[V2] Cohort Application Page

[rajarshimaitra]

Each Cohort should have an Apply button which takes to the Cohort Application page. We can use one generic application template for all the cohorts.

The application submission would be a bit more elaborate.

• The application data needs to be stored in a DB. If we can use a google sheet, that will be operationally optimum. No need more very complex self hosted dbs.

• After submission of the form, the applicant will get an unique token. This token will be used while joining our discord to give applicant the right roles for right cohort groups. (in future we can have multiple cohorts running parallel)

• We are developing a discord bot here https://github.com/Bitshala/discord-bot. This bot will handle the token registration and roles assignment. @emjshrx and @keraliss, you guys will need to sit with Bit-aloo and Basanta once to get the requirements streamlined from the webdev and botdev sides.

[paperpsych]

@rajarshimaitra @setusaurabh Here is the layout for the registration form on each cohort page:

---

The fields we currently have are:

1. Name / Pseudonym
2. Email
3. Which year did you come to Bitcoin?
4. Have you read ‘Mastering Bitcoin’?
5. Please describe your professional or academic background?*
6. Why do you think Bitcoin is important?*
7. How much time can you allocate to the cohort per week?
8. Why do you want to join the [name] cohort?
9. What do you hope to achieve by joining the [name] cohort?*
10. What is the difference between Bitcoin and Crypto?*

I like them, they're good to go...and just for my heart's satisfaction I'd like to suggest some more questions.

Why I want there to be more questions is because...

we previously discussed that our ultimate goal and the metric by which our investors are assessing our worth is by 'how many new FOSS contributors can we add to the ecosystem.' Achieving this requires not just getting more participants but ensuring we engage deeply with the right individuals who have the potential and commitment to contribute to FOSS development.

We do not yet have a clear answer of who the "right people" are because (as you mentioned) it depends on particular people and it's too diversified etc. for us to be able to pin point at certain type of person and say "You are worthy of being a Bitcoin FOSS Dev"

And thus here are the fields with added questions and a new order...

1. Name / Pseudonym*
2. Email*
3. Please describe your professional or academic background.*
4. What year did you first get involved with Bitcoin?*
5. Tell us about your Bitcoin journey... How did it start, and how has your involvement evolved over time?*
6. What is the difference between Bitcoin and Crypto?*
7. Have you read ‘Mastering Bitcoin’? (With potential follow-up)
8. List any significant books, courses, or resources related to Bitcoin that have influenced your understanding.*
9. In your view, why is Bitcoin important for the future?*
10. Why do you want to join the [name] cohort?
11. What do you hope to achieve by joining the [name] cohort?*
12. How many hours per week are you willing to dedicate to this cohort?*
13. Share a challenge you've encountered in your Bitcoin journey and how you addressed it. What did you learn?

By refining our application process to include these targeted questions, we can more accurately identify and nurture these individuals by gaining insights in the beginning about their commitment, dedication, and journey.

This approach not only aligns with our strategic goals but also ensures our resources are invested in those most likely to make a lasting impact in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Additionally, the insights gained will enable us to continuously refine our outreach/marketing and selection processes, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement and more effective contribution to the FOSS landscape.

---

Some additional details... we will mention with the form that it might take about 20-30 mins to fill. We will leave some important questions (like q.5, 10, 13) to be not mandatory to see if an individual would answer it on their own, great insight about whether they are truly passionate about being here or not.

So yeah, hope all of this helps!

[setusaurabh]

Good suggestion. Since we would be creating a alumni page. References here

• https://fantastic-bandana-d1a.notion.site/05d759211f2245818cedc226f06a6e89?v=1a640688e80b4bf3b6b83d64c6c31499
• https://www.summerofbitcoin.org/alumni

Would wish to avoid asking them an info again that we can have here, even though we should ideally keep the form as limited as possible.

Based on above, my suggestion for list of questions:

(About the participant)

1. Name / Pseudonym*
2. Email*
3. Location
4. How would you describe yourself?
5. Please select list of skills? (multi-select amongst full-stack, front-end, back-end, dev ops, UI/UX design, prompt engineering, Rust, Python, C++, Golang, Graphic Design, Video Editing, Product Management, Accounting, Law, Sales, Business Operations, Others)
6. Please select books/resources that you have gone through?* (multi-select amongst Mastering Bitcoin, Mastering Lightning Network, BPD, LPD, Learning Bitcoin through Command Line, Programming Bitcoin, The Bitcoin Standard, Sovereign Individual, The Broken Money, The Blocksize War, Others)
7. Portfolio/Github/Side-project link:

(About the cohort)

8. Why is Bitcoin important to you?*
9. How many hours per week are you willing to dedicate for this cohort?* (single select)
10. What do you hope to achieve through this Cohort?*

[paperpsych]

Thanks for your thoughts @setusaurabh ! You're advocating for efficiency and I see the value in ensuring we respect applicants' time. Simultaneously, I'm focusing on the depth and insight necessary to identify the key characteristics of potential Bitcoin FOSS Devs. Ultimately, we're aiming to pick the best folks for Bitcoin FOSS, right? How will we identify them if we do not have data on what they look like?

You mentioned: "Would wish to avoid asking them an info again that we can have here, even though we should ideally keep the form as limited as possible." - I'm slightly confused, from what's available on the notion page, the answers or details don't dive into the person's motivation, story, and commitment... The alumni page, I guess, is not supposed to have those because the insightful data is for us to have and play around with.

And yes, ideally, the form should be short and sweet... In our case, applicants who take the time to provide thoughtful answers are demonstrating a level of commitment and engagement that is invaluable for the kind of immersive, growth-oriented mindset needed to be a Bitcoin FOSS Dev. This stuff is super important for us to know right in the beginning.

I like the new questions you added – they're smart and to the point. How about we mix our ideas? Keep it simple but also ask a few deeper questions. This way, we get the best of both worlds: we don't make signing up a pain, but we still get to see what's special about each person (and identify common patterns.)

About the Participant

1. Name / Pseudonym

2. Email

3. Location

4. How would you describe yourself and your interest in Bitcoin? Combines a personal introduction with their Bitcoin journey to provide a quick look into the applicant’s background and passion for Bitcoin.

5. What year did you first get involved with Bitcoin? Helps us understand if applicant has stuck through the ups and downs of being in the Bitcoin space or if they're simply new.

6. Please select your skills (Select all that apply) Includes technical skills and expands to include areas like community building, education, or other non-technical skills.

7. Portfolio/Github/Side-project link: For showcasing practical experience and contributions.

About Their Bitcoin Journey and Skills

8. List any significant books, courses, or resources related to Bitcoin that have influenced your understanding (Select all that apply) Gives insight into their self-education efforts and depth of knowledge.

9. Describe a challenge you've faced in your Bitcoin journey and how you addressed it Insights into problem-solving skills, resilience, and engagement with Bitcoin.

10. What is the difference between Bitcoin and crypto to you? Assesses understanding of Bitcoin’s unique value proposition and technical specifics.

About the Cohort

11. Why is Bitcoin important to you?

12. How many hours per week are you willing to dedicate to this cohort?

13. What do you hope to achieve through this Cohort? Understand their goals and aligns expectations with cohort offerings.

14. Why do you want to join the [name] cohort? Provides insight into their motivation for applying and what they expect from the community.

With these fields, we quickly get the basics but also dive a bit deeper where it counts (capturing the essence of what makes each applicant unique, their technical and non-technical skills, their journey and understanding of Bitcoin, and their expectations from the cohort.)

Let me know your thoughts or if there are any areas you'd like to adjust.

[setusaurabh]

Questions are repeating in this case. Q.4 and 11. Q. 13 and 14.

I am still keen to keep the list of questions short, and form as simple as possible. Those who drop out will drop out anyways, except for something that bounds them to keep their promise for eg how many hours will they be able to dedicate for the cohort.

Bitcoin vs crypto can also be left out now that we have shaped the community to be Bitcoiners only. At this point more and more folks have bought that crypto is scam. Besides Even if they have some crypto bent of mind, our community will shape them.

I wish to be as economical with the questions as possible. Every marginal question should have a lot of value for us, because it's costlier for participants to fill.

[paperpsych]

I agree that Q.4 and 11 can be rephrased, they seem similar and Q.13 & 14 are indeed repetitions.

Clearly, our approach about the form are different... I'd like to know 03 things to better understand your approach:

Collecting Data: "If we keep the form really short, how will we learn about the people who want to join our cohort before they start? We want to know who they are right now, not after they've finished the cohort. This info is super important for us to make our marketing/targeting better and find more people like them. What's your plan for getting this info if not from the application?"

Experimenting for Answers: "We were told we need to try new things to figure out who's the best fit for becoming a Bitcoin FOSS dev since there's no clear answer yet. If we stick to the usual way of doing forms, are we really trying new things? Doesn't the old way focus more on getting lots of people instead of making sure we get the right kind of people?"

Balancing Depth and Brevity: "You want to keep the form short, which I get is important for not scaring people away. But if we don't ask enough questions, how can we make sure we're inviting people who are really into Bitcoin and not just anyone? Is there a way we can ask smart questions that don't take too long to answer but still tell us a lot?"

[theanmolsharma]

I was chatting with @paperpsych earlier today and figured out a way to do both (collect data and keep the application form super simple on the website).

Overview of the discussion:

• The form on the website should collect basic info and not introduce friction in the application.
• We need to start collecting data on applicants to better our outreach in targeting and marketing.
• The data collected can also help in filtering the candidates later.

The proposed plan:

• Send a welcome email to all candidates in the format attached below.
• The email contains the following:
  • A text welcoming the candidate and explaining the context of the emails. Something like "Welcome to Bitshala, to get to know you better and complete your application, we want you to go through the linked video and answer some questions about yourself in the form attached below."
  • Link a video about the philosophy of Bitcoin or something that clearly differentiates between Bitcoin and shitcoins.
  • Link to the form with detailed questions for in-depth data collection.
  • Discord invite link
• The email should be well-templated/designed and we should probably use Typeform (one of the best solutions for forms)
• Video is to encourage participants to learn about Bitcoin before dropping into Discord.
• We should add a question in the form about the video. Something like "What's the one lesson you learned from the video?"
• Since the discord link is already in the email, people can still hop in, but for cohort, I think we should make the form mandatory.

Todo:

• Figure out what questions need to go on the website and which ones go in the email.
• Figure out which video to link.
• Design email template.

Email layout

[setusaurabh]

Aligned with this approach.

Not to be nitpicky - but a minor suggestion - There could be a link to Bitshala Discord in "Welcome to Bitshala" section in mail

[theanmolsharma]

Not to be nitpicky - but a minor suggestion - There could be a link to Bitshala Discord in "Welcome to Bitshala" section in mail

The reason for not adding it there is to force applicants to read the mail and then join Discord. If we add it to the top, they might join immediately and not read the full email.

[setusaurabh]

Here's the older welcome email that we used to send

Hello Tinkerers,

Welcome to BitShala’s first “[Programming Bitcoin](https://github.com/jimmysong/programmingbitcoin)” Study Cohort. We're thrilled to have you onboard for this 8-week technical course that will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of Bitcoin.

At the end of the program, you'll receive a completion certificate as proof of your achievement.

Key details about the program:

Introductory Session: Friday, October 27, 2023

First Group Discussion Session: Friday, November 03, 2023, at 8:00 PM IST

Weekly Sessions: Every Friday, 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM IST

Weekly Exercise Submission: Due by 12:00 PM IST on Sundays

Program structure overview:

Introductory Session: [Join us](https://meet.jit.si/BitShalaPBCohort) on Friday, October 27, at 8:00 PM IST, for an exciting presentation by Adi Shankar, founder of Summer of Bitcoin 🔥.

Group Discussion Sessions: Each week, you'll be assigned chapters and exercises from “[Programming Bitcoin](https://github.com/jimmysong/programmingbitcoin)”. Participate in the group discussion calls on Fridays to discuss the [assigned questions](https://github.com/Bitshala/pb-cohort) and actively engage with fellow participants. 

Exercise Submission: After group discussion and clarification of doubts, submit your exercises by Sunday.

During this 8 week self-study cohort, your active engagement and willingness to ask questions are crucial for your success. The more proactive you are, the more you'll benefit.

Please complete the following action items before the program begins on Friday, October 27:

Join [BitShala Discord](https://discord.gg/8rNUEPeu4J): Say Hi in the #intro channel. Share your brief background, previous development experience, journey into Bitcoin, and expectations from the study cohort.

Access to PB-COHORT section in Discord: Once you introduce, our admins will add you to  the private PB-COHORT section.

Bitcoin Preparation: If you haven’t interacted with Bitcoin software, please brush up [Mastering Bitcoin](https://github.com/bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook) and Python Tutorials to become comfortable before the course.

Optional Preparatory Step: You will be operating a bitcoin node & Python code locally during the study cohort. You may get started by [setting it up](https://github.com/jimmysong/programmingbitcoin#license).

For any kind of problem regarding discord server and onboarding, feel free to reach out to any of the admins on [Discord](https://discord.gg/8rNUEPeu4J).

We're excited to embark on this learning journey with you and look forward to getting to know you better!

It would be great to merge this with the discord joining instructions - will share the index.html for discord joining instructions in the comment @theanmolsharma

[setusaurabh]

Here's the discord joining instructions' index.html file

<!doctype html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Welcome to the Cohort</title>
        <style type="text/css">
            body {
                font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
                background-color: #f4f4f4;
                margin: 0;
                padding: 0;
            }
            .container {
                background-color: #ffffff;
                margin: 20px auto;
                padding: 20px;
                max-width: 600px;
                border: 1px solid #dddddd;
                text-align: center;
            }
            .button {
                display: inline-block;
                padding: 10px 20px;
                margin-top: 5px;
                background-color: #7289da;
                color: #ffffff;
                text-decoration: none;
                border-radius: 5px;
            }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="container">
            <h1>Congratulations ` + `${doc.name},` + `on Joining the "Cohort Name" Cohort!</h1> <!-- Use the Cohort name variable-->
            <p>
                Welcome! We're thrilled to have you onboard. Come hangout with other Bitcoiners and Developers in Bitshala Discord.
            </p>
            <p>
                To get started, follow the instructions:
            </p>
            <p>
                Join our Discord and use the command <strong>/register `${doc.token}` </strong> to join "cohort name" channels. <!-- Use the Cohort name variable-->
            </p>
            <p>
                Give a brief introduction in the <strong>intro</strong> channel.
            </p>
            <p>
                Stay tuned in the Discord for further updates.
            </p>
            <a href="https://discord.gg/w6Fb4r4z" class="button"
                >Join Our Discord Server</a
            >
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

[keraliss]

This is the updated one :

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Welcome to the Cohort</title>
    <style type="text/css">
      body {
        font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
        background-color: #f4f4f4;
        margin: 0;
        padding: 0;
        font-size: 17px;
      }
      .container {
        background-color: #ffffff;
        margin: 20px auto;
        padding: 20px;
        max-width: 600px;
        border: 1px solid #dddddd;
        text-align: center;
      }
      .description {
        margin-top: 10px;
        line-height: 1.5;
      }
      a{
        text-decoration: none;
        color: black;
        display: inline-block;
        padding: 10px 20px;
        margin-top: 5px;
        margin-bottom: 5px;
        background-color: #7289da;
        color: #ffffff;
        text-decoration: none;
        border-radius: 5px;
      }
      .button {
        display: inline-block;
        padding: 10px 20px;
        margin-top: 5px;
        background-color: #7289da;
        color: #ffffff;
        text-decoration: none;
        border-radius: 5px;
      }

    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container">
      <h1>
        Congratulations ` + `${doc.name}, ` + `on Joining the "Cohort Name"
        Cohort!
      </h1>
      <!-- Use the Cohort name variable-->
      <p class="description">
        Welcome! We're thrilled to have you onboard. Come hangout with other
        Bitcoiners and Developers in Bitshala Discord.
      </p>
      <p>
        To get started, follow the instructions:
      </p>
      <p>
        Join our
        <a href="https://discord.gg/w6Fb4r4z" target="_blank"
          ><strong>Discord</strong></a
        >
        Server
        </p>
        <p>
    After joining use the command <strong>/register </strong> followed by
        <strong>`${doc.token}`</strong>. This adds you to the
        <strong>"cohort name"</strong>
        channels.
        <!-- Use the Cohort name variable-->
      </p>
      <p>Give a brief introduction in the <strong>#intro</strong> channel.</p>
      <p>
        Stay tuned in the Discord
        <!-- <a href="https://discord.gg/w6Fb4r4z" target="_blank"
          ><strong></strong></a
        > -->
        for further updates.
      </p>
      <!-- <a href="https://discord.gg/w6Fb4r4z" class="button"
        >Join Our Discord Server</a>  -->
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

[theanmolsharma]

Updated email template for discord invite email

<!doctype html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>Welcome to the Cohort</title>
        <style type="text/css">
            body {
                font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif;
                background-color: #fff2de;
                margin: 0;
                padding: 0;
            }
            .container {
                background-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);
                color: #ffffff; 
                margin: 20px auto;
                padding: 40px;
                max-width: 600px;
                border-radius: 8px;
                text-align: center;
            }
            span, strong {
                color: rgb(250, 136, 22);
            }
            p {
                font-size: 16px;
                line-height: 1.6;
            }
            .button {
                display: inline-block;
                padding: 12px 25px;
                margin-top: 20px;
                background-color: #ffffff;
                color: rgb(51, 51, 51);
                text-decoration: none;
                border-radius: 5px;
                font-weight: bold;
                transition: background-color 0.15s ease, color 0.15s ease;
            }
            .button:hover {
                background-color: rgb(250, 136, 22);
                color: #ffffff;
            }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="container">
            <h1>Congratulations <span><%= it.name %></span> on Joining the <span>"<%= it.cohort %>"</span> Cohort!</h1>
            <p>
                Welcome! We're thrilled to have you onboard. Come hangout with other Bitcoiners and Developers in Bitshala Discord.
            </p>
            <p>
                To get started, follow the instructions:
            </p>
            <p>
                Join our Discord and use the command <strong>/register <%= it.token %></strong> to join "cohort name" channels.
            </p>
            <p>
                Give a brief introduction in the <strong>intro</strong> channel.
            </p>
            <p>
                Stay tuned in the Discord for further updates.
            </p>
            <a href="https://discord.gg/w6Fb4r4z" class="button">Join Our Discord Server</a>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>