FundCamp PurposeProcessPlatform

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This is a summary of the discussions located at Talk:SeedCamp_Platform_Prototyping, and Seedcamp_in_France_English_Forum from http://france.p2pventure.org

This page is meant to create an overview for the "Purpose", "Process", and"Platform" of an online FundCamp collaboration toolset.

Contents

Purpose

The purpose of an online environment for FundCamp is to create a virtual presence for pre- and post-FundCamp Seed Funding Acceleration.


Process

Fundcamp itself is a conference style event, wherein people propose projects. The face-to-face/physical FundCamp experience attempts to dynamically compress the 4 first stages of the ProjectScreening process (idea, Founding team, prototype, stakeholders) in a contracted camp/post camp fixed period. Much of this FundCamp Process for the Face-to-face/physical conference has yet to be determined, or at least yet to be fully and concisely detailed in this wiki (To be completed).

The process for the proposed online collaboration system is that all participants would post their proposals (by posting their projects on the online system). Prior to the actual face-to-face/physical conference, some projects would be selected to move forward in the ProjectScreening process during the physical camp/conference. The online colaboration system could serve as a virtual incubator during the offline (meaning off from the physical camp) periods; either because it's happening before the camp, or because the project has not been selected for this round.

Projects proposals end up crossing a gate because it is validated by someone external to the project:

  • either a "jury" that validates an application letting the project cross the idea gate
  • or because money is invested in the project making it cross the stakeholder gate.

"Jury" Validation

User:SamRose suggests both:

Consensus Polling: Collective Intelligence

Consensus Polling can create one type of process that combines Open Knowledge, Shared Meaning Through Open Communication,and Trust (Beyond Trust Metrics). Because it is a combination of Decision Making, and Conversation process (discussion focused on coming to a shared best decision).

and

Prediction Markets

PredictionMarkets can have less weight, but can be given a certain percentage of influence in the overall decision to move project past the "gate" in he Stage/Gate Process PredictionMarkets are useful as a counter-weight to group-processes, but letting people expand their individual thinking, and aggreagating it into an overview of many individual's "best bets" on a given object.


Possibly in addition to whatever traditional "Jury" is utulized during "seed" camp processses.


User:SamRose also recommends in the process:

Open Knowledge Base

It is possible, and advised, to incorporate a native wiki into Drupal. See: http://socialsynergyweb.com/drutest/ for a working example.

The purpose of the incorporated wiki would be to build up extended reference/knowledge around particular projects, to work Threaded discussion into "Shared Meaning" which will be essential for the collaboration that must take place for this to succeed.

Platform

The platform chosen,based on the above stated purpose and process, is Drupal, an open source content managment system.

Currently developed here: http://protocamp.p2pventure.org/

Proposed Process Flow with this platform

Users would register based on one or more roles, as defined at SeedCamp_Platform_Prototyping. They would fill out description cards for each role, that would be part of their profile. They woudl have a contact form on the site that could be used to email them. Users could list their areas of knowledge and experience as open tags under the heading of "knowledge and experience".

On the site:

  • Entrepreneurs would post proposals as "pages" (or as a custom content type, like the entries in bfwatch). Proposals could be promoted to the front page as they are posted. Or, they could be posted to a certain "view". They would categorize their projects with arbitrary categories, and self-chosen tags
  • Mentoring could be done in either comments section of proposal, on Forums, or in wikipages (such as helping to co-author exec summary, investor pitch, business plan,..)
  • Do be determined: how investors would engage the online system...?


Consensus Polling could be a component, or part fo the "Jury" process, which means that people vote "Yes" if they think a project is ready to move on to the next stage, or "No" if they think the project should be terminated, or "Not Yet" with an explanation about why they say "Not Yet". There is an optional timeclock that can be put on the vote, with the option that a certain percentage must say "Yes" by a certain time period (to be determined). this allows a potentially large amount of people to participate in the process.

PredictionMarkets can be employed in the form of Drupal's "Bookmaker" module, which allows users to post "bets" about practically anything. This could be employed in cases where a PredictionMarket would be useful, such as getting an aggregation of knowledge about certain elements in a proposed business plan/model, etc. This also allows a potentially large amount of people to participate in the process, but by way of aggregated individual judgement, instead of consensus forming.

Other options

A timed debate could also employed, to incorporate formal debate when it is deemed to be useful.

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