Deciding on the right initial use-case for Metagov

[thelastjosh]

This post isn't an architecture question exactly, so it may belong on Discourse rather than GitHub issues. I'll post it here for now as a test-case of our new documenting-decisions-on-GitHub policy.

We've been planning since January to work with DADA.art as our initial use-case, to be deployed in May; you can read more in the DADA + Metagov project plan. However, the main use-case that we've obtained from DADA so far, "Activating a community through task applets", can be implemented through IFTTT workflows without using Metagov at all. Metagov may at some point want to add an IFTTT integration, but that will probably not happen by May.

My sense right now is that we need to work more closely with Bea and Abraham @ DADA to spec out a use-case that directly involves Metagov or an associated service. I think it would also be valuable to write a use-case involving DADA that explores how Metagov can/cannot engage with the normative+cultural facets of governance.

Right now (March 22), we are working full-time preparing Metagov for the Open Web hackathon in mid-April. If we decide that DADA is not the right use-case to explore after mid-April, then I need to adapt quickly and start finding / speccing out a new use-case.

Next step: it would be helpful to get Prima to comment on this issue, since she knows the most about DADA's governance.

[thelastjosh]

Just an update: collected more details from Abraham, DADA's CTO, and have a better sense of how to develop the use-case in directions that Metagov is capable of supporting. Need to follow-up with Abraham about getting access to the backend database schema (for both the main Postgres database and the Mongo instance) as well as access to their staging database. DADA will remain on Miriam's backburner until the end of the hackathon.

I also spoke with Prima, who indicated that DADA really needs better decision-making around funding.

This Friday, I participated in an intense DADA governance discussion precisely on this subject. I wrote this up in the DADA project doc.

The next step is to develop a proposal that we can send to Bea. Prima has agreed to read the proposal first and give comments.

I'll keep this comment open and post occasional updates.