TL;DR: The Madison Blockchain group is getting re-launched; reply to this article if you're interested in helping be a part of that, or just interested in continuing to hear about local Blockchain-related happenings in Dane County, Wisconsin.
New Beginnings
Greetings from Madison, Wisconsin!
I've been around long enough to have seen several Madison "meetup" groups about blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies form and eventually disperse, and as I've seen that ebb and flow, I do think an important aspect to keep alive is keeping the lines of communication between interested parties open. Over the last several years, the number of software projects interested in and built upon blockchain technologies has gotten very big. And while the initial implementations of that technology have been cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, and derivative ideas that have evolved since its inception), I think keeping communication between all of them is important. But, the attendance at Madison Blockchain meetup events has greatly reduced over the past year, and with other leaders stepping down or having left town, I'm the last one left.
Hence, I've been working on a plan of what to do in the local Madison area with this community, and I'm kicking it off with this article, to see where people's interests lie!
Roadmap
My plan is to keep the "Madison Blockchain" branding alive, and reshape it into what I think would most help this local community at this point in time. The solution I think would work best is to position "Madison Blockchain" as a communications hub for all local Madison groups interested in the blockchain technology space. I envision this working somewhat like a University structure, where "Madison Blockchain" as a brand will maintain outgoing messages, and help triage incoming requests to the proper people, and then several "Colleges" would exist under that umbrella, to represent more focused program areas. Each "College" would have a "Dean" in charge of organizing and communicating within that College and up to the Madison Blockchain group. Based on the types of users I saw attending Madison Blockchain events in the past, some initial "Colleges" I think would be useful (and some types of events I'd envision that College hosting):
"Business Ventures": Focused on sharing knowledge about blockchain-focused businesses in the local area.
- "Show and Tell" presentations from 100crypto business on their product, targeting venture capitalists/investors.
- "Tutorial" presentations from 100crypto businesses on their product, with the intent of getting additional users interested.
- "Evangelism" drives, to create materials (handouts, signs, etc.) and communication plans for reaching out to existing Dane county businesses who aren't using blockchain technologies to start using them.
"Technical Tinkering": Focused on the technical knowledge of blockchain products.
- "Whitepaper Wednesday" book club gatherings, going over individual project's technical backing
- "Show and Tell" presentations from local developers to show what they're working on
- "Tutorial" presentations from local developers showing how to use blockchain development tools
"Crypto Investment Group": A group focused on actively taking part in governance of blockchain-related products. This group could be organized by a DAO smart contract, with members staking some crypto assets toward the group (need to have "skin in the game"), which the group would then manage and vote with (but the member could re-claim if they decided to leave the group).
- DAO Board meetings, where the group would discuss staking toward a new project, adding/removing members, etc.
- Governance meetings, when a project has an item up for a vote (e.g. MakerDAO having a new governance proposal)
"Welcome Aboard": Focused on introducing new ideas, and an onboarding track to get new members familiar with cryptocurrencies before joining other tracks.
- Bitcoin 101 education presentations, where very new members can get their toes wet.
- "Show and Tell" presentations, showcasing a specific DApp/project/tool, and how to use it, from a user perspective ("How do I use this thing?" presentations).
With that framework, events/meetups would be arranged and hosted by members of the different Colleges, with the Madison Blockchain group lending manpower (to set up events, host events, and knowledge share about spaces to have events and share contacts) and helping advertise events from a consistent feed. Initially, I'll take on the role of Communication Coordinator for the Madison Blockchain entity, which I plan to set up several "presences", with an emphasis on utilizing blockchain-based projects:
- "Madison Blockchain" will keep a presence on the STEEM blockchain (here at https://steemit.com/@mad-blockchain), which would serve as the primary communications feed for the group. All event notifications would be posted here, and it also would give the opportunity for posting Blogs or other content as well. Choosing STEEM as the main feed for the group also has some monetization options available, which would be good to help defray the cost of the groups' other subscriptions.
- "Madison Blockchain" would also keep a Meetup.com presence (costs money; here's where the main STEEM profits would go) and Facebook.com page. These are more "mainstream" social media platforms, so would be used mainly to re-post events and content relevant to new users (so primarily "Welcome Aboard" events, probably), and communicate with interested people and connect them to where they can find out more.
- As an optional/auxiliary feed, create a Peepeth presence, and wire it up to auto post to Twitter, as another means to broadcast event information.
- Organizers of the "Madison Blockchain" group (and Deans of the Colleges) would need some means to communicate with each other, and some sort of private chat system would be best for that. Status is an Ethereum-based project that provides that, so would be a good way to support a blockchain-based project in this space. Or Keybase has a relationship with Stellar (has an integrated wallet), or other options could be used.
What I'm looking for from you at this point:
If you're still interested in receiving communications about local Blockchain-related things, follow this feed, as that will become the main communication feed.
If you're interested in helping organize this group, either as a Dean of a College or as a volunteer pitching in time to help organize and host events, please post a comment here, and I'll get in touch.
If there's not a whole lot of reaction to this message, I'll take that as a sign that the need for local organizing has petered out for the time being, and will let things go into hibernation for a while. But I'm hopeful the new year will bring some renewed interest, and that we can continue to have some great, local discussions!
Thanks!
Brooks Boyd
@midnight426