Falafel Fellows
A collaborative program empowering creative individuals to contribute to free-software and open-source projects.
Mission
Our mission is to cultivate a global community of innovative individuals dedicated to developing open-source projects that empower people with financial autonomy, privacy, and self-sovereignty. Through mentorship, skill development, and the creation of a supportive atmosphere, we aim to foster collaboration and inspire meaningful contributions to open ecosystems.
Structure
The fellowship program provides grants and a friendly, collaborative work setting.
- Each fellow will commit to 32 hours per month, split into 2-hour sessions, 4 days a week.
- Three fellows per cohort:
- Always in a co-op setting (duos or trios), never alone.
- No homework, all activities are executed inside the sessions, no heroism, no crunching, just constancy and regularity, building through cumulative stacking of small chunks. Stay humble, stack work.
- The program will offer mentorship and support for fellows during their time in the program.
- The program aims to encourage mentor-mentee interactions, collaboration, adaptability to time constraints, and the sharing of diverse expertise.
Motivation and Engagement
- The program aims to create an environment that encourages motivation, rapid feedback, and experimentation.
- The program will support individuals with diverse neurotypes and others who struggle to fit into traditional work environments.
- Sessions will be recorded and published online under free licenses as a web series, promoting the participants, the program, and fostering community building.
Funding and Financial Incentives
- Fellows will be compensated with the equivalent of US$
hourly_rate per hour in “sats” (Satoshis, the smallest unit of a bitcoin), totaling the equivalent of US$ hourly_rate * 2 in sats per two-hour session. Stay humble, stack sats.
- Fellows will receive profit-sharing opportunities for any original new services or products created during their work sessions.
- The program will explore various funding sources, including community support, sponsorships, and potential advertising opportunities.
Metrics and Evaluation
- The program will measure the success of mentorship relationships based on factors like learning outcomes, project contributions, project management, and motivation.
- The program will continuously evaluate and evolve its mentorship process to better serve both mentors and mentees.
If you are interested in helping with the creation of this fund or becoming a fellow, you can contact the program creator via:
Inspirations and Acknowledgments
This fellowship program draws inspiration from various innovative projects, movements, and concepts. We would like to acknowledge the following for their influence on our work:
- Free Software Foundation (FSF) - A non-profit organization that promotes computer user freedom and defends the rights of all free software users.
- Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) - A leading non-profit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world, promoting digital privacy, and fostering the development of privacy-enhancing technologies.
- TAZ - Temporary Autonomous Zones - A concept that emphasizes the creation of temporary spaces outside of formal control, introduced by Hakim Bey.
- Cypherpunks Mailing List - A historic mailing list where cypherpunks discussed and developed cryptography, privacy, and digital currency technologies.
- Internet Archive - A non-profit digital library offering millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more, dedicated to preserving digital content and providing access to historical collections.
- Wikipedia - A free, multilingual, open-collaborative online encyclopedia created and maintained by a community of volunteer editors, dedicated to making knowledge accessible to everyone.
- A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace - A manifesto written by John Perry Barlow, proclaiming the independence of the Internet from the control of governments.
- Creative Commons - A non-profit organization that provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to make creative works available for others to legally share and build upon.
- Blender Foundation - A non-profit organization fostering creativity through the development of Blender, a free and open-source 3D graphics software for art, animation, and visual effects.
- Hackerspaces - Community-operated physical spaces where people with common interests can meet, socialize, and collaborate.
- Barcamp - An international network of user-generated conferences focused on open, participatory workshop-events.
- The 4-Hour Workweek - A book by Tim Ferriss that explores the concept of lifestyle design and advocates for working more efficiently.
- Bitcoin Whitepaper - The original whitepaper for Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency, introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto.
- Eric Meyer, the Hacker Way - Eric Meyer explores the hacker’s mindset, the value of curiosity, and how understanding systems can lead to creative problem-solving and innovation.
- Greg Young - Developers are strange creatures - A talk by Greg Young discussing the unique qualities of developers and the importance of communication and collaboration in software development.
- Value4Value - A model based on reciprocal exchange of value between creators and consumers.
- Onibushacker - A Brazilian community focused on promoting hacker culture, collaborative learning, and free software.
- Bitcoin Declaration of Sovereignty - A manifesto by Mircea Popescu asserting the independence and self-sovereignty of Bitcoin users.
- Lightning Network - A layer-2 payment protocol built on top of the Bitcoin timechain that aims to enable fast, scalable, and low-cost transactions.
- She256 - An organization dedicated to increasing diversity and breaking down barriers for entry into the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.
- Nostr - A protocol for creating decentralized and interoperable social networks.