Professional Background and Expertise:
I am a High School Special Education Teacher by trade. I spent 10 years teaching teenagers with autism, Down syndrome, emotional behavioral disorders, and my major was psychology/human behaviorism. I am currently employed teaching adults with special needs how to build in tech, including AR/VR, and creating their own UGC experiences.
In May of 2022 I co-founded the Community Building Decentraland Twitter Space, which has been ongoing for 134 weeks without interruption. I also co-founded the Community Building Decentraland Discord.
I began working as the Ambassador Program Coordinator for Decentraland in September of 2023. During this time I created the framework of the Ambassador Program in Notion and interviewed potential candidates. I worked with Ambassadors around the world to approve events, itemize receipts, process payments (converting native currencies into cryptocurrency to be reimbursed), and I was responsible for issuing payments from a multi-signature wallet. I am currently employed by the Decentraland Foundation as the Ambassador Coordinator, and will continue to assist in building the next iteration of the Ambassador program.
In March of 2024 I had the incredible honor to travel to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to represent Decentraland. GDC is one of the largest gaming conventions in the world, with over 20,000 industry professionals in attendance. For 5 days I spoke with attendees, answering questions about Decentraland and hearing their own feedback based on user experiences.
Cover Letter and my Vision for Decentraland’s Future:
Hi! I’m Canessa, and I’m applying for a position in the DAO council. I bought the mana token in 2018 and became an active builder in 2019. I was a winner in the 2019 Land Creator Contest, and in April 2019 I became a land owner. I have watched this world evolve from being an idea to something we can actually walk in and create.
Looking forward to the future, I believe we need to push both technological advancements of the platform as well as explore the human element found here in Decentraland. What makes people come? What makes people stay? How can Decentraland make our own physical world a better place?
As a virtual, digital world where users own their assets, we are tasked with an identity crisis we are still defining. We have the challenges Web3 games have, but we are not just a game. We have challenges social platforms have, but we are not just a social platform. We have challenges virtual worlds have, but we are not just a virtual world. We are something completely new and novel, therefore, we must strive to find the problems that Decentraland solves. What can Decentraland do differently that traditional internet platforms or in-person interactions cannot?
My vision of Decentraland includes:
Reduce barriers for creators to build
Unlock funding for creators
Ambitiously innovate with new experiences
Barriers to Building: While some users have backgrounds in coding/modeling, many do not. The initial selling point of Decentraland is that users can own and operate their own land. If we intend to scale to a larger audience, we need to ensure that anyone who can log in can create here. We must develop tools to make building accessible to users with little to no prior knowledge of creating quality experiences. Too many users have left because building their dream with the existing tools proved to be too difficult. Within this scope, we must continually advocate for a functional client with support for builders, as well as VR and mobile functionality. (I believe the completion of a functional VR app is the only way to set ourselves apart from other virtual worlds)
Funding: Experiences require time and energy to create. I would like to see the process for accessing funds streamlined, transparent, and clearly articulated so that every user knows exactly how to unlock necessary funding. 3 years ago there were fewer virtual worlds to build in, now they are plentiful, with Web2 worlds also looking lucrative to builders. It is my opinion that most creators will continue to build in platforms where they know they will be compensated fairly for their skills; they will leave those they are not.
New Experiences Decentraland needs new and captivating experiences to attract and retain users. We need to use research-based strategies to develop gamified experiences that pull the user back in daily. I strongly suggest we look at the psychology behind gaming rewards, then provide support for builders to integrate them into their experience. We are also in dire need for better story telling here… we need games, experiences and characters people fall in love with.
Decentraland’s Ecosystem and Commitment to its Growth
As a citizen, a builder, an emote creator, and an active voter in the DAO, I believe I understand many facets of the Decentraland ecosystem. As a regular user who logs in to Decentraland, I’m acutely aware of the challenges we creators are facing. Events take time and energy to plan, wearables must be paid for with publishing fees, users must purchase the wearables for the creator to be profitable. While this past year may have been more challenging than we expected, I believe we took the necessary steps to position ourselves for long term growth. Now as we begin this next phase, it’s more important than ever to explore ways to make our economy sustainable, and to make Decentraland a place creators want to build in. As a land owner who creates and deploys my own builds, I cannot emphasize enough that we must not lose sight of both the challenges and benefits to building in Decentraland. The current users of Decentraland have gone through a lot of change this past year, and we have an uphill battle in making reparations for this time.
I will let the reader gauge my commitment to Decentraland. I’ve been here in the bear and the bull, and I’ve tried to contribute consistently to the best of my abilities throughout both.
Time commitment: I work part time at a day program for adults with special needs, so I anticipate having ample time to dedicate to Decentraland.
Additional Relevant Information:
While I know I am not the most qualified person in the technological aspect, my heart lives in Decentraland. I’ve seen the difference this world has made in my own life and for many other users here. It is a place of incredible potential…for some of us, it is transformative. I will relentlessly push for building smoother tools so that anyone who can buy land can deploy on their investment. If accepted for a Council position, I would advocate that we never lose sight that the real power here isn’t the blockchain or the tech, it’s the power of the people behind it.
