The Operations Behind The Magic

You probably have heard or read about the Fellowship of Ethereum Magicians; perhaps you have seen us gathering in a circle adjacent to a conference, or read discussions of the ins-and-outs of Ethereum on the Forum.

“We” are an open collective of self-organized groups, each of which aims to help a part of the community make decisions. Usually Magicians call these small groups “Rings”, and all are welcome to organize one!

Observing us, even closely, you might ask: how does such a loose collective organize itself? At the center of the disorganization is the Operations Ring! We’re the folks who plan the in-person discussions and manage the shared resources of our collective.

Centralization! 😱😱😱

Is having an operations team looking after resources and organizing events against the ethos of a loose collective?

As with every open source and standards-related effort, the work at hand needs leadership. Some may call this centralization, but we in Ops call it taking responsibility. Someone who takes responsibility considers the needs of the community, narrows options to the best possible direction, and does/delegates the work!

These actions won’t happen on their own, and having leadership strengthens our ability to remain independent and not be captured.

Early participants in the Operations Ring have included Boris Mann, Maria Paula, Tomislav Mamic, Jamie Pitts, and Anett Rolikova. All of these individuals put a lot of work into the organizational and resource-management aspect of Ethereum Magicians.

We definitely could not have gotten to where we are without them!

The Evolution of In-Person Meetings

Operations primarily organizes community gatherings, according to what the needs are at any given time.

The early vision of the Fellowship was to create a decision-making process based on consensus, and meeting in-person three times per year was seen as a key aspect of making this possible. This would occur in a “Council”, which would discuss and make decisions about the Ethereum protocol according to our principles.

What this quickly evolved into was more focused discussions within working groups called “Rings”, with a main Council organized by Ops in which any matter of the community — technology, education, funding — could be discussed.

Rings constantly organize and work on dapp-level issues and ERCs, specific core EIPs, smart contract systems, education, business models, and funding. But a key thing to remember is that the participation level waxes and wanes, according to need, resources, and consensus of the community.

🐟 Fishbowls 🐟

Starting in Prague 2019 and then in Osaka 2020, we introduced a modification to the Council format — an open fishbowl-style discussion with researchers, core developers, and the general community. This has been a successful extension of the Council-style meeting, allowing key contributors to answer questions and work on solutions with dapp developers, investors, and other stakeholders.

Our style of fishbowl is also a very popular format. Twitter, and even hosted Forums do not enable the amazing conversations that can occur when we are seated together in a circle.

We hope to continue this approach, and of course will facilitate any individual Rings which hope to do the same. 🐟🐟🐟

The Forum and Wiki

One of the Fellowship Practices is to maintain an online presence, and a key part of this is to maintain a Forum where in-depth discussions happen and where decisions can be finalized. There is also a wiki documenting our Rings and our operating policies.

An example of how the Forum is used is EVM Evolution and EIP-615. Many in the community backed this initiative and proposal, however EVM Evolution failed to attain viable funding, and, after considerable discussion on the Forum, was withdrawn as a proposal.

Another example is Ethereum 1.x: it grew into a set of Rings with a lot of energy, but after several months the effort stalled. Later, all of it was re-energized around “stateless clients” and pivoted into the Eth1.x Research initiative.

Support for the work waxes and wanes, according to need, resources, and consensus of the community.

🛣️ Roadmapping!

The Operations Ring aims to keep organizing in-person Magicians’ discussions, maintain the Forum and other resources, and work even harder to grow the Ethereum ecosystem and Community.

Key to fulfilling these goals is financial sustainability and operational excellence. After meeting in Osaka with the EF Grants Team and Ethereum Cat Herders, we determined that organizing and fundraising only “for the next gathering” has been woefully inadequate.

We need a long-term strategy for our finances and operations, and therefore we created a Roadmap for 2020.

🤑 Fundraising!

Due to financial constraints and the ethos of volunteerism, Magicians working in Ops were unpaid volunteers. As a result, they have often not been able to dedicate their full time and energy to the work. The Operations Ring aims to address this with a stronger fund-raising effort.

Six months ago, Anett took the initiative and started to help out Ethereum Magicians almost full time. She dedicated much of her time to growing the community: organized Berlin and Osaka 2020, moderated fishbowl discussions, created better documents for the community, and more. This is all amazing stuff, but we can no longer can’t do it for free.

The Operations Ring has decided to make fundraising a top priority. We will start with a PDF “funding pitch” and a Gitcoin grant. Later, we intend to approach projects and companies individually.

Any funds raised will go toward fulfilling our Roadmap goals. Our funding needs are primarily travel and lodging expenses, venue rental, and hourly administrative work.

Feedback and Financial Support

Please let us in the Operations Ring know what you think about our Roadmap and fundraising ideas. Any feedback would be appreciated, and the best way is to post it to the Forum.

And of course, we appreciate your financial support!

Soon we will be participating in the Gitcoin Grants CLR Matching, Round 4. Please send some value to this amazing effort, and it will be matched with funds from the EF according to the CLR Matching algorithm.