Exploring Sndcastle Communities [Cultivating Steemit Growth through Networks, Hubs & Projects]
 | Sndcastle's are a collaborative initiative within Sndbox. We work with Steemit community leaders around the world to foster social and creative impact through Steem. Our aim is to grow and promote Steemit through community hubs, encourage meetups, person-to-person onboarding, and physical projects. |
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An Outlet for Steemit Growth & Community Building
The Sndcastle initiative came about due to a number of pressing issues within the Steemit platform. Our preliminary goals have been to aid the growth of Steemit through visual and multilingual tutorials, build a network of trusted content creators and curators, and encourage the use of Steem towards impactful change within real communities. Here are three central goals that we outlined in our first Sndcastle announcement:
1. Break down language barriers.
 | Language barriers alone bar us from so many of our fellow Steemians and their valuable content. Some parts of the world have failed to develop a presence on Steemit simply due to lack of whale support of their country or tongue. Sndcastles are an effort to bridge parallel region-based communities. |
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2. Encourage healthier curation.
 | For the most part, tying curatorial responsibilities to a personal account can be risky, oftentimes leading to abuse and misuse. We've taken lessons from the successes of @curie, @ocd and other curation leaders who are aiming for collaborative and trust-based growth within this ecosystem. |
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3. Improve on the “Meetup” model.
 | Local Meetups have become a mainstay in the Steemit community from NYC to Munich to Manila. After hosting events and gaining feedback from our own Meetups, we understood that they could be much more than just social gatherings. First meetings offline can rapidly evolve into partnerships online. |
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Community Action (not just Upvotes)
@sndbox works with a wide range of community leaders to structure projects, create graphics, translate resources, consult on initiatives and develop ideas. In collaboration with @donkeypong, our team currently supports 5 Steem hubs. @stach, @tach, @myach, @steemph.cebu and @indo-community. This is a big collaborative team effort, and (we believe) just one way for the Steem ecosystem to grow and mature.
One concept that we emphasize among the hubs we support is "making physical impact." Here are a few examples of impact that resonates positively both on and offline in real communities around the globe.
 | @stach (Port Harcourt, Nigeria) - is the world's first physical workspace powered exclusively through Steem. STACH focuses on cryptocurrency education, workshops and awareness campaigns. Hub leader - @ejemai alongside a growing team! |
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 | @myach (Malaysia) - is focused on meetups and educational workshops. These presentations and gatherings help create a empowering network of trusted content and contributors. Hub leaders - @bitrocker2020 and @maverickfoo |
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 | @tach (Turkey) - develops marketing campaigns and presents at local universities. Recent projects include Turkey in the Streets and university meetups. Hub leaders - @monomyth, @steeminator3000, @vitruvianman and @kalvas. |
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 | @steemph.cebu (Cebu, The Philippines) - is focused on philanthropy and education. Recent campaigns include the World Food Day fundraiser. Hub leaders - @jassennessaj and @themanualbot among an amazing / huge team! |
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Our continued mission with hubs (and @sndbox as a whole) is to push a sense of Steemit Stewardship. All of us (hubs and individuals) are an integral part of this empowering network. It's our job to take every step possible towards promoting healthy growth and utilizing our stake effectively. Every month, we re-evaluate our work and seek to set new goals and benchmarks.
Establish Networks of Trust, Engagement & Empowerment
Through community hubs like these, we believe the roots of Steemit are growing deeper and becoming a transformative resource for neighborhoods and networks around the globe. As designers and architects, our belief is that a physical footprint is critical to the growth of a digital network.
Looking forward, we hope to strengthen Steemit Stewardship and multiply the number of hub-oriented initiatives within the Steem ecosystem. As of now, we support 5 hubs and are currently evaluating ways of gathering additional Steem Power (delegation and otherwise) to support even more.
Stay tuned for the next Sndcastle Catalog update. Thank you as always for your support and enthusiasm. Steem on!
Want to support Steemit content like this? Consider joining our curation trail! You can learn more about the @sndbox incubator mission here.
Wonderful! Your support is making a big difference in these regions. Each of these projects will help a lot of people discover the opportunity here.
Thank you for your support @donkeypong! We're grateful to be collaborating with such talented community builders and enthusiastic Steemians.
Fully support. I think what cryptos need right now is a focus on getting people to experience the technology firsthand and the communities that come with it. People generally feel insecure about this new frontier. We need to make them feel it's a fantastic piece of tech.
Plus, the early crypto-community generally has this thing about about long-winded debates and dicussions over the marvels of crypto, but not enough reaching out and get people to try it out over time. I think with the right designs: motivations and incentives in place @sndbox is something that could do really well.
Thanks so much for your support @kevinwong. We're strong believers in the "physical footprint" of the digital environment and hope to continue to discover ways of bringing that forward.
Good summary. It has to be accessible in a way that is not complicated, relevant and rewarding!
At this point, @sndbox has a life force and is evolving in ways that no one could exactly predict nor can we know exactly the form it will take going forward and what evolutions will emerge as a result of this hub. It's important to create these kinds of posts periodically about @sndbox in all its facets to helps the larger community keep in touch with the nature of the project(s) and how your thinking and goals are expanding as well as how they are playing out in action.
All actions and aspects of this hub are important, but at this point in time what strikes me are the following two points -
Facilitating an easier experience for those new to steemit and bridging the language barrier are huge improvements that have already significantly opened up steemit, yes there's more distance to go especially with language, but this alone has melted some formidable obstacles.
Offering a model and support for steemians to expand how they can participate more fully - in small ways and larger such as the country hubs - is one of those seemingly simple endeavors that has profound impact. More profound than I can say although I see a picture of it with each individual part stretching its potential to exist more fully and the ecosystem expanding in all directions as well as new branches growing from tiny parts and large parts in equal measure.
This is pretty exciting to me to see "disruption" in action! I actually prefer to say "paradigm shift" rather than disruption since the latter scares people off ;-)
Thank you @natureofbeing for your support throughout this discovery and development process. Your thoughtful feedback, advice and encouragement have been so important to us!
The paradigm shift is underway... these two points you highlight are absolutely critical. We have an exciting new project coming next week that will seek to address both:
Here's your biggest fan, upvoting and cheering you all up for another great post underlining essentials our platform needs to deal with. Seeing us organizing in such a way, inspires me and honours every single one of us participating in making in happen. Thank you all for your efforts and great dedication to making of this platform a resounding success!
At this point in time, reading that there's an understanding in relation to the curation origination and its language barriers is a powerful knowledge allowing us all to work toward sustainability and equitability. Making sure the whales funnelling of rewards toward these locations only empowers us all. In itself, GREAT NEWS!!!
All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
Eric, thanks very much for your kind words and enthusiasm! We're excited to push this initiative forward. Namaste!
Great job bro for contribution to @steemit I like your reviews...
Thanks for your support!
Yeah nice post @sndbox you really explain this beyond my expectations
Great to hear, many thanks @mathematrix :)
A clear, readable articulation of what @sndbox has accomplished so far and a tantalizing dangle of what's to come. How far will it go? How fast? How big? With what impact? I'd like to read a post describing a couple of facets of what'll be happening in one year. In two. Heck, what's envisioned for year three?!
Continue to learn from models others have and are developing. Keep tabs on the best practices - where ever they may lie. Much will be on the fly, but that's the nature of the beast!
Finally, be prepared to be emulated and copied. If you are going down the right path - and you know your are - it's inevitable.
That's the beauty of this platform, a "fork" is a fine form of flattery.
We're excited for the communities feature to arrive soon, which will drastically shift the way in which communities can organize and grow. That new feature will shape how Sndbox evolves in the future too. We've got a roadmap coming before the end of the year (regarding long term projects) so stay tuned!
Great initiatives! Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
Great work. This is a brilliant way to get more recognition for Steemit.
Thanks @dexstaples!
We'll definitely create more opportunities for the sndcastle and bring more enthusiasm in the community. Despite of our hectic scheds, we wont forget to aim for our goals. Thanks @sndbox!
Thanks for the awesome community work you're doing @themanualbot! :)