TL;DR: We are requesting $9950 to pay CityDAO citizens to teach and create content for an immersive learning program called CityDAO 360 Web 3.0 Accelerator. The Accelerator offers a unique opportunity to engage with young people and CityDAO citizens will benefit directly as paid content creators and core faculty members.
Pitch Deck
Have you checked out City DAO 360? It’s an immersive learning experience in CityDAO. Young people will learn marketable skills, teach what they’ve learned from the experience, and pitch their problem-solving ideas to CityDAO members. We’re calling it a Web 3.0 Accelerator because they will be learning how to successfully operate in DAOs and other collaborative Web 3.0 environments.
What is the CityDAO 360 Web 3.0 Accelerator?
The CityDAO 360 Web 3.0 Accelerator is an immersive learning program that gives selected participants chance to gain valuable experience, build their portfolio, and make connections that could lead to future job opportunities. We are requesting $9950 from the CityDAO community to support the teaching, curricular development, design, management, and marketing of the program. Participants will be recruited in Bangalore, a global tech hub and booming economy in the heart of India.
Graduates will exit with validated skills in leadership, communication, and teamwork for DAO environments. The Accelerator program will make an impact on young people while also raising awareness about the positive role of DAOs now and in the future.
The Accelerator offers many benefits to CityDAO. It’s a unique opportunity for the CityDAO community to gain deeper insights into the challenges and solutions that DAOs offer by seeing them through the eyes of students. CityDAO citizens will benefit directly as paid content creators and core faculty members and will ensure the experience is meaningful and authentic to our community. CityDAO will gain an ecosystem for creating courses, modules, and micro-credentials. Modules will be transferrable to other courses and uses. The CityDAO 360 Web 3.0 Accelerator will create an assessment framework for its final certificate that could be repurposed for Badges and other types of micro-credentialing.
This program is made possible through collaboration and partnership with experts in the fields of immersive learning and college prep programs in India. Milan Global and Imerxn, are providing the learning environments and conducting the program’s administration and marketing. Co-sponsors will fund content creation, the tools and environments required to deliver the program, and the server space to store videos and other assets. Co-sponsors include CityDAO citizen, Blackacre, in addition to Archipelago Rising, Milan Global, and Imerxn. Other partners include Harvard Innovation Lab, Teenr, and Forschen AI.
How will we do it?
We’re requesting $9,950 to execute an immersive learning experience in the CityDAO environment. Milan Global and Imerxn will host and deliver a program that will introduce participants to the basic concepts of a DAO, and what distinguishes it from other types of organizations, and challenge them to master the tools and skills DAOs require.
In order to make it specific to the CityDAO experience and mission we will include active citizens as part of the core team of faculty members. The facilitators, mentors and administrators will represent CityDAO, Milan Global, and Imerxn. The Accelerator will be hosted in CityDAO environments and the Growthosphere, an innovative ecosystem by Milan Global designed at the Harvard Innovation Lab.
We believe that the best way to learn is through doing, and that’s why the Growthosphere works in partnership with an actual enterprise where students work on a real-world problem directly under the guidance of leaders in the organization, Harvard alumni, and top industry experts. The cohort will graduate in a ceremony that will be live-streamed for the CityDAO community. They will showcase their achievements in an ePortfolio that will include videos, presentations, and other forms of media.
Long-term Benefits to the CityDAO Community
Creating a unique experience for young people where they exit with validated skills and abilities is a positive way forward for CityDAO. The assessment rubrics we create will form the basis for micro-credentials to reinforce CityDAO’s CityDAO’s reputation and further the world’s understanding of DAOs. The curriculum we will produce will sustain the education and research efforts of CityDAO while also positively influencing CityDAO’s community as a learning culture. We will ensure citizens have access to the most in-demand content, as a perk of CityDAO citizenship. CityDAO will gain a faculty team and many content creators that can lead major education and research efforts. The CityDAO case study offers great learning and research potential for universities that can bring credibility and prestige to the DAO.
Short-term Benefits to CityDAO
The Accelerator offers a unique opportunity for the CityDAO community to learn about itself and gain insights into the challenges and benefits DAOs offer human endeavors. City DAO citizens will serve as content creators and core faculty members to ensure the experience is meaningful and authentic.
- Between a well-defined problem, effective toolbox, and facilitation of creativity & critical thinking skills, the outcome of the program is to innovatively solve the most pressing human-centered problems faced by the DAO.
- We will create unique materials for this course that focus on how people in our community are unleashing the power of Web 3.0 tools such as Discord, Snapshot, and blockchain tools to achieve real-world outcomes. The videos and other content will be added to the CityDAO educational assets organized in an online library. We will be able to offer introductory videos, course materials, etc, that could be utilized to attract people to our community.
- CityDAO will gain an ecosystem for creating courses, modules, and micro-credentials.
Core Team
A core team of faculty members and expert facilitators create the CityDAO 360 immersion experience. Two members are both subject matter experts and CityDAO Citizens (see Core Team). Students have regular contact with these faculty members who are experts in one or more aspects of DAOs, including DAO governance, software development, and effective teamwork. The cohort to become a productive community by producing something valuable for the CityDAO ecosystem.
ARTHI, CEO, Imerxn, Web 3.0 Accelerator Faculty Member
Dr. Arthi Gerald has over 20 years of experience in the higher education space and is passionate about experiential learning. For over a decade as part of a silicon valley based non-profit, she has worked with leading academicians from Institutes across the globe such as Stanford, Columbia University, London Business School and Babson to adopt their best practices in entrepreneurship education. She has designed and delivered several student Leadership Program and Mentor Development programs offered to thousands of students and faculty in global geographies.
Her deep understanding of the education system in developed as well as emerging economies makes it most relevant for helping students to pursue their dreams. Her focus on the parent-child connection has enabled many families to actively support their children to realize their potential. She holds a Ph.D. in Management and is certified by Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Educators Course and London Business School s Tools for Growth Mentor Program.
SUJAYA, COO, Imerxn, Web 3.0 Accelerator Faculty Member
Sujaya has over 30 years of experience across roles as a career mentor, entrepreneurship educator, and startup expert. She is an entrepreneurship coach who is zealous about working with students to develop life skills and helping them set realistic academic and career goals with systematic plans. Students and their parents trust her counsel on personal issues affecting academic performance. She advises them on relationship management and how being a positive influencer is a key to success. She inspires students to seek experiential learning opportunities for building the kind of critical thinking skills that help them stand out in a crowd.
Sujaya has engaged with faculty and student audiences at institutions across the globe through workshops and seminars that focus on capacity-building in the areas of entrepreneurship, soft skills, and leadership. Sujaya is certified by Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Educators Course, the London Business School’s Tools for Growth Mentor program.
SANGEETHA, Web 3.0 Accelerator Program Manager
Sangeetha comes with 20 years of experience and is a dynamic mentor, trainer, and entrepreneur. She is a reservoir of college-related information and a practitioner of holistic education. She brings in a wealth of experience in home-schooling and athletic recruitment for colleges. She has worked with leading organizations including Reliance Insurance, JP Morgan Chase, Axa Financials, and Airtel.
Sangeetha took the lesser-trodden path by pioneering and promoting Squash in a small town by setting up Altius Squash Academy. She recruited coaches from the UK, Malaysia, and Pakistan to ensure grass-roots talent could access the best coaching for a lesser-known game. An innovative thinker, she has created customized learning experiences, working with teachers of The Valley School, Bengaluru to enable her students to experience unconventional education covering carpentry, weaving, and herpetology. She loves working with teens and believes personalized mentoring can help shape their lives. She has mentored and motivated young girls in rural areas to pursue education and professional career paths. Constant knowledge acquisition, research, and new learnings keep her motivated. With an ever-expanding resourceful network, Sangeetha is determined to support our students to help them realize their full potential.
MELINDA, CityDAO Citizen, Web 3.0 Accelerator Core Faculty Member, Dean of Curriculum, SME
Melinda is an educator who has worked in the field of international education and exchange for over 20 years with a specialization in the Middle East. She holds a Ph.D. in Global and Multicultural Education. Her specialties are interdisciplinary team-building, re-invigorating the liberal arts core of the curriculum, and connecting classroom learning to life and workplace skills. She has written or co-written nine successful grant proposals for a total of $4,012,601, funding educational programs, student scholarships, research projects, and public engagement with theatre. These collaborations and projects have built pathways across organizational silos, created lasting impacts on the student experience, and reached thousands of people through public engagement. Check out her portfolio here.
MALINI, LSW, Web 3.0 Accelerator Core Faculty Member, Program Director
Malini is an entrepreneur, community builder, and licensed social worker. After graduating from Harvard with a focus on entrepreneurship and leadership, she founded Milan Global to help entrepreneurs, innovators, organizations and leaders make slow change happen faster. She is Milan Global’s Leadership & Growth Lead and director of the Growthosphere. Through her work with visionary leaders across continents, she has cultivated numerous multidisciplinary cross-cultural teams who incorporate global tools to scale grassroots ideas.
TIPPI, CityDAO Citizen, Web 3.0 Accelerator Core Faculty Member, Subject Matter Expert
Tippi Fifestarr has been a teacher for 15 years. He is a Web3 Fullstack expert, a developer advocate, and the Product Manager and Founder of Ceptor.Club He has taught music, coding, AP writing, and photography, and is an avid hackathon organizer. He majored in Psychology. See examples of his work at: https://github.com/tippi-fifestarr https://devpost.com/tippi-fifestarr
Budget
This budget is essential for us to create an effective, impactful, and enjoyable CityDAO 360 Accelerator program. The $9950 we are requesting will fund the teaching and management of the program, along with advertising to boost our marketing efforts. A substantial amount of prep work and follow-up, and of course the execution of the actual program activities are required. We are also requesting a modest advertising budget to extend our marketing and attract top applicants. Co-sponsors are funding content creation, tools required to support the program, and server space to store videos and other assets. Here is the breakdown:
Teaching and Materials Costs - $7500
The Accelerator faculty and program management team will be working before, during, and after the time period when the program takes place in April and May (see timeline).
Dean $3000
The dean of the program will be paid $3000 to provide direction, conduct some of the program content, develop curricular and assessment frameworks, supervise the faculty and program manager, and oversee certificates and badges.
Subject Matter Expert $2000
The subject matter expert will be paid $2000 to be a part of the core team and will offer a 90-minute live session every week. As part of their role, they will ensure the execution of subject matter content and relevance to the City DAO case, in addition to grading/feedback sessions, substantial prep time, and follow-up before and after the program.
Peer Mentors/Instructional Assistants $2000 for 5 individuals
Peer mentors will be paid $400 to work as instructional assistants, report to core faculty, and are tasked with communicating expectations to participants, giving feedback, and nudging them to keep on track with their assignments.
Content Creators - $500 for 5 videos
Members of CityDAO will be commissioned to create high-quality videos with pedagogical impact. Blackacres has generously offered to match $75 per video so we can offer a $150 bounty per video. We are offering a bounty to conduct a live Q&A about the participants, as well. Blackacres is also matching the $25 we are requesting so we can offer $50. The video/Q&A sessions equal $200 together and we plan to implement five of them, for a total of $1000.
Program Administration Costs - $1450
Program Director $750
The Program Director will ensure the program is fully supported as part of the Growthosphere ecosystem, curating expert support from Harvard and other top-tier institutions.
Program Manager $500
The Program Manager facilitates sessions with industry experts, professors and other “Stars” on the program schedule. They host daily check-in sessions and work as part of the core faculty team to ensure a smooth experience for the Accelerator participants.
Workspace Developer $200
The Workspace Developer supports participants’ Notion portfolios and other aspects of the workspace they need to make progress in the program.
Cost to Boost Marketing - $1000
Our partners are busy marketing the program but they could use a sum of money to really boost the program’s visibility to our target customer: parents of young people who want their kids to have a leg up for college and later the job market. Advertising campaigns on LinkedIn and Meta to spread brand awareness and capture the ideal talent audience to participate in the problem-solving process.
Total Costs: $9950
Co-sponsors: Funds from the CityDAO community will be bolstered by contributions from CityDAO citizen Blackacre and our partner companies, Archipelago Rising, Milan Global, and Imerxn.
Partners: Additional partners are providing non-monetary support such as tools, expertise and critical knowledge bases for our curriculum, inluding Harvard Innovation Lab, Teenr, Forschen AI
Timeline
February 13th: Marketing Begins
March 15th:
- Pre-program onboarding communications begin.
- Call for videos to CityDAO community (bountied)
April 17th: Orientation simulation to program.
April 24th: Program begins
May 22nd: Project presentation and selection
May 24th: The graduation ceremony
Deliverables
- 15 - 20 graduates of the program will exit with validated skills in leadership, product mindset, and teamwork in DAO environments.
- A graduation ceremony streamed live for the CityDAO community, parents, mentors, and others involved.
- The materials created for this course will be featured in the CityDAO educational assets of an online library.
Risks
The main risk with an online immersion program is that it is more difficult to build trust and rapport among the students and faculty of the program. Without trust and a feeling of community accountability and motivation may suffer. That is why we are using challenges, clearly defined roles in the team assignments, and spending the first week focusing on team-building. We are setting expectations very high academically. Participants will understand that they can’t earn the right to list achievements on their portfolios if those achievements are not validated by faculty, guest experts, and jurors. This mastery-based approach allows us to “gamify” the learning and make it more motivating.
Regulatory
We do not expect regulatory matters to be an issue because there is no need to set up any new legal entities for this program.
Bounties and Ways to Help
Are you interested in helping out? We are seeking video modules on DAO-related topics based on the CityDAO experience! Blackacres is sponsoring bounties for CityDAO citizens who would like to create content for the CityDAO 360 Accelerator program. Your video should be effective, engaging, and designed around a valid learning objective.
Other ways to help:
- Volunteer to be a juror for final projects
- Mentor a young person, show them the ropes in CityDAO