Jan 17, 2024

Happy New Year, Makers!

We hope you were able to take some time away from your desk during the holidays and as we transitioned into 2024. We are feeling well rested, rejuvenated, and inspired to continue this important work of shaping emerging technologies for the public good! Thank you all for sticking around with us.

We are excited to kick things off with another roundup of our latest research, events, funding opportunities, and cool links.

Also, besides this blog, we have a community chat application, Quad, that we’re using for deeper conversations and connections. Every day, we share research on a wide range of topics. Scroll through to find postings from Week 1 (Fundraising), Week 2 (Community Messaging Apps), Week 3 (Community Archives), and Week 4 (Collective Governance). Please ask your questions, bring your ideas, and share your experiences with us and our peers.

Here’s a glimpse into the types of research we share:

  • On Maker Mondays, we introduce the weekly theme (like community messaging apps) and curate a handful of active DWeb projects currently being used to help nonprofits (like Element, Acter, Hylo, and Socialroots).
  • On Tuesday, we looked deeper into how decentralized technology ensures that groups using the Acter platform can resist state-led censorship.
  • On Wednesday, we learned about decentralizing governance on community chat applications using a tool called PolicyKit developed by folks from the Metagovernance Project.
  • On Friday, we wrapped up the week and summarized our learnings.

Come join us in Quad! And as always, if there’s a specific topic you’d like to see us cover or a question you have about DWeb, feel free to comment directly in Quad or send us an email at MakerLabs@TechSoup.org.

Let’s build a better tech future together,

Billy Bicket, on behalf of the Public Good App House team

Software Offers

Makers need tools, so every week we will post a new free or discounted software offering to help you grow your project. Many of these offers are unique to Quad members.

OFFER: GitLab for Nonprofits and Startups

DESCRIPTION: GitLab is an AI-powered DevSecOps (development, security, and operations) platform that allows organizations to prioritize, manage, and automate their software development tasks. Dev can use GitLab to collaborate more efficiently, identify security vulnerabilities earlier, decrease development cycle times, and more.

GitLab is offering a limited number of eligible nonprofits a free one-year license with up to 20 seats for the GitLab Ultimate plan. Qualifying startups can also get one year free of the GitLab Ultimate plan.

If you already have a Quad account log in to see the offer or create your complimentary Quad account, subsidized for makers with an award from the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web.

Public Good Tech Ecosystem Events

ETH Denver: ETHDenver is a community-owned innovation festival committed to empowering the Web3 community to shape the world. Founded in 2018 in Denver, Colorado, ETHDenver is best known for its #BUIDLathon and Community Innovation festivals that celebrate the convergence of blockchain technology, decentralization, education, community, and culture.

🗓️ February 23 – March 3

🎫 Register now

Open Sprints Hackathon by Femmecubator is a project-driven hackathon event in NYC hosted by fellows and volunteers passionate about creating opportunities for women of color in tech. Open Sprints by Femmecubator is a workspace for content editors, designers, and developers looking to upskill by contributing to projects within a team and guided by industry mentors. The Accelerating Makers team is helping organize a DWeb track! Reach out if you’re interested in partnering with us!

🗓️ March 9

🎫 Register now

Nonprofit Technology Conference: NTEN’s conference, often referred to as the NTC, is the annual gathering of people who want to make the world a better place through the skillful and equitable use of technology. At the NTC, you'll learn essential nonprofit technology best practices while connecting with a community that shares your commitment to social change. In-person in Portland, Oregon, or virtual.

🗓️ March 13 – 15

🎫 Register now

Code for America Summit: Bringing together changemakers from across the country to convene, collaborate, and learn as they break through some of government’s biggest challenges by removing barriers and finding real solutions that can make our systems work well for everyone.

🗓️ May 28 – 30

🎫 Register now

Funding and Grant Opportunities

💰Mozilla Tech + Society Fellowship

This program seeks to address challenges at the intersection of social issues and technology in the Global South by strengthening civil society, in partnership with key organizations and public interest technologists. Register by January 22. Apply by February 5.

💰The Pizzigati Prize

The Pizzigati Prize celebrates software developers who create, for free public distribution, open-source apps and tools that nonprofit and advocacy groups can put to good use. Apply by January 24.

💰Just Tech Fellowship

This is a two-year, full-time, remote fellowship supporting a diverse community of researchers and practitioners investigating the intersection of technology and social justice. Completed applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The last day to submit application materials is January 31.

💰Council on Foreign Relations: Technologist-in-Residence Fellowship

This fellowship, sponsored by the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, seeks to enhance the knowledge, broaden the expertise, and enrich the perspectives of early- and mid-career technologists by providing them with a substantive opportunity to research and discuss issues at the intersection of technology and foreign policy or national security. Apply by February 28.

💰Web3 Foundation Grants

These grants fund software development and research efforts that drive the advancement and adoption of decentralized software protocols. Both technical development and community development grants are available. In the short term, they are most interested in teams building with Substrate or Polkadot, though they encourage all builders to apply!

Community Spotlight

Jodi
Introducing Jodi Callender

Jodi is the Senior Director of Strategy and Operations at The Emerge Group, an organization using land stewardship and ownership as a tool to shift power and enhance the voice of the most marginalized communities. Here, she is working on building out community-led ownership models, including land trusts and perpetual purpose trusts. Before this role, Jodi contributed to Gitcoin, a Web3 grant-giving platform that enables communities to collectively fundraise for community-led projects using a system called quadratic funding. She also comes from a background in real estate specifically working as Senior Advisor in the NYC Mayor's Office focused on public housing.

On November 15, Jodi gave a presentation as part of the Accelerating Makers community event series titled How Web3 Is Giving Power Back to Society (and Your Nonprofit Organization). In the presentation, Jodi articulates a vision for the decentralized web that creates meaningful systemic social change by giving power to individuals and local communities to self-determine and build their own governance systems from the bottom up. Jodi’s presentation was rich with philosophical as well as practical insights. Watch the recording and keep your eye out for Jodi’s work as she continues to pave the path for Web3 in the future.

News and Other Cool Links

💥Positive Sum Worlds: Remaking Public Goods

Sip your coffee slowly and read about the history of public goods and different definitions by economists, researchers, and communities. Then contemplate new definitions such as “objects that satisfy values that are shared” as well as those that generate larger-scale positive externalities for more people. These are some of the ideas proposed by researchers in this inspiring piece by Other Internet.

💥 It’s Time to Build (for the Public Good)

Scott Moore, co-founder of Gitcoin, encourages readers to view Web3 as a digital nation where all citizens (we) are in a social contract with each other. Therefore, he argues, it’s up to us to participate in sustaining digital public goods (infrastructure) together and experimenting with novel approaches to funding and maintaining them.

💥 We Bought the Unreleased Wu-Tang Clan Album with Crypto (YouTube)

On September 10, 2021, in New York City, PleasrDAO, a worldwide crypto collective, purchased and physically acquired the most valuable piece of music on earth, the unreleased Wu Tang album, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin." Since its release in 2014, it shared the hands of "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli as well as the Department of Justice following his arrest. Watch as Jamis and armed guards travel to secure this grailed Wu Tang album.

💥State of Web3 Grants Report

Web3 — a term used to encapsulate blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and the totality of communities and possibilities that emerge as a result of their creation — has seen hundreds of millions of dollars given out in grant funding. This research report aims to demystify and bring all-round awareness to these programs.

💥The Bloom Social Impact Newsletter

This newsletter and online community provides well-curated social impact jobs, uplifting stories, and global resources for folks already involved or looking to get involved in social impact work all around the world.

💥Developer Gig Alert!

Our friends at OpenArchive are hiring a Lead Mobile Developer to contribute code and manage their overall technical effort, including overseeing the implementation and delivery of their super cool Save app.

💥New Offering Alert!

TechSoup has a new nonprofit offer with GitLab, an AI-powered DevSecOps (development, security, and operations) platform that allows organizations to prioritize, manage, and automate their software development tasks.

Support for Nonprofit Developers

If your project is a registered nonprofit, you’re eligible for TechSoup’s discount and donation program. These are among the 100+ products:

Thanks for reading! We hope you have a great day. If you have something that should be in our next newsletter, let us know at MakerLabs@TechSoup.org

Accelerating Makers is supported by an award from the Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web.