Grant Proposal: raindropsDAO

[admin]

Grant ID: 33376cp

Summary:

raindropsDAO is a community of artists, writers, authors, developers, and students. We organize events and engage the users and create job opportunities for them.
We have a group of ex-students who want to learn and educate #web3 fundamentals and how Graph Protocol can help them excel.

I have read and agree to the privacy policy:
true

If available, please enter a link to your project below:
https://www.raindropsdao.xyz

Are you applying as a team or individual?:
Team

What type of grant are you pursuing?:
Project (one-off)

Please select the category your project best fits into:
Education

Please select who you think will benefit from your project?:
Other

How much funding are you looking for? (USD):
20000

Have you applied for (or already received) funding from somewhere else?:
No

What’s your vision for how your project will impact The Graph and/or web3?:
I want more people to know the advantages of #web3 and #TheGraphProtocol
I have a team of developers and educators interested in #web3 and I believe The Graph can support me on this journey.

1. #web3 provides a decentralized approach, and we can all achieve this by educating. Today many colleges and universities are interested in learning about blockchain, #we3 #metaverse but there is no formal education system in place.

2. We are not replacing educational institutes but we are creating a new module to learn and excel in #web3

3. These would include Bootcamps, Workshops, and Online Classes.

What can you share about any past work that is relevant to this grant?:
I run Raindrops Books Private Limited, a book publishing, and media company. I organize literature events and of late we have been organizing LitVerse (Literature& Metaverse)

Where we help students learn #web3 and how wallets to function. www.raindropsfest.com and:

PANEL DISCUSSIONS
NFT LAUNCHES
AR/VR EXPERIENCE ZONE
NFT MASTERCLASS
BLOCKCHAIN
CRYPTOS
DeFi

Can you share any information about current/past web3 experience?:
I have been a part of various web3 events across the nation. I organise the Raindrops LitVerse Festival (www.raindropsfest.com)

Why are you interested in contributing to The Graph and/or web3?:
The Graph has good fundamentals that one can rely on.
And while working on any project, I am looking for long-term support and guidance. I have seen projects under The Graph and love the way the community supports them.

Primary Community Poll

Do you fundamentally support this grant application, knowing that the final scope and grant amount may differ from the requested proposal?

• Yes
• No

Grant Committee Vote

Do you recommend this grant to the DAO?

• Yes
• No

[Mr.1776]

Hello,

Thank you for submitting your community grant application! After reviewing your submission I have a few follow up questions for you. Please be as specific as possible in your responses.

• Can you please describe a detailed breakdown of how the $20,000 would be spent.
• On your website it says that RaindropsDAO aims to provide “the tools and resources they (artists) need to pivot and succeed.” Can you describe what specific types of tools and resources are available to RaindropsDAO members?
• In your whitepaper, it seems like this initiative and DAO is specifically for residents in India but I don’t see any mention of India in your application. Can you provide details on that discrepancy?
• How many bootcamps, workshops, and online classes would you aim to provide with this funding?
• Can you describe how you would educate DAO members about The Graph and specifically what content/topics you would be covering?

Thank you again for submitting your application! Looking forward to your responses.

[doxe01.eth]

Greetings!

Thank you for your application and for your time. In general, all the questions I wanted to ask, asked @Mr.1776. A question from me, what was the average number that participated in your events?

Thank you!

[bernarddsa]

RaindropsDAO Community Proposal

INTRODUCTION:

Bernard Dsa : I am a writer, author, and poet. I have written 10 books to date. As an avid believer in God, I believe that poets and entrepreneurs will be the next change-makers in this world. I am a Web3 enthusiast, organizing literature experiences into the metaverse and exploring the utilization of blockchain in our current world. building a community of literature lovers, being a part of Namastey NFT and other Web3 meets. Through Raindrops DAO, We are connecting with Educators, and students apart from creative folks. ( A Wider Audience of WEB3 & Blockchain community space )
I also host Bernard D’sa Talk Show & Followers on Instagram 59K+ wherein I interview people from various walks of life.

Meena: I am an educator and an award-winning author. I teach at school and conduct workshops for students on literature, language, and technology. Since 2021, we have introduced blockchain, web3, metaverse, and cryptos.

PROPOSAL

(EDU Warriors are a humble initiative of bringing experienced and selfless educators ready to give back to their profession. We are all set to send the first set of teaching aids to the schools to learn about coding, blockchain technology, and boot camps)

1. These are ex-students (alumni) of various schools. We have a group of students who join in for various social causes and creative workshops. We had recently organized a technical workshop for these students at an institute in Mumbai, wherein we had 250 students who took part and received certificates and goodies.

2. Since 2021, we have started EDU Warriors —boot camps and workshops on web3, blockchain, and the metaverse. Last month, we conducted a workshop on the blockchain, and we had over 400 students in total.

Team of Edu Warriors (photo)

3. We have over 30,000 registered students in the community and would like to organize more of these events, workshops, and boot camps.

Students Workshop on Coding and Creativity

We also had a chance to interact with Simon Schmid during ETHIndia as he was discussing Fullstack DApp development. Where he showed a demo.

RAINDROPS FEST (tech fest, lit fest)

The Raindrops LitVerse Festival is a celebration of literature and books in the world of the Metaverse. We will be exploring the craft, writers’ mindsets, and technological wonders around the web3 and the future of books.

We also
PANEL DISCUSSIONS
NFT LAUNCHES
AR/VR EXPERIENCE ZONE
NFT MASTERCLASS
BLOCKCHAIN
CRYPTOS
DeFi

ROADMAP

October 2022 - December 2022

• We have lined up 4 boot camps and 3 workshops on Blockchain, Cryptos, and Metaverse.

• We have 600 students already registered in total for these workshops.

• We want to onboard all these students to Web3 and teach them how the L1/L2 chain works and also help them create and mint NFT’s

• We have also referred The Graph · GitHub and Materials, which we will incorporate during the workshop.

• We plan to onboard a batch of 1000 students, create an engagement and provide them with materials and teach them how to use the platform, NFT’s, and how to generate value for the ecosystem.

Jan 2023 - June 2023

• We will organize an event for these students to have a LIVE experience of the Grant Protocol.
• We will focus on getting these students to create NFT’s, and DApps in the future.
• Multiple events and boot camps.

We would be collaborating and organizing the RaindropsFest, wherein we invite end users to try and understand how the network works and have a hands-on experience.

TARGET:

• We plan to onboard 3000 students in the 6 months and get them trained
• 3000 Students to the ecosystem with their wallets, and custom wallet names (ens)
• We plan to have bounties and contests to engage our community members.
• We will have free NFTs for new people
• Estimated timeline and achievement milestones June 2023
• Organizing Events for the Community
• Creating a New Set of Artwork and Passes for Web3 Community - Artworks / Content
• Raindrops Project will give Open access to connect their existing Community.
• Holder of NFTs will get early access to Event / Raindrops LiteFestival and Online Seminar Session, Metaverse Meet-up

FUNDING

• Venue Cost: $3000 (3 different venues)
• Materials Printing Cost: $900 (printing of materials, notepads, pens, whiteboard, markers etc)
• Snacks: $1000 (tea/coffee snacks at the venue, during the workshops)
• Banners, and posters $1000 (posters to be put up across the Venue, colleges, and schools inviting to attend)
• Social Media Setup: $1600 (banners & posters for facebook, instagram,twitter)
• Goodies: $1500 (Swags like a sticker, badges, notebooks, tshits, for best performer, etc)
• WEB#3 Space: $1000 (creating wallets, and onboarding students)
  *VR- Metaverse Experience - $1000
  (Oculus Quest 5nos on a rental basis)
  *Travel and Stay for experts $2000
  *Students travel from college to event location $2000
• Hostel/Dormitories for students $2000
  *Food for students/staff $3000

More about the Project

Raindrops DAO (@RaindropsDao Lnk.Bio · link in bio)
Raindrops Books (raindropsbooks.com)
Raindrops Fest (raindropsfest.com)

I am very happy to bring my dreams here and look forwards to extended support.
@Mr.1776 @doxe01.eth @admin

[bernarddsa]

Thanks @Mr.1776 for being supportive, I have attached the entire project plans and execution part which I missed initially.

1. We are targeting Indian residents, as Web3 adoption is getting a huge response and eventually will spread to different parts of the world.
2. Initially, when we started, we adopted artists (writers, designers, and graphic artists) and provided them with tools like Canva for designing, teaching them how to use wallets and DApps, for storage, we used IFPS, for calls and conferences, we used Huddle01 instead of Zoom or Google Meet. We wanted them to adopt #web3 technology and Brave Browser for browsing and adding other web3 DApps.
3. We are working on the white paper and will share it once it’s ready, We had initially planned for artists (writers, designers, and graphic artists) as our main business is Raindrops Books and we already have a network of over 40.000 people across the globe. So Raindrops Books became the main source in the formation of DAO but as we grew, we started getting a good response from students who were eager to learn, and hence we collaborated with Educators and started supporting them.
4. We also had a chance to interact with Simon Schmid during ETHIndia as he was discussing Fullstack DApp development. where he showed a demo.
   We have also referred to [The Graph · GitHub] (The Graph · GitHub) and materials, which we will incorporate during the workshop.

I am happy to discuss this further in detail. Thanks once again for the support.

[bernarddsa]

Hello @doxe01.eth
Thank you for your question. When we did Raindrops LitVerse Festival we had a moving crowd of 2500 people approx. Few visit only for their favorite authors’ sessions and few for workshops.

So we had the main stage, where the main discussion was happening, and the second stage, where authors could promote themselves in front of the media.
Then we had an AR/VR zone where we showed how the future would look in the Metaverse, how education, reading, and other events would happen. We had bookstores and other web3-related stalls apart from amazing food.

Sharing one of the published about Raindrops Fest

1. When Literature meets Metaverse #raindropsfest | Entrepreneur Street

2. Raindrops illuminating Literature & Metaverse – Entrepenuer Stories

When we do boot camps, we have 80–100 students who join in. When we do it in their university auditorium we get 180-200 students
When we do it online we have 300+ students

This is a picture from one of our events for the masterclass

[doxe01.eth]

@bernarddsa

• *Travel and Stay for experts $2000
  *Students travel from college to event location $2000
• Hostel/Dormitories for students $2000
  *Food for students/staff $3000

A very large amount of information, much appreciated from myself personally for being able to find the time to write this. Pretty much everything in detail and generally answers the questions that have been asked. But it is interesting to know this point. That is, do you want to hold an event that pre-registered users (students) will come to, or do you plan to select them yourself somehow?

[bernarddsa]

Thanks @doxe01.eth

Initially, we were onboarding every student who registered or expressed interest. But lately, we used a Google form to select interested students.

Going forward, we would have a pre-registration and a questionnaire about blockchain and web3.

We also intend to keep the hybrid boot camp running so that anyone who is interested but is not chosen for whatever reason can attend it online and express his interest in other events.

[Mr.1776]

Thanks for your responses @bernarddsa . A few additional questions for you after reviewing your follow up:

• You mentioned that “We have also referred The Graph · GitHub and Materials, which we will incorporate during the workshop.” Can you please provide in detail what topics about the Graph would be covered in these bootcamps and workshops?
• In one section of your response it says you’re looking to onboard 1000 students and in another it says 3000 students. Can you confirm which of these numbers is correct?
• Lastly, can you describe the methodology for the line items in your budget? Some of them seem quite quite low (i.e. venue costs for 7 events = $3k and Food for 3000 students = $3k). I could be misinterpreting this, just wondering how the numbers were created.

Thanks again for your initial detailed response! Looking forward to your answers to the questions above.

[bernarddsa]

Thanks for the questions and support @Mr.1776

Sorry for the delay, as we were finishing our last event blockchain for the year.

1. We are focusing on L1s, so with graphs, we will start with indexing, contracts, subgraphs, and the graph node. (our expert team is working on structuring the course)

2. The road map shared is from October 2022 to December 2022, so right now we have 800+ students enrolled but with the support of the Graph Protocol, we plan to achieve a target of 3000 students in the next 6 months

3. The seven events are divided as follows: 3 boot camps require $3000 in funding; 2 events are held on the college campus and do not require funding, and the remaining 2 sessions or events are held online via Zoom.

[doxe01.eth]

Unfortunately, this grant proposal did not generate the level of support in the community to move it to the next phase of the grant application process.

Thank you for submitting this proposal, and you are encouraged to stay engaged in the Graph community. You are also welcome to submit new grant applications in the future with proposals that may generate stronger community support.

Best Regards,
Graph AdvocatesDAO

[bernarddsa]

Hello @Mr.1776 & @doxe01.eth

Thanks for your support. Now that we have decided to include Graph Protocol in our boot camp, we have studied indexing and how important it is. I would like to ask you the following question:

1. What do we need to do to improve our syllabus for boot camp?
2. What changes do we need to make to get support from the team?
3. We would work on our first BootCamp and come back with an update and send a new proposal; what else do we need to present here?

Our team of experts has worked really hard and I would like to present it in the best possible way.

Thanks.

[Colson]

Hey @bernarddsa,

Thank you for bringing forward this highly detailed and extensive grant proposal.

While I like the idea of educating the masses about The Graph, I do not fundamentally support this grant proposal in its current form. I will provide you my reasoning for this decision, and will provide some thought on changes that may change my personal opinion.

Reasoning and questions:

1. The provided link to the raindropfest website is giving me phishing warnings on my device. This might only be happening on my pc, but I wanted to let you know.

2. The amount of $20000 is a big part of the Grant-Committee budget. I understand that this is a big project with a multitude of events, but committing this amount of funding to one grant will reduce the possibility of funding other grants.

3. It is unclear to me what the measurable performance indicators for this grant are, how would the grant-committee evaluate the success of funding this grant proposal?

4. You have provided a target of 3000 students entering the ecosystem with a costum wallet name, which role do you foresee these students taking on in the ecosystem?

5. In your targets you mention costum wallets, free NFT’s and artwork. In your proposed curriculum, you mention indexing, (smart?) contracts, subgraphs and Graph node. I do not see the relation between the subjects in the curriculum and the proposed targets, would you mind explaining the relation between both?

Changes that may change my personal opinion:

1. Lowering the total amount of asked funding. Things I am thinking about:

• Lowering the amount of events.

• Ask technical teachers/web3 welcomers (Graph Advocates) to help out with the event, lowering the cost for experts/travel.

• Lowering the cost for food and stay.

2. Stronger performance indicators. Things I am thinking about:

• X amount of students succesfully joining the graph advocates program (The Graph Advocacy)

• X amount of students succesfully completing the subgraph developer course on: Subgraph Developer Course | The Graph Academy

• X amount of students succesfully joining SubgraphDAO, helping out with migrating/developing subgraphs.

3. Providing public access to the course, so other teams around the globe can use the material too. This way ecosystem experts, including Graph Advocates, can help you with the course material. They can also support you in creating promotional material for the event(s).

Final thoughts:
I would love to grow and support The Graph community in India, and would love to help out in any way I can. However, the amount of funding and my perceived lack of strong performance indicators make me say no to the current proposal. I would love to see a follow-up proposal, and I hope you stay around to strengthen the ecosystem in India!

[juliannaMLN]

I support the feedback provided by @Colson and would love to see you including the points in your future proposal. I will keep my fingers crossed for you @bernarddsa

[doxe01.eth]

I will also provide my feedback. Initially, I voted yes, but then I also changed my feedback to no. What @Colson has written is quite skillfully and accurately describes what I would like to say and bring to you. I would also like to add on this point:

@Colson

Providing public access to the course, so other teams around the globe can use the material too. This way ecosystem experts, including Graph Advocates, can help you with the course material. They can also support you in creating promotional material for the event(s).

That as a result of such open interaction, we could see localization of materials into other languages, which would increase the reach of stakeholders in the long run. I hope that you will take into account the wishes and will not be afraid to ask questions or ask for help.

All the best @bernarddsa!