June 2023 Recap

After a successful 2022 speaking on many panels and many firsts in the digital space, including a Party in Decentraland, a Pride Parade in Decentraland, and a 13-hour Pride Fest, I wasn’t going to let sentiment and low participation get in the way of an exceptional Pride 2023.

If you missed any of the Pride panels this month, I had the privilege of speaking with communities like HUG, World of Women, Boss Beauties, and many more. All continue to lead efforts to create a more inclusive and accessible space for marginalized folks in web3.

My biggest achievement, though, was hosting an all-day Telethon event on Twitter for Pride Month for the second year in a row. For our theme of Existing Out Loud this year, I wanted to partner with a co-host who is a collaborator, a friend, and an excellent professional speaker, Paff, a true gem. 💖

We hosted a Telethon raising just over $800 in mutual aid for the 23 speakers and hosts. Thank you again to all the listeners, speakers, and the Juicebox team.

Read and collect the full recap on Mirror to learn how we did it all in just two weeks.

In The Name Of Merit

During my time away, it became clear that ERC-6551 was becoming more and more recognized as an evolution to the onchain adventures in NFTs.

While the market is down and sentiment low, it’s worth noting the tech fueling these adventures continues. So I sat out to imagine how Cloud Scouts and many other communities could use the emerging ERC standard. I spent hours this week researching, designing, and writing about this topic to provide you with a clear understanding of its capabilities.

My solution involves Token Bound Accounts acting as onchain owners of membership governance records linked to a Backpack and Vest.

A Backpack that holds ERC-20 tokens for recurring memberships or lifetime membership tokens and governance voting within work groups. And a Vest that holds badges of achievement digitally “sewn” or cryptographically signed onto the vest.

I break it all down here and reveal one of our first merit badges in this Mirror article.

A Journey Laced With Patience

After now spending about 18 months deep in web3, working full-time in communities, events, and workshops, and learning as much about the tech as possible, you learn a bit about a thing or two.

I’ve learned more about building community than I ever imagined because while I’ve been doing this for over a decade, I just did what came naturally to me and didn’t spend much time learning from others.

If I were speaking to anyone looking to become a community professional in 2023, the first thing I would tell them is to start learning, reading, and talking to people… yesterday. Be open to change, welcome patience, and fortify yourself with resilience. Read books like The Business of Belonging by David Spinks, The Art of Community by Charles Vogel, and the ideas of people in your niche.

This space has the capacity to eat you up and chew you out. But so does any space full of startups eager to make their mark. It also has a high probability of providing anyone who participates with the most open and accessible place of collaboration, artistry, and innovation at the edges.

I didn’t imagine I’d build my own community in this timeframe while seeing so many around me go from peak engagement down to little, new spaces spring up, and others carry on without even a nudge. I remain proud of the people in my circles.

More hope for AR/VR experiences through Apple and Meta, the entire NFT market crashed shortly after a crypto crash.

Personally, I’m leaning toward learning in the DAO, marketing, and AI space (listen to this conversation on DAOs with Ashley Caines & Boys Club) and leaning into the skills I can provide others as we head into the last half of 2023.

A New Platform Has Arrived!

A formidable Twitter rival has finally come, this time from Mark Zuckerberg himself. This week was a whirlwind for Social Media Managers everywhere when Meta launched a new Instagram sister app called Threads, and I’m sure you’ve heard of it by now. Follow me there too!

What you may be confused about, as I was, this Twitter clone is the plan to migrate the platform to the Fediverse in the near future. The Fediverse has been around since around 2008-2011, and ActivityPub, the fediverse protocol that Threads will use, is decentralized but not on a blockchain.

ActivityPub is decentralized in the same way that email or telephone services are, so while I believe it is a step in the right direction toward full DID and decentralized social media, it’ll be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Aside from all that, the vibes are exactly as chaotic as they should be. I LOVE exploring a new platform and witnessing its culture built in real time.

I’ve personally been spending some time away from social media, but I thought the rollout of Threads was super smooth, and seeing a lot of the same people reconnect on a new app is always fun.

Your weekly source of all things upcoming with our lovely Scouts.

Troop Chat updates!  💖 

Sign up for all sessions here. All are welcome to join us!

This Thursday, we’ll get together to expand on our last session to continue crafting brand voices created for the characters we designed.

Exploring Spatial Worlds! 🏕️ 

On weeks of no Troop Chat, Scout Sarah will take us on adventures to explore virtual worlds in Spatial and other platforms. She’s our very own Ms. Frizzle! This week we held our second exploration in Spatial to showcase worlds and gallery spaces.

Meet us by our campfire in Spatial and sign up for the event series here.

Catch Up With Us ✨ 

• Michelle Lora, the founder of OnSiesta, collaborated with Scout Kim Currier for Summer Fridays on Instagram, talking about working moms in web3.

• Brand Designer Scout, brandherstyle submitted art accepted to HUG’s latest IRL exhibit with Botanica in San Diego.

And remember, I believe in you. 💖 🥺