experiments in web3 co-creation | chaos is a public good pt 3

Content creation and distribution are changing rapidly with how communities grow and develop online. And thanks to the tools being incubated in and for web3 communities, new super powers are emerging for creators. In web3, we define any user producing data as a creator.

Instead of waiting for these experiments to play out, LDF and Reka.eth decided to take matters into their own hands and experiment with creation in web3 using the tools available today. CHAOS will do this by co-creating using a combination of web2 and web3 native tools to identify what is special, and what is missing to bring more utility to people interested in web3. We’ll use our own experience to give feedback on what needs to be built, what needs to change, what decisions still need to be made, and how these affect our shared productivity and output.

CHAOS will be a 3 month experiment, where at the end we’ll open source our perspective on the tools available to creators, and the stack that worked for us. Let the games begin.

 

No idea what CHAOS is or how we got here? Check out our origin story

THE PATH TO CREATION

We have both gone through journeys in traditional content creation, experienced the ins and outs, difficulties and wins, and now with experience using and building web3 native products, we have big hopes for how new technologies will alter the creation processes.

Outside of the tools, web3 promises a radical change in how communities are built and managed, not like audiences but more as ever-changing organisms. A digital community is not like a factory product, it is being built and maintained in real-time, constantly changing with the members and the online landscape. It requires community builders to have the ability to "read the room" and build up content based on live feedback.

EVERYONE IS A CREATOR:

In the context of web2, we often distinguish between creators and consumers/users. But the reality is that everyone is a creator. Today’s creators are simply power-users, and in web3 somewhat co-owners as well.

We believe any interaction with the internet (creation of data) leaves bigger and smaller pieces of what could be considered content. It might be under the app's surface as data or as visible as a collection of memories on an Instagram profile. We are interested in working with both ends of the spectrum, surfacing previously underutilized data in a web3 native way.

The utilization of blockchain data is an example of how web3 allowed for users (and apps) to have more control over their digital footprints, and showcased the power of reusable data. But as more sophisticated social, personal, and sensitive data becomes applicable to the web3 ecosystem, there is a need to think critically about how it all fits together, preserving security, privacy, and utility for the people who create this information.

CO-CREATION IN WEB3

If everyone is a creator, then how do we better tell shared stories with tools in web3? How do we make web3 feel like a shared experience again? In an attempt to answer this question, we decided to try it ourselves. We want to see what pain points we run into, and what comes easily.  As not only creators but builders in the space, we are highly intrigued by identifying what tools are already available or which ones we would still need to be developed to support next-level co-creation.

We both had significant experience with publishing web3 content individually on multiple platforms. Mirror posts, Substack articles, NFTs and niche tweets, but desired to push the boundaries of experimentation in creating, publishing, and owning together. But we feel that a super power of web3 will come through co-creation. And thus, CHAOS was born. CHAOS is an open-ended invitation to play with new tools, explore new topics, and embrace the ability to create truly platformless quests across the internet.

It is also to give hope that "crypto is still cool" and there is crazy good tech being built not just for finance. We want to show how finding and following your own interests confidently can lead to amazing things on the internet and we want to give you insight on the available tools and creation processes to accompany you.

There is only so much time, attention and energy a person has each day to take in content and new information. Why don't we make it super suitable for each individual so they have a better time and experience while doing so? Why limit ourselves to one format, platform or style?

WEB3 CREATOR TOOLING

Types of Creators:

  • Type 1: Web2 native, with existing audiences

  • Type 2: New creators without an audience (web agnostic)

  • Type 3: Web3 native, willing to use web2 tools for what they’re good at but desire to use more web3 native solutions

Right now, web3 tools are trying to appeal to types 1 and 2, and need to be focusing on type 3. Instead of trying first to replace platforms like YouTube and Instagram, we need to build solutions that extend the capabilities of what already exists. They don't yet meet the needs of web3 creators on their own, but are still too complicated for web2 creators to make a jump. They are tyring to do everything at once instead of connecting web2 to web3.

This experiment has got us thinking about our wishlist of capabilities (as we write this draft within Google Docs, catch up on Telegram, and chat live on Google Meet)

WHAT WEB3 CO-CREATION NEEDS:

Some themes we observed based on our experience and experiment (without going into detail about them in this piece):

  • Co-publishing in a way that resolves to individual spaces (ie how do we truly give ownership to all collaborators?)

  • Interactivity of content (memes, easter eggs, quizzes, etc)

  • Evolution of storytelling (multi-article activations)

  • Audience segmentation (not looking to achieve scale but gauge depth)

    • Not interested in financialization

    • Creating space for emergent sub-groups

  • Single-source publishing for multiple types of media

  • Analytics of full audience across platforms

  • Repurposing content, automatic transcription

  • Collaborative tools for sharing large files

  • Shared revenue handling

CALL TO ACTION FOR OUR TYPE 3 CREATORS:

We focused on Type 3 creators because we are Type 3 creators. We care about decentralization, user control, data ownership and platformless quests. We believe this niche community has the ability to provide needed, crucial feedback on web3  products, based on actual experience with creation in both spaces. We believe this community can have an objective view about what is valuable and unique to web3 in a way that would otherwise take companies unnecessary trial and error to discover.

CONTINUATION OF THE EXPERIMENT

So what’s next you ask? We’ve got a lot in store for you. This is not an article, but the first step in our shared journey of co-creation and experimentation. We are planning to stretch the limits of Web3 media to the max. Dabble in AI, new tools, formats with each publication. Subscribe to our YouTube for more soon. We don’t know where it will take us, but we know it will be fun ;)

Join us, if you dare? 😏

Now on YouTube | Substack | Medium

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