Gimbalabs, is an initiative to develop tools and applications, through a unique collaborative experience in creation, and that facilitates the adoption of the Cardano blockchain.
To build something truly new, developers need tools, a learning community, and holistic support to brainstorm ideas and build teams.
The team launched the project during Catalyst FUND2, presenting “Cardano Starter Kits + APIs”, having obtained the requested funding of USD 265,000.
It relies on Dandelion, a platform of free and open service APIs, maintained by dandelion.link, to build projects inspired by CSK experiences, where more than 30 developers, both new and experienced, participate who are learning about Cardano, playing with tools, and already launching collaborative projects.
Gimbalabs input to the developer experience includes the following:
- Experimentation, both with software and collaborative processes, allowing developers to start learning, contribute ideas, and get help incubating projects.
- Developer Training, the next round of Cardano starter kits is focused on developers and is currently rolling out.
- Creation of flexible teams to achieve specific objectives. These “mini-projects” are helping cultivate additional leaders within the Gimbalabs community, as well as providing ways for developers and non-developers to collaborate.
- Gimbalabs Playground, open source tools that pave the way for real-world utility. The first project of its kind is underway.
- The open source developer toolbox makes it easy to access and take advantage of any tool to explore ideas.
- Cardano APIs as a Community Service (also known as Dandelion), serving as entry points for developers, with free and public services, that will facilitate Cardano adoption by providing infrastructure for initial setup and testing of ideas
- Startup deployments OSS, with the aim of maximizing autonomy by hosting the OpenSource service instances when possible, and using hosted OSS when not.
- Cardano Starter Kits (CSKs) apply the principles of project-based learning to develop the skills you need to take the next step toward becoming a Cardano developer. Over the next 6 to 12 months, they will implement CSK that will put Cardano in the hands of the general public.
The Gimbalabs team is piloting introductory development courses, creating collaborative structures that support the emergence of new leaders, and testing processes to establish teams.
In this evolution of services, and as in any organization, it is necessary to improve the organizational structure. This Fund 6 proposal sharpens focus through the lens of the developer experience.
Gimbalabs Road to a DAO
Gimbalabs’ proposal for this FUND6 is the long term sustainability. That will be accomplished with consulting revenue, through a decentralized group of talented builders and skilled leaders, equipped to help companies build on Cardano.
Starting with a personalized workshop to present Cardano, guiding an incubation and exploration process, to implement a defined application, including educational marketing, to accompany the commercialization strategy.
This is the idea, which will turn Gimbalabs into a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). For this, the pillar of “decentralization” is a work in progress, prioritizing the autonomy of all those who contribute to the projects.
Over the next three months, work will focus on organization, to provide the self-sufficient structure of Gimbalabs, and for this, on intensive developer training and resource creation.
The Team
The Gimbalabs leadership team is made up of 3 developers:
James Dunseith: Teacher, Trainer and Facilitator. James creates learning experiences by running development courses. He is also the front-end developer for gimbalabs.com. During his 11 years teaching high school math, computer science, creative writing, and bike repair, James successfully experimented with project-based learning and mastery-based grading, showing how systems like these can change the way students approach learning. He was named a Master Teacher by both Math for America and BetterLesson, where he published two math curricula that are still in use today. Before founding Gimbalabs, James focused on teacher training at BetterLesson and then the MIND Research Institute, both building successful programs while helping teachers use new tools to facilitate deeper learning.
Roberto C. Morano: Experienced sysadmin and DevOps advocate. He is an OpenSource and decentralization enthusiast. Roberto creates tools and makes them easy to use by ensuring the stability of the Dandelion APIs. Develop Cardano test networks and projects to operate, maintain and support the APIs offered to the community. Roberto has been involved for more than 10 years in projects ranging from the development of Linux distributions for Spanish citizens and governments, an anti-DDoS system for a data center or web infrastructure for different industries such as real estate, logistics or the fintech private sector, where he worked on projects for important clients. He has been part of the Emurgo infrastructure team behind the Yoroi Wallet and the Seiza Explorer. Today, it is the operator of the PEACE stake pool.
Juliane Montag: Business developer and marketing professional within the consulting, stakeholder management and relationship building sector from start-ups to large corporations. Juliane’s role focuses on driving the Gimbalabs business model by defining value creation and processes to fulfill the value proposition for both developers and clients. She will lead the overall project management for Gimbalabs to become a sustainable business. In more than 15 years of experience, Juliane has held various managerial positions in Business Development, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Planning, Business Intelligence, and Global Account Management.
Roadmap, Metrics and Budget
The budget will be assigned to three months of work. In addition, time will be invested in developer research, interacting with companies, and laying the groundwork for future DAO consulting.
Roadmap
- Develop the experiments described above
- Develop the open source toolbox described above
- Establish a rewarding framework and application for contribution (developers and community)
- From 6 to 12 months, it will be the second stage, Gimbalabs towards a DAO.
Metric
- Number of developers: 40
- Number of DApps: 2
- Number of solutions for real-world problems: 2
- Number of tools: 3
The Budget
- 3 team members: USD 27,000
- Operational (infrastructure, web hosting, servers): USD 350
Funds requested in USD 27,350
Website: https://gimbalabs.com
The proposal in this FUND6 on Catalyst, here.
In this FUND6 they also present 3 other proposals: gimbalabs – Dandelion Daemon (s), GMBL-turn devs into blockchain and devsgimbalabs – Plutus PBL program
