Hackathon
“HACKATHON-[enter host city name here]”
1. Proposal TLDR
Recent proposals have shown that they are increasing in cost, expanding in scope, and durations for execution are getting longer. CityDAO has finite capital and no stable revenue. Many ideas (all) are in uncharted territory, which is why they’re exciting, but long time frames with large expenditures are bad bets for our fledgling ecosystem even with the best of ideas.
The Hackathon is envisioned as a first step in launching a project within the CityDAO ecosystem. It could also act as a throttle for creating a limit for the amount of funds that can go to projects during a given period, giving clarity to our runway.
The Hackathon is where we capture the initial energy for a weird idea and try to make something of it, something beyond a whitepaper or pitch deck, something that gives you an idea of what it could actually be like, it doesn’t have to be perfect. If it doesn’t work out or you find a gaping hole, it doesn’t matter, you probably learned something. On to the next.
A recurring event (tbd on how often) would also give us a heartbeat and a rhythm, which would be easier to get a quick pulse of what’s going on and to see what new project ideas people have.
“We need – more urgently than architectural utopias, ingenious traffic disposal systems, or ecological programmes – to comprehend the nature of citizenship, to make serious imaginative assessment of that special relationship between the self and the city; its unique plasticity, its privacy and freedom.”
— Jonathan Raban
Why Hackathons:
- Consistent and targeted spending of capital
- Capitalize on energy for ideas (build quick and test)
- Build prototypes and validate ideas
- Onboarding and ways for more people to get involved
- Good ideas can continue building
- Could be a funnel to allocate more resources to good projects, as a grant or an investment with the right legal understanding
Hackathon Format: Virtual, 48 hours long (tbd). The use of Citizen NFTs for projects is not required, but there may be bonus points for projects that can meaningfully use Citizen NFTs or community tokens in general, in accordance with guidelines and legal disclaimers.
A ‘live coverage’ component is envisioned, which might include interviews of the teams, updates throughout the event, b-roll of the Host City, team submitted footage, or a profile on local food.
Participants: Although the primary target is CityDAO Citizens, everyone can participate, regardless of holding a Citizen NFT, as long as the project fits the theme. Teams must consist of 2 or more people.
Themes: Each hackathon will have a theme. This theme provides focus and ensures projects are related to CityDAOs realm. Themes that could be considered are ones related to cities, physical land, real estate, radical market schemes, etc and decided by the Organizing Team (could change).
Host City: Each period (tbd how often) there will be a symbolic ‘Host City’. Although the vast majority of participants will participate virtually, we can give the opportunity to have local people meetup to work on hackathon projects, watch the final presentations together, or have an excuse to meet face to face.
Presentations: Hackathon participants are required to present their work (live or recorded) at the end of the hackathon. Timing is based on preferences of the Host City.
Judges: Should we rank choice vote winners with Citizen NFTs? Should there be a small panel of elected individuals, outside jurors?
Partnerships: It may make sense to partner with another project or DAO to get enough interest and variety of projects. Would also consider a partnership (or find the right people) to facilitate the organizing of the first hackathon if it made sense.
2. Project Team
Initiators: alexthims, tippi fifestarr, cromewar, you?
Hackathon Organizing Team: you?
Host City Organizers: you?
3. Proposal Budget
Grants Guild has signaled they would sponsor the first Hackathon. This is money that has already been approved via previous CIP and is in the Grants Guild Safe.
“Hackathon [city_name]” Prizes: USDC 20k? Tiers?
Hackathon Organizing Team:* USDC 5-10k?
Paid via Coordinape:
- Setup a Circle
- Setup a CoVault
- Organizing Team Members (not Initiators) are added to the Circle
- USDC funds for the Organizing Team are sent to the CoVault from the Grants Guild Safe
- Epochs are 2 weeks long
Prizes are distributed by the Grants Guild Safe to an address specified by the winning Teams.
*The Organizing Team will need support from design, dev, and media guilds. Individuals from these guilds can be compensated for work related to this effort.
Host City Organizers and Event Funds: max 500 USDC? This is unknown, but the intent is these are funds to reimburse a group for food or drinks for Citizens and their web3 curious friends. This would not include anything similar to renting a venue, travel expenditures etc.
4. Timeline and Deliverables
First, trial run hackathon: ?
5. Media/Design/Dev
- Need some help getting the word out
- A landing page would be nice, sign up form, info on finding a team etc.
- A ‘live coverage’ component, which might include interviews of the teams, updates throughout the event, b-roll of the Host City, team submitted footage, or a profile on local food.
6. Risks
- The Organizing Team can’t deliver
- Not enough people show up to participate and it’s a failure
7. Regulatory
- CityDAO doesn’t own equity in hackathon projects.
- Create clear guidelines for using Citizen NFTs in projects?
- Legal disclaimers for prizes.
// TAKEAWAYS
- Although envisioned as a recurring event, one CityDAO Virtual Hackathon in 2022 would serve as a test run.
- Choose a City as a symbolic Host City, giving people that live in that City an excuse to get together, get to know each other, participate in the hackathon, or watch it as spectators.
- Grants Guild will provide the funding as described above, which it has already been allocated to disperse towards similar efforts.
- Afterward, we can assess how the event went.
- If successful, and if there’s a desire to do more hackathons on a recurring basis, a CIP will be required and move through governance procedures and allocate additional funding and resources.
