Arweave Grow Crew 16

A group of individuals growing the Permaweb ⓐ

Published: 1/31/2023

Notes from the call on 01/04/23

A Happy New Year to all Arweavers and beyond. With fresh eyes on the future of the Permaweb, building is happening like we haven’t seen before.

We’re enjoying these sessions, perhaps we expand?

Thus far the “Grow Crew” is a group of individuals from the Arweave ecosystem that congregated at events, discord, and DMs with the idea of getting together to “talk shop” about the Permaweb. It’s been fun to have a space to riff on concepts, philosophy, and the potential for growth of the community. Our bi-weekly cadence tends to fit well with the group and keeps us connected while also having space to think and build.

The importance of Open Web Foundry “Demo Days” came up, and we all agreed that there were pivotal moments at those events that continue to influence our relationship to the community at large. Perhaps we’ll host a “Demo Day” via the community - once per quarter or twice a year.

We also explored the option of having these bi-weekly calls with a bit of a twist - the second session of each month becomes an event with a specific topic in mind for individuals to discuss (and accommodation for larger groups).

Growth opportunities: Bringing the community together is a powerful mechanism for things to happen -> and these “things” often amount to products being built, friendships created, and a cohesion that carries on. Demo days were once the epicenter of these experiences, and as they are no longer happening (at the moment!), there’s a path forward for building out a similar experience for the overall betterment of the community. We’re getting to work on it and exploring options.

The organic growth of the Cookbook

In a prior Grow Crew session, the need for a more curated developer onboarding experience came up in conversation as we traversed a number of topics. We held onto that thread, and have collectively (along with several amazing community members) built out the Cookbook.

This is a great example as to why we do these hangout sessions with the clear emphasis on Arweave -> things come out of it organically. While we didn’t plan for this to occur, it points towards an important mechanism in the community: when individuals come together from various backgrounds with a shared interest, cool stuff can happen.

Growth opportunities: Focusing on the greater good of the ecosystem assists all protocols and projects involved at every level. The more quality information that can be easily found, the better for everyone. That’s what is happening with the Cookbook, and while it’s early days, we’re seeing some very intriguing results.

Governance is hard, don’t let it slow you down

Watching the development of a grassroots ecosystem resource has been (and continues to be) a lot of fun. There are challenges of course - some due to difference of opinion, and others just to manage expectations and organization. One area that is particularly difficult is governance.

While there can be debates as to the ideal format of organizing a DAO, or governance structure, there isn’t much room for debate if that conversation alone is blocking the project altogether. It was noted that we just needed to start with something and get this rolling as opposed to getting it “perfectly right”. The fruits of that decision are already beginning to show, with a pretty comprehensive list of core concepts, guides, and more being created (even over the holidays!).

Growth opportunities: Sometimes the simple path is the ideal path, especially if the more complex route is stalling building. Iteration and open communication can go a long way. We are now building a community resource, by the community. We didn’t let governance slow us down, and we’re now learning what is actually needed as more individuals contribute (as opposed to building it all out without a sense of needs).

Welcome to 2023, builders

If the very beginning of the year is any indication, we’re seeing developer resources improve across the board. This is incredibly important for the ecosystem - more DevRel positions are being filled at various protocols, which in turn means better onboarding throughout. Cheers to builders, let’s do this.

Thanks for tuning in as we grow the Arweave community. Here's to the Arweave community and the growth of the Permaweb! 🐘 🌱