Closed Pedro1703 closed 2 years ago
ErinOCon
commented
2 years ago Hi @Pedro1703, thank you for your proposal! We have reached out by email to discuss possible opportunities for the outlined project. Please feel welcome to come back to this thread as needed.
Pedro1703
commented
2 years ago Hey! Thank you. Happy to discuss those possibilities via email.
El mar, 28 jun 2022 a la(s) 16:11, ErinOCon @.***) escribió:
Closed #684 https://github.com/filecoin-project/devgrants/issues/684 as completed.
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/filecoin-project/devgrants/issues/684#event-6896624603, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANR6XJIORG37DCLXBCERWDTVRNE5HANCNFSM5ZKWNQVQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
ErinOCon
commented
2 years ago Hi @Pedro1703, thank you for your patience as we continue our review. We can consider providing grant support for a portion of your project. Would you have an interest in applying a grant towards a specific model (SMS, CMS, etc.) or, perhaps, a specific milestone?
Pedro1703
commented
2 years ago Hey! No worries. We would like to apply towards the second and third milestones if you find that feasible. Then we can continue working on the rest as we go and show progress (particularly on the 6h milestone which is critical to the business but a bit complex). Does that sound ok?
El lun, 22 ago 2022 a la(s) 20:38, ErinOCon @.***) escribió:
Hi @Pedro1703 https://github.com/Pedro1703, thank you for your patience as we continue our review. We can consider providing grant support for a portion of your project. Would you have an interest in applying a grant towards a specific model (SMS, CMS, etc.) or, perhaps, a specific milestone?
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/filecoin-project/devgrants/issues/684#issuecomment-1223330444, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANR6XJPJSZ35MGAOLK3WKOTV2QFN3ANCNFSM5ZKWNQVQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
ErinOCon
commented
2 years ago Hi @Pedro1703, thank you for the update! Since the new proposal will focus on two specific milestones, would you like to submit a new development roadmap that breaks down this work? We usually see 3 to 4 milestones in a project.
If/once completed, we can incorporate this update into our review.
Pedro1703
commented
2 years ago Yeah, that would be fine! Is it ok to edit the entry on github or should I create a different issue?
El lun, 29 ago 2022 a la(s) 12:56, ErinOCon @.***) escribió:
Hi @Pedro1703 https://github.com/Pedro1703, thank you for the update! Since the new proposal will focus on two specific milestones, would you like to submit a new development roadmap that breaks down this work? We usually see 3 to 4 milestones in a project.
If/once completed, we can incorporate this update into our review.
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/filecoin-project/devgrants/issues/684#issuecomment-1230508286, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANR6XJOELCTOGNHZPPGZOSDV3TMTXANCNFSM5ZKWNQVQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
realChainLife
commented
2 years ago Hi @Pedro1703 I've reopened the issue so you can make edits directly on this proposal. We were interested in the work outlined in M2 and would be interested in the funding the inital POC for this function / tool. Would this be feasible priority for the proposal rework you're preparing for?
Pedro1703
commented
2 years ago Hi Sonia! Thanks, yes that would be feasible. The reason why we wanted to do M2 and M3 is because M3 is central to have a more stable/scalable stack and help media operations implement M2 as easily as possible (the CMS and CRM interplay with the automated IPFS integration, mostly the Content Management System (CMS) which is the main feature media operations use to upload content to their sites), making it compatible with more libraries. M1, M4, M5 and M6 are more independent milestones and can be implemented later.
So: if it's possible, we would love to do M2 and M3. If not, M2 works fine. Let me know what you think and I´ll adjust the issue accordingly. Thanks!
El mar, 30 ago 2022 a la(s) 09:05, Sonia John @.***) escribió:
Hi @Pedro1703 https://github.com/Pedro1703 I've reopened the issue so you can make edits directly on this proposal. We were interested in the work outlined in M2 and would be interested in the funding the inital POC for this function / tool. Would this be feasible priority for the proposal rework you're preparing for?
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/filecoin-project/devgrants/issues/684#issuecomment-1231573284, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANR6XJJXOGZJH4YGLTI6M6DV3X2HBANCNFSM5ZKWNQVQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
Pedro1703
commented
2 years ago Hey! I just edited the issue to reflect our discussion here. Let me know what you think! Happy to discuss further.
El mar, 30 ago 2022 a la(s) 10:48, Pedro Copelmayer ( @.***) escribió:
Hi Sonia! Thanks, yes that would be feasible. The reason why we wanted to do M2 and M3 is because M3 is central to have a more stable/scalable stack and help media operations implement M2 as easily as possible (the CMS and CRM interplay with the automated IPFS integration, mostly the Content Management System (CMS) which is the main feature media operations use to upload content to their sites), making it compatible with more libraries. M1, M4, M5 and M6 are more independent milestones and can be implemented later.
So: if it's possible, we would love to do M2 and M3. If not, M2 works fine. Let me know what you think and I´ll adjust the issue accordingly. Thanks!
El mar, 30 ago 2022 a la(s) 09:05, Sonia John @.***) escribió:
Hi @Pedro1703 https://github.com/Pedro1703 I've reopened the issue so you can make edits directly on this proposal. We were interested in the work outlined in M2 and would be interested in the funding the inital POC for this function / tool. Would this be feasible priority for the proposal rework you're preparing for?
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/filecoin-project/devgrants/issues/684#issuecomment-1231573284, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANR6XJJXOGZJH4YGLTI6M6DV3X2HBANCNFSM5ZKWNQVQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
ErinOCon
commented
2 years ago Hi @Pedro1703, thank you for your patience with our review. We will be on the look out for the reworked proposal under the $50k budget. Please be in touch with any questions!
Pedro1703
commented
2 years ago Hi Erin! No worries. I just reworked it and reduced the scope a bit to make it under 50k. Let me know if it's ok now. Thanks!
El lun, 12 sept 2022 a la(s) 12:41, ErinOCon @.***) escribió:
Hi @Pedro1703 https://github.com/Pedro1703, thank you for your patience with our review. We will be on the look out for the reworked proposal under the $50k budget. Please be in touch with any questions!
— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/filecoin-project/devgrants/issues/684#issuecomment-1243928234, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ANR6XJOKBTGF5VSIVMIE2F3V55FJPANCNFSM5ZKWNQVQ . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: @.***>
ErinOCon
commented
2 years ago Hi @Pedro1703 , thank you for the reworked proposal! This grant has been approved. We will send an email to discuss next steps.
Open Grant Proposal: Futuria Core Development
*Name of Project: Futuria*
Proposal Category: app-dev
Proposer: Pedro 1703
Do you agree to open source all work you do on behalf of this RFP and dual-license under MIT, APACHE2, or GPL licenses?: Yes
Project Description
Futuria is a DAO to accelerate and provide open-source tech infrastructure to independent media companies. Our tech arm, Utopia, is already developed and being used by la diaria, an uruguayan media company with 1.5 million unique monthly visitors. We aim to implement IPFS as storage to Utopia’s stack and make our first implementation of that with sitiosdememoria.uy
We plan to apply to use this grant to continue improving our tool and onboarding companies that already showed explicit interest in working with us, like: El Confidencial (from Nicaragua), La Silla Vacía (from Colombia) and Conexión Migrante (from México).
There are different solutions, at least in Latam, our main area of influence, to the different pain points but none that fulfills all three. There are some investors who provide capital to these companies (Maria, core team member, worked for one of the biggest) but the available funds are low, the process is bureaucratic and the competition to get them is high. Regarding tech, there is ARC, a media tech stack that Jeff Bezos spun off from The Washington Post, but it starts at a really high price point and is not flexible enough to attend to the needs of most media operations. Regarding consulting and business model building there are some alternatives like Sembra Media (https://www.sembramedia.org/), but without capital and tech infrastructure their advice is often hard to bring to practice.
We aim to create a single hub that supercharges all media operations that get accelerated by it, providing a small investment (for equity in the media operations), a mentorship program to build a sustainable, community based business model and Utopia (https://github.com/ladiaria/), our fully open-source tech stack that has everything you need to run a successful digital media operation.
We are currently using IPFS for storage within our MVP implementation with sitiosdememoria.uy, and want to implement NFTs for articles and crypto micropayments within our tech tool. We plan to continue using IPFS with our media partners, particularly in the countries that are facing strong censorship pressure (like our implementation in Nicaragua, for example).
Value
Benefits
We believe that is deeply important (particularly in this bear market) to continue iterating and developing on what actual, real life problems can web3 technologies play a part in solving, and we believe to have found in Protocol Labs (and IPFS in particular) an ideal tool to help solve the problem of censorship and single-point-of-failure systems in journalism.
We are confident that supporting Futuria will benefit the broader Filecoin ecosystem, since Futuria is concieved as a public good (it has been open source since inception and it will continue to be that way) and it will attract new users to crypto in non financial use cases.
There has been a lot of interest in our solution, by the media operations named above and other players, like SuperDesk, an open-source digital newsroom software used in 4 continents by over 80 million readers per month. Here is proof of their intent of integrating our solution:
And here is an article that SuperDesk’s leader, Sava, wrote about open-source software in media. We find this relevant because there are not only strategic reasons to pursue this partnership but also a philosophical coincidence on what role solutions like ours need to play in the world.
We believe that the Protocol Labs team, and the broader Filecoin ecosystem, are the partner we need to be able to unlock this potential.
Risks
We do not see major technological risks in the project. The team that developed phase one of Utopia has a deep knowledge of the programming language and has demonstrated great effectiveness in the execution of the original roadmap and our new core team has started doing our first web3 implementations with success.
With that said, we believe there are possible risks, particularly in relation to the process of technological transfer of the platform to other media companies in the region, the greatest being that these companies will not be able to successfully transition to the new model during the time it will take to build the platform and implement it. In order to reduce this vulnerability, we will try to work on a case-by-case basis to detect where the main shortcomings are at the initial stage in order to determine what should be the priorities for the integration of the different modules (including the IPFS one and crypto micropayments in a pay-per-article model).
In this sense, it is essential to generate strong bonds of trust and fluid communication between the participating organizations, so that the project is not limited only to technology transfer and to work on experiences and learning in a collaborative manner. la diaria’s trust and recognition in the region goes a long way to establish that.
An inherent risk in any technological transformation is the need to accompany the process of technology incorporation by the people who make up the organization. Two actions are proposed to mitigate this risk:
Deliverables
Development Roadmap
First milestone: Implement IPFS automation module so that our media partners can one-click activate IPFS integration and automatically back every article they publish in a decentralized way, giving it more robustness against censorship attempts and guaranteeing availability to information. Estimated execution time: 2 months. Cost: USD 19,000
Second milestone: Upgrade the CMS to the latest LTS version of Django (currently 3.2): This will allow us a better compatibility with other libraries and will expand our development capacity with the new tools provided by this version. This is a key aspect in making our CMS (the main component that media companies use within our stack to publish data -articles, pictures, etc- to their sites and their backups) easier to work with and therefore making M1 onboarding easier. Estimated execution time: 3 months. Cost: USD 28,000
Total Budget: USD 47.000
Maintainment plans
Currently we have a bottleneck due to a lack of resources that has allowed us to maintain our software, but not to upgrade it to its full extent and onboard the mentioned media partners that have shown interest in our products. With this fund, we want to bring our product to an upgraded version and then maintain it (and keep it fully open source, like it has been since inception in 2019) with our core dev team that is already in place. We fully commit to maintain the software going forward as we have done in the last three years.
Team
Team Members
Evan Henshaw Plath, CTO/Tech advisor, anarchogeek@gmail.com
Evan was the 1st Employee at Odeo (founder of Twitter), introduced oAuth to Yahoo and was a researcher at MIT Media Lab. He co-founded and built neo.com consultancy and is the founder and CEO of planetary.social. He was VP of Engineering for YC backed crypto security startup Quantstamp. Evan helped found and grow the Indymedia network, an independent and alternative group of media activists
Pedro Copelmayer, project coordinator; pedrocopelmayer@gmail.com
Pedro is a writer and entrepreneur. He is the first specialized crypto columnist in Uruguay and published his own fiction book. Apart from dabbling into crypto since 2017 and being a core team member in OpenAccessDAO he is a partner in BroLi, a bootstrapped social bookstore that has donated over 2700 books to dozens of public schools without libraries.
Lisandro Acuña, full stack developer; lisandroeliasa@gmail.com
Lichu is an 18 year old argentinian developer. He achieved many distinctions both in math and computer science olympiads. Among the many technological projects he did, the one that has transcended the most is LectO, a free text editor that makes reading and writing easier for more than ten thousand people with dyslexia worldwide. He recently received a full ride scholarship to Stanford.
Gonzalo Díaz de Vivar, full stack developer; lisandroeliasa@gmail.com
Gonzalo is a full stack developer with experience taking initiative and starting his own projects. He co-founded LectO with Lichu and also created RUIDEA (Unique Iberoamerican Registry for People With Learning Disabilities), allowing them to carry with them a digital passport validated by several governments and organizations.
Maria Catalina Colmenares, lead media investor; [Mariacatalinacolmenares@gmail.com] (mailto:Mariacatalinacolmenares@gmail.com)
María has more than 15 years of experience in media management and investment analysis. During eight years she worked at Media Development Investment Fund as an investment analyst and Director of their LatAm division.
Damián Osta; la diaria’s founder and Head of Innovation; odamian@gmail.com
Damián is an entrepreneur in the media business. He co-founded and was the CEO of la diaria for fifteen years. He is the current Head of Innovation and Product.
Agustina Perez Comenale, legal advisor, head of legal for Binance in Latam; aperez@olivera.com.uy
Agustina is a legal expert, right now advising Binance in its LatAm expansion. She´s a professor of LegalTech at the University of Montevideo, a co-organizer of the LegalTech Summit and a member of the Chamber of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence at the Catholic University of Córdoba.
Team Member LinkedIn Profiles
Evan Henshaw Plath - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabble/ Pedro Copelmayer - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedro-c-85b332142/ Lisandro Acuña - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisandroea/ Gonzalo Díaz de Vivar - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gonzaddv/ Maria Catalina Colmenares - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-c-colmenares-wiss/ Damián Osta - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dami%C3%A1n-osta-mattos-b5aa6624/ Agustina Pérez Comenale - https://www.linkedin.com/in/agustina-perez-comenale-452b8a4a/
Team Website
This is the website of Futuria: https://futuria.media/ This is the website of la diaria (the media operation that incubated it): https://ladiaria.com.uy/
Relevant Experience
Simply put: we’ve walked the walk. Our team created and developed la diaria, one of the biggest media operations in Uruguay, for the last sixteen years, driving it to 3 million dollars in yearly revenue with a sustainable business model that is almost entirely (91%, to be exact) subscription based. It’s also one of the only major media publications in LatAm that is a worker-owned cooperative. Summoned by la diaria, our fully doxxed team comprises a wide range of high achievers from various backgrounds ranging from developers and legal experts to people with years of experience in journalism and investing.
Team code repositories
This is Utopia’s Github: https://github.com/ladiaria/ This was our IPFS implementation: https://github.com/LichuAcu/ipfs-sitios-de-la-memoria
Additional Information
We recently applied and won a Next Step Microgrant (Jonathan from BD at Protocol recommended that we should apply) and that encouraged us to apply to an Open Grant to scale our solution.
The best email to follow up is pedrocopelmayer@gmail.com
As stated, we recently won a Microgrant titled "Futuria DAO" in which we develop our first MVP implementation of IPFS into an independent media operation, in this case sitiosdememoria.uy, an archive made by volunteers that consists of the official documents from the uruguayan dictatorship (1973-1985, in an effort that was made to digitize the documents and make them uncensorable and unalterable, and that effort was taking one notch forward by making it truly uncensorable an decentralized when we implemented our IPFS integration. This is a link referring to a document from Sitios De Memoria that was backed in IPFS with our integration: https://sitiosdememoria.uy/prensa/3978
We are preparing an audiovisual campaign to present this initiative with the agency Innvented (http://innvented.uy/)
In our Microgrant, approved 17/5, we stated: "We plan to apply to further grants to continue improving our tool and onboarding companies that already showed explicit interest in working with us, like: El Confidencial (from Nicaragua), La Silla Vacía (from Colombia) and Conexión Migrante (from México)." It is now time to get our tool prepared to start onboarding these operations, and more, and we believe we will have a great impact in showing web3 possibilities in journalism and the role of Protocol Labs in writing that journey with us.