1/ 20 GM. I am pleased to officially announce the Summer of Protocols (SoP) program, along with a draft of the pilot study that led to it, The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols (TUSoP), which I've been working on with a bunch of collaborators for the last 3 months.

Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

3/ The goal of the program is to catalyze conversation and experimentation around all kinds of protocols, including cultural, social and political ones. We want to get the world thinking in "protocol-first" ways and foster what we call protocol literacy.

4/ We believe protocols are critically under-theorized, and under-tinkered-with, and should be first-class concepts, alongside concepts like institutions, platforms, and nations, in structuring how we think about and act in the world.

5/ SoP Core Researchers will be challenged to produce a piece of longform writing about protocols over the summer, accompanied by a composable protocol-ish artifact (not necessarily technical) of some sort that others can build on.

6/ The written component can be anything -- an essay, a short story, a technical analysis, a future scenario. The only requirement is that it be for a broad general audience rather than a narrow specialized one. Get creative!

7/ The artifact component can of course be something technical like a reference implementation of a speculative protocol but the only requirement is that others should be able to build on it. So you could do a design library, a lexicon, a game, a kit of some sort. Get creative!

8/ SoP Affiliate Researchers play an equally critical role. We believe the true test of a protocol is whether other people use it. So Affiliate Researchers will join the second half of the program primarily to try and build on the projects being pursued by the Core Researchers.

9/ Affiliate Researchers will be expected to add creative contributions to one or more core projects, and provide feedback and development support. Core Researchers: you will be expected to market your work to the Affiliates and get them excited about building on what you're doing!

10/ We want to set you up to succeed, so the program will include resident domain experts from various protocols, guest talks, reading groups, etc. But we want to provide you some resources right now during the application phase. We have 3 goodies for you today --

11/ First, we have a draft pilot study titled The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols. It's ~8000 words, and we hope you'll find it full of stimulating provocations and nerdsnipings https://efdn.notion.site/Pilot-Study-1bf3e3be6bf34a2eb8156ddf98d3fa67

12/ Second, to get you thinking broadly, we've started compiling an index of protocols, ranging from TCP/IP and climate protocols, to things like handshakes, traffic, and weddings. https://efdn.notion.site/51db55abfc49409181b5f6f26b544d41?v=55e4574e6482468f83e29bae62e79b29

13/ Third, we compiled a big list of interesting readings relevant to protocols. These range from technical sources and nonfiction essays to fiction suggestions. https://efdn.notion.site/0314a1800b774258a8e6197487c479bc?v=15fb6b39a490413cbba3b7f78ad67c2b

14/ We will be holding a town hall this Friday, the 10th, at 1530 UTC (will be recorded and shared) where we will share a quick overview and answer questions. https://www.notion.so/efdn/SoP-Town-Hall-001-ab031a8203b84dae8d9809b075a7245a

15/ Beyond the core funded program and research, we also want to help seed a broader public conversation around protocols, and to this end we will be setting up some TBD mechanisms for informal public participation. We also welcome connections to similar efforts elsewhere.

16/ This program is funded by the Ethereum Foundation. Several EF researchers contributed to the pilot study, and they will participate actively in the SoP. Thanks in particular to my co-authors, Tim Beiko @tim, Danny Ryan, Josh Stark @js, Trent Van Epps @trent, and Bastian Aue.

17/ We want to get the strongest possible applications, so please explore the resources, ask any of us questions, and come to the town hall (it will be recorded and shared later) to learn more.

18/ So if any of this sounds interesting, check out all the links. If you know of someone who would be a great candidate, please share this with them. The application deadline is March 21.

19/ There are no particular qualifications necessary to apply, though we will take any you share into consideration. The program is open to anyone anywhere in the world, and will do our best to overcome any barriers to participation.

20/ We'd particularly like to see strong applications from women and under-represented minorities so we can accommodate a diversity of perspectives in the program. And despite the program name, it is actually open to the Southern Hemisphere :)

2/ The program will be primarily virtual, and run for 18 weeks from May-August. It will fund a set of full-time Core Researchers and part-time Affiliate Researchers (primarily in the second half) to think broadly and creatively about protocols. https://summerofprotocols.com

Indie consultant, blogger and digital gardener. ex-Other Internet / ex-Google / tomcritchlow.com

Fun!

My only foray into protocol space was this piece, which weirdly did get a ton of traction and folks still building and extending it even today

https://tomcritchlow.com/2020/04/15/library-json/

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