Hi Bobbi,

Great catching up with you this morning. I've been thinking about the project more and the current state that it's in and got to wondering if a Hyperledger Lab and a hackathon is the right next step. Please don't take this as me trying to dissuade you from pursuing the idea, but just wanted to share a couple of thoughts I had.

I wonder if a Hyperledger Lab is the right place for the Giving Chain. Part of this is up for the TSC to decide, but from my perspective, Hyperledger is about providing enterprises with tools, frameworks, and platforms to solve problems with blockchain. It has several different DLTs and many tools to build blockchain apps. What I don't see under Hyperledger is actual end user apps. If you look at it this way, could another enterprise use the Giving Chain to build their own app? I think the answer is "yes" for nearly all other Hyperledger projects. I'm not sure we could say the same for the Giving Chain though. It's a great app, and it's a great idea! It's just not a platform or tool that other enterprises could use to build their own apps though. Again, this is up to the TSC to decide, but this is a question you may face. I would hate to see the idea go into Labs, not get much traction and just fizzle out there. I think it's helpful to ask, what's the advantage of becoming a Lab, and what is the desired outcome of the Lab? Where does it go after that?

The next thought is really about the stage the project is really at. It seems like we proved the idea last summer. Is there more to prove? What questions are we still trying to answer? Or is what we really want an actually working app/service? A hackathon, (or whatever we decide to call it) to rally some volunteer open source developers together is great for a short burst of productivity on something. But it's likely not going to be able to produce a fully functioning, production grade cloud service that is maintainable in the long run. What will likely happen is that folks may show up, contribute some code, and then disappear again after the hackathon is over. Who will fix bugs as they are discovered later, or add new features, or solve production issues when they impact a running donation project? The conclusion to this thought is the same as above. I would hate to see the project keep going through these cycles of a bit of productivity, and then just to die out until more volunteers come along to prop it back up again.

Going back to your comment about needing to get funding for the project - I think this is spot on. I think if you want the idea to really take off, it's time to move beyond the cycles of finding volunteers to add some code here or there. It may be time to form an actual team and really build a real "product". This isn't a weekend project, or even a couple weeks. There's a lot of work to get from where we're at today to a final product that is ready for individual donors, transporters, and recipients to use. In addition there are going to be real costs associated with building it, but also running it long term.

After further reflection, I don't think that I have the capacity to sponsor this Lab. I love the idea and I dearly want to see it succeed. The amount of work necessary to do so is not something I can balance with my current commitments though. I apologize for having to go back on this, but I got ahead of myself earlier this morning. I am happy to still talk about FireFly and to help with kicking off the hackathon. But FireFly needs a lot of my time right now, especially with the v1.1 release coming up and preparing for Global Forum.

I hope you don't take any of this to be negative criticism of your ideas or plans. Again, I love the idea and want it to succeed, so it's with that desire for success that I wanted to share my thoughts on what may or may not make it successful.

I'm happy to chat about it more in person at some point soon if you want. I hope you have a great weekend!

Thanks,

Nicko

Goal: Us: A working POC for end of Summer events www.thegivingchain.org

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GUIDE:

Hacking is creative problem-solving.

• A hackathon is any event of any duration where people come together to solve problems. Most hackathons I’ve run also have a parallel track for workshops.
• Participants typically form groups of about 2-5 individuals, take out their laptops (if the event is technology themed), and dive into problems.
• Hacking begins with project introductions. Participants that bring projects to the event have an opportunity to briefly (1 minute max) explain what they are working on at the very start of the event so that other participants can join that project. At the end of the event, a wrap-up session gives each project a chance to demonstrate some accomplishments.

Venue & Sponsors:

• Start:  ? End:   ? Plan at least 30 minutes before and after the event
• Sponsors will give you something — cash, space, food, t-shirts — with the expectation that they get something out of their support for your event. They might be recruiting/hiring and are looking to scout out your attendees, or they might be marketing a product that they want to promote.

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Bobbi, Hardik, Nicko?- and others. 

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© Joshua Tauberer 2014-2017. Feel free to use under the terms of CC-BY 4.0.

• Don’t expect to have actually solved a problem by the end of the hackathon