Introducing OceanDAO Working Groups

A softer, gentler DAO that gives more space and freedom for experimentation

1. Overview

OceanDAO’s social layer is getting developed further, as part of a broader shift to embrace and leverage the growing number of participants inside the Ocean Ecosystem. Specifically: we are introducing OceanDAO Working Groups (WGs) [1].

Each WG has stewards (who’s accountable to run the group), and members (people who participate). This organizational and coordination structure is inspired by the Token Engineering Commons (TEC).

Here are the initial WGs, and their initial stewards.

• Parameters & Roadmap WG — [Roberto, Trent]
• Project-Guiding WG — [Razvan, AlexN]
• Core Tech WG — [Trent, AlexC]
• OceanDAO Engineering WG — [Roberto]
• Data Consume Volume WG — [Sheridan, Razvan]
• Outreach WG — [Monica, Casiana]

The Parameters & Roadmap WG focuses on immediate and macro level discussions that may cover all other WGs. Most stewards should be in attendance of this WG, and we welcome everyone to join.

Basic WG organization:

• Every WG will discuss and meet openly inside of our Discord.
• Each WG has 2 public Discord sub-channels: WG Channel, WG Voice Channel (and video)
• Each group has its own onboarding process. It’s up to the WG to decide.
• Each group has a 30 or 60 min call, typically weekly.
• Meetings will be recorded and shared async.

We expect more WGs to emerge over time.

Details on each WG can be found below.

2. “Value Add” Rather than “ROI > 1”

OceanDAO’s emphasis on ROI > 1 was a useful construct from a purely mechanical perspective. But in practice it focused too much on a stark, objective ROI number that could be very hard to measure. How do you measure ROI for improving documentation? Yet there is value being created. Projects shouldn’t need a business orientation.

So we have shifted OceanDAO focus away from “ROI > 1”, and towards “value add” with a larger emphasis on community. It’s a softer, gentler DAO that gives more space and freedom for experimentation.

To reflect this shift, here is an updated criteria for projects around “value add” and community.

Project Criteria

Ways that a team might add value:

1. Usage of Ocean — how well might the project drive usage of Ocean?
2. Viability — what is the chance of success of the project?
3. Community active-ness — how active is the team in the community?
4. Adding value to the overall community — how well does the outcome of the project add value to the Ocean community / ecosystem?

This is a short list, on purpose. It balances tech & viability, with community.

3. Details on Each WG

3.1 Parameters & Roadmap WG

Mission: Decide each funding round’s parameters (short term), and update roadmap (med term). Overall, to improve the funding process for projects getting funding from OceanDAO.

Criteria include “feeling of safety” for teams, promoting community, and more. (Details below)

Stewards: Roberto Alcantara, Trent McConaghy

Meetings: Tuesdays 10.00 ET, 16.00 CET, 17.00 EET (60 min)

Criteria on this WG’s Decision-Making

• Promote “feeling of safety” for teams
• Promote community
• Increase # voters, and quality of voter decision-making
• Increase # projects, and value-add of projects (ref project criteria)
• Increase OceanDAO (including WGs) transparency, visibility, openness
• Identify ways for OceanDAO to scale further

3.2 Project-Guiding WG

Mission: To help guide OceanDAO grant proposers and recipients to add value via: discussions, project assessments, ways to leverage the network, and candid feedback. In turn, we hope that a decentralized review and guidance process may lead to many teams that are more effective, as a key part of growing the Ocean ecosystem. The project-guiding WG should help promote a “feeling of safety” for teams. Not gatekeepers.

Stewards: Razvan Olteanu, Alex Napheys

Meetings: Mondays 10.00 ET, 16.00 CET, 17.00 EET

(plus meetings with individual teams by members of WG)

3.3 Core Tech WG

Mission: Steward community initiatives towards high-impact technical outcomes. Near-term mandate: for each grants round, provide 3–10 target tech projects for “earmarks”.

Stewards: Trent McConaghy, Alex Coseru

Meetings: Tuesdays 15.30 CET, 16.30 EET

Responsibilities of Group: Document tech opportunities to improve Ocean product ecosystem, which can be readily done outside OPF core team. These can be improvements to core tech, integrations, or potentially apps on top. Turn top-ranking ones into earmarks and more.

3.4 OceanDAO Engineering WG

Mission: To align internal and external contributors, and improve overall technical output towards OceanDAO Engineering roadmap deliverables. To help identify opportunities and solutions that deliver an efficient DAO-stack across all verticals (grants execution, funding, voting, delegation, UX, treasury management, working groups, etc).

Stewards: Roberto Alcantara

Meetings

• Every Mon, Wed, Thurs 15:45 CET, 16:45 EET (15 min)
• Every Tue 17.00 CET, 18.00 EET (60 min)

3.5 Data Consume Volume WG

Mission: To define best practices, build processes, and increase alignment across all participants within the Ocean Ecosystem towards Data Set supply, liquidity, and most importantly Data Consume Volume.

Stewards: Razvan Olteanu, Sheridan Johns

Meetings: Every 2nd Mon 11.00 ET, 17.00 CET, 18.00 EET. First mtg is Nov 22, 2021.

3.6 Outreach WG

Mission: To define best practices, build processes, and increase alignment across all participants within the Ocean Ecosystem towards building relevant outreach initiatives for Ocean Protocol.

Stewards: Monica Botez, Casiana Neagu

Meetings: Every other Thursday 15.00 CET.

4. Town Halls

We are updating our Town Hall agenda to improve the UX of every participant, and coordination around every engagement inside OceanDAO.

We will be covering: Grants Program, WGs, Deep Dives, and Dockside.

• The Grants Program section will talk about where we are in the funding process, provide visibility into the program, and celebrate each step of the way.
• The WG section will have each steward present 1–3 slides that cover what each WG is up to.
• Deep Dive will be presented by both Core & DAO contributors, taking us further into their journeys and providing deep insights into their progress.
• Dockside will be a period where we invite all Core & DAO participants to share updates, talk about their projects, their proposals, and general updates behind their progress.

Here is the outline for our Nov 10, 2021 Town Hall zoom session which we’ll be using into the future. You can view the TEC Community Call to get an idea of the structure for increased visibility across all WGs.

5. Looking Ahead

Our goal is to continue expanding DAO-first initiatives that facilitate coordination and outcomes towards key organizational pillars. Every WG is aligned with a pivotal mission that will help realize the goals of Ocean Protocol.

Working Groups have been developed around evergreen initiatives that will forever benefit from contributions. There are more WGs that are currently being considered, such as those that involve Outreach:

• Awareness & Community
• Grant Proposal & Referral
• Business Development

We will continue to reflect on key organizational initiatives and how we can all benefit from increased transparency, coordination, and decentralization.

6. Conclusion

This article introduces OceanDAO Working Groups (WGs). They are a development of OceanDAO’s social layer, as part of a broader shift to embrace and leverage the growing number of participants inside the Ocean Ecosystem.

We have shifted OceanDAO focus away from “ROI > 1”, and towards “value add” with a larger emphasis on community. It’s a softer, gentler DAO that gives more space and freedom for experimentation.

There are WGs for guiding projects, parameters & roadmap, engineering, and more. We invite you to join us on Discord, attend our meetings, and become a WG member!

7. Notes

[1] Working Groups were first announced at the Nov 10, 2021 OceanDAO Town Hall.