- Create Your Rainbow
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- 💖 Love in a Time of Disaster
💖 Love in a Time of Disaster
Finding inspiration in uncertainty
Happy weekend friends 💖
Welcome to Create Your Rainbow - a newsletter to help you understand why we build culture, community, and marketing at the edges of the internet. 🌈
I bring you insights, teachings, and inspiration for your adventures. We get a little vulnerable at times. If you’re here, thank you!
Time to read - 5 minutes
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💖 Feelings
I guess this section has evolved into a little feelings check-in for the week. Surprise!
Bombarded at every corner with reminders of SBF and emerging war. It was extremely difficult to focus or find joy in the world this week. As a writer and Internet Explorer, that makes the creative process nearly impossible. I hope you found moments of comfort in a cruel and violent world. Love and serenity are so necessary right now. Condemnation of terrorism is as well. Human lives all around lost to us much too soon.
Misinformation on the Internet is wild. I try my best not to share misinformation, but we will all inevitably do so at some point, even with the best of intentions. The best thing we can do is learn from it and learn to spot propaganda before we hit the share button.
Something I am pledging for my own sanity is to stay off my phone for longer periods of time on top of constant Do Not Disturb mode. Hopefully, this will help me regain focus, we’ll see…
I’ve also been thinking about funding. Since participating in Gitcoin Grants Round 18, hosting a Pride Telethon this Summer, and the upcoming Artizen Season 3 drop contest, remaining sustainable in the bear market has been a whole obstacle course. In the spirit of exploration, I’m considering additional options to sustain while things come together. Very much open to suggestions here.
Then there are hackathons. For someone who understands the technical stuff from a career in engineering but hasn’t coded much, hackathons are tough. Especially without a team formed yet. So, while the Newforum Identity Hackathon is ending soon, I’d love to connect with aligned technical folks who are open to combining forces on a future hackathon or working on Cloud Scouts projects.
Overall, I’d say my first experience with this virtual hackathon is positive. It’s been nice getting to hear what others are building and to better understand the partners involved.
I recently finished up some freelance community strategy work and some free time that just opened up. Wanna chat?
I’ll leave you with this question: If we are to be adventurers and explorers, detectives, and observers, are there not moments when rest is necessary? There’s no shame in setting up camp for a good rest. 🏕️
So, after a long journey in the depths of our online worlds, continuing on when well-rested helps prevent injury. If you are too online for too long, you may end up not with a fractured ankle but a fractured mind. 😴
For more on getting a restful time online and offline, check out a community I love very dearly called Siesta by my friend and fellow Scout, Michelle Lora.
As you know, I love the internet and all the magic it contains. This week, I’ve compiled some things I found you should know about and why.
🥰💖
Happening on the Internet
Here, I’ve gathered a small look into my brain for the week. I explore the Internet and its vast surroundings, but I don’t always tell you exactly what catches my eye when I write essays. Let’s change that!
🪩 Disco Updates
My good friends at Disco made some updates to their docs this week, alongside the release of a few new features for Organizations using DID and VCs. Check out the full report here on Disco Automation.
Issuer Dashboard and Selective Disclosure 👀
Take a look at the docs refresh! Imagine the possibilities for selective disclosure in new apps and all the ways to personalize experiences with brands due to building one’s DID! 🎒
👻 Sour Little Ghostie
One of my literal BFFs in the space and a member of Cloud Scouts, Sour Power, has minted a little Halloween ghost on Zora.
What’s unique about this mint is she set up the mint, and I collected the first one. As the first minter, I will receive a portion of protocol rewards from each free mint. This is protocol-wide, so go forth and EARN ETHEREUM!
Want to check for mints you can be first to? Want to earn some ETH? Check out this site by Spotlight, the place for curated onchain media, to snipe them and read more here on Mirror!
🌈 Paff with Taking Up Space on UFO Podcast
Taking a walk this weekend? Plug in those Airpods and listen to the insights of Paff Evara from Take Up Space, giving onchain media realness with UFO podcast host Nick Hollins. Listen on Spotify or mint on Zora.
Stay tuned for more from Paff and Take Up Space in the coming months as they release a second Zine and an upcoming art takeover of the Zora homepage on the heels of an Open Call for Technology of Togetherness.
I spent the weekend binge-listening to a few other episodes from UFO. I recommend checking out episode 28 with Steph Alinsug and episode 34 for a conversation on Nouns Builder x ERC6551.
ps. you can listen directly in-app with the new update from my friends at Interface
💖 Love on Leverage
For the past two weeks, the team at Unlonely, a crypto-enabled streaming app on Base protocol, has hosted a dating show partnered with Gossip Protocol.
I gave initial thoughts on onchain dating in the first week, and it seems the boys redeemed themselves this week with more entertaining dates to round out the event.
There was even a pitch deck moment!!
To the happy surprise of many, they even had a queer date in the mix 🥺
My takeaway feeling is: how do we find love in times of disaster? With uncertainty and destruction all around, can we find true love, or is it just entertainment at this point? My bet is always on love.
📖 Read This
Toby Shorin: new writing from Toby titled Connecting the Dots on American Psychology
Social Security for Web3 Work: the fine folks at Other Internet released their paper on building solidarity primitives.
👀 Watch This
AI and the Quest for Immortality: will our digital selves live on beyond death? Take a look at how that might actually happen with AI in the near future.
The World of Sketchy 2000s Downloads: if you think web3 scams are bad but weren’t around for the sketchy internet links and downloads of toolbars and Limewire music… this is a lighthearted retrospective.
How does this relate? Well, web3 company and Seed Club alumni Sofamon is building their own emoji web buddy, and protocols like Zora and dozens more have built browser extensions for your toolbar.
✥ Did You Know? For more than a month, Cloud Scouts has been featured on the Zora homepage in the PDF section!
As Scouts, we are explorers, adventurers, and observers. It is our mission to add thoughtful art, frameworks, essays, and more to breathe life into our shared spaces ☁️
Current Request: seeking design, content, and advising contributors to our upcoming Onchain Scout Handbook
If you’d like to work directly with me or partner on the seminal work, reply or send me a DM and let’s chat!
Open Call
We aim to highlight Cloud Scouts members and supporters to diversify our work in the space. This is a chance to have your work featured early as we grow into an onchain Scouting organization.
Submit your work to the open call anytime. If you have questions or want to get some feedback on your submission, I’m always open to chat.
Updates
Thank you to all the collectors of Expansive Communities. We now have 227 editions minted with 19 days left! If you have any questions about the writing, please let me know.
Expansive Communities is minted as a 15-page PDF including extra details and visualizations, the first of the series to live in The Nursery. 🪴
Your weekly source for all things upcoming with our lovely Scouts. Learn more at our website!
Bringing Scouting Onchain ☁️
While our identities are an internal mystery, our onchain adventures aren’t. Scouting offers adults an opportunity for coordination through service to self and others, exploring new technologies, media, and apps our friends build.
Show your support by Bookmarking this newsletter issue, sharing it with others, and collecting our membership.
Troop Chat! 💖
Sign up for all sessions here!
Every other Thursday, we come together for Patrol meetings, feedback sessions, and updates.
Where to next?
Want to partner with Cloud Scouts? Have a new feature you’re launching we should know about?
Disco is your Friendly Data Backpack 🎒
Verifiable Credentials (VCs) allow you to take your identity, including memberships, GMs, self-attested credentials (shirt size, dark-mode preference, etc.), and Badges 😏 anywhere and keep them private!
Oh… and it’s totally free! You just need to have a web3 wallet to claim!
Already have a Backpack?
Click below to claim your Bookmark for this issue and share it on Twitter! 🪩 (updated)
When you’re ready…
Here’s how I can help you 🤗
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Let's partner! Work with me on bringing Scouting to your community.
If you have questions or topics you’d like me to talk about, reply to this email, and I’ll cover them next week! 🥰
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