[DAO:d49797d] How to trigger DCL’s Growth by boosting virtual psycho-social Interactions

by 0x4df61fb35629c58088cdd4451276097c7754e13e (Hypatia)

Should the following $12,000 grant in the Documentation category be approved?

Abstract

As part of this community, our team wishes to assist DCL in reaching its highest potential.
For more than a decade, we have studied the links between humans and virtual space as a new possible habitat.

Our experience shows that in order to trigger DCL’s growth we must focus on the current state of users’ psycho-social interactions at the virtual common space.

The aims of our work are: (1) to address problematic dimensions that remain veiled, (2) so that we can offer perspectives and concrete solutions to encourage social interaction and enrich the potential of empathy. These are key points for DCL’s future.

The resulting report shall be directed to users, people involved in decision-making within the platform and public in general.

Grant size

12,000 USD in DAI

Project duration

6 months

Beneficiary address

0x4dF61fb35629C58088cDd4451276097c7754e13E

Email address

anima.metaverse@gmail.com

Description

Human creativity together with technological updates were capable of creating such groundbreaking spaces that, on the one hand, came as wonderful, and on the other hand, produced certain unrest in their new inhabitants. The virtual space of DCL is one of these special creations, and for this reason we perceive it wonderful but also challenging.

As animals, humans are adaptive beings and they are not precisely used to living in a space that augments discomfort, fears and concerns. These prejudice the development of human capacities and of socio-productive environments.
The feeling of unrest can grow when, for example as in DCL, the management of the environment is not centrally controlled, for which there is a lot more uncertainty around the directions that this space can take. This can be perceived not only in many critics but also in potential users.
Nevertheless, the fact of DCL’s management being precisely decentralized and its immense future civilizational projection is exactly what puts us together to work.

This is why we look forward to offering new perspectives and tools to unveil the new configurations of the psycho-social relationships and understand more deeply the virtual spaces where these take place. We consider this to be of huge importance in order to harmonize the ways of living and interacting in DCL and to harvest the social and productive potential wealth of this virtual environment that surrounds its users.
Getting to identify and work on these issues will unlock new levels of interaction inside DCL. This may help its sociability and productivity, which is (for now) only partially achieved.

Even though the DCL Community may conceive similar interests and operate in that direction, we believe that our constancy as well as our practical and theoretical experience as professional researchers will more quickly obtain accurate, visible and long-lasting results. The philosophical and socio-cultural document that we offer will organize, deepen and show practical solutions.

Our experience indicates that if we are seeking for a more empathic space at DCL and a wider access rate we need undoubtedly to identify the problematic and invisibilized dimensions that hold back the users from: creating more interesting content; sharing higher-quality proposals; and developing committed, diverse and enriching ways of interaction.
History shows that empathy and cooperation allowed communities of all times to outmaneuver their competitors in many ways. We hope that our report collaborates in this direction and enables a significant growth in terms of quality and quantity in all aspects of DCL.

Specifically, our report will intertwine studies, analysis, reflections and conclusions all directed to solve problematics related to the following issues:
-DCL and civilizational projects in the 21st Century
-New societies, communities and individualities in virtual times
-Exploration and acknowledgement of collective and individual virtual identities
-Psycho-social relationships in the virtual spaces: types of sociability and psychological dimensions
-Cooperation and empathy for fruitful environments
-Roles, commitments, responsibilities and benefits
-Social and productive interactivity
-Community and economy in empathic and competitive societies

Finally, we will make a brief presentation with the ideas that appear to solve the detected and analyzed problems so that our work enables a transparent and successful path for the growth of DCL.

Roadmap and milestones

Our work will be accomplished in 6 stages:

I. Opening analysis
-Identify psycho-social keys of the virtual interactions at DCL
-Detect the issues linked to sociability and productivity that depend on the keys previously identified.

II. Practical and theoretical bonding
-Analyze bibliographical and audiovisual material (both academic and other kind of specialized material)
-Apply theories and concepts to the issues and key points detected
-Address the background of the current psycho-social panorama

III. Initial structure and analytic insight
-Organize and deepen the analysis following an integral perspective
-Elaborate a framework for comprehension of the most relevant problematics

IV. Advanced problematization and reflection
-Project DCL in the current technological global moment
-Detail positive and negative aspects of the analysis
-Ponder the socio-productive relevance of the different aspects considered

V. Fundamental elements and counterposition
-Apply the theoretical background according to the experienced in the platform
-Project the dynamic of the DCL psycho-social relationships
-Compare alternatives to solve the problematics identified

VI. Final elaboration
-Choose the best alternatives to develop the main aspects
-Prepare, write and edit the report for its presentation/publishing

The results of this research are thought to be contained in a large-scope report that may be splitted and published and/or presented in official formats (journals and events).

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO

View this proposal on Snapshot

I really like your academic thinking, DCL need some analysis for sure to help we understand better about users. However the topic seems a bit too niche and academic, psycho-social is one drive of players’ motivation, but there are a lot of other aspects to consider as well, for example, profitability. Maybe this is a good dissertation topic in school, but in industry its different. Again, I think dcl user behaviour is a very important topic, i personally believe your team have the capability to conduct professional analysis, and you have a relatively reasonable budget projection. But I hope you can try to recompose this research to make it more meaningful for DCL creators, business operators, and investors, rather than school teachers. I dont have too many VP btw, just here providing some advice.

2 Likes

I agree with @MetaDoge. I think your research is interesting but I don’t believe that it aligns with the best use of DAO funds. Perhaps a community commissioned research study might get more support.

1 Like

Thank you very much for your comment. Really, it’s very kind of you.
The team understands and shares the ideas you point out about profit. In fact, our ideas have a university academic background because we take very seriously the path that must be taken to achieve those gains.
The point is that we do not consider that the best way for DCL is to achieve them only in the short term and in places that are already profitable and known to all. This perspective could end up damaging DCL’s future and even avoid obtaining other potential profits that, we believe, are out there waiting for us to be taken.
DCL can continue to grow in multiple aspects to ensure that it can also continue to gain, not only in the short term but specially in the long term and, perhaps, in more profitable spaces and more productive aspects of DCL, which are yet to be discovered.
Studies indicate that studying psychosocial dimensions to improve interactivity will bring about a more empathetic environment. And we propose this, not merely as a theory, but because it has been empirically proven (by economists, historians, philosophers, social scientists and psychologists) that, in all societies, empathetic environments, besides attracting a larger population/users (and therefore much more money), result in better productivity and higher and diverse profits.

We also understand that our concerns might come as niche and too academic. But, as we address in our project, our main objective is to establish a committed dialogue with the community and with the general public, as well. In this sense, we expect to increase the number of users at DCL, and as a consequence, to increase money and potential incomes.

Increasing the amount of users involves increasing the quality and quantity of activities and spaces where these can find it comfortable to interact and circulate. This means that all of our ideas are focused on generating more money and increasing profits for the community. Plural and friendly spaces are (and always were) the keys to the development of capitals and to profitability (as marketing knows perfectly well). Having said this, we take very seriously the fact that the style and vocabulary that we may employ in our work must be accessible to everyone and we shall take the best of our cares to avoid getting stuck in a niche and academic sphere of understanding.

Again, we understand what they suggest (and we absolutely appreciate it), but we did not want to take a wrong step in a deceiving way, even though at first it may look like we are quickly adding followers. This time we decided to work at the deepest levels to really improve productivity and profits, despite the difficulties that this may entail in gaining followers by requiring more patience than usual. We knew the difficulties involved and took the risk. But we really believe that this is an absolutely profitable path for the whole community.
We believe that in this way we are really committing ourselves to the founding bases of DCL and to the spirit of the community, tending to obtain more and more profits, since it will be a more and more productive environment.
Hopefully these words will allow us to understand each other a little better and you can support us with your VP. Thank you very much for sharing your ideas to improve the proposals. These gestures are the type of empathy we want to increase :slight_smile:

Thank you CheddarQueso. As your comment was similar to the previous one, I hope that our answer to MetaDoge also fits your concerns. Hopefully you end up supporting our proposal :slight_smile:

Hey thank for you the reply, I only say profitability is one of the drives, but not all, they are a lot of other aspects of why people would come to Decentraland. Some come for the game, some come for fun, and some come for the DAO governance… Also profitability does not only refer to buy token or lands, there are a lot of ways to get profits in Decentraland, some people even make their livings by playing games in DCL, and Decentraland in this sense provides jobs alternatives to people, what an achievement! In fact, I believe profitability is one of the most sustainable reasons for people to come and stay, think about what makes cities like New York and London attractive in real life. Jobs opportunities.

As for your research, I don’t deny you made a point by connecting psychosocial dimensions and improving interactivity. However, there is a more urgent need for more general user DCL user analysis other than only focusing on psychosocial.

Recently I read one very interesting report about the metaverse users behaviour, hope you can understand what I personally is expecting, here is the link:
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000187-7685-d820-a7e7-7e85d1420000

This report targeted at all metaverse users, but was not specific to Decentraland Users. So if you can do something similar like that and focus on Decentraland users, it would provide a lot of inspiration to us. Again, thank you for reply!

2 Likes

Absolutely!
I think that we have much more in common than I previously could understand.
We focused on the psycho-social dimension because we believe it will enhance interactivity and empathy, making it possible to increase and enrich games, entertainment, job opportunities, governmentality, economies (beyond tokens and land) and also erotic, social and affective relationships. That’s why we insisted on empathy: to enhance DCL’s growth in a holistic way for all the users and for all types of profiles.
We believe that this will allow current and potential users of DCL to see the benefit integrally, being able to live economically and socially (partially or completely) through the platform, if it is desired so.

Thank you for the dialogue :slight_smile:

1 Like

I think this might be a good thing. I know we need to start doing something and it needs to be different, I’m just not 100% sure if this it but it’s definitely in the right direction. I do want to ask though, it kind of sounds like this will be research and then probably another grant to be asked for afterwards. If that is the case I do feel it is best to bring that up at this time. It may not be popular but it would be good to know now. Because of the low amount I am voting yes and cause we need to try something.

1 Like

Thank you for your message and for allowing us to clarify this doubt.
This proposal contains the complete research: analysis, reflections, conclusions, but also the suggestions for practical solutions to the problems detected (we pointed it out in the Roadmap). Therefore, it will not be necessary to ask for another grant to complete this idea. In fact, we agree with you: we believe that it would not be appropriate to proceed in that way but without prior clarification.
Thank you for your support!

Haha, I really like your way of thinking, sounds like a real academia. However, sometimes, when we find something interesting, we tend to use that one aspect to explain everything, which makes the conclusion a bit subjective. I still think it is too early to make a conclusion that psycho-social is the source of all of this

I personally still expect more objective analysis based on real data and interviews with users, it is a bit too challenging to answer the question of “How to trigger DCL’s Growth”, but is it practical and meaningful to analysis “the current Decentraland user behaviours”

How to trigger DCL’s Growth by boosting virtual psycho-social Interactions

This proposal is now in status: REJECTED.

Voting Results:

  • Yes 1% 31,712 VP (27 votes)
  • No 98% 6,683,453 VP (79 votes)
  • Abstain 1% 5 VP (6 votes)