Please enjoy an audio version of this proposal.
Description
In Amsterdam, we learned that DAOs doing together is a win. During two days, we manifested intentional coordination between DAOs and their DAOists, and shared the results via panels and talks.
The un-conference style was incredibly well received - it has become clear that DAOists value time together in a laid back mix of intentional conversation, productive hacking, salon style debates and exploring sensations together, from art to matcha, to dancing and singing. (DAO Karaoke is now a total thing).
But we also realized that NO structure on the âunconference sideâ lends itself to rigor-less confusion that oftentimes doesnât respect the rare magic that is getting the worldâs expert DAOists in a room, together.
The Global Governance Gathering 2 brings the âElemental Arenaâ into play:
It takes the learnings from the GGG1, DAOcamp, DAO Palace and other intentional and exclusive groupings, and unfolds into a novel, replicable framework that allows all people, of all specialties and levels of expertise, to cooperate without having to step too far out of their comfort zones or areas of interest, all the time.
Perhaps most importantly: It allows people from different bias-sets and ideologies to put their hands, hearts and minds together and grow through the membrane of their intellectual bubbles, outwards, hosting up to 140 people at once.
Weâd like to premiere the Elemental Arena alongside DevConnect, November in Istanbul. (Depending on community interest we will host a 1 to 3 day event - 14th, 15th, 16th - TBC) close to the coworking space.
The DAOistâs North Star and the Problem:
This experimental design emerged after a long reflection on what would be the pillars that make The DAOistâs approach unique and how to double down on it.
1- Creation (pave the way for whatâs next)
2- Discipline (practice focused, ask every question, learn by doing)
3- Wholeness (Neutral, embracing all manifestations, seeking to neutralise bias)
4- Complexity (you canât shortcut a seed into a flower - living systems need to be nurtured through each of their stages)
DAOs traverse a sweet and sour age. Thereâs never been so many developed experiments and tooling. Engagement data show exponential acceleration. But, as experience accumulates some of our most hopeful ideas lose their sheen in the face of facts.
Social exploits, deflated governance processes, raided treasuries and many other failure modes have been teaching lessons.
While many will take to their shitposting platform of choice to declare the death of this or that, for the experienced governerd itâs clear that these are blessings in disguise. The Global Governance Gathering wants to be where we perform the alchemy of rising from our failures into coordination gold.
Solution
Conversations that begin at the entrance evolve into collaborators huddling around a table, with laptops, pens and sticky notes. People can come and go from these impromptu sessions, depending on whoâs inspired in the moment. Insight doesnât need to be lost in a notes app; it can begin to take form.
Participants, speakers, facilitators, attendees and sponsors have the tools, time and space to converge on ideas and challenges, problems and solutions, and creativity and hacking.
Sponsors donât only associate their brands with the event, they invite the participants, often experts of many fields, to engage and take hard stabs at their issues together with their teams. Community offered sessions can tackle macro, inter-ecosystem issues, or laser focus on learning more about issues pertaining to one community or specific technologies.
All is capped off by talks from some of the most learned and inspiring speakers throughout the ecosystem. Sessions get captured on takeaway sheets.
Participants will receive the greatest benefit, having access to each other, in a space conducive to sharing, collaborating and building.
If performed, the Elemental Arena will see DAOs be summoned, projects will be hacked on, and teams will be formed around solutions for the future of human coordination and put out in the world a framework that can be replicated anywhere, by anyone.
Product
The current vision for the Global Governance Gathering 2 is to provide a refuge for DAO-folk spanning 3 days, each with its own purpose and character.
Day One: Culture / Empathy - Facilitated un-conference sessions curated from the community or from sponsored sessions
Day Two: Power / Limits - Facilitated un-conference sessions curated from the community or from sponsored sessions
Day Three: Talks, Panels, Reflection and Sharing
First 2 days: Schedule will be light, sessions will be well supported (meaning less âthingsâ more carefully designed, then usual âuse my productâ workshops) according to the following suggested framework:
The themes brought to fore will be reflected/acted upon in 5 âdirections,â which we currently divide using a handy elemental metaphor:
- Fire: Conceptual, Strategic aspects
- Water: Relational, Emotional aspects
- Air: Technical, Linguistic, knowledge aspects
- Earth: Execution, Implementation, tactical aspects
- Quintessence Governance, Systems thinking, complexity related aspects
These will be reflected on the physical space itself as dedicated areas to discuss/develop/work each set of aspects of the problem at hand. Allowing participants to flow, float or dart according to how their intuitions, epiphanies or curiosities. In each area, theyâd find others whose moment is aligned and the tools, set and setting to dive, until compelled to move on.
Each island holds up to 4 groups of 7 in break out session mode and come together for plenary format.
(schedule a call with us for a in depth explanation of this design intuition: Calendly - The DAOist)
The âelemental arenaâ will be surrounded by unstructured social space and relaxation areas.
DAOplomats will be provided with the comfort of getting to know each other and creating together. DAOs can use this time to expand their network, knowledge and deepen relationships.
The last day will be dedicated to talks and panels sharing on the experiences had in a more traditional conference format, as we did at the first GGG.
This design hopes to account for, and engage those, who are enthralled by developing the codified rules and role structures of DAOs. Innovating or advancing the contract and interface side of governance and making technical progresses in identity, privacy, custody, NFTs etc.
All the while remaining inviting to those who focus their developments on operational, cultural, tactical issues of the quotidian lives of their DAOs and communities. It also invites contributions from those who are concerned with emergent social dynamics and the threads of relational fabric of the space. Not only within, but also between and around organizations.
Spaces like this might prove invaluable to facilitate the enlace of all of these pursuits into ever more usable governance games. We believe that we are seeing the rise of programmatic organizations that mix education, work and entertainment where âchoose your own adventureâ style experiences will become rewarding life choices. Social experiences will be more efficiently âprotocolisedâ and engagement will reflect ownership - allowing the cream to rise.
And better yet: The tech is finally here. Now itâs a matter of distribution and story.
We believe that MetaCartel is more than ideal to help us anchor some support to what is an untested social technology hackathon structure that could become a game changer.
The aim is to have it act as a scaffold that can bend and mould to serve a myriad of purposes. The vision has coalesced from attending DAO camp, DAO Palace style events and learning empirically the booms and faults of different models.
In modulating between institutional and extitutional approaches, we aim to create allowance for emergence while increasing all practitionerâs experience level, widening their networks, strengthening mindsets and possibly saving unaccountable hours of reinventing wheels.
Nature does not make leaps - weâve been led to believe that this approach is crucial for supported and intentional speciation of the decentralized governance landscape.
Please allow us to focus on developing DAOs, over becoming fantastic salespeople, advancing marketing funnels.
Validation
SOME NUMBERS OF THE DAOIST:
Our events have had over 2500 attendees on their 6 editions, while remaining niche, with extremely high context and always keeping noise to signal very high. Even having what could be called âthe most naive growth strategy in historyâ - Meaning: Weâve never tried to grow - we managed to sustain a healthy audience, received sponsorships from over 100 crypto organisations, totalling a volume of over 1.2M usd in funds, 100% used to further education and social fabric of the DAO space.
The most recent events include:
Global Governance Gathering at Devconnect 2022
The DAOist Bogota at DevCon 2023
The DAOist Paris 2023 at EthCC 2023
Progress
Event design and fundraising in progress, and venue to be secured soon. Organizations and communities signaling being collected; itâs been positive and validating. For more details, or to request sponsorsâ packages, please reach out to GGG2 organizers.
Differentiation
The DAOist events balance traditional structures and integrate new ideas. The GGG being where we aim to take the largest risks.
Novel technologies converge at The DAOist events. For example, please see a retrospective on one collaboration during the first Global Governance Gathering, where leaders from MakerDAO, Yearn Finance, Radicle and more uncovered similarities in the challenges each of their DAOs face. The DAOist GGG22: DAO Governance Design Jam â The DAOist
The second Global Governance Gathering will integrate Extitutional Theory in its event design. This novel way of organizing provides supportive unstructured space, instead of defining every moment. For more information on Extitutional Theory, please see https://medium.com/berkman-klein-center/an-introduction-to-extitutional-theory-e74b5a49ea53
Grant Requests
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Curate 6 tickets 1.6 WETH
Panel Curation and Design 3.6 WETH
Workshop on the Lifecycle of DAOs 7.8 WETH
A 15% discount has been applied.
Funds
Design, curate and facilitate a session on the Lifecycle of DAOs at GGG2, activating all the Islands and making it one of the core sessions of the event.
Design, curate and moderate a panel on a topic of the DAOâs choosing.
And, please participate throughout the event, by taking advantage of the guaranteed tickets.
Additional Resources
Community members are invited to come codesign. Website for registration will be completed soon.