Suggested experiment

An initial suggestion for how an open source contributor disbursement process could be started

An initial suggestion for experimenting with the open source contributors disbursement process:

• Suggested number of people - 1 to 5 contributors. Only a small number of people are needed to start learning about a contributor focused disbursement process.

• Suggested contribution length - 3 to 6 months. An ecosystem doesn’t need to over commit to this process initially. Starting with a modest contribution duration such as 6 months would be enough to learn a lot about any pain points and how the process could be improved. The disbursement process could be continued with another round of contributor selection after the initial experiment has proven to be successful.

• Suggested responsibilities - Open source developers. Developers can be selected from the community that are interested and capable of contributing towards different open source initiatives that could generate impact for the ecosystem.

Disbursement process design & structure

The founding entities could setup and manage this disbursement process entirely themselves if they have the capacity to do so. Alternatively the Web3 Association is looking to help with facilitation of any part of this process that they can help with.

Experiment facilitation & analysis

The Web3 Association is looking to support and facilitate any of the experiments for an open source contributor disbursement process. Some of the areas that the Web3 Association could help with include:

• Handling contributor proposals - Managing a solution for handling the submission and storage of contributor information. This could include any efforts involved with defining a suitable data structure to handle contributor related information.

• Contributor onboarding - Creating and managing resources that can help with the onboarding of contributors into the ecosystem and providing support where necessary.

• Contributor support - Providing one on one support to contributors about different issues or questions and creating resources that help to respond to the most commonly asked questions.

• Handling contribution logs - Managing a solution for handling the submission of monthly contribution logs that each contributor would need to submit. This can include the efforts involved with defining a suitable data structure to handle what data should be recorded and how it is formatted for each contribution log.

• Contribution log moderation - Reviewing the contribution logs submitted by contributors to verify what work has been completed and that it was in fact them that completed the work. This moderation process can help with ensuring that work is being completed before contributors become eligible for any future payments.

• Sentiment and feedback gathering - Both during and at the end of this experiment feedback and the current sentiment of both contributors and projects in the ecosystem can be gathered. Contributor feedback can help with determining whether this disbursement process is preferred over other approaches and also for gathering feedback from existing projects can help with highlighting the extent in which this disbursement process is useful to their own development efforts whilst building their own solutions.

• Experiment outcome analysis - Any results and learnings that emerge from these experiments can be documented and analysed to help with future improvements to the process. For instance the contribution logs could be analysed to identify better data structures and formats to capture important information or help with finding out what new data could be captured that might be currently missing.

Education resources & content

The Web3 Association intends to continue its efforts on making educational resources that provide insightful and actionable information for ecosystems that are building their own treasury solutions. Any research and analytical outcomes that come out of the open source contributor funding experiments will be added to the existing resources so that any learnings are shared with the wider industry.