So based on Jonās and Savannahās post in the Discord, I applied for and received a VRBS grant of $107/month for the proposed project that has already evolved a bunch of times.
Original proposal: Neighborhood marketplace of improvements, with some neighbors posting things in the neighborhood that need fixing or could be done for better placemaking (fix a light, paint a bench, plant a tree, etc.), an app deciding how much to pay for it, and some other locals doing the thing and getting paid.
Issues: After talking with some friends (locally and at Cabin), I accepted some very good points, main one being that monetary motivation from the get go creates a not-so-great incentives structure by making it all about the money and negating intrinsic motivations. For example, several friends told me that they want to thank me for the dinners and community building by improving the space I open up to them (my apartment) and creating art there.
Evolution: Based on the feedback, I scheduled a Buidl Day for next Saturday (and probably another one during the week for those who canāt make it) at my place. I made a few suggestions of things I could use help with. Of course, Iāll have some cool food for them. And will use the grant money to buy supplies. Iām also going to post a request for supplies in a neighborhood local group and am trying to get a dedicated space in a community center to serve as a tools and supplies closet for the neighborhood.
Documentation and Coordination: Weāll make sure to take plenty of pics and videos of Buidl Day. Iām creating a WhatsApp community with various channels to coordinate this (crowdsourcing the name among my friends). The Results channel will also be duplicated in IG. The goal is to start with a few friends and use the results to bring more and more people into it until it snowballs.
Smart rewards: My current thought is to eventually reward some contributions and ideas with money, NFTs, and other prizes. But to do so in a decentralized manner by awarding everyone who makes a contribution some reputation points so that they can vote on distributing the prizes. Iām also thinking of letting people create art to reward each other with. In short, I want to use this as onboarding into DAOs and NFTs. The example of CABIN as a non-sellable token meant to be gifted to others as appreciation of their contribution is very inspiring, so thinking about something like that. Longer-term, would love a local currency for the neighborhood, pending legality checks.
Tech stack: WhatsApp and IG for now, but a friend has developed a neighborhood app (kinda like next door but also for bringing attention to what needs fixing). Itās not ready for what Iām doing yet, but I envision moving to it later on.
Moonshot goal: To develop a local cooperation model + app that can be used by other Cabin neighborhoods as both a social backbone of the Network City and a lead gen/marketing tool for Cabin.
So thatās it in a nutshell. And itās bound to go through many iterations. So letās start right now: What would you add to this? Change? Any feedback is welcomed.
