and through our treasury, open governance, etc…
These are some high level guidelines on how an ambassador can structure their proposal to acknowledge compensation for work done and value achieved. Of course, these guidelines are not strict, but should give an idea on how ambassadors can keep things transparent, what the Polkadot DAO should expect to see.
What is nice about this pattern is that there is already community feedback on the "reward" aspect of the work done based on votes on the initial proposal. Imagine I make a request just like I described above, but I say $10,000 after 10,000 views. People can NAY my work compensation proposal as a signal that my follow up request is not justified. Hopefully through discussion and feedback, I will adjust my milestones, and then those who submitted nay will change their vote.
Obviously this does not always work perfectly, but this is an example of a happy path.
The realization here should be that EVERYONE can be a paid ambassador of Polkadot, even without being in the Ambassador program. The treasury already has mechanisms built to pay people for their small to large contributions to the ecosystem. The Ambassador Program should NOT be a barrier to being paid in the Polkadot ecosystem.
The Ambassador Program then takes the form of creating milestones and goals for people who are ambitious to achieve more, and to establish reputation and rank for those who have achieved great outcomes.
In this scenario, all Ambassadors have clear goals to reach in terms of getting the financial support of their work from the Polkadot ecosystem. In the lower ranks, the requests are small, and encouraging of people to really "do anything for Polkadot" to become part of the program.
But as you move up the ranks, it transitions from just doing work, to actually achieving long term impact and results. To become a senior ambassador it is not enough to just grind out a bunch of labor, but to actually spend time on long term initiatives which bring back more value to Polkadot than it has spent.
In this structure, we also encourage the positive behavior of ambassadors asking to be paid for their work! People seem to be shy to ask for money from the treasury, when in many cases this is exactly what it should be used for. DOT holders will be expected to support ambassadors doing good work, and reject ambassadors who have not sufficiently proven their value add. All in all, this should establish that the Ambassadors work for the DOT holders, and encourage more direction communication between what the community wants and what the ambassadors can provide.
All criteria for achieving higher ranks in the Ambassador Program are ultimately gated by the DOT holders, as it should be.
I suspect that in this program, hard working ambassadors will make even more than the previous Head Ambassador role, while those who treat the ambassador program as a secondary hobby have no expectations to be doing more than they want.
This is the kind of program where ANYONE could feel comfortable to be an ambassador. Software Engineers, Business Developers, Event Managers, Keyboard Warriors, Bloggers, Vloggers, etc… Once we realize that we can all be Polkadot Ambassadors, then we also realize that Polkadot is a community for everyone.
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