As we are moving deeper into Q2, we are long overdue for a status update. It is no surprise at this point that we share a limited amount of information for several months and then do a hefty info dump of vetted content that we feel confident and proud to share. We do hope that, after this article, many of the cards will be on the table which will allow for us to update the community more frequently. We were hoping to keep certain parts of Phase 2 secret until launch in order to blow people away with the concept and delivery, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult, seeing how long some of these projects are taking us. We want to be together in this journey.
2023 has been a funny year for us. We started strong with Make-a-Mek and the Medium article, but quickly fell into a “backend” cycle that instilled a heavy dose of tunnel vision for the whole team that projected a message of uncertainty. We are not uncertain, if anything, we are very certain that OE is going to emerge from this winter in a good position. Not necessarily engagement-wise, but we have a plan for that. It revolves around rekindling the engagement and community that launched OE back in Q1 2022: photography. See more on that further down.
This article has a few of the key and immediate projects we are working on. Some of them are big, some are small, but all of them we feel are crucial to telling the OE story and setting ourselves up for an immersive Phase 2. Speaking of Phase 2 - it's a very vague term and it's becoming unclear to the community what "is" and "isn't" P2. We consider everything that leads up to the release of Humanity 1 to be P2.
SOE
Slides of Earth is a website that brings together blockchain photographers - the pros and the novice. In the early stages of OE, we saw an enormous amount of support and excitement around our key branding element at the time: photography. From photo competitions, to foodie snaps, to plain and simple... "hey guys, here is a photo I took, hope you like it." Something as simple as that is a fulfilling experience and is something we are very sad to have seen slip through our fingers. Fortunately for us, the photography community is still out there, stronger than ever.
So what does the website do?
It's quite simple. You link your wallet and upload photos you have taken.
The true "driving factor" resides in the linking to Discord. The site will be linked to Discord in ways which allow for us to have a constant stream of conversation and art - which is truly what allows us to connect and enjoy the process of creating something.
There needs to be more than just the website to conjure the type of photography crowd we need - it will take other enriching activities - such as education. Wren was a professor of cinematography for 4 years and is fortunate to know several professional photographers who ooze with talent and accolades. SOE will have a panel of experts that share the Twitch stage to go over concepts - anything from the basics of exposure to the complexities of color science.
On top of lectures, there will be many opportunities to host critiques. We will pull stand-out photographs from the community and do a Twitch stream where a panel member dissecting its parts - all in the spirit to help spread how to think about photography in your own way.
These are a few examples of the many options we have to harbor a vibrant, active, passionate and caring community. There will be many more - and we are certainly going to reach out to the community for any ideas or requests for what you would like to see included for SOE.
"I am not a photographer."
We genuinely believe that you don't have to submit photos to get something rewarding from this whole adventure.
We see it as being a singer in a band, but the band is playing an instrumental - the singer is very much able to immerse themselves and have their thoughts on what is unfolding around them - even if they aren't making any noise themselves. We are all in the NFT world, thus we are all critics and collectors. We encourage everyone to at least give it a go - even if the photo is blurry, and is of your cat. We have been developing a system to prove the authenticity of submissions - or in other words, "proof" that the submitter took the photo. We believe we have landed on something strong - which we will certainly be sharing in the future to receive feedback on from our community.