Feels like Summer

Big news! We are excited to announce that the Summer of Protocols is back for 2024 –and the application portal is live!

This year's program has three tracks. First, Protocol Improvement Grants (PIGs) for two-person teams building on an existing, real-world protocol. Second, the Protocol Pill Incepting Lore and Literacy Challenge (PILLs) for individuals who want to create a protocol-themed creative work with memetic potential. And third, the Partner Program, aimed at building institutional capability through workshops and sector-specific research. Explore the different tracks.

Here are some tips for your application:

• PIG and PILL have a public Request for Comments (RFC) component. Post these early!

• Familiarize yourself with some of last summer's projects.

• You can post a PIG RFC without a teammate, to seek out suitable partnerships

• Applicants with similar PIG RFCs needing teammates should consider merging

• Think about how improving protocols is different from creating products or startups

• Think end-to-end, from discovery to field-testing and deployment

• For PILL applications, think about how to create an "Aha!" moment

The application deadline for the PIG and PILL grants is April 12th, 2024. Decisions will be made the week of April 19th. The program will begin on May 8th. See all key dates.

On March 20th we will be hosting a 2024 Program Q&A Town Hall to share information and answer questions. You can also post questions in General category on the forum in the meantime.

State of the Forum

The forum is starting to buzz, and lots of good conversations are happening, about everything from card catalogues to cultural adaptability to decentralization bias.

"Code is harder to cheat, and easier to fork"

- rafa

We will be using the forum to foster a working-in-public culture this year, starting with the application process itself. The forum will be used by applicants to post RFCs as part of their applications. We will also be using the forum to facilitate Q&A during the 2024 Program Q&A Town Hall, on March 20.

Anyone can participate (including by giving feedback on RFCs). So if you're building anything protocol related, the forum is a great place to get some input, answer questions, or just show off your work:

Town Halls and other talks

Steve Hely, writer for Veep, The Office, American Dad!, and 30 Rock was last week's excellent guest speaker. The recording is on YouTube. Steve also has a weekly-ish digest you can check out.

On March 20th, immediately following the Program Q&A Town Hall, two members of the Berggruen Institute will be joining us for a salon to discuss their new book, Children of a Modest Star, and protocols for living within our planetary bounds.

Also, all the upcoming talks can now be easily accessed on Google Calendar (and .ics, of course).

Keeping up with the pulse

If you're already subscribed to Protocolized and participating in the Discourse, there are two other ways to stay up to date with the program: The Summer of Protocols channel on Warpcast, and the Protocol Town Hall channel on YouTube.

Happy protocol hunting!