Discussion App request for funding

[alexsicart]

Request for Nest membership and funding (#49)

"Better communication tools for effective governance"

Team name: Agora Team (Aragon Agora)

Burn rate: $15k / month for 5 months in ETH. Success reward $50k in ANT.

Legal structure: NA / Aragon DAO

Team and roadmap

Abstract

Agora is an AragonOS app where members of a DAO can start discussions where opinions and expectations are expressed. Whether it's used to discuss a specific issue or a more broad aspect of governance, Agora can help turn people into active participants in the decision making process.

Our intent is to build a discussion platform focused on creating a healthy decision making process.

• Effective Communication.
• Open dialogue and Debate.
• Token Holders —> Active Participants.
• Inclusive, Respectful and public space.
• Secure, Private and Open.

With these goals in mind, we've been thinking about platforms like Stack Overflow as sources of inspiration: design-wise and from the moderation PoV as well. Looking at the model proposed by @luisivan, we can easily imagine a merge between the two concepts in the AragonOS environment.

The basic version of the discussion app would include:

• A system to start and participate in discussions available through the Aragon Dashboard.

• Discussion access segmented by:

  • Workgroups.
  • Roles in the DAO.
  • Token posession.

• Discussion time frame.

• Discussion is closed when:

  • Countdown is over.
  • A given % of ANT holders have reached quorum.

• Upvoting & Downvoting comments and / or solutions.

• Actionable Result: Forwarding of the final proposal to the voting app where a decision must be done.

The last item of the list is the most actionable and material result of the discussion workflow. The aforementioned social advantages (such as the involvement of the community in an open dialogue) also take place, but after the discussion is closed, the final decision is forwarded to the voting app.

Details

This diagram represents the workflow of the Agora app from the creation of a discussion thread to the decision forwarding.

Design / User experience and Workflow

Creating or joining a discussion gives users a space to debate the proposal. Once more than a given % of ANT holders have reached a quorum, or time has run out, the decision is forwarded to the voting app.

The user who creates a discussion decides on what issue must be discussed and sets a time limit and a minimum number of members in the assembly.

Once the discussion has started, opinions and expectations are expressed in an inclusive, respectful and public space until quorum has been reached and the decision is forwarded to the voting app.

Team

Alex — Product Lead (Front-end, design and product)

Alex was the project lead and cofounder of FileNation: An open source platform to send your files around the world using IPFS. He is a Forbes 30 Under 30. Creator of Sharge and a full stack developer.

Commitment: Full-time

Socials: Github Twitter

Pol — Tech Lead (Full Stack Developer)

Pol was the tech lead and cofounder of FileNation: An open source platform to send your files around the world using IPFS. Winnner of the HackUPC Everis prize with the creation of a decentralized blogging service using IPFS. Data Science and engineering student.

Commitment: Full-time

Socials: Github Twitter

Oscar — Lead Smart Contract developer

Oscar was the winnner of the HackUPC Fall 2017 Everis prize with the creation of a decentralized blogging service using IPFS. Data science and engineering student.

Commitment: Full-time

Socials: Github Twitter

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[mariapao]

Hi @alexsicart thank you for submitting the application. Great communication tools is something needed in the space in general. Do you guys have a PoC we can look at?

Also, can you explain a little bit the relation between a discussion and a specific quorum? As I understand it this is an platform for open and informal discussion that could support a specific decision making process happening in parallel.

[alexsicart]

Hey @mariapao :) right now we have designed the user experience of what will be the aragonOS-compatible application called 'Discussion' built with React, Aragon UI, and Semantic UI. We have followed each tutorial on https://hack.aragon.org/ to implement our front-end code as a an aragonOS app. But first, we want to test the user experience with the design.

Users can discuss a given subject and express their opinions openly. Once a user has made a decision, he can cast a preliminary vote. When enough preliminary votes are cast, the decision is forwarded to the voting app for the final vote. This allows users to preview how the vote will go before sending the decision to the voting app.

[PolBaladas]

Hi there! To add to the discussion here: while the preliminary vote is a valid and probably meaningful option, we are open-minded to other consesus-reaching mechanisms.

The main idea is to find a set of mechanisms that help us decide whether the subject of discussion is "ready" to be forwarded to the voting app (if it has been discussed enough).

These mechanisms could range:

• From using discussion metadata such as number of token holders actively engaging in the discussion, positivity indexes, "likes" ...
• To waiting for the auth of whoever started the discussion

(from automatic means to more human-actionable mechanisms)

These decisions will define the discussion platform either as a more informal, relaxed one or a more restricted/automated "formal" one.

This is why we think that is more important to focus on design, user experience, and deciding which one of these mechanisms will be the best. This decision is not solely ours, for it will define and shape the way discussion happens in the Aragon Platform. That's why we need your help to define these concepts from a more philosophical PoV.

The tech is already proven 😊 In this stage, we want to focus on finding the mechanisms, user experience and philosophy that are best to create what the Aragon community needs.

Cheers!

[OCA99]

Hey! What we've written in the application is what we've been working on so far, but we're open to suggestions and we're looking forward to working with the community to come up with the best solution. We are focused on the design right now since, as @PolBaladas said, the technology is already at our disposal.

[mariapao]

Hi @alexsicart @PolBaladas @Ocuatrec Thanks for explaining a bit more the reasoning behind the quorum.

Regarding the PoC, even though we totally agree with the fact that UX and UI is key here, we need to be able to assess if a team will be able to deliver the relevant tool. We can't based that assessment on an idea or the philosophical side of that idea. Therefore, we would like to have a PoC in order to be able to decide on approving this request for funding. Thanks!

[izqui]

Can you provide more details about the technical architecture of the app? Where is the discussion data going to be stored?

As @mariapao says, while we love the idea and we absolutely think something like this would provide a lot of value, it is hard to assess the technical viability of the project right now with the information provided.

[alexsicart]

Thanks, @mariapao @izqui :) we are working to provide all the details about the technical architecture of the app and a PoC in order to show the technical viability.

[mariapao]

Hi @alexsicart - It has been two month since we requested the PoC and more details about the technical architecture of the app. I don’t know if you guys are still working on this application. Therefore, I will close it for the moment and when you are ready feel free to apply again.