Web3 has exploded over the past year and is now an industry unto itself. Six months ago we were in a moment of pure experimentation. Now, with all eyes on Web3, there’s a growing sense of pressure and professionalization.
In this moment, it’s important to remind ourselves why we’re all here in the first place: to freely experiment with Web3’s emergent possibilities, and to grow with each other in the process.
FWB originated as a place where people interested in crypto and culture could come together while following creative threads in whatever directions the group found exciting. As we’ve grown, so have the opportunities.
With a community as diverse as FWB’s, we’ve had no shortage of options to pursue — and we’ve been busy. Just six months ago, our community elected City Leads in Los Angeles, London, and New York to begin hosting weekly local experiences. Flagship events were programmed with world-class lineups at Art Basel, Frieze, and SXSW. A home-grown editorial platform and community-developed software flourished, as well as many other projects — all spawned by this group of over 3,000 members that now spans 43 cities across four continents.
While growth has opened up a ton of possibilities for our community, it’s also brought some new challenges. As we experiment with how to best organize ourselves in this decentralized, non-hierarchical way, we’ve come to learn that the key to large-scale group coordination is trust. And trust can’t be built by sheer determination — instead, trust must be grown and nourished through shared experiences, honest communication, and transparency.
To grow, we need to work collectively to ensure that our foundation is solid and that our community’s needs are met. With trust comes experimentation, and experimentation is not only what got us here in the first place — it’s also what will propel us into the future.
We’ve always viewed FWB as a community garden of sorts — a space for friends and neighbors to collectively grow something we’re all proud to be a part of. As we head into Season Six, we want to make sure our roots are strong so that we can all move forward together.
— Alex Zhang, Mayor at FWB
FWB Membership Maintenance
Making our DAO more accessible and transparent for all members.
Although FWB has always been more than a group chat, the Discord is our home base where our global community can connect and come together. As we’ve grown, so have the complexities of how we interact with each other inside our digital home. This Season FWB will double down on our membership experience — starting with the Discord — to make significant improvements to our application process, new member onboarding, channel organization, and more.
Channel Leads
Breaking into a new Discord channel can be intimidating. This Season, we will work together to bring on community Channel Leads to act as community stewards by connecting people, stirring conversation, organizing experiences, and devising benefits on a channel-specific basis so newcomers and OGs alike feel welcome.
Public Work Streams
Now that we have 30+ contributors collaborating across a dozen different work streams, more visibility is needed into our progress, decision making, and roadmaps. Active and appropriate contributor-led projects will move into a public work stream format so community members can find roles and opportunities, get involved, and have a stronger sense of what the DAO is prioritizing.
Governance 2.0
Starting in Season 6, we will kick off a series of community conversations around how to evolve FWB’s Governance structures. Discussion topics will include implementing more dynamic voting strategies and topics, and how we’re handling contributor role selection processes.
Our first Governance 2.0 Community Session is May 5th, 2022 at 2pm EST.
“The FWB community is a diverse, creatively-minded group that has banded together to expand the cultural potential of Web3. Last season we started a monthly mixer for new members to get everyone feeling at home and connected, and are continuing to build on that approach,” says Kaitlyn Davies, FWB’s Membership Lead.
FWB Directory
Now in beta phase for community members, with a wider launch coming soon.
FWB is about connecting with one another, and our new Directory will allow us to actually find each other.
In the Discord’s sea of avatars and pseudonyms, FWB’s Directory will help you index the relevant circles you sit in, find mutual friends, and connect beyond our walls. It will also serve as your on-chain passport within the FWB ecosystem as you spend time in various channels, attend events, vote on proposals, and contribute to projects.
OurCred, FWB’s native token reward system, will also expand this Season and begin to index community participation beyond just Discord activity — meaning you’ll have more ways to earn $FWB by participating in the community at large.
“We’re constantly thinking about how to build with a collective approach, and more than a dozen community members collaborated to build the Directory — including designers, developers, and researchers. Our goal was to make a product that would serve us, as well as our peers,” says Mike Bodge, FWB’s Head of Product.
The Directory is currently being beta tested and populated by a handful of FWB community members before its wider release this Season.
FWB Garage™️ Grant Program
FWB members can apply for experimental project grants up to $10K.
As a return back to our roots, FWB Garage will make it easier and faster for members to receive funding for experimental projects.
“Our hope is that these grants will enable members to try out wild new ideas and approaches,” says Emerson Kirk, FWB’s Governance Lead. “We think funding more experimental projects will ultimately lead to the development of initiatives that, over time, could become core to our community and culture.”
Any member who holds at least 5 $FWB is welcome to propose a project and, as with all of our Snapshot votes, anyone who holds any amount of $FWB can vote on whether or not it should receive funding.
Each Garage Season will have its own theme to serve as a creative prompt. For our first season, we’re inspired by the concept of “Free Association.” In the Freudian sense, it’s an open, honest state of reflection that summons the unconscious to spark creativity and original insights. Leftists might call it the right for producers to connect directly, defy hierarchies, and build cooperative networks. At FWB, we see it as a call to take risks, connect with new members, follow instincts, and collaborate across genres.
FWB Garage applications will launch in the coming weeks.
FWB.FEST
This summer, our internet city will come to life as a community-sourced festival.
This August, the FWB community will come together in person for three days in Idyllwild, California, for our inaugural conference and festival. “As with most things we do at FWB, this will be an experiment in collaborating directly with the community to source performances, talks, workshops, activations, and more,” says Paul Tao, FWB’s Events Lead. “No other festival is programmed in this way, where we’re directly responding to the interests of our members and working together to create the ultimate IRL fusion of Web3 and culture.”
FWB.FEST will be a place where members can forge lasting friendships and collectively explore emerging concepts and spark new ideas. Members can join our recurring FWB.FEST planning sessions in the Discord under #fwb-fest to get more involved.
Works In Progress
Our in-house publication is decentralizing.
Over the course of a few seasons, Works In Progress has established itself as a unique editorial space that carefully examines the impact and potential of Web3 technologies, balancing an enthusiasm for innovation with a sense of clear-eyed critique.
“This season we’re excited to launch an experiment in DAO-to-DAO publishing that will decentralize our editorial process,” says Jose Mejia, Editor at WIP. “In the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing proposals for story ideas developed with several partner DAOs. $FWB token holders and members of the partner DAOs will be able to vote to determine which story ideas are assigned, edited, and published — turning the members of both communities into co-editors of Works In Progress.”
FWB Health Care
DAO contributors will soon be able to get health benefits.
“If Web3 replicates the gig economy at scale, then we’re approaching it wrong,” says Patti Hauseman, FWB’s Operations Lead. “We want to make Web3 a space that takes care of its people in a holistic way. That’s why we’ve been working to get all FWB contributors health benefits — and why we’ve made it a priority to have that work carry over to contributors at other DAOs, too.”
Before now, there wasn’t a product on the market offering a W-2 payroll where full-time and part-time contributors could be paid in crypto (including in a DAO's native token), which meant that DAOs were unable to offer healthcare. Through a collaboration with Utopia, we’ve developed an architecture for us and any other DAOs to offer health benefits to the people who the DAO employs.
A Collective Responsibility
As FWB enters another Season, we’re focused on listening, collaborating, and working together to build what we want and need as a community. Our DAO structure ensures that we’re resilient and mutually responsible throughout this process — and it’s how we’re going to succeed moving forward.
Collective participation is the only way to guarantee that what we’re building reflects all of our voices and FWB remains a place we continue to call home.
If you’re a member and would like to get more involved, visit our contributor page and reach out. If you’re new here and would like to join FWB, learn more and apply here.
To another great Season of learning, exploration, and contributing –
Adam Bartley, Ajay Mittel, Alex Hooven, Alex McDonald, Alex Zhang, Ami Mukherjee, Ariel LeBeau, Baker Wardlaw, Brian Mark, Cameron Parkins, Chris Reed, Chuck Anderson, Derek Taylor, Dexter Tortoriello, Drew Coffman, Drew Millard, Emerson Kirk, Emilie Friedlander, Fiona Carty, Gabe Quintela, Greg Bresnitz, Holyn Kanake, Izzy Ocampo, Joey Rubin, Jose Mejia, Justice-Ruby Thelot, Kaitlyn Davies, Katie Chou, Kevin Ngo, Kyle King, Laura Jamarillo, Lindsay Howard, Michael Mazzara, Mike Bodge, Naomi Menezes, NEUxREGIME, Pat Lok, Patti Hauseman, Paul Tao, Raihan Anwar, Ryan Lieu, Samantha Wynn, Topher Webber, Trevor McFedries, Vasanth Thiruvadi, Will Griggs, Willa Köerner, Yana Sosnovskaya, Yuri Rybak, Zach Tetreault, Zoe Rogers, SisterJam, Max Alcabes, Kyle Rapps, Kyle Thornton, Jesse Boykins III, Millana Snow, Justin Boreta