I’ve been a part of the web3 space for a couple of years now, and I’ve had the opportunity to participate in a handful of DAOs thus far. Personally, I’m very passionate about the idea of decentralized organizations and I see how they can potentially benefit society. However, despite my interest, the main point of friction that has kept me from participating further in DAOs is the lack of well-designed coordination tools that are sufficiently decentralized. The majority of DAOs in the ecosystem today utilize Discord as their main coordination and communication platform.

In my conversations with other people in the space, they favor Discord for the useful features that it offers, mainly personalized notifications and the ability to create sub-channels. However, Discord is hardly decentralized and is currently owned by a private company, and it is less than ideal for large organizations with hundreds, or potentially thousands, of participants. As of yet, there hasn’t been any alternative platform that have managed to replace Discord as a competitor.

I ultimately want DAOs to succeed, but for this to happen, we need better tools for productivity and communication that don’t have the limits and restrictions that Discord currently has. On the other hand, I recognize that many DAOists find Discord a very useful tool in their work. I want to gain a better understanding of how Discord enables DAO participants to work together and contribute, as well as what other needs remain unmet. I’m currently taking a certificate course on User Experience Design through eCornell. For my final capstone project, I will be designing the concept for a sufficiently decentralized communication and coordination tool for DAO participants. As part of this capstone project, I am collecting contextual data by conducting one-on-one interviews with users to determine their needs.

I am looking for three volunteers who currently work in the DAO space in some capacity and regularly use Discord to work with their fellow DAO participants. I prefer that the participant has been involved in a DAO for at least 6 months. I will be conducting 15-30 minute interviews online via Zoom. I do plan to record the sessions. If you prefer not to be recorded, you can still participate; I’ll just need to get written consent before we schedule and begin the interview. As for the date of the interview, the best day for me will be this coming Saturday the 1st. If this date doesn’t work for you, we can work together to schedule an appropriate time. Those who choose to participate will receive .02 ETH. I will need this data by the 3rd of June before the submission deadline, so applications are on a first come first served basis.

If you are interested in participating in this study, shoot me a PM on Farcaster and we can schedule an interview together. I look forward to hearing from you!

Evaluating Discord as a tool for DAO coordination: A Study