RFP-5: Community Hubs [CLOSED]

30 mins away in car aprox

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?

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

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?

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?

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

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

This is helpful. Thanks!

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?
Community Hubs - 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?

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.

Hey @Erikazee - please reach out to speak@devcon.org to discuss further. Thanks!

Thanks @heather_claire - will do!

hello @franzihei ! I have some clarification questions regarding the community hub and hope to have a response soon!

  1. Do you have the venue size available for the entire area? I’m assuming its 24m² * 10 spots
  2. As an organiser is it alright to have sponsors so that we can support travel costs for contributors etc?
  3. Is there a rendering of the Devcon stage so that we can ensure that what we design complements the main Devcon program aesthetically?

Thank you!
QZ

Hi @QZ.Gitcoin

Did you already create a proposal?

  1. Wondering why you need the size of the entire space? Space allocation is still a bit in flux at the moment as we shuffle different areas around, but it will most likely be 6 x 24m²
  2. There should be no branding or product specific marketing at Community Hubs (see Community Hub Guidelines). You can have sponsors if this is necessary, but they shouldn’t take over the space or be marketed heavily.
  3. Please first hand in a proposal and get it accepted before starting the design process. :sweat_smile: All renderings that are currently available can be found on devcon.org

Thank you!

I don’t see this question being asked or answered, so I’m going to ask a challenging question that may open a whole can of worms and could need to become its own DIP.

What financial resources are available for Community Hubs?

Community organizing is work that I am happy to do:
facilitating conversations, organizing interactions, arranging collaborators, building event programs, generating visibility, inviting participants, seeding the vibes.
None of these things happen at a level of quality that makes people stand up and high-five without a lot of care going into them.

I think its awesome to have community interaction and genuine engagement as a feature at Devcon. I would love to enable that. I would also love to be reimbursed for that care work in such a way that enables me to also put food on the table and a roof over my kid’s heads.

The challenge I see is that so fare nowhere in this RFP is there a mention of how we might consider what that could look like. Is it just the expectation that everyone involved in a community hub volunteer their time, resources/energy and skills?

I notice that I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder, and defensive attitude, as I import frustration that care work is generally under-resourced. I feel a sense of aggression that makes me want to explain and justify why the work I do is worthy of reimbursement.

I’m happy to open this topic, @franzihei would you help me care for it and guide the conversation to a conclusion that everyone feels awesome about?

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Hi @JeremyGospelOfChange and thank you for your comments!

Community hubs is one of Devcon’s many experiments of dipping in the toes into a more community-curated and organized conferencing experience. They are inspired by amazing other community-effort based conferences like the Chaos Computer Club Congress (there, they call community spaces “assemblies” and they are much bigger :slight_smile:).

Community hubs should be from the community and for the community, and, at this point we don’t indent to financially “reimburse” people that collaborate on community hubs.

I’ve been doing a lot of “free” work for many years in form of honorary / voluntary work (e.g. core organizer of ETHBerlin here) and I love it! I think from a philosophical standpoint, Community Hubs should not be where you seek to earn money, but where you get fulfilment by meeting up with your communities, talking about your passions etc.

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