The Interledger Community 🌱: Metasebia Yoseph

Digital Gojo — Grant Report #2 (Final)

Metasebia Yoseph — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 21:48:24 +0000

Background

Digital Gojo (DG)is a research and development project exploring use-cases for a web monetization ecosystem focused on high-quality Ethiopian cultural content. The goal of the project is to serve as a virtual “home” / “gojo” for accessing a variety of content according to the user's interests, such as news, music, e-books and magazines, audio books and podcasts, art, children's content, games, and other original media.

Project Update

Guests exploring the mobile platform at DG's soft launch event in partnership with Design Week Addis Ababa (DWAA)'s Tech Day.

Our platform has finally launched and can effectively demonstrate value to the creative community by monetizing multimedia content, as well as, to its audience, who will be able to access a curated selection of cultural content. DG’s premier content offering, Fun with Fidel, a tool for school-age children to learn Fidel (the Ethiopian Alphabet with Ethiopic/ Ge'ez script) was also successfully tested and launched since our last report. Since then, we've been receiving amazing feedback and positive reviews from users.

Screenshots from the Fun with Fidel Game within the Digital Gojo Platform

Progress on objectives

Complete

To build platform for Beta Testing with web and mobile access
Distribute & Monetize the Sample Content
Demonstrate monetization model between creators and viewers.
Establish social media presence
Produce and distribute promotional demo video (more on that in the Communications & Marketing section)
Better understanding of user base and profiles

Incomplete
On-board Subscribers via Coil (due to the above mentioned obstacles with wallet linkage coupled with Coil’s phase-out).

The platform has been released through traditional channels. However, due to on-going setbacks integrating ILP's prescribed wallets, we've yet to connect our platform with the ILP main-net. While we work to resolve issues with the respective wallets, we've brought-to-life the DG creator portals via the Rafiki testnet (link coming soon). After weeks of refining the UX and UI, we've finalized a design that channels the core values of ILP and GftW by centering the user's privacy, data, and monetization metrics.
Final Design for the DG Creator Portals and Dashboard

As we continue to expand our user base we are also exploring new use-cases for distributing and monetizing content on the platform (check out the what's next section for the next content model we are looking to on-board).

Key activities

Working with our dev and marketing we finalized the creator portals. We built out our social media presence by establishing profiles for both the platform and the Fun with Fidel game (more on this in the Communications and marketing section).
Engaging in targeted-visibility promotional events and community engagement programs.
Producing the promotional demo video for our marketing efforts.

Communications and marketing

As per our marketing strategy and timeline we've continued to engage key Ethiopian and Eritrean-Americans who are nodes within their respective communities, to serve as unofficial brand ambassadors for the platform and its offerings. In addition, Our promotional demo video has allowed us to utilize social media through targeted ads to promote both the Digital Gojo platform and Fun With Fidel, respectively.

The project was represented at community events and projects from 2021 to 2022. Some notable promotions include the Technology Day programming during Design Week Addis Ababa , the ArtCreates panel discussion hosted by the British Council, and finally the Habesha Newtorks Panel Discussion. During these events, we were able to introduce the team and the benefits of the platform as well as the GftW.

Flyer from the ArtCreates Panel hosted by British Council Ethiopia
Flyer from the Habesha Newtworks International Community Event
Attendees at the past Design Week Addis Ababa 2022 Tech Event

The DWAA event, this past November, was particularly notable as we were able to present the platform for the first time to an audience of tech enthusiasts in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We were also able to engage our core user base of content creators that may seek the platform to monetize their multimedia content.

Since Fun with Fidel is DG's current and only offering, we have focused more on populating its social media, as it automatically drives users back to the platform. With this strategy in mind we have developed its Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

What’s next?

As we continue with our product roll out, we will focus on the following:

Driving our promotional activities to traget the Ethiopian/ Eritrean diaspora communities
Developing more content offerings. The next type of content we are looking to add to the platform is A Culture of Coffee an e-book on the origins of Ethiopian coffee and coffee culture

Expanding on the monetization payment gateways. As per our original proposal we are eager to explore integration with Ethio Telecom’s newly released "Telebirr", a mobile payment platform, as well as the Chapa API which offers the first payment gateway in Ethiopia to support e-commerce and credit card transactions.
Copy of a Yahoo Finance Article on the rise of Chapa in Ethiopia
Digital Gojo has ignited a new model for commercial and cultural access. We remain committed to our vision to be a digital sanctuary for our target audience of viewers and creators, with your support.

What community support would benefit your project?

Our project could benefit from more access points for payment and system integration. The overall wallet on-boarding process for the only two payment gateways the protocol offered (Uphold and GateHub) was very cumbersome for users that are based internationally in non-western locals. The UI/ UX was particularly horrible, as these portals often offered no access to "help" or "troubleshooting" without passing certain flawed verification processes.

Screenshots of the problematic UI from GateHub's on-boarding experience
As you can see in these screenshots, you can’t even click the “Help” button without first verifying your phone number. In this image from my GateHub experience you can see where I used two different functioning US numbers, in different formats, but the system continued to reject them as ”invalid”. This type of all-or-nothing on-boarding UI presents a very frustrating “brick wall” for new users and is a significant deterrent to mass ILP web monetization adoption. We're a fairly tech savvy team and can only imagine what a turn-off this would be to someone more novice.

Attempts to establish a payment pointer for project YouTube channel
The process for establishing an Uphold business account was less finite but arguably more frustrating. After countless emails and failed document verification attempts, all of that energy and correspondences with their customer support representative resulted in no account or wallet established.
The rigidity of the on-boarding process did not allow for any flexibility therefore we could not set up even basic payment pointers for Youtube, let alone sync wallets.

Screenshots from the many correspondences with Uphold Business Customer Support
Other than resolutions to these technical issues, the project could also benefit from more opportunities to connect and expand our user base, this can be in the form of targeted press, as well as, participating in more virtual engagements and demos across the ecosystem.

Additional comments

We remain grateful to GftW for this opportunity to experiment and explore pathways to bring web monetization to the Ethiopian community. We thank you reader, for following us on this journey. The Digital Gojo project presents a big opportunity for Ethiopia's creative economy, and we're only just getting started. Sign up for updates here!!

Relevant links/resources

PROMOTIONAL DEMO https://www.youtube./watch?v=iK_mx0t_3-A
TRADITIONAL PLATFORMS https://linktr.ee/addisfutureslab
AFL WEBSITE https://www.addisfutureslab.com/
DESIGN WEEK ADDIS ABABA https://www.designweekaa.com/
D!NK TV https://www.youtube.com/@dinktv_

Digital Gojo — Grant Report #1

Metasebia Yoseph — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 18:34:10 +0000

Background:

Digital Gojo is a research and development project exploring use-cases for transforming Ethiopia’s local and international creative value networks into a sustainable web monetization ecosystem.

Project Updates

It's been an exciting 3 months since we began the project and remain excited about the possibilities. We're currently preparing to launch a working prototype for distributing and monetizing content while examining new models for commercial and cultural access.

As I mentioned in my introductory post, the concept behind Digital Gojo is to serve as a digital sanctuary for our target audience of viewers and creators. A "Gojo" is a traditional hut-style habitat and iconically signifies the "every-home" in Ethiopia. The platform will serve as a virtual "home" or interior space where they can access a variety of content according to their interests such as: news, music, e-books and magazines, audio books and podcasts, nft art/ crpytomedia, children's content, and games.

(The image on the right is one of my rough concepts for the gojo interior while the image on the left is a later version developed by the project team)

Our strategy is to focus on establishing a core user base, particularly in early beta and alpha phases, through the development and release of our in-house children's content "Fun With Fidel", a tool for school age children to learn Fidel, an Ethiopian Alphabet with Ethiopic/ Ge'ez script. Through this, we've established a multifaceted use case to test out creator monetization models with the Digital Gojo platform while presenting a key on-boarding hook to attract users.

Personal Note: As a parent, and someone interested in accessing this type of rich cultural and educational content for my children, I knew that the initial barriers of signing up and setting up a wallet and would be less of an obstacle for eager parents looking to augment their children's learning.

Key activities

Working with the design and animation team, we established which character styles would represent specifci learning experiences. We also began developing the look and feel of these tools and experimented with a variety of forms and textures before settling on our final prototypes (furry and balloon characters). In tandem with this work flow, we’re also finalizing the UX / UI for the app and website.

Progress on objectives

Although "Fun with Fidel" is the sample use case for the platform, our original goal was to develop three very different content formats. This objective shifted during production, as the cost estimates for developing the different formats were too budget heavy. In addition, we realized managing these disparate mini-projects could potentially overwhelm our lean team. Instead, we adapted the project scope to expand "Fun With Fidel to provide all three use cases in one. It provides three types of educational tools as content: a Musical ABC-esque song, Amharic alphabet sounds with visuals, and a letter tracing game. Other changes to our original project goals was the development of XR elements that are now being adapted for use during the marketing push (more on that in the Communications & Marketing section).

Our Original Objectives:
Complete or Near Completion

To build platform for Beta Testing with web and mobile access
Distribute & Monetize the Sample Content (3 Use Cases)

In Progress

On-board Subscribers to Web Monetization via Coil Subscription / Digital Gojo Wallet
Facilitate monetization models between creators and viewers

What’s next?

As we finish up the final aspects of the backend development, we are also preparing the marketing and PR strategy for the beta test. This will be a crucial time as the user experience can either make or break platform adoption. Once we have launched the product internationally to the Ethiopian diaspora community we will be exploring inroads to the local Ethiopian market and if / how the platform can be integrated with Ethio Telecom’s newly released "Telebirr" mobile payment platform.

Communications and marketing

The communications and marketing strategy will be rolling out in mid-late January. The first phase will rely on getting the beta version in the hands of essential Ethiopian-Americans who are nodes within the community. In addition, we will also be utilizing social media to promote both the Digital Gojo platform and Fun With Fidel content, respectively. The final phase will move into audience engagement and prizes, which is where the XR will come into play as we utilize some of the 3D assets to create interactive teasers.

Community Support & Problem Solving

One of the key issues we are looking to resolve is ensuring that the Digital Gojo platform can facilitate a variety of transaction types and pricing models for a myriad of creative content while still being compatible with the web monetization infrastructure. In an ideal scenario, the type of transaction and pricing model will be up to the creator to decide upon uploading their work to the platform and activating the appropriate payment structure.

My belief is that Interledger’s web monetization can and will be as flexible as creators need it to be and the audience can access content by syncing wallets/ payment pointers and approving/ signing the predetermined transaction types (similar to when we purchase cryptomedia).

For example:

Allowing the platform to facilitate payments in accordance creator’s desired monetization model will require multiple payment structures and transaction options. For example an author may want to upload their book for purchase or as a “rental”. Is the IL API flexible enough to allow for different payment requests? For the "Fun With Fidel" content we were interested in a subscription based pay-to-access model, where parents could pay a one time annual access fee that could be renewed every 12 months. Although, there are aspects of the content that can easily be integrated with Coil and Cinnamon, there are also some experiences that need to remain native. This is an essential crossroad we are looking to resolve and would welcome ideas from the community on creative approaches to incorporating a variety of payment structures.

In addition, although the web interface is unaffected, the app version of the platform has stalled a bit due to the centralized architecture of the Google Play and Apple App Store. We are now exploring progressive web apps (PWA) versus third-party alternatives that would be compatible the Interledger API while still allowing access these marketplaces. If the community has suggestions on any specific 3rd party app distributors that support the web monetization ecosystem we are trying to build and support, do let us know. In the meantime, we are finalizing the web interface. The only draw back is that this makes the tracing game less interactive for users and functions more as a simulation.

Additional comments

We remain grateful to GftW for this opportunity to experiment and explore pathways to bring web monetization to the Ethiopian community.

We thank you reader, for following us on this journey.

Beta is coming soon!! Sign up for updates here.

Welcome to the Future!

Metasebia Yoseph — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 10:41:00 +0000

After a bit of a delay and some bumps in the road getting the Addis Futures + project team together and then getting everyone to fully understand the vision for Digital Gojo, as a platform for creative content for and by creatives across the Ethiopian diaspora, we finally have found our stride!

I'm looking forward to sharing the work we've done so far to accomplish the objectives originally outlined in our Gftw application. As well as, reflecting on some of our highs, lows, and roadblocks we've encountered and what we're considering to resolve them. I'll also be looking to the community for thoughts and advice as we pass the halfway point for this adventure and begin strategizing on how to finalize and take flight.

Side Note: The cover art above is a visualization for a narrative treatment I wrote to capture the concept for the Digital Gojo platform. It was created by famed Ethiopian digital/NFT artist Fanuel Luel, who was selected for his distinctive AfroFuturist style. If you want to read the treatment he read to make this visualization. Click here and use the password: gojo

That's all for now.

For project updates, visit:
https://www.addisfutures.com/

Or follow @addisfutureslab on Twitter.