Our Focus
Entering into our second year, our focus in 2024 will be oriented towards operationalizing the core infrastructure of the OpenCivics Foundation and Consortium that was initially scaffolded and prototyped in 2023. We’ll be honing in on the areas below which are defined in greater detail in the following sections.
We will be formalizing a 501c3 non-profit foundation that will serve OpenCivics’ mission and empower us to begin fundraising for the network and supporting activities.
We’re also focusing in on two key private collaborative initiative ecosystems to begin facilitating, researching, and publishing our flagship white paper on agent-centric collaborative protocols. These closed collaboratives, composed of some of the highest leverage organizations in the worlds of governance and bioregional regeneration, will create an applied research context for our study of collaborative protocols, the decentralized rule set that will enable a healthy, participatory network.
As stewards, we’re committed to researching, documenting, and deploying this scaffolding as we move ahead on our progressive decentralization roadmap from phase one (driven by stewards) into phase two, a hybrid model that will increasingly empower decision making and coordination activities by the network. Throughout this process, we will continue to grow membership and expand opportunities for members to connect, collaborate, and convene.
As the year progresses, we’ll transition our focus from facilitating, researching and publishing research on collaborative protocols to deploying a new collaborative initiatives each quarter.
By the end of the year, we want the network to feel humming and alive with self-organization and a will of its own. We’re committed to taking clear steps in the coming months to create the game board and game rules that will empower our members to bring their leadership and vision into a more and more decentralized version of OpenCivics.
Below is a more granular breakdown of our strategic goals for 2024. If you’d like to skip ahead to how you can engage with OpenCivics in the coming months, jump to the end of this post to learn about all the different ways we can work together.
Legal Establishment
We will register the OpenCivics Foundation as a US legal entity that can receive funding from various sources and will support the consortium as a service-provider. We will continue to explore the formation of an Unincorporated Non-Profit Association or for-benefit cooperative association as a legal wrapper for the OpenCivics Consortium DAO.
We will establish administrative support teams to handle the accounting, legal, tax, and other operational aspects of advising the network. We will also develop policies and procedures to ensure transparency, accountability, and compliance.
We will enter into a fiscal hosting agreement with an aligned non-profit that can provide OpenCivics with interim financial infrastructure to support our initial fundraising efforts for administrative costs and early collaborative initiative funding.
Theory of Change
We will publish a theory of change white paper that further articulates our thesis as well as frameworks for collaborative protocols, showcasing our learnings from two private, early-stage collaborative initiatives. The white paper will serve as a communication tool to engage with potential partners, funders, and stakeholders and will provide a backbone for the technical and social implementation of phase two in our progressive decentralization plan.
We will update our theory of change video to reflect our current research, vision, mission, and values. We will seek funding to produce a high-quality video that can reach a wider audience and inspire more people to join the consortium.
Research & Publishing
We will conduct and publish cutting-edge research on stigmergic collaborative protocols, social and technological processes for multi-stakeholder swarm collaboration that includes system mapping and mechanisms for playing infinite games. These protocols aim to enable large-scale collaboration and coordination among diverse and distributed actors who share a common purpose.
Our private collaborative initiatives on bioregional regeneration and governance will provide an applied research context for our study of collaborative protocols. By starting our research with closed collaboratives between a small group of organizations already engaged in deep trust relationships, we’re creating the conditions to study what is already working and experiment on new approaches in a context supported by existing trust and alignment. A collaborative initiative focused on collaborative protocols research will be convened to process the learnings from these collaboratives and contribute to a broader decentralized research process.
We will use Obsidian, a digital knowledge garden, to conduct collaborative research and document our insights and findings. Obsidian is a powerful tool that allows us to create, link, and organize notes in a networked way. We’ll explore publishing the knowledge repository on GitHub and Obsidian Publish to enable a decentralized wiki for civic innovators.
We will begin visualizing the network (and relationships to other networks!) to surface new opportunities for collaborative match making, sense-making and research. We will use data analysis and network science to map the patterns and dynamics of our network and identify the opportunities and challenges for collaboration. We will also develop tools and platforms that can facilitate the discovery and connection of relevant collaborators and resources.
In-Person Convenings
We will co-organize our flagship summit in May 2024, in partnership with other leading organizations and networks in the field of civic innovation. The summit will be an invite-only, large-scale event that will bring together policy makers, builders, community organizers, and other stakeholders from around the world. The summit will feature keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, and networking sessions. The summit will also showcase the outcomes and impacts of our collaborative initiatives, connect builders with funders and policy makers, and invite participants to form new collaborative relationships.
We will also organize and participate in other in-person convenings throughout the year through side events at larger conferences like ETH Denver and SXSW.
We also look forward to planning smaller in-person gatherings for our members to convene for a week at a time at retreat centers for collaborative deep dives and high level strategic alignment.
Network Governance
We will update our constitution to reflect our current functions and roles within the network as well as our roadmap for progressive decentralization with key milestones and deliverables that will inform our transition into further decentralized leadership. Our constitution is currently a non-binding, interim document intended to provide an initial context for collaboration and formalization of network governance. As we proceed with our research on collaborative protocols and experiment with various methods of progressive decentralization, our goal for this year is to formalize a binding version of the constitution that explicitly defines the DAO’s use of collaborative protocols and technical solutions for governance, and articulates the formal relationship between the OpenCivics Foundation (501c3 service provider) and the OpenCivics Consortium (fully decentralized organization).
We will map our phase two hybrid strategy that moves more authority into the network while maintaining core stewardship functions. As we articulate and deploy the strategy, we intend to seek network feedback. Our hybrid strategy is a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches to network governance. It balances the need for direction and alignment with the need for autonomy and diversity. It also leverages the strengths and resources of both the core team and the network members. We will solicit feedback and suggestions from our network members on how to improve and implement our hybrid strategy.
We will prototype our hybrid strategy for approximately one year, from 2024 to 2025, testing and iterating our hybrid strategy in real-world scenarios using a combination of Hats Protocol, DeWork, and multi-signaturewallets to experiment with a combination of tools in smaller, focused contexts. We will also monitor and measure the performance and health of the network using various indicators and metrics before transitioning into full decentralization in phase three. Our initial experiments in the hybrid strategy will focus on decentralizing our Grants Program and decentralizing a collaborative initiative focused on researching collaborative protocols.
Over the course of the year, we’ll adapt our research on collaborative protocols into a white paper that will inform the full socio-technical, on-chain implementation of collaborative protocols.
Collaborative Initiatives
Our development of collaborative protocols is intended to foster the culture of collaboration and self-organization within the network. Once our research is published, we’ll encourage and support our network members to initiate and lead collaboratives based on mutual alignment. We’ll also provide guidance and scaffolding in the form of social and technical tools for agent-centric network activities.
As we begin researching collaborative protocols and processes by facilitating collaboration within ****two private collaborative initiatives focused on governance and bioregional regeneration, we’ll share updates on our early case studies and invite members to engage in collaborative protocols research.
We will aim to launch and sustain three collaborative initiatives between Q2 and Q4 that leverage the benefits gleaned from our Q1 collaborative research. These initiatives will be open to all network members and will utilize the collaborative protocols published in Q1.
Developing Partnerships
We will establish and maintain strategic partnerships with other organizations and networks that share our vision and mission. These partnerships will enable us to leverage our collective resources and capabilities and to amplify our impact and reach.
Leadership & Strategy
We will publish monthly strategy roadmap updates and quarterly financial reports.
We will establish an advisory board that will meet annually to provide strategic guidance and advice to our core team and network. The advisory board will consist of experts and leaders from various fields and backgrounds who have relevant experience and knowledge across a diverse spectrum of civic domains. The advisory board will support with strategy, funding, and outreach.
We will onboard one or more new members into our co-stewardship team. The co-stewardship team is the core team that operates and supports the network. The co-stewardship team is responsible for articulating the vision, strategy, and goals of the network, as well as maintaining the infrastructure for operations, finances, and governance of the network. The co-stewardship team is also accountable to the network members and the advisory board. We will look for candidates who have the passion, skills, and commitment to join our co-stewardship team and to contribute to our network's success and growth.
We will decide on the approach for our legal Board of Directors for the OpenCivics Foundation. The Board of Directors will serve on the board of the legal entity that provides services and fundraising for the network. The Board of Directors is also liable for the legal and financial risks of the non-profit foundation that supports network activities. We will explore different options and models for our Board of Directors, such as a traditional board, a stakeholder board, a dynamic board, or a tokenized board.
We intend to rebuild our website and streamline our web presence. We’ll continue to redesign and update our website to reflect our current identity, activities, and achievements. We’ll also refine our brand assets and onboarding materials. We will also consolidate and integrate our web presence across different platforms and channels, such as social media, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and videos.
Sustainable Funding
We will secure funding for our initial collaborative initiatives and one year of administrative costs and steward salaries. We will seek funding from various sources, such as grants, donations, and sponsorships. We will also diversify our funding streams and reduce our dependence on any single source of funding. We will also ensure that our funding sources are aligned with our vision, mission, and values and that they do not compromise our autonomy and integrity.
For our internal administrative fundraising goals, we aim to raise a minimum of $10k per month to compensate stewards for their full time contributions to the network and to cover our core administrative technology costs.
Over the course of the year, we aim to raise between $1 million and $20 million for our collaborative initiatives. We will use these funds to support the development and implementation of our collaborative initiatives and direct funding to member organizations through grants and decentralized governance of the consortium treasury. We will also allocate a portion of these funds to create a reserve treasury fund that can provide financial stability and security for our network and will be democratically governed by citizens of the consortium.
Development Lab
We will explore a model for spinning off cooperatives formed by innovators in the consortium. We will investigate the potential and feasibility of creating cooperatives that can offer products and services related to the core mission of OpenCivics. These cooperatives will be owned and controlled by the innovators themselves, who will share the profits and benefits of their work. These cooperatives will also adhere to the principles and values of our network and contribute to our common vision and mission.
We will launch an initial cooperative oriented toward ecosystem facilitation and systems mapping services. We will pilot a cooperative that can provide consulting and training services to other organizations and networks that are interested in applying open and participatory innovation methods and tools. We will also create a business model and a governance structure that can sustain and scale our cooperative.
Network Engagement
We will hold regular meetings across the network and the collaboratives to increase touch points for relationship building, peer support, collaborative match making. Open calls for all members will begin in mid-January and will continue indefinitely.
Participation in early collaborative initiatives revolving around the Grants Program and Collaborative Protocols research will begin at the end of January.
By the end of 2024, one of our most critical goals is to create a sense of self-organization throughout the consortium which we will support through sequenced deployment of protocols, tools, and governance. The best way to stay abreast of these developments is to
Grants Program
Building on a successful Genesis Grant Round, in 2024 we’ll focus on growing the matching pools for our upcoming grant rounds. By growing the matching pool, we’ll be able to include more projects in the round while ensuring that each project receives meaningful funding for their work.
We’re exploring collaborative relationships with additional matching fund sponsors to expand the matching pool through partnerships.
We’ll be inviting the consortium to participate in a progressive decentralization experiment with the Grants Program collaborative initiative by exploring electing consortium members as round managers and compensating members through bounties for decentralized action on application review and round promotion.
How You Can Get Involved
There are several ways in which you can more deeply participate in OpenCivics as we roll out our progressive decentralization roadmap and open up formal pathways to collaborate on key network activities. In no particular order, these pathways for engagement include:
Attending weekly open member calls (beginning late January)
During our weekly calls, you’ll be able to meet other members working on related areas of interest, build new collaborative relationships, learn about compelling initiatives, and seek feedback for your project or organization.
Subscribe to the OpenCivics Calendar (click the link in the bottom right corner to add it to your Google Calendar)
Attending conference side events, retreats, and our flagship summit this Spring
Participating in Collaborative Protocols research (beginning late January)
Participating in the next round of the Grants Program (either in the form of applying for a grant, running for an elected round operator position, or supporting the round through taking on bounties for round promotion and grantee outreach)
Keep an eye out for email invitations to apply
For all of these types of engagement, you’ll need to be on our Discord or Telegram to receive regular updates and have completed your membership application and onboarding. We’re excited to see you there!
Conclusion
OpenCivics is a network of innovators that aims to transform the way we steward our society. We believe that collaboration and innovation are keys to solving the wicked problems of our times and creating a more vital, participatory, and resilient world.
In 2024, we have set ambitious (yet, we believe) realistic goals that will help us achieve our vision and mission. We will focus on strengthening our legal, operational, and financial foundations, as well as expanding our research, publishing, and convening activities. We will also foster a culture of collaboration and self-organization within our network and launch impactful and innovative collaborative initiatives. We’ll also build and maintain strategic partnerships with other organizations and networks that share our values and goals. We’ll also explore and experiment with new models and methods of network governance and cooperative development.
We invite you to join us on the journey. Whether you are an innovator, a researcher, a practitioner, a community organizer, or a supporter, you have a role to play in creating a more beautiful world.
In Us We Trust,
Patricia and Benjamin
OpenCivics Stewards
This is super exciting - can’t wait to get involved!