This week, we’ve been focusing on making our Translation category better. We’re working on a new questionnaire, and performing an audit of our teams. We’ve also got some pretty amazing tasks for you! Check it out!
In this post:
Translation Questionnaire!
EFTG Task!
Utopian V2 Tasks
Anti-abuse is BACK
Awesome radio show episode!
Translations Questionnaire
The Translations category is Utopian’s biggest and most active category, with teams from many languages actively working on numerous projects. When a category is this busy, and grows this fast, there are bound to be growing requirements. That’s what we’ve been dealing with here, in association with our partners from @davinci.witness. We’ve had an all-hands moderator meeting this week, and are actively working on a new and improved questionnaire. Check out the details in @davinci.witness’s post.
EFTG Task
Our friends from the European Commission EFTG Project (European Financial Transparency Gateway) have an exciting new task over at @utopian.tasks: Data Entry Webpage on a Private STEEM Blockchain - Experienced Developers needed. We’re running this task for them, and we’re looking for a developer to create a data entry page (posting page) for OAMs to input data and upload documents to the private Steem blockchain available at www.eftg.blkcc.xyz.
Last week, we announced that our Anti-abuse category’s trial has ended, and that we intend to do an audit of the category and relaunch it soon. Well, it’s back. You should be able to see our new and improved Anti-abuse guidelines soon, and we’ve already got our first post-hiatus post up.
Utopian.io Open Source Radio Show on MSP Waves
We had a terrific episode of the Open Source Radio Show this week, as @hispeedimagins came in to talk about Steem Lite, and Cryptocurrency maven @lukestokes visited to talk about EOSDAC. A great and lively discussion took place, and great fun was had by all. Also @techslut reported the open source news, and @imacryptorick won a Humble Bundle game package in our raffle.
Join the community on Discord: https://discord.gg/azdmM3v
It’s a hard time on the blockchain right now, as we all know well. But even in such a bear market, our fabulous contributors still pulled through with some terrific posts. We appreciate them so much for this.
Acrarium is a backend for ACRA written in Java using Spring Boot, Vaadin and MySQL. The project owner made a request, asking volunteers to create a logo for them. Midun took the task on and created an cool, minimalistic logo using the letters “a” and “c”. He made sure the logo used colors linked to the project, and made sure the symbol works well as a small icon. This work deserves to be highlighted because it is well done both in terms of technical quality and in presentation.
This is the ninth part of a series on how to build a functional blockchain. Thus far, the series has addressed wallet modules, a transaction system and other functions. Now, @tensor deals with network interface, peer to peer, security and other functions of a healthy blockchain.
This is the translator’s 6th contribution to the ReactOS project. From his post, you can see that he did an accurate translation this time as he learned from the mistakes made in the 5th contribution. He was also careful in making sure the translation was correct by doing research in understanding the the context of the sentences before determining the correct translation of each term. The translator works well with the advice given by the moderator @leyt.
The rare occasions when our CMO @techslut can find the time to write a major post are always a treat. This post, part of our #iamutopian series, covers her part of the Utopian presentation at Steemfest, and includes parts that were left out of the presentation due to time constraints. You should definitely check it out if you want to know what we’ve learned about building a business on this here blockchain.
We’ve finally gotten our first run of the compiler that @drifter1 has been taking us through the process of building for the past few weeks. This is another great tutorial in this series, aiming at building a basic C compiler. With great process explanations, illustrations, and detailed content, @drifter1’s process always captures the reader’s attention. This is particularly impressive when targetting a topic that’s not as common nowadays, and complex to some extent. If you fancy such topics, make sure to check out this tutorial and the whole series so far!
Total payout: 31.99 STU
Number of votes: 122
Utopian.io Post Statistics
The staff picked contributions are only a small (but exceptional) example of the mass of contributions reviewed and rewarded by Utopian.io.
Overall, the last week saw a total of 197 posts, with 167 of them rewarded through an upvote by @utopian-io.
In total, Utopian.io distributed an approximate of 4810.84 STU to contributors.
The highest payout seen on any Utopian.io contribution this week was 249.207 STU, with a total of 673 votes received from the community.
With SteemFest firmly in the rear window, we are now full Steem ahead on Utopian V2. We’ve got tasks requests, we’ve got a post with our V2 presentation from SteemFest, and we’re working hard to beat our deadline of April 2019. Join us, won’t you?
In this post:
Utopian V2 tasks!
The Utopian V2 Presentation
Great Tasks!
Anti-abuse trial period done
Great radio show episode!
Utopian V2 tasks!
We usually use the weekly to highlight some of the best task requests we’ve had during the past week. This week, those best task requests are our very own. Following his complete tutorial on how to contribute to utopian V2, CTO @gregory.latinier has posted three tasks. The first task posted, Project module, has already been assigned. But the other two, building the pro review module for our articles and building the language module for our articles are still open.
We also had some other great tasks, so be sure to check @utopian.tasks for all the details.
The Utopian V2 Presentation
If you want to know what you’ll be cotributing to, please take a look at our presentation from SteemFest (the fest may be in the rear window, but it is forever in our hearts). That post has the lessons we’ve learned, and our plans for the future. It is a must read.
Anti-abuse trial period done
For the last month, we’ve been running a trial for an Anti-abuse category at Utopian. That trial has ended, and we’ve now entered into a period of internal audit. We want to thank @iamstan and the entire team for the great job they’ve done with the category during the trial. It’s been a pleasure working with this group of dedicated abuse fighters. After applying what we’ve learned from this trial, you can expect the category to return with a vengeance. Abusers beware!
Utopian.io Open Source Radio Show on MSP Waves
Everything ties together this week, including our wonderful radio show, as CEO @elear visited the show to talk about the task requests linked to above. We also hosted @jringo from Gridcoin, to talk about Gridcoin’s new economical model and the change to their block rewards. They will now be fixed, which makes the coin more stable and more calculatable
In addition to reporting the open source news, @techslut joined @elear to talk about SteemFest 3. We also had a fun raffle!
Be sure to tune in next week at our new time of 7PM UTC on Wednesday on MSP Waves and on the Utopian Discord server!
Join the community on Discord: https://discord.gg/azdmM3v
We’re still recovering from the fantastic time many of us had at SteemFest 3, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have some excellent posts for you in this week’s Top of Utopian. This week, we have exemplary posts from the Translation, Anti-abuse, Tutorials and Blog categories. Check them out to learn what great Utopian contributions look like!
Ordinarily, we prefer posts to stick to a specific lane. If it’s a Blog category post, it should be the best blog post it can be. If it’s a Dev category post, it should be the best dev post it can be. If it’s a Tutorials category post, it should be the best tutorial it can be. @anthonyadavisii broke all the rules in his staff-picked post about the Steem Downvote Report Tool. It’s a development oriented blog post that’s also kind of a tutorial on an anti-abuse tool. Top of Utopian posts are usually exemplars of how you to post, but do not attempt this high level of difficulty unless you’re a skilled writer!
This is the third time in the short history of the Anti-abuse category that @lovenfreedom has made it to the Top of Utopian. Her contribution is easy to understand and is a quick read. She explains why everyone needs to be involved in fighting this type of abuse. She teaches readers how to stop clicking and start thinking. She shows the importance of knowing what you are clicking on before you click. Everyone who loves Steem apps, and wants to keep their Steem safe, should read this post. It is good knowledge for everyone to gain. Don’t get Phished, get smart.
Another round in the amazing series that @drifter1 has been bringing us while taking us on a journey of building a simple C compiler. In this session, a high level theoretical overview is presented while exploring intermediate code generation, relevant representations, along with Abstract Syntax Tree design. This well-crafted and well-illustrated tutorial paves the way for the hands-on implementation in following parts.
With his professional background in programming, the translator had a 100% accurate translation of 1267 words. In the post, the translator highlighted the most interesting part of the discussion about the different ways to allocate a buffer. He highlighted the potential problems and proposed solutions to the performance problem. He used his expertise to show how to translate the long strings to fluent and easy to understand Chinese. Great examples are given to the post.
Total payout: 57.00 STU
Number of votes: 104
Utopian.io Post Statistics
The staff picked contributions are only a small (but exceptional) example of the mass of contributions reviewed and rewarded by Utopian.io.
Overall, the last week saw a total of 200 posts, with 177 of them rewarded through an upvote by @utopian-io.
In total, Utopian.io distributed an approximate of 7420.96 STU to contributors.
The highest payout seen on any Utopian.io contribution this week was 290.253 STU, with a total of 216 votes received from the community.
The hot topic for dApps at this year’s @SteemFest was how to build a sustainable business on the Steem blockchain. Utopian has been focusing for the past year on creating a business that scales and can walk on its own two feets. Find out what we’ve learned.
Building a sustainable business is no easy game, and it becomes even harder for initiatives like ours, working on pioneering blockchain technologies. Utopian has gathered thousands of use cases, building Utopian V2 to meet the needs of open source projects and contributors.
Established a bit over a year ago, Utopian has been empowering open source projects on the Steem blockchain and beyond through continuous support. As Utopian was born on the Steem blockchain, our commitment to it is immense. We appreciate the positive feedback from the community, which has chosen us as one of the consensus witnesses.
Utopian, which began as a proof-of-concept fork of Busy.org, has proved to have the necessary ingredients to become a full-featured product.
The success of the Utopian POC is shown by the numbers: We’ve incentivised more than 65,000 contributions, embraced over 5,000 professionals and supported almost 9,000 open source projects.
Utopian is a data-driven project. Thanks to our POC, we have learned a lot. As in every learning process, challenges are inevitable.
Where monetary incentives are involved, abuse is always around the corner. Continuous audits are necessary to make sure the framework can mitigate them.
Retention is another challenge every dApp has faced. The volatility of the market, and especially the current bearish trends, make retention hard. It is critical to highlight long-term benefits and build incentives beyond the monetary ones.
You can never have enough security. It is critical to dedicate a great deal of attention to the topic. One must consider the weak points of both the infrastructure and the organisation.
Cost & sustainability is the biggest challenge a dApp on the blockchain faces. It is critical to consider the importance of balancing INs and OUTs. Specifically for the Steem blockchain, it is important to keep in mind the unreliability of delegated stake.
Monetary incentives are definitely not the only incentives Utopian can offer, and we believe the focus shouldn’t be fully on them. The right community is the one which sees the long-term benefits and contributes to the greater mission. This is where our full focus has been and will remain.
As the community is such a critical component, we have been very careful in on-boarding and supporting the right members. Our core team is indeed made up of some of the best community members. Through hard work and commitment, they have demonstrated the skills and will to make Utopian a reality. Utopian counts 11 core members and over 50 reviewers and community managers across the world, speaking almost 30 languages.
Overcoming our challenges wouldn’t have been possible without constantly learning from our partners. We are proud to support relevant open source initiatives on their journeys to build open source innovation.
The Utopian POC was born on Steem and we are forever grateful. Utopian has been working hard to support the growth of the Steem blockchain. We’ve been proactive as a witness, encouraged the development of the blockchain and dApps, as well as incentivising education for the community.
It’s about time to use the lessons we learnt to create a product aimed to solve effectively challenges and needs: Utopian V2.
Utopian v.2
The Social Platform for Collaboration and Collective Funding of Open Source Innovation. Such a fancy sentence to say a simple thing: we have been working hard over the last year to gather as much data as possible to come up with a solution that really works for our audience.
Open source projects are looking for spreading knowledge and awareness, building connections, and raising funds.
Utopian has supported sharing knowledge since day 1 and we believe this is an important component to attracting more professionals to the blockchain and to the open source ecosystem, enabling valuable content for a variety of categories such as tutorials, analyses, project updates and more.
To facilitate incentives for awesome content, Utopian V2 will enable you to send and receive liquid tips in a multitude of coins. Of those, STEEM will stand out, being super fast, featuring cost-free transactions, but most importantly being the only coin from which Utopian will get zero commissions.
If you have been following Utopian, you have probably noticed that we have been running a bounty-alike system on the Steem account @utopian.tasks. Working with our partners and project mantainers, we have learned much. It is crystal clear to us that the community wants to have a voice when it comes to proposing changes. This is the reason that Utopian V2 will feature a decentralized bounty exchange, enabling project owners, project collaborators, as well as external contributors to host bounties and load them up.
There’s a special sauce which makes the Utopian bounty exchange uniquely smart: Professional Quality Assurance. We have been supporting project owners and contributors in their decision making processes since the start. We have enabled them to make better and more informed decisions when distributing rewards. Utopian V2 will bring this powerful concept to the next level, as we have been gathering materials studies and industry standards to shift our quality assurance process and make it work for organisations of all sizes.
Utopian wants to be the place for professional open source contributors. We want to give them an identity. You will be able to create detailed profiles, showing your carreer, education, as well as your activity and reputation built during your journey on the platform.
As we want to build the bridge between contributors and projects, it makes sense to give these project a home. You will be able to create awesome pages for your open source projects, showing details, a personal blog and bounties pages.
To make sure we can facilitate the connection between contributors and project maintainers, Utopian will feature an on-site messaging and notification system. The foundation of the messaging app is already available, have a look at this contribution from @Tensor.
Utopian V2 is being built around two fundamental concepts: sustainability and mass adoption. The majority of the potential audience doesn’t know what the blockchain is, or is not confident enough to try and understand its complexities. This is why Utopian V2 gamifies users’ experience with the Steem blockchain and the other coins listed on the platform:
Receive tips on articles and donations for your bounty solutions even if you don’t have a Steem wallet.
Interact with Utopian by using standard, one-click, social oauth providers.
Have the ability to choose whether to post your contributions to the blockchain or not. This will determine your ability to access SP rewards.
As Steem remains the most important nexus for Utopian, we have made sure to highlight the benefits of using it compared to the other listed coins:
Pay zero commissions on Steem tips.
Access additional incentives thanks to the SP rewards capabilities.
Withdraw your Steem balance instantly and automatically as soon as your Steem account is synced. All other coins will require manual verification up to 72 hours.
A significant chunk of the commissions taken from all the coins, will be powered up to sustain the voting distribution and reviewers rewards, effectively growing the Steem ecosystem both directly and indirectly.
Utopian V2 Roadmap
You may have noticed we had to shift our deadline quite a few times. The reason for that is simple: We have collected almost 70K contributions, which to us represent 70K experiments and use cases. During our journey of building the platform, and as our partners have been growing, we have discovered functionalities we now view as critical for the success of our platform. We believe that we are at the point where we have gathered enough data to build a product that works.
We have also had our issues and realised how much is important to have the right team. @Gregory.Latinier, our recently added CTO, has done an incredible job of splitting the work into tasks. We have begun offering these to our community of contributors as bounties.
It’s SteemFest time! This week, we had our big presentation, with information about Utopian V2, which you can watch below. We also have a tutorial on contributing to V2, a great task, and a quick recap of an awesome episode of our radio show!
In this post:
We’re at SteemFest!
How to contribute to utopian V2
Great Tasks!
Great radio show episode!
We’re at SteemFest!
On Thursday, as part of the opening session of SteemFest’s first full day, we had our big presentation. @elear, @techslut, and @gregory.latinier all presented, and you can watch it all right here! We’re about an hour from the start of the video.
https://youtu.be/ToQfmnj7FR8?t=3785
How to contribute to utopian V2
Following up on the presentation, our CTO @gregory.latinier has published the complete tutorial on how to contribute to utopian V2. This is the time to jump on board if you want to be a part of our big push to the next phase of Utopian. Next week will bring with it the first big wave of tasks, so look forward to that.
Great tasks!
As busy as everyone is with SteemFest, We still had some awesome task requests this week. The biggest one, which just went up, is a trimmed down version of @coingecko’s TR from last week. Realizing that the previous TR was massive, they’ve narrowed the scope and added some more information to help devs accomplish the task. Have a look! As always, you can find all of our awesome tasks at @utopian.tasks.
Utopian.io Open Source Radio Show on MSP Waves
We had another terrific radio show this week. Our guests were @kodaxx and @jrswab who both made return visits to the show to update us about their projects. Great fun was had by all, and as usual, we had a fun raffle as well.
Be sure to tune in next week at 6PM UTC on Wednesday on MSP Waves!
