Ideation Pod

Abridged: Full version in the discussion link below.

The Ideation Pod will serve as Cabin’s rapid prototyping lab - a space where contributors can quickly test and develop new initiatives that advance our mission of building a network city. While Cabin Labs focuses on major strategic initiatives, the Ideation Pod empowers our community to explore multiple paths forward through small, focused experiments.

Stewards: Dahveed, Katya, Savannah Sponsor: Kathi

Objectives The Ideation Pod:

Gives voice to members who feel disengaged and want to contribute Creating paths to long-term, compensated contributor roles (pending DAO approval)

Enables rapid prototyping of new initiatives within reasonable budgets Fostering collaboration and play between people who want to build together (yay, teamwork!!)

The Ideation Pod will run for 3 months to begin with, providing monthly progress reports to the wider DAO. At the end of the first 3 months, the pod’s Stewards will make a proposal to the DAO for a longer run with more funding.

How it Works

Incubation Period (1 month)

Any active initiative that wants to be part of this pod is welcome (based on Steward capacity) Individuals or teams join the pod, design their experiments, set clear milestones, and recruit co-conspirators if needed Pod Stewards provide guidance and support Basic expenses are covered to run the experiment CABIN tokens are awarded by a DAO vote at month-end based on progress If team needs more time, they can request another month of incubation (based on Steward capacity) DAO Proposal If a team decides to move on, they create a DAO proposal for a 3-month funded trial of their work

They include clear KPIs and modest funding needs Pod Stewards will help refine the pitch to the DAO Trial Period (3 months) If their proposal is approved, they’ll get to work, providing regular updates to the DAO. At the end of this trial period, they can apply to the DAO for a longer run (e.g. 1 year).

Example: Let’s use Events at Conferences as an example. Assume that Savannah and Dahveed take it on starting on December 15th and - in one month - prepare a plan for ETH Denver. They would then present a proposal for an Events Guild to the DAO, with the 3-month goal of successfully running our planned events at ETH Denver, and with a reasonable budget for those events. In 3 months, ETH Denver would be over and a post-mortem presented to the DAO with a request for expanded duration, goals, and funding for the Events Guild.

Who are the Stewards?

Dahveed A neighborhood steward in Haifa, Israel, I have an MS in Marketing with over 14 years of experience, including 7 in crypto (where for the past 3 years I’ve focused on DAOs and host 2 Twitter spaces on them). Having written sketch comedy for over a decade, I am known for storytelling and generating ideas. I’ve been bringing people together and building communities for decades in Philadelphia, NYC, Chiang Mai, Haifa, and beyond. I am already working on several of the ideas proposed below together with other Cabin members. After all those years working in crypto and DAOs, Cabin is the first project where I see myself forever. This is something I want to dedicate my life to because of how important community building is to me, how much better we can make our communities (including my own) via DAOs and other governance principles people bring to Cabin, and how awesome the people I’ve gotten to know in Cabin over the past 7 months are. I don’t think of the Ideation Pod or Cabin DAO as a job in any traditional sense, but this really does feel like my dream job with my dream people.

Katya I’m a creative director with a curious mix of marketing experience and design sensibility. I’m passionate about crafting spaces and stories that inspire connection and wonder. As a 2023 creative resident at Cabin’s Neighborhood Zero, I got to experience the alchemy that happens when art, community, and purpose meet in the same room—or the same DAO…it’s catalyzing and magical. I’ve spent most of the last year being a bit of a creative gypsy alongside a traveling artists collective, where I’ve learned that co-creation is like taking the scenic route to true community.

I’m fascinated by creating experiences that tickle the brain and warm the heart. This initiative feels like fertile ground for that. Cabin’s played an influential role in my growth as an individual and I would be delighted to co-steward alongside Dahveed and Savannah. My Cabin profile.

Savannah Since I got involved in Cabin back in the Fall of 2023, I’ve wanted clearer and more welcoming on-ramps for participating and co-creating within Cabin. My hope is that this pod can help reignite the culture of do-ocracy, experimentation, and self-organized action among new and old Cabin folks.

My role on the team would be scoped to approximately 1-2 hours per week (as I’ve got a full plate with running NAP). I’d spend that time supporting the various projects that come through as best I can: sharing relevant context, helping folks design scoped first experiments, connecting aligned people, offering thoughts and feedback, sharing what we’ve learned from past experiments to inform new experiments, etc. You can learn more about me on my cabin profile. I’m excited to dive in with you all and find the right path forward.

We as stewards will participate in each initiative to the extent of our capacity and the team’s desire for our participation, checking in on their progress, offering constructive feedback, and administering the budget for their expenses. In this 3-month trial of the Ideation Pod, the Stewards will not receive any compensation.

We will not be able to nor want to:

Pass judgment on the merit of any initiative Have any power to favor one over another (e.g. our own initiatives) Play any role in their advancement other than as a team and DAO member Have any power to distribute rewards for progress What to expect The Ideation Pod will run for 3 months to begin with, providing monthly progress reports to the wider DAO. At the end of the first 3 months, the pod’s stewards will make a proposal to the DAO for a longer run with more funding.

Ideas will be incubated for 1-month, with the option to extend at the pod steward’s discretion and capacity. The stewards will advise and support the teams of each accepted idea with guides, constructive feedback, and sometimes by joining the team outright. The goal at the end of the 1-month incubation period is for each team to be able to make a strong pitch to the DAO for a 3-month funded trial run.

Why are we proposing this? I, Dahveed, am an ideator and can generate a million ideas. As can other Cabiners. Recruiting Katya as a co-conspirator, I want to use the Ideation Pod to show which ones are viable: those who attract a team and get approval from the DAO to move on to the next stage.

What kinds of initiatives? See the full version of this proposal in the forum at the below link.

Why 1 month of incubation for each idea? The goal is for the Ideation Pod to be rapid prototyping that gets initiatives from idea to being ready to apply to the DAO for a 3-month funded trial (with each team determining their own metrics that are both achievable in 3 months and significant enough to merit the DAO’s approval).

The Stewards will prepare a guide for the participants and will work with them to formulate KPIs and their pitch to the DAO. The 1-month duration should put enough pressure to separate “I really want to make this happen” ideas from the “nice to have” ones while avoiding creating a bottleneck for other ideas that await their turn.

To help teams hit the ground running on Day 1 and to make sure people coming into the Ideation Pod are taking it and their idea seriously, we ask for them to draft an Ideation Doc.

The bar for success at the end of 1 month is for the team to be ready to submit a proposal to the DAO. It’s up to the team how much they accomplish in that 1 month to prove they are worthy of DAO funding.

Steward compensation The compensation that we request is based on the overwhelming support from the comments and the Zoom call for the Stewards to get paid, as well as on the value shown by the work already done on the Ideation Pod over the past month. Specifically:

Value #1: Decentralizing Cabin, starting with the pod itself and, hopefully, with many concurrent initiatives run by various Cabin members and pursuing different directions within the overall mission of Cabin

Value #2: Creating a clear pathway for Cabiners new and old to get involved and get funded via the DAO

Value #3: Reemergence of Cabin’s culture of independent, creative doocracy — already, there are more people submitting proposals in the forum than in recent memory, seeing a place for themselves to create stuff within Cabin

And, to be frank, looking at the ideas, it’s reasonable to expect this to bring…

Value #4: Really strong ideas coming through the pod

Based on all of the above and on our individual time and role commitments to the Ideation Pod, we request the following compensation:

Dahveed: 2,000 USDC/month Kat: 1,300 USDC/month Savannah: 0 USDC/month (Savannah is donating her time)

Total: 3,300 USDC/month = 9,900 USDC/3 months

This is the minimum that, after much thought and discussion, we each determined that we need based on our individual circumstances.

Non-Steward budget For the 3-Month Trial Period:

1,500 USDC total for the most necessary expenses (500/month)

Distributed by the Stewards to the teams as needed Unused funds return to the Treasury 1,500 CABIN total for rewarding participants (500/month) Distributed to the teams and/or Stewards at the end of each month via a DAO vote (see this proposal on the vote mechanics) Total maximum budget USDC: 11,400 CABIN: 1,500