What does community mean in Kernel?

Orienting Questions
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Hello there!

Recently I began a journey inquiring: what does community mean in Kernel? What motivates fellows to stick around, especially after their block ends? What served them? And how may Kernel serve them in ways we don’t yet?

Kernel gained traction quickly since its inception. Though Genesis Block and KB2 had obstacles in attracting the diverse minds as is common now, it quickly spiraled into a well-regarded niche for learning, and frequently we are told, where some of the kinder and more caring people in web3 tend to pass time.

Having joined the team in KB5, it feels like magic at times. What is this nameless phenomenon? And not only how do we sustain it, but how do we continue to grow wit, adapt to its contours, and to the larger ecosystem trends that may challenge us? How did we build this seemingly thriving community in a niche corner of web3? By asking these questions, and attempting to answer them, may we continue serving the Kernel community, and the larger web3 community, in relevant and meaningful ways? I recognize that part of me asks the questions out of fear. Will we be able to adapt? Can we provide value in new, undiscovered types of ways?

Amidst my many questions, I will start the conversation here: what is the role of leadership and stewardship in Kernel?

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Grateful for this question, A. I am curious for the convo to unfold here. I do love one of Graeber’s definitions of community, tucked in the Debt module, of all places.

we only have a relationship with the other when the exchange is incomplete, i.e. when there is debt

The key to maintaining relationships in many older traditions is based on this ambivalence. Someone will give you something and the expectation is that you will give them something in return, though not something of exactly the same value as that would indicate you no longer wish to relate with them. A healthy community is one in which everybody is a little bit in debt to everyone else - it gives us an excuse to see each other!

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I love this quote because we are all incomplete, which means the possibility that each of us can be a seed for the community :herb:

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Dear Aliya, I love the “What does community mean in Kernel?” question and even more that it comes from you because your name contains (a part of) the answer!

Aliyah in Hebrew means “ascent” or “going up,” which in the Jewish tradition means traveling to the Land of Israel. However, in a broader sense, outside that particular tradition, it also means “immigration for the good of the community, regardless of the destination.”

In my sense of the Kernel community, we are more a process in the constant state of becoming than a static being. So, another version of your question would be, what are we ascending toward, what are we becoming?

Can it be that we’re traveling toward what we talked about earlier, “a common coherent consciousness , which is the only kind of mind capable of using a shared, ownerless, global state and history for the benefit of all who participate therein?”

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Hello Technoshaman!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, deeply.

I have always cherished the various meanings ascribed to my name, and from each language - Hebrew, as well as, Persian, Urdu, and Arabic. Somehow, though defined through various word choices, the meanings can feel uniquely singular. It is the first time I hear:

“immigration for the good of the community, regardless of the destination."

the corollary may be, what is good for our community, not knowing the destination? and how do we reconcile that some members are uncomfortable without any destination, while others embrace it? and as you say, another corollary is:

what are we ascending toward, what are we becoming?
Can it be that we’re traveling toward what we talked about earlier , “a common coherent consciousness

if we are becoming, what are the inputs to beget or fertilize such ‘becoming’, to beget or fertilize ‘a common coherent consciousness’? how can the container of Kernel facilitate becoming and a common coherent consciousness - questions we have been asking since the end of KB7 in November, and questions I attempt to ask by conversing with fellows about their experience in Kernel.

in my conversations with ~40 Kernel fellows thus far, one of the clearest pictures I have seen is the number of personas that enter into Kernel - with their unique backgrounds - their differing desiderata - and their openness to a destination or not, that is instrumentalizing Kernel vs. simply accepting Kernel as it is offered to them: to be re-created by it or to re-create it, or do both in balance.

a resounding theme is the vagueness, obscurity, and opacity, we at Kernel tend to project internally (such as decision making, leadership, process) as well as externally (such as who are we, what do we seek to be, who do we seek to attract, what do we want to do with community members?). do we attempt to offer more clarity, thereby narrowing our scope and capaciousness, and therefore limit whom we may attract? or do we continue being rather amorphous, shape-shifting and attempting to offer fodder and fertilizer for diverse fellows’ desiderata, while simultaneously suffering from a lack of fetters or guardrails that could add definition to our vision, our community, our brand identity?

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Get Together
‘How to build a community with your people.’
Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh, Kai Elmer Sotto

Here begins my outline of the book ‘Get Together,’ starting with the Preface and Chapter I. I recently read the book as a lens to think about Kernel and community. In the outline you will find my own reactions and questions interpolated between key points. My questions and comments largely come from interviews I have beeen conducting with fellows, internal meetings, and personal observations since working at Kernel from January 2022. To demarcate my words, I preface each sentence with 'My concern(s)." The formatting limitations of the forum, and all the bullet points I’m using, made it challenging to bolden or italicize my thoughts and questions.

Preface

  • True communities are groups of people who continue coming together over what they care about.
    • My concerns:
      • What do Kernel community members care about? We have known for a while that there are multiple personas who enter Kernel, and all with differing desiderata, influenced by diverse backgrounds which inevitably set forth different goals and determine how fellows show up in the container of Kernel.
      • A question I can consider adding to my interviews is ‘what do you care about?’ It could elicit what is front of mind, what is most important for people right now and why? Then I can map some of the ‘shared cares’ among Kernel fellows.
  • The most vibrant communities offer members a chance to act on their passion with one another.
    • My concerns:
      • How can we improve the support and structure we provide to members to enable them to act on their passions together? How do we account for the varying support and structure needed by different personas? We know it’s not possible to provide support and structure for all personas. Would we be wise to reach consensus about ~3-4 personas that we will strive to attract and support, so that we intentionally focus on them, their user journey maps, and how best the container of Kernel can serve them?
  • Big secret: build with your community, not for them. With every challenge, ask yourself, how do I overcome it by working with my people, not for them?
    • My concerns:
      • Does the community wish we were more transparent about the inner workings of Kernel and our decision making processes?
      • Kernel Building Kernel was a brief exercise in opening up one niche of a decision making and Kernel shaping process. While it was an attempt to decentralize and welcome all opinions, it often seemed the opposite, and in the end the people who wanted to help didn’t know how they could, or how decisions were ultimately made at the end after a long discussion. Part of the complexity may have been due to irregular participation and no clear outline of a voting structure, which was intentional as I understand it. How can we learn from the KBK experience to offer a more decentralized and more transparent decision-making and Kernel shaping process to the community when the time presents itself again?

Part I: Spark the Flame

Chapter 1: Pinpoint Your People

  • Start with two questions:
    • Who do I want to get together?
      • Identifying your who:
        • Who do I/fellows care about?
        • Who do I/fellows share an interest, identity, or place with?
        • Who do I/fellows want to help?
        • Who brings the energy - who are the fellows already engaging, contributing, or attending?
          • My concerns:
          • I am under the impression that fellows who seem to bring the energy generally fall into three personas:
            • Fellows who identify as beginners to web3 who are eager to learn about the ecosystem and technology, and aren’t fully sure how to dip their toes even after joining Kernel, and it can often result in their dropping out or being timid with their participation because the opportunities don’t feel right, tangible or inviting. This group’s engagement tends to be fickle and decline over time, unless a fellow has a transformational touchpoint with a Steward or other intermediate/advanced fellow or mentor in the space.
            • Fellows who identify as intermediate/advanced, have an idea of their interests in web3 and the ecosystem, and come in with a project or are confident enough to co-found a project with someone else, or join another’s ongoing project.
            • Fellows who I identify as philosophical and have more time than most to explore a virtual community, have deep conversations, are often are attracted to the themes in the syllabus and enjoy discussing them at length. The interests may translate to a practical project, but not necessarily.
        • Assuming the community flourishes, who will we stick with?
          • My concern:
          • Do we want to focus on specific personas? If so, how many?
    • Why are we coming together?
      • Defining your why:
        • Thriving communities share a purpose and answer the question: why are we coming together?
        • Purpose can be social accountability, creating value, effecting change.
          • My concern: What is Kernel’s purpose? I understand it to propagate peer-learning environments; to offer spaces where fellows can find alignment or healthy disagreement with others about themes important to them, which grow them and push them to another plane; to explore niche topics; to further research questions within web3; to share and practice interests or hobbies within or without web3.
      • What do fellows need more of?
        • My concerns:
        • In my interviews I’ve heard a range of suggestions: fellow profiles for the whole community to see the projects folks are working on or current asks and needs and making them discoverable/searchable; stronger mentorship program; more features in the Convo app; alumni events; stronger regular weekly rituals for example AMAs; job listings/job boards; robust learn track with more focused learn track juntos; contributor rewards; putting Kernel on-chain.
      • What’s the change fellows desire?
      • What’s the problem only we can solve together?
      • ‘Our community brings together — (who) so that we can — (why).’
        • My concerns:
        • Our community brings together people genuinely curious about web3 and blockchain technology so that we can abandon pre-existing paradigms to create a more just world that severs itself from extractive capitalism and has the autonomy to decide how we exchange value and with whom.
        • Our community brings together people actively seeking how to leverage blockchain technology so that we can create a culture with new narratives and socio-economic incentives.
        • How would you fill in the blanks in the sentence?
  • Community Example: Hec started running to become healthier in his neighborhood of Harlem, NY. He started running with his sister, but missed the camaraderie and accountability when she moved away for college. He began inviting friends to join and posting on social media inviting the public too, talking openly about his goal to lose weight. And thus ‘We Run Uptown Crew’ (WRU) was formed, in an area where it was uncommon to see black and brown people running. Hec served an unmet need, and welcomed all levels, ages, and ethnicities. As many as 200 runners now gather at the same place every Monday.
  • Political scientist Robert D. Putnam references a bridging and bonding framework, attributed to Ross Gittell and Avis Vidal, which helps one understand how to make communities more diverse.
    • Communities dedicated to bridging bring different kinds of people together so that they can share assets, ideas, skills, and information. Examples are choirs and service groups. They are typically outward looking in their approach.
    • Communities focused on bonding connect similar types of people for solidarity, reciprocity, and social support. They are typically inward looking and tend to reinforce exclusive identities and homogenous groups.
    • Communities tend to be both, not either/or, and balancing both is healthy, while making sure bonding doesn’t become too extreme in an identity of exclusion.
  • If we believe in promoting diversity and inclusivity, how do we define a safer space for certain people while stewarding our new community away from an exclusionary identity?
  • Continually revisit these questions:
    • What dimensions are our community members bonding over unintentionally?
      • Be conscious of how our community lacks diversity and probe all possible causes.
        • My concerns:
        • Kernel has strived for gender parity since inception. In recent years, Kernel has sought to increase representation from non-binary folks too. While admittance is one step, I would argue that the next and more important step is supporting continued participation of underrepresented folks too (as long as they want to).
        • Internally we have talked about intervening when any fellow starts to participate less, to find out the reason why respectfully, and if we can support them in any way, or if they simply don’t want to be in Kernel anymore then that’s ok too. But we think there should be outreach from our side to find out if we can support them if they would like to continue participating, and this would be for all fellows, regardless of background/identification.
    • How can I challenge my community to diversify? I prefer to frame it: how can Kernel challenge ourselves to diversify our community intentionally?
      • Seek opportunities to bridge, collaborate with existing members to proactively invite and welcome new types of people who connect with our purpose.
        • My concerns:
        • Diversifying Kernel has been a core tenet since day one, however it seems that simple admittance of a diverse cohort into Kernel alone does not translate to diverse participation. How can the structures and support we build/provide encourage participation of diverse voices?
  • Community example: Hec & WRU decided that their running crew should actively reflect their own neighborhood but also welcome new members of all kinds from different neighborhoods, classes, races, and age groups.
    • “I’ve had a drug dealer sit down with a surgeon for pizza and beer after our runs. They don’t even know what each other does for a living because that wasn’t what they wanted to talk about. Me and Josh just laugh because these are two people who would never otherwise be talking to each other. But that’s what the running community does. It brings people from all walks of life, from all ages, together.”