Polkadot Hubs - Initiative case-study, education and support for future hubs (12 months period)

Introduction

Polkadot hubs are community-operated spaces, where people who share their interest in the ecosystem meet and work together, learn from each other and organize events. Our research in Q1 2023 proves the interest of 10+ locations all over the world, that are interested in running permanent spaces of this kind (similar to hackerspaces).

We are proposing the next steps for this project and based on the already established physical hub in Indonesia's Denpasar region. We aim to share our knowledge on how we kickstarted the community, initiate the hub and convinced the local government to choose Substrate as their blockchain technology. Even local universities want to introduce Substrate in their curriculum from next year. All content is to be dedicated to Polkadot.

We hope you will appreciate our half year efforts, starting the community and the first physical hub in APAC region. Our goal is to create a know-how on how to start and run such a hub.

Budget

Based on community feedback, we have updated our budget details and extended the period until the end of the year.
We support the becoming of all new hubs until the end of the year and our hourly rate is under $21

Achievements so far:

Head Ambassador Six and Ambassador Gabo secured the location in Denpasar, DNA Creative building, until the end of the year, with zero cost rent and utility for Polkadot.
Establishment of the hub in Denpasar, called "Polkadot Sanctuary"
Denpasar initial research is done and community growth is kickstarted. We have 130+ members already in the community.
Convinced Denpasar government to choose Substrate as their blockchain technology.
Got request from the collective of 14 universities in Denpasar, to provide blockchain education material, focusing on Polkadot and Substrate.

We already discussed this topic during the last 6 months in many events and started the public Polkassembly discussion as well: Polkadot Hubs - Initiative case-study

Intro video

We created a video about the story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTjL1weAShs

Teams and locations that filled our research form, interested in becoming physical Polkadot hubs:

SubWork in Bled, by KodaDOT
Vietnam, by Polkadot Ambassadors
Ljubljana, by Apillon
Budapest, by Mosaic/DLabs
Berlin, by Parity Technologies
Dubai, by CCTF

Notably, the Spanish "Polkadot Hub" already exists in a hybrid form.

Details

Proponent: 123LuJKS65HaBbLSdDS46ByeC7bvQwA1iUhTpmjigQAfUKpK

Requested DOT allocation: 7915 DOT

Proposal updated on: 27.06.2023

For details (the plan, milestones, deliveries, marketing, success metrics, research data, etc.), please refer to the detailed proposal document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NjOVn_id2Wy9BcSMBlieKZMVKukRQS_Tmi1SKMJwDSc/edit?usp=sharing

Polkadot Hubs Summary

Polkadot Hubs are community-operated spaces where people interested in the Polkadot ecosystem meet, learn, and organize events.
In Q1 2023, there was interest from over 10 locations worldwide to establish permanent hubs.
The project is based on the success of the Polkadot Sanctuary in Denpasar, Indonesia.
The Denpasar hub has grown to over 130 members and convinced the local government to use Substrate blockchain technology.
Local universities in Denpasar are planning to include Substrate in their curriculum.
The project aims to create a guide on starting and running Polkadot hubs.
New hubs are supported until the end of the year, with an hourly rate of under $21.
Several locations, including Bled, Vietnam, Ljubljana, Budapest, Berlin, and Dubai, have shown interest in becoming Polkadot hubs.