This week we’re rewinding back and bringing back to the top your feed a few highlights from grantees, community members and the Interledger Foundation team. Plus a Tipping Party you don't want to miss!
January
In January, we introduced the new cohort of of 27 grantees from our most recent call for proposals.
These projects shared a vision for practical activity to catalyze Interledger-driven business models for the web that expand financial inclusion.
Funded projects range from an exploration of gift cards for the internet driven by Web Monetization to experiments with new business models for sustainable, free trade coffee production in West Africa. Grants range from $9,800 to $100,000 USD.
Projects were submitted through a public, global call for proposals launched in July 2021. A panel of independent judges made funding recommendations on the 150 applications we received. The successful grantees in this cohort come from 12 different countries.
Read more about all Grant for the Web's awardees in the Web Monetization community space
Second time grantee New Media Rights continued providing pro-bono legal service by offering free 1-hour legal consultation sessions for Grant for the Web recipients and others who are involved in web monetization projects.
New Media Rights is a nonprofit program that provides pro-bono (free) and low cost legal services to independent online creators and startups whose projects require specialized internet, intellectual property, privacy and media law expertise. We will be providing Grant for the Web grantees and other web monetization innovators an option to get pro-bono legal support to encourage the safe and wide distribution of their content or technology projects.
David Lockie’s role as GftW Ambassador came to an end. Over the course of David’s Ambassadorship, he created https://webmonetization.dev/wordpress/ - a microsite dedicated to Web Monetization and WordPress. It runs right from an introduction to both technologies through to sophisticated usage of the Coil plugin that allows anyone to easily yet powerfully Web Monetize their WordPress site.
February
Erika Hargreave needed your help and resources...
I am wrangling Web Monetization Educational Resources this week to include (with credits and links back to broader resources) in some asynchronous learning about Web Monetization at MozFest.
Some of the topics being explored in the asynchronous learning about Web Monetization include:
- what Web Monetization is and what it is not,
- the philosophies behind Web Monetization,
- the basics to how Web Monetization works,
- opportunities that Web Monetization presents,
- current challenges of Web Monetization,
- signing up for your Coil account,
- getting your payment pointer(s),
- exploring what you can Web Monetize and how, and
- case studies of how different projects are utilizing Web Monetization.
Gunnar of project Gradual invited the community to take part in skill sharing sessions.
Hi there everyone! I want to take this opportunity to introduce Gradual to the community. We're a new grantee and we're setting out to initiate a journey for all of us to learn from and with each other.
In fast-moving, innovative domains - like the Web Monetization community - technical systems and the knowledge required to contribute are often so dynamic that structured learning resources aren’t widely available. We want to empower members in the Web Monetization community with a safe and accessible space to learn with others as we grow into a healthy, social and connected ecosystem!
Gunnar is currently looking for grantees and community members to continue sharing and connecting. To learn more about Gradual, you can take part here
March
Everything you needed to know about The Grand MozFest Tipping Experiment. This was an experiment to see how the creative minds of the MozFest Community can apply the Web Monetization Standard to their MozFest resources and assets to raise money for an Internet Health initiative of their choosing, inclusive of their own work.
MozFest wrapped and it was jam packed with what else but The Grand MozFest Web Monetization Experiment co-facilitated by Chris Lawrence and Erica Hargreave presented 3 sessions sharing how the MozFest Community can use the Web Monetization Standard to monetize their MozFest resources, assets and content. Community members and grantees shared their action plans of Web Monetized resources and assets in our community forem and at MozFest. And sessions facilitated by Web Monetization community members, fireside chats and rounded out the week a Tip-A-Thon!
Web Monetization community was a buzzing with more action plans from graeme for Prototypr who shared plans to solve these 2 issues using Web Monetization and Ian Forrester who’s action plan is a new funding model to pay artists & creators. Victoria Coker continued sharing new grant & funding opportunities. Plus a project update from Gavin Chait for Qwyre who launched his first web-monetized short-story competition and Nasir Khan shares final report for project Mukto Library.
April
GftW awardees Hostbeak Kreators created a campaign that aimed to educate and empower content creators in Africa and recently announces the winners. Lawil for project Snake Nation shares details on the Women in Tech Hackathon. Patrick Rahy for Kult provides new updates and improvements in Grant Report 1. Ciaran for Interruptor bring project to close in final report.
We also announced that Lawil Karama joined our team as an ambassador! Lawil is a community builder and networker with extensive experience. Furthermore she is our first female Ambassador from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Lawil her diverse background means she has a different perspective and filter on what the needs of the users are. With this perspective she will support the GFW team at Interledger Foundation to reach new communities and connect the GFW with fringe communities and niche spaces. Additionally Lawil will help make sure that the GFW attracts more grantees from around the globe. You can read the full blogpost about Lawil here.
May
In early May, the Interledger Foundation announced a new call for proposals for ILP-based financial services.
In continued service of our mission, and learning from our Grant for the Web program, we are excited to announce the next open Call For Proposals (CFP) to target the creation of more financial nodes in the Interledger network. We will be looking for projects that want to plan and build financial services. This CFP will support up to 20 projects through a research, development, and planning phase. This grant opportunity covers phase one, and projects selected in this opening round will be eligible and competitive for round two.
JS of project Flat Squirrel Productions reached out to hear from the community (from jazz musicians to ballet dancers, community theaters to opera halls). It is their our hope that this project, Web Monetization for the Arts, is the first step in developing a Web Monetized platform for independent performing artists, a place for people to discover new work and for creators to be compensated. Victoria Coker launches project Black Web Fest x Web Monetization. Black Web Fest x Web Monetization, is a program that provides training for creators to learn how to use web monetization to access new streams of funding. We'll be providing free training, a two-month free Coil Membership and four creators will be awarded a $5,000 grant.
Andrzej Mazur for Enclave Games announces new winners from the third edition of the Gamedev.js Jam. They received a solid amount of entries from teams that implemented Web Monetization API in their creations, with some really cool executed ideas. Ciaran Cummin for project DEMOS shares out grant report #1. Our project seeks to understand what a fair and desirable future for web monetisation looks like in the eyes of those on no or low pay from their online labour. To date, the project has been going well! We have done a great deal of research design and reflection, aided by interviews with experts on the subject at hand, and have just completed the deliberative focus groups which form the crux of this research.
The new CFP went live! In continued service to our mission, we are excited to announce that our latest Call for Proposal: LP-Based Financial Services is now live. The Interledger Foundation is allocating $1.5 million USD in grant funding to organizations with an interest to build financial nodes in the Interledger Network. We encouraged companies, NGOs, educational institutions, government agencies, or other documented collectives across the globe with innovative ideas and solutions for Interledger Protocol.
We also received a nice influx of grant reports from following GftW Grantees:
Maria Bustillofor project The Brick House Cooperative
Tessel for project MicroMemberships
David Benoit for project Sum Assembly
Andrey Torres de Lima for project PipeWebMonetization
Rashon Massey for project Helping Small Businesses Adopt Web Monetization
Ivonne Prado Barros for project New Universe
Alexander Mozeak for project Gib
Indra Ekmanisfor project Webmonitization for Podcasting
Seyi Osunadefor project Edanuso Consult
Use the hashtag grantreports to read their reports.
June
Interledger Foundation Executive Director Briana Marbury shared a message about our third open call for proposal since launching almost two years ago.
For our friends that have been along with us on this journey since the beginning, you'll notice that this Call is quite different from our earlier iterations. When we first started our grantmaking in 2019, our inaugural CFP was open to just about anyone interested in experimenting with the Interledger Protocol. There was a healthy mix of developers and content creators working on projects that ranged from web monetized content, code repositories, and new platforms experimenting with new business models for the web. From our initial cohort of grantees and subsequent calls afterwards, we were able to garner gems for improvement each time. Through our feedback mechanisms imbedded in the grantmaking process, we have been able to determine which aspects of the Protocol our community is excited about, and some of the barriers and pain points to entry that needs to be eased. So we've made the decision to build the foundational aspects and improve the Interledger Protocol to improve access to the network.
As the open call for proposals for ILP-based financial services drew to a close, we continued to share what you needed to know to apply. We encouraged companies, NGOs, educational institutions, government agencies, or other documented collectives across the globe with innovative ideas and solutions to apply. The Interledger Foundation champions advocacy for Interledger, an open protocol that permits frictionless payments and micropayments across currencies and ledgers enabling opportunities for broader global financial inclusion. The Foundation in its mission to build equitable pathways to financial access and digital participation launched its Call for Proposals for ILP-Based Financial Services to help organizations research and plan concepts that will help catalyze more financial services nodes in the Interledger Network. Through this grant, we seek to support communities that have – and continue to be – systemically and deliberately excluded from financial access and empowerment opportunities. The Interledger Foundation by providing grants that total $75,000 USD to up to twenty (20) recipients will fund 6-month research and development projects with a compelling idea for an ILP-enabled financial service that understands the problems and explores innovative open source solutions.
ILF July Community Call Tipping Party hosted by Erica Hargreave
We are thrilled to invite you to attend a Web Monetization Tipping Party to celebrate the end of the first full year of Community Calls! Bringing us full circle, one of our first Community Call hosts, Erica Hargreave!, who has now joined us as a Web Monetization Ambassador will be hosting the party on Wednesday, July 27th at 11:00 am Pacific / 2:00 pm EDT / 6:00 pm GMT.
We want to take a moment to celebrate the various digital creatives in the community who have been experimenting with the Web Monetization Standard and Web Monetizing their digital assets.
Join in the fun as we immerse ourselves in the digital creations of our fellow Web Monetization Community Members, and spend some of our free pre-paid tips courtesy of the free Coil membership that those attending will be gifted as a party favor.
To Register for the Tipping Party:
Sign-Up via Eventbrite, and closer to the Tipping Party we will send you the specifics on the location of the ‘virtual gallery’ for the party. The gallery will also be open 12-hours either side of the party, so that you can peruse and tip projects at your leisure.
To get your ticket for the Tipping Party visit: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/385752856177
Looking forward to seeing you on July 27th, and indulging in your Web Monetized digital assets at the tipping party!
We are taking the month of August off and will be back in the Fall with more Community Engagement opportunities.
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