This change management report analyzes SimScore data from a Scenius community retrospective exercise. SimScore percentages indicate similarity to core community themes, with higher scores representing exponentially greater importance—a 50% score carries twice the weight of a 25% score. This analysis focuses on responses scoring above 35%, representing the most critical community priorities and change imperatives.
The data reveals clear patterns around resource allocation, governance, funding sustainability, and community infrastructure that demand immediate strategic attention. The following recommendations are derived directly from the highest-scoring community feedback.
Priority #1 (Anonymous, 50%): "At a high level, I think any value, profit, resources, etc. that we generate within Scenius should flow back to the members as well as to a treasury/common fund. More specific ideas: - Funding of sensemaking tools that strengthen our own community infrastructure - Members pitch projects to receive micro-grants from the Scenius treasury to bootstrap projects and initiatives within the Scenius - Potentially investing in crypto to grow the treasury - Transparent democratic voting for how funds should be spent - In-person events like 'Scenius Camp': a design-sprint / hackathon community-building event to catalyze community growth and strengthen our ability to work and build together"
Priority #4 (Anonymous, 46%): "A few different ideas, some crazier than others :) - Cooperative for sensemaking projects like Enspiral - building tools, doing consulting projects - Venture studio for funding interoperating sensemaking projects - cooperative research lab - like Ink and Switch but for collective tools for thought. Could create shared outputs like podcasts, social media posts, seminars, research, tools, code. - Metagov for sensemaking - schelling point for researchers, builders and activists. - Seed for IRL gatherings, from short like DWeb to longer like popup villages to intentional community."
Priority #6 (Anonymous, 43%): "I'm currently raising funds to continue Cosmik, and would like to explore ways of raising funds through the Scenius, perhaps for a joint collabration between Cosmik and synergistic Scenius projects. Part of the funds raised could be reinvested in the scenius similar to the role fiscal sponsors play. More broadly I would like to be able to invest more attention to developing the scenius, in particular fundraising/capital allocation aspects. I would like to enable Scenius contributors (including myself :) ) to be compensated for their time."
The highest-scoring responses overwhelmingly emphasize the need for systematic resource allocation and treasury management. This represents the community's most urgent priority—creating sustainable financial infrastructure that can fund member projects, compensate contributors, and grow community assets through transparent democratic processes.
Priority #3 (Anonymous, 47%): "I would like to receive feedback on some of what I'm working on through the scenius, perhaps recruit early testers. My work is quite different than most of the Scenius, so I don't have anything too specific here. I would like to keep working on the community side of the Scenius, I would like to invite more people in to collaborate here. It would be cool to have a community fund to pay for volunteer time (so moving from volunteer to paid)"
Priority #5 (Anonymous, 44%): "A vibrant hub of sensemakers who are building a wiser internet together through interoperable tools. (Happening now, I'd love to see this continue to grow at a scale). Maybe more explicitly articulating who we are - we thing the internet can be a wiser place through relationships? this is the 'social sensemaker' frame - in my dream world this is more clear, a target membership, more specific. Want to welcome in: It would have financial resources (membership dues? grant funds?) to help fund the organizational structure/communal facilitation. It would help hold space to assist the members find finding for their specific projects through investor relations, hands-on workshops/supports for applying for grants/raising VC, etc. Perhaps overtime Scenius itself could become a funder. This feels like the second phase of what Scenius could become. The first phase is finding sustainability of funding the org/community fabric that supports everyone and keeps the home base a solid foundation. From this home we offer quality services that directly serve the builders/individuals who are making the internet a better tool for cultivating wisdom and relationality."
Multiple high-scoring responses identify the critical need to transition from volunteer-based work to sustainable compensation models. The community recognizes that paying for volunteer time and establishing funding mechanisms (membership dues, grants) is essential for maintaining community facilitators and supporting member projects long-term.
Priority #8 (Anonymous, 41%): "We need to align internally on what the 'sensemaking stack' is. We should run more formal experiments with different tools / protocols. There's an opportunity to create some sort of a wiki with reviews on different sensemaking projects. Any Scenius member should be able to write a review and (if it's good enough) get rewarded. Over time it could become a useful and influential resource. The next step would be to implement some kind of a DB with process cards and run reports, so that we could collect data and compare different protocols & tools. And then based on that data it would be much easier to evaluate the impact of projects and help larger institutions (incl. major blockchains) fund those projects retroactively."
Priority #13 (Anonymous, 38%): "There is SO much potential in this group my head spins thinking about all the exciting directions we could take it. I don't have a single crystal clear vision of what Scenius could become but here's a list of models I think we should explore: - A microsolidarity group: https://www.microsolidarity.cc/ - A Distributed Cooperative Organization: https://basics.disco.coop/1-what-is-disco.html - A commons-oriented R&D Lab: https://www.sensorica.co/ - A mutual credit network: https://creditcommonssociety.org/mutual-credit/ - A worker-owned cooperative: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative As for more specific things that I imagine: - Transparent and decentralized governance for the group - Crowdfunding member-fee model to grow our treasury - Resource pooling/sharing (value is reinvested and distributed) - A Solarpunk/Eco-Village - Co-authoring funding proposals to things like https://www.gitcoin.co/ - A role-based system with no fixed hierarchy; members adopt temporary roles (e.g., 'Tool Curator,' 'Conflict Resolver') as needed - A time-based exchange system where members trade hours of work (e.g., 1 hour of coding = 1 hour of design consulting) - Developing social strategies/frameworks together that both support and move the group forward (conflict-resolution, community norms, collaborative decision-making, feedback models, sprints/retrospectives, etc.)"