RFP-5: Community Hubs [CLOSED]

Devcon RFPs
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TL;DR

Devcon Bogota will have a dedicated (physical) space for communities! :tada: For the first time, communities, initiatives, interest groups or collectives can apply for their chance to become a dedicated “Community Hub”. Once allocated a space, the selected organising groups will be responsible for the space and what happens in it throughout the course of the whole conference.

RFP Description

Community Hubs are dedicated spaces, which selected community groups and initiatives will be able to (to a certain degree) shape on their own. By enabling a handful of communities to create, discuss and display content of their choice we pave the way for a more decentralised and community-driven Devcon.

You can imagine Community Hubs like stalls, or booths at a fair, but probably a bit bigger and, very importantly, without the product marketing!

There will be roughly 5-10 areas available, depending on the space needs and size of the accepted initiatives. Each accepted initiative will receive up to 10 Devcon VI tickets for the Community Hub facilitators and organisers.

A Community Hub should offer a clear benefit for the Devcon audience and should be accessible 100% to all Devcon attendees (must not be used as private meeting space). It’s crucial that each Community Hub is dedicated to and centred around one specific cause or topic.

A few ideas of what a Community Hub could be centred around:

  • UX & Design
  • Scaling
  • Security
  • Diversity
  • Hackathon communities
  • Local communities
  • EIPs / Ethereum Improvement
  • Non-for-profit / blockchain-for-social-good
  • (Digital) Art and blockchain / NFTs
  • ReGen communities
  • … and probably many more!

Community Hubs should be designed to complement the Devcon program by offering something like:

  • Office hours on their (expert) topics
  • Discussion rounds
  • Learning or informational material on their topic
  • A place for this group and interested parties to meet
  • Interactive experiences depending on their topic

Community Hubs can be equipped with the following materials, according to the communities needs:

  • Signage
  • Limited amount of chairs or sitting furniture
  • Power outlets
  • Desks
  • A TV-sized screen you can connect to via HDMI cable
  • Whiteboards

Reminder: As Community Hubs should complement the program that is happening on the stages, there will be no option to build stages or use microphones in these areas!

Requirements

As a community, initiative, interest group or collective, you must provide the following documents and information if you want to apply:

  • Short description of the topic/cause for your Community Hub
  • Outline what you will offer to the Devcon attendees; how you will make best use of the space
  • Rough outline of your Community Hubs program and planned “opening hours” of your Community Hub
  • List of dedicated people that will organise, oversee and be responsible for the Community Hub
  • List of equipment/production needs (see what’s possible in the description above)

All of the Community Hubs must follow the Community Hub guidelines:

  • Marketing-free (complementary to what happens in the supporters area!), no shilling of specific tokens or projects.
  • No bull shit.
  • Tech-focused, community-focused.
  • Must offer a benefit for the audience and should be accessible 100% to all Devcon audience.
  • Dedicated to and centred around one specific cause or topic.
  • Must be overseen by the Community Hub organisers for the main opening hours of the conference (Oct 11-14, roughly 9AM - 5PM).

Outstanding Questions

Which Community Hub would you like to see at Devcon? Comment below to inspire the community or share this with institutions or communities you’d like to see hosting a Community Hub. :slight_smile:

Ideate!

Comment below for questions, clarifications, or simple ideas. If you have a proposed solution, start a new topic that details it specifically in the Community Hub category of this forum, and welcome comments, feedback, and discussion! The idea should address all points made here, as well as all requirements laid out in DIP-0. After evaluation of your idea, we may ask for a more in-depth plan or other details.

Deadline to Submit your DIP

All DIPs responding to this RFP must be submitted by August 15, 2022.

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For a few inspirations how a Community Hub could look like, check out the Continuous Devcon page on devcon.org here → Meet Continuous Devcon — Devcon Bogotá, Oct 11 → 14 :sparkles:

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If a MEV related projects wants to apply for a community hub, will there also be an opportunity to incorporate a stage or venue in some other location? Or I guess who should we connect with to see if there is an opportunity to be apart of the main conference?

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Hmmm, I see we missed the application deadline for speaking at the conference. Would anyone be able to recommend suitable locations near by for 50 people?

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Hi McNut, Hoteles Cosmos is near the convention center, and have great rooms available and more than 17 conference rooms where you could organize events for way more than 50 people, even 1000. If you want, I can help you with it.

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Thanks for the response. Approximately how far is that from the convention center?

Has anyone considered the Universidad Nacional de Colombia? It looks like its just across the street.

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30 mins away in car aprox

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Is there any indication of where the community might be staying or gathering after the main events are over? Is Hoteles Cosmos near any other gatherings at this point?

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Hi @McNut! It would be certainly interesting to have an MEV community hub at Devcon! Since the community hubs are a complementary offer to the main programming, there will be no stage there.

Quoting from the above description:

Community Hubs should be designed to complement the Devcon program by offering something like:

  • Office hours on their (expert) topics
  • Discussion rounds
  • Learning or informational material on their topic
  • A place for this group and interested parties to meet
  • Interactive experiences depending on their topic

Also, please note that Community Hubs are not for promoting a single solution (e.g. one particular MEV project), but rather being an educational gathering space around a specific topic or cause (e.g. MEV in general). It could be great to join forces with other MEV projects for such a community hub, in case this is generally interesting for you.

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Hi, will the community hub be located in the same venue where the main conference happens? How big the allocated space will be? Similar to the pictures under “Hacker Basement” of this page?

Thanks

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Hi @huangkuan,

Yes the community hubs will be in the same venue as the conference. On the ground floor of that building to be exact. :slight_smile:

Exactly as you said, you can see renderings of the community hubs on the page you linked.

This image e.g. shows a theoretical rendering of the space with. 6 community hubs. Of course it will look a bit different in real life, but just to give you a rough idea.

The size of the community hub will depend a bit on how many we will accept in the end. I can ask for a rough m² estimate if that helps you?

image
image1920×1080 194 KB

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Just to make sure, the area around a single monitor would be one community hub? Is there an approximate allowed headcount in each hub?

A few other q’s

  • would the hub be open all 4 days?
  • for approved hubs, is food or anything like that provided? if it’s in the same venue as the main conference, are folks expected to go other areas for food?

We (SCRF & TEA) were thinking of getting 10-20 partner groups for a series of workshops / office hours throughout DevCon (2 days cryptoecon, 2 days governance; for each, 1 day we set up, 1 day get community proposed ideas). I was thinking it’d be a separate room somewhere but if it’s in this open space, do you think that’s still feasible?

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Hello. With who I can disscuss sponsorship opportunity and showcase application out there on the upcoming devCon? @Deva

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Once we post our Community Hub idea here to the Forum, do we also need to use GitHub to submit it?

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This is helpful. Thanks!

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Hey @eleventh19,

Will try to answer your questions 1 by 1. :slight_smile:

Just to make sure, the area around a single monitor would be one community hub? Is there an approximate allowed headcount in each hub?

Yes exactly. One hub area will be roughly 24m² of space and will be able to fit roughly 12 people at a time (of course depending on whether people are standing or sitting and how crowded they stand next to each other).

would the hub be open all 4 days?

Yes, as outlined here in the RFP’s requirements section: “Must be overseen by the Community Hub organisers for the main opening hours of the conference (Oct 11-14, roughly 9AM - 5PM).”

for approved hubs, is food or anything like that provided? if it’s in the same venue as the main conference, are folks expected to go other areas for food?

It is the same venue (on the ground floor of the main Devcon venue) and is supposed to be a seamless part of the event (like a community fair), and yes of course the attendees will get food as part of Devcon. The food will be served in dedicated food stations, not in the Community Hubs.

I was thinking it’d be a separate room somewhere but if it’s in this open space, do you think that’s still feasible?

What you are outlining might make more sense as a SLS (Self Lead Session) than a Community Hub. Or maybe a combination of both! A Community Hub is mainly meant as a dedicated place of exchange and learning, where people around a certain interest can discuss, learn, gather and educate. That can of course also include little sessions, but is not meant to be a big “program”. SLSs are a few hour long slots in one dedicated conference room of the Devcon venue. Probably it might make sense to split your idea up into two things - Community Hub + a SLS? adding @heather_claire here, who is leading efforts for Self Lead Sessions!

It might make sense if you just open up a new proposal in the Community Hub category, further outline your ideas there and we can iterate on it together?
→ Bogotá Community Hubs [CLOSED] - Devcon Forum

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Hi @franzihei, thanks for your feedback - Angela here :slight_smile: I’m collaborating with @eleventh19 on this proposal.
This idea sounds great, quick check: is there still space available at the SLS? We were assuming that these are already taken?
In case still available, yes - happy to discuss this further.
Thanks!

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Hello @franzihei thank you for all of the information. I’d like to inquire about the Self Lead Session. Are applications for this still being accepted? Where can I find out more?

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Oh hi Angela!! :slight_smile: Let me check with Heather on the SLS.

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Hey @akrtws - jumping in here! Please reach out to speak@devcon.org to discuss further. As we are heavily constrained by the schedule and interest from the community at speaking at this year’s Devcon, these SLS sessions are incredibly competitive.