Collaboration: NGI grant proposal

Right now we are in the process of shaping the next phase of development for GoalPost. For this grant, we’d love to explore how integrating with PLANET/Murmurations and Kendraio could make our proposal even stronger and benefit us all. A few ideas that come to mind:

• integration of Murmurations and GoalPost might allow groups to collaborate more easily and effectively with each other

• integration of Kendraio and GoalPost might enable end users to tailor their own digital spaces and easily connect with their data sources

On another topic, our group wants to be intentional when we begin a new collaboration. The Seed COC team working on GoalPost is me, Robert, and Björn & Vanessa Michael. We decided to write a relational invitation for when we are beginning a collaboration. Our group is focused on caring relationships first, after all, and technology second, in support of those relationships. Please have a look at our invitation when you have time, and we welcome your reflections and feedback. You're welcome to comment here or in the document.

We're excited about the possibilities and look forward to hearing from you!

As promised, @Daniel Harris @Oli SB, I am posting a link to our open source GoalPost GitHub repository, which we just made public. It represents the code for our first prototype software, which is currently packaged as an app as we discussed. More information about the architecture of the prototype is discussed in the ReadMe. The ReadMe also provides instructions for creating your own instance of the app, and the configurations required for integrating with your own infrastructure.

Here is the link to a demo version of the app, populated with fully AI-generated test data established for a set of conceptual communities, people, goals, resources, core values and care points and relevant relationships. Note that we leveraged an AI assistant to do this that has been trained in relational and non-extractive thinking and intelligence,, which is aligned with our Community of Care core values and principles. However, none of the data represents real situations, communities or people, and consequently any of the contact information is purely made up. In this case, we wanted and used focused hallucinations!

This demo app is hosted in the AWS Europe region to reach the widest range of audiences. You can login to the app to explore its features and the test data in context, using any of the credentials provided here. However, since this is our demo app, we’re asking that you don’t change any passwords. Feel free however to create new nodes to get a feel for the UX while exploring the app.

Also, we have made available a GraphQL endpoint for the demo app to enable exploring application of Kendra io capabilities to facilitate a user-defined UX. Instructions for access are provided here. Note that an access key is required for the endpoint, and that’s fully described in the documentation. Since GraphQL is self-describing, you are able to explore the full graph schema.

We look forward for collaborating further and exploring integration with Murmurations and Kendra io, and any feedback that the Open Group may provide on our initial GoalPost prototype.🙂

Thanks @RobertD for the GraphQL endpoint. We'll take a look shortly. cc @Luke Stanley @Halima McCarthy @PlumSH

@RobertD thanks a lot for this - really useful :)

Hello @Oli SB @Jennifer Damashek @RobertD , looking over the application form it does seem like it is written for one participant. We have looked over the FAQ and it is not clear. We will send an email to NLnet and cc you all. We will ask if more than one person can apply for a single application. We do note that the maximum funding is 50K EUR. However, the application page does say "We are seeking project proposals between 5.000 and 50.000 euro's — with the possibility to scale them up signficantly if there is proven potential." So, the question is do we apply together or separately for the Murmurations project? 50K EUR is not a lot of cash when spread over multiple partners. This is pretty hard to figure out.

@Daniel Harris Hi Daniel, thank you for raising these important questions. To be honest, we weren’t sure how collaborating on the grant would work. We are gaining clarity this week and next on exactly what we want to accomplish in the second phase of development of GoalPost, and that was going to be the main focus of the grant application for us.

The first phase of development cost us less than $10K USD, and we funded it ourselves. We are thinking we will need around $40K for the next phase. We are using the ShapeUp approach to developing GoalPost, which means we have specific outcomes for each six week cycle, and we want a whole, complete, working product to be the outcome. For the first phase, we shaped the project so that we would have something truly useful for our little communities, something that would move us toward our long-term vision but was completely feasible with the time and money we allocated. We were successful in this!

So back to our collaboration--we’ve also been sitting with this tension — how to approach the grant application so that all the projects are benefiting while recognizing that these grant frameworks often encourage fragmentation.

Like I said, our current thinking is that this application will primarily focus on Phase 2 development of GoalPost: building out core functionalities, security layers, and a stronger relational interface. That said, interoperability with aligned tools like Kendraio and Murmurations is a vital part of our vision.

Perhaps the strongest approach could be:

• GoalPost applies for its second-phase development, explicitly naming planned interoperability work with Kendraio and Murmurations as key milestones.

• Kendraio and Murmurations could either apply separately for complementary development, citing interoperability with GoalPost and PLANET, or — if NLnet’s structure allows — join as formal collaborators or subcontractors in the same proposal.

Would it be helpful for you to understand more about what we are planning for the next phase of GoalPost, and how we could partner with Kendraio in the process so that both our projects move forward meaningfully?

Yes please @Jennifer Damashek! That would be helpful. Also @Halima McCarthy just send the question to NLnet and you were all cc'ed. So, we'll see what they say.

OK! After reading "Your first proposal can only be between 5.000 en 50.000 euro. You can follow up with other project proposals, up to 500.000 euro over the lifetime of the programme." And the programme runs from "January 1st 2024 and June 30st 2027". I suggest we should initially apply for a joint project for 50K and split three ways. And then ramp up if we successful. We need to get our feet in the door! What say you? I'll be honest though that having a US participant is not impossible but will be a slight negative in terms of priority. Just to confirm we are all nonprofit and open source? @Jennifer Damashek @RobertD @Oli SB

@Daniel Harris Thank you for that suggestion! Robert and I talked it over with the rest of our team, and we are open applying as a joint project and splitting the award three ways, with the understanding that the funding split and collaborative plan will be shaped based on mutual clarity, alignment, and benefit.

Although Robert and I are based in the U.S., the Seed COC is not a legal entity, and our team spans Canada, Germany, Argentina, and the U.S. We’re actively looking for a fiscal sponsor in Europe, the UK, or Canada. GoalPost is open-source under the Apache-2.0 license, and our stewardship aligns with non-profit, commons-based principles.

I don’t know if you saw that I posted our prioritized tasks for the next phase of development in a different message earlier today.

We also have a demonstration of our current prototype now on our website.

We are excited to collaboratively shaping the grant proposal. It would be great to have some ideas of what specific outcomes would benefit Kendraio and Murmurations, which could be accomplished collaboratively.

@Jennifer Damashek Murmurations is 100% open source. From my perspective I'd like to see GoalPost being able to spit out Murmurations compatible .json files for any Offers/Wants for which the user ticks 'share with the wider network' and for the Index to be updated accordinly with suitable tags etc - and updated with any changes (e.g. if the offer is removed), if we could make that happen with the funds from NLnet (or otherwise) it would be awesome.