Academy Sub-DAO - 2023 Q3-Q4

Authors: @wolovim, @Piablo, @markkos89.eth, @uma

This is an iteration on the never-ratified S2 proposal.

Summary

This proposal seeks to establish Academy as a sub-DAO of Developer DAO, based on the current DAO Governance Structure.

Academy is an educational platform for builders, seeking to onboard DAO members and the wider public into both the DAO and the broader web3 industry by providing quality content, support, and a great user experience. An MVP is available and being iterated on today, while a full redesign (”V2”) is also in development.

Motivation

The Academy team works to fulfill the main mission of Developer DAO: to educate and onboard web3 contributors. What started as a study group grew into a full effort to build a free and high-quality platform to empower builders to make an impact in this industry. The intention is to provide project-based learning tracks that lift developers out of “tutorial hell” and into mid-level skills and beyond. Academy is fully aligned with D_D’s mission to “Accelerate the education and impact of a new wave of web3 builders.”

Brand Usage

D_D Academy will continue to be hosted as a subdomain on the DAO domain and be closely affiliated with the DAO, while maintaining a separate brand. V2 designs are similar, but not identical to DAO branding. The Academy logo and other components are subject to change as a part of that redesign.

Scope of Work

The Academy team is building a free-to-learn education platform. Prior to this budget, an MVP has been designed, developed, and deployed. Since the MVP, new team members have joined and design thinking exercises have been facilitated to explore a roadmap from here. In Q3 and Q4, the focus is on completing the redesign, introducing a couple more learning tracks, and accommodating Preferred Partner initiatives.

Team

Academy is to be a sub-DAO of Developer DAO, and as such, intends to operate with a flexible and autonomous structure that allows for experimentation and iteration.

Structure

As a team, we task ourselves with delivering and maintaining a robust and meaningful web3 education platform. Together, we have combined decades of professional experience across web development, education & pedagogy, technical writing, product development, and design. Stewards in those core areas:

Product & Design: uma Development: markkos89 Pedagogy & Content: piablo PM/Sub-DAO Coordinator: wolovim

The specifics of how each domain performs its functions will be documented along the way as best practices are discovered. Further, there has been and likely will continue to be significant domain crossover between individuals in these roles.

These Stewards will be signers on the Academy multisig and the sub-DAO will operate without a separate entity, under The Developer DAO Foundation, abiding by relevant requirements.

The Sub-DAO Coordinator role is defined in the D_D Labs team budget and - paraphrasing - is responsible for ensuring rewards are processed and the sub-DAO is represented and accountable at appropriate Developer DAO internal and external events.

Stewards

The Academy Steward role conveys accountability, not necessarily authority. When a decision in a particular domain needs to be made, it is the responsibility of the Steward to make sure that happens by gathering input, facilitating conversations, and gaining consent from affected parties to move forward with a solution that is “safe enough to try.”

Aside from product decisions, the allocation of rewards within a domain is one more decision which should follow a similar consent-driven process driven by the relevant Steward. Acknowledging that this is experimental, Stewards and contributors are expected to document the process as best practices are discovered.

Contributors

Any member of Developer DAO can join weekly meetings or engage in the Academy Discord channels to learn about opportunities to contribute. The Academy documentation is to be kept up to date with more specific and timely context.

OKRs

	LEARN
Q3/4	Provide learners with high-quality learning opportunities	Owner (Steward)
KR	Research and design v2 of the Learner UX	Product/Design
KR	Implement and deploy v2 of the Learner UX	Development
KR	Enable users to store their progress	Development
KR	Optimize the website and lessons for SEO	Product/Design
KR	Publish at least one lesson in three homegrown tracks	Pedagogy/Content
KR	Publish one beta partner lesson	Pedagogy/Content
KR	Facilitate discovery of and document processes related to partnerships, team rituals, rewards	PM

Budget Request

Season 2 Retroactive Reward

The S2 budget request (not ratified - stalled in governance) included a baseline Steward reward plus a reward pool intended to further reward any contributor, including Stewards. Ultimately, the originally defined Stewards accounted for all the hours spent developing the platform and content in S2. To quickly settle up for last season and move forward, the ask is just the original Steward baseline numbers, without the reward pool. 5 months is used here, recognizing that the Season was extended a month by DAO Stewards.

Previous Stewards: 600 CODE/mo * 5 mos * 7 Stewards = 21,000 total for Season 2

Q3 & Q4 Budgets

The CODE rewards request is a similar model to Season 2, but with fewer Stewards and more weight on a base reward.

Stewards: 800 CODE/mo * 3 months * 4 Stewards = 9,600 total per quarter

Reward Pool for Contributors: Monthly: 3,200 / Quarterly: 9,600

Total request of CODE per quarter: 19,200

Total USDC per quarter, defined by D_D Labs: $1000/mo Sub-DAO Coordination stipend + any preferred partner revenue split

Stewards are entrusted to figure out how best to leverage the Reward Pool to advance the mission of Academy. That process will be documented as best practices are identified, but the thought process behind the number is to enable up to four additional “core team” members, rewarded in amounts equal to the Stewards. Any contributor, including Stewards, are eligible for reward pool rewards.

We commit to transparency of allocations and will maintain those in a publicly accessible location. Further, any reward pool CODE not used will be returned to the DAO Treasury at the conclusion of the quarter or incorporated into the next budget request.

Business Model

As a sub-DAO of Developer DAO, Academy will operate as a separate, autonomous organization.

Content will be prioritized for the platform in two ways:

• Internally-driven: the team will assess what it believes to be a well-rounded and high quality user experience, then create tasks to achieve that end.
• Sponsor-driven: the team will assess opportunities to add partner content to the platform for a one-time and/or ongoing fee, then create tasks to achieve that end. Developer DAO “Preferred Partners” initiatives also fall within this bucket.

The process for each will be another iterative process that gets documented as they’re refined over time. The team is committed to finding a healthy balance between homegrown and sponsored content, acknowledging that revenue is required to be sustainable, but that over-prioritizing sponsored content may result in a lopsided product.

The Academy team recognizes that Developer DAO will be a primary source of contributors and learners, while leveraging its brand and reach. Seeking to be robustly regenerative, Developer DAO will retain 19%* of revenue generated by Academy. The remainder will be used to pay expenses, reinvest in the platform, and reward contributors.

*19 is a “happy prime” number, with nearby options if we want to adjust up or down in the future, e.g., 13, 23. The precedent is 10%.

Value Proposition

• The team will continue to build an education platform, helping Developer DAO to fulfill one of its core missions: providing free education to web3 builders. Academy is an open source public good, available to learners within and beyond the walls of D_D.
• As Academy grows, the platform can plug into other areas of the DAO. When users finish a learning objective, they may be encouraged to join a D_D hackathon, become a mentor, write for the blog, apply for a D_D job, and so on.
• Academy can tastefully promote D_D’s Preferred Partners (e.g., a preferred wallet or data provider) where it makes sense within the content.
• Finally, Academy will allocate 19% of revenue back to the Developer DAO treasury, recognizing the importance of the DAO as the primary source of contributors and learners, and as a message amplifier via the power of its brand and following.

Drawbacks

The Academy team would receive 21,000 CODE as a retroactive reward for Season2 and 19,200 CODE tokens for Q4, a total of 40,200, the $1000/mo Sub-DAO Coordination stipend, and a share of Preferred Partner revenue over the course of each quarter.