Our Current Pilot Support
Samara sees many synergistic ways it can support regenerators with their regenerative organizations and initiatives such as SEEDS local adoption pilot projects. The focus is on bringing Ambassadors together to encourage knowledge sharing and mutually supporting each other and on disseminating relevant tools, resources and technologies in a structured way. Some of those offerings are in early-stage development (see Our Envisioned Harvest), while others are already active now!
Currently, the following supportive structures for the pioneers of SEEDS' first local adoption pilots are being tested:
- Pilot Pods as communities of practice
- Global Pilot Calls for knowledge sharing
- Holding Space on the SEEDS Discord Server
- Supporting pilots with tools, resources, and technologies
1. Pilot Pods as Communities of Practice
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly".[1]
The purpose of pilot pods is for Ambassadors to be part of a community of practice around local adoption of Seeds and SEEDS. The pod serves as a sounding board for adoption strategies and for mutual help and support.
Pilot Pods consist of a (recommended) maximum of 3-4 Ambassadors working on Local Adoption Pilot Projects that are similar in characteristics*, challenges and opportunities. Ambassadors can join existing pods or form new ones with the help of the Local Adoption Pilot Database. The database lists existing Pilot Pods as well as Pilot Projects to help Ambassadors self-organize into Pilot Pods.
A suggested format is to meet weekly or biweekly using i.e. the format of a Case Clinic (Presencing Institute) or Mastermind Group Meeting. Each meeting, one Ambassador presents their case while the other pod members deeply listen and then collectively offer support / feedback / ideas to help this case.
Pods will be encouraged to record their insights and define a lamp lighter to bring issues and learnings from the ground into the Global Pilot Sensing Calls.
2. Global Pilot Calls for Knowledge Sharing
Global Pilot Calls connect and share knowledge among Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots.
Global Pilot Calls are coordinated through a facilitated community thread on the SEEDS Discord server in the Local Adoption Pilots channel. They take place weekly or bi-weekly and rotate between a speaker series (designed to introduce a variety of tools, resources and concepts within the SEEDS ecosystem relevant for Local Adoption Pilots) and sensing calls (bringing Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots together to share approaches, results, and lessons learned or raise concerns).
- Our first Speaker Series Call was hosted on April 7, 2021 with Steph from LocalScale (see below) and announced as an e-Townhall. Questions were collected in advance and during the call with Slido
April 7, 6pm UTC: Q&A session with Steph from LocalScale
Description: Market platforms for regenerative products and services (both locally and globally) where Seeds are a (preferred) payment option play a key role in Seeds adoption. LocalScale is developing such a platform and virtual farmers market. Steph will present LocalScale, followed by a Q&A session. See alpha version of the virtual farmers market.
Watch the video here
Topics for upcoming sessions (currently being voted on):
- Samara (Pilots Database/Pods): Samara is focused on supporting and uniting together Projects that are building the SEED's ecosystem. It's a new journey for all of us, so collaboration will become our Asset. This call would be focused on introducing people to the Samara Database and how you can onboard and join your own Mastermind Pod.
- Samara (Org in a Box): When you embark on a new excursion, having a map and some tools can make the difference between whether you get to where you intend on going, or get lost and call it quits. To make your journey into this realm a lot more enjoyable, we will package together a playful toolkit for you. This call will give you all the updates you need into this amazing project.
- Ben (Personal Knowledge Container): Data has become the worlds most valuable asset, and those who understand how to properly organize, process, secure, and deploy data are gaining more and more control over the way the world functions. This PKC will give you a personal data management center and the knowledge you need automate and scale your personal or professional life.
- Jared (Naturechain): A decentralized farming cooperative management tool that supports regenerative practices and scales cooperation. Technology has reached a point where conscious humans can collaborate on scale without the need for central bodies of control. This tool will give you the power to unite your community and grow food in a way that benefits the community and most importantly our plants and animals friends.
- Stephen (Localscale): A new regenerative marketplace where shops, restaurants, farmers, and talented people can exchange their gifts to the world in exchange for Seeds. Built on the better than free economy, learn how you can get involved.
- Igor (Cloud Market): Linking farmers to chefs, a new and innovative application that helps reduce much of the waste that comes from wholesale food delivery. The Cloud Market is built on the better than free platform and provides regenerative solutions to reduce and feed more people.
- Nik (Light Wallet): A refined and effective digital wallet that makes it easy to send and receive Seeds, view proposals, and even check out your DHO.
- Alex (Passport): A gateway into the world of SEEDS, where you can vote on and create campaigns and alliance grants, network with your SEEDS community and exchange the regenerative currency.
- David (Light Food): With the initiative to end world hunger, David Solomon will present the Light Food community and all the amazing projects they are working on around the world. If food security is where you're passionate then this might be a match made in heaven.
- Rieki/Cece (NeighborGood): As a human race, we have increasingly become more and more distant with our own neighbors. Many people live completely surrounded by total strangers. This program, with years in the making, has been designed to unite neighbors so they can unite together to meet each others needs. With community we can thrive, by creating more security and abundance. This call will introduce you to the NeighborGood program and how you can thrive with your direct community.
- Nila (Joinseeds.earth): Everyone needs a point of first contact, their is a lot going on in our little world of SEEDS. This website has been designed specifically for people looking to get a good glimpse at whats going on and how to get involved. Learn about how you can support the team and best share SEEDS to the world.
- Douglas (Dstor): A decentralized cloud storage system that allows people to support each other in sharing content. Cloud storage is about creating security for our digital Assets and together as a community we can mutually meet that need. We don't need to rely on on costly and environmentally destructive data centers when we can for a better price meet the same needs with a much less taxing and more fairly distributed data storage system.
The schedule of future Global Pilot Calls and facilitation structure is still being coordinated.
3. Holding Space on the SEEDS Discord Server
The #local-adoption-pilot channel on the SEEDS Discord Server serves as a place holder to gather and communicate with Ambassadors active in Local Adoption Pilots. It is there that the information about pods and pilot calls are shared and questions around Local Adoption Pilots are being discussed. The channel is moderated and surveyed by Samarans.
Ambassadors that are designing campaign proposals to activate their communities or Ambassadors from the Ambassador Academy ready to launch a local adoption pilot are directed to this channel.
4. Tools, Resources and Technologies to support Pilot Projects
Samara develops, collects, and disseminates the tools, resources, and technology that are most useful to ambassadors facilitating local pilots. As explained in Our Relationship with Hypha Movement Building, Samara is not the only entity serving ambassadors in this way. See below for a brief list of current offerings throughout the SEEDS ecosystem, including the (organization(s) involved).
- Local Adoption Pilot Database (Samara): Collect and share data on pilot projects and associated ambassadors both to map pilot projects and for allowing for self-organization into Pilot Pods
- Stakeholder Mapping (Samara / MBC): providing frameworks and tools to map key stakeholders to launch a pilot project
- Value-flow Mapping (Samara / MBC): providing frameworks and tools to map the monetary and non-monetary value-flows within an ecosystem to understand how Seeds can help to foster a regenerative local economic system
- SEEDS Transaction and Governance Applications (Hypha): Passport, Lightwallet.
- Co-op proposal Nursery (MBC): providing guidance, support and feedback to design high quality alliance proposals for aligned local organizations and campaign proposals to reward regenerative behaviors and distribute Seeds in the local community
- SEEDS Ambassador Academy (MBC): Core SEEDS training & community-building for those looking to actively grow the SEEDS movement and ecosystem.
Looking towards the future, Samara is developing several promising packaged offerings that will be impactful for both SEEDS ambassadors involved in pilots, as well as individuals, groups, and communities that exist beyond the SEEDS ecosystem at the moment:
- Org-in-a-Box (Samara): helping the regional incubators to form their minimum viable organization as a bioregional DHO
- Marketplace-in-a-Box (Samara): helping the regional incubators to deploy a cooperative market platform and onboard organizations for regenerative products and services.
See more on these offerings in Samara Starter Kits.
Synthesizing and Sharing Learnings
To collect, synthesize and share learnings from the Ambassadors active on the ground in local adoption pilots in a meaningful and accessible way is key. This is where Samara's core technologies are developed, tested and evolved to support this efforts.
Questions we are exploring:
- How do we synthesize and process and share insights from Local Adoption Pilots in a meaningful way?
- How can we collect and share learnings from the Local Adoption Pilots to make this an easy and rewarding experience for the involved Ambassadors?
- How do we make the self-organization into pods an easy and joyful experience?
- What are the most important characteristics of pilot projects to consider when organizing into pods?
- How do we support and facilitate regular pod meetings? i.e. by learning from the "Meet Seedizens" experience to prompt Ambassadors to schedule pod meetings
- How do we ensure that requests and feedbacks regarding tools from Hypha reach the relevant circles within Hypha?
The aim is to compile:
- Tools and Resources explained (recordings & notes from Speaker Series)
- Collection of further useful Tools and Resources for Local Adoption Pilots (see above)
- Best Practices, Approaches and Strategies
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[1] "Introduction to communities of practice - A brief overview of the concept and its uses". Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
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