€47,500 Funding for our Prototype!
Over the next six months our development will be funded by the Prototype Fund of the Ministry of Education. In this article, we briefly summarize the project, what the funding means for us, and report on the kick-off.
Our project
From September 2022 to March 2023, we will be funded in the 12th round of the Prototype Fund. During this funding period, we will develop a prototype for our interconnectivity technology. The goal is to demonstrate our mechanisms on two exemplary networks. These are previously incompatible and based on different interaction mechanisms, afterwards communication between the networks should be possible.
Encryption and the open inbox for the user are the main components for this. We are focusing on extensive documentation so that the technology we are proposing can be easily understood. If we reach our milestones ahead of schedule, we also want to integrate our prototype technology into a very demonstrative network like PixelFed. This will allow the added value of an open inbox to be presented to users in a much more descriptive way.
Kick-Off Event
The Prototype Fund invited our team to the kick-off in Berlin at the beginning of September. One day before, the Demo-Day and the closing of the projects of the 11th funding round took place. The event was very diversified, the 24 projects were presented in lectures, panel discussions and a demo marketplace. The actual kick-off was about the formalities of the funding round, coaching, getting to know the contact persons, but above all about the exchange with the other funded projects. In the picture below you can see the result, when we in the team had the task to present our project in a creative way.
It remains a professional, but also very friendly and helpful impression of all participants. We are looking forward to further cooperation!
What this funding means for us
The development of the prototype is the now necessary next step on the way to interconnectivity. On the one hand, we can use the prototype as a demonstration object for the standard for interconnectivity. On the other hand, by developing it, we move from theory to practice. In this way, we can be sure that we do not forget any aspects in the documentation that are necessary to adapt the technology. The following phase will then be the open community process to actually define the standard.
Funding is also an important step forward for us as a team. For the last two years, the team has been working together on a volunteer basis, and we have accomplished a lot. The funding allows us to put in even more time and commitment. Especially with our decentralized team spread over several cities, this additional commitment brings far more opportunity for joint teamwork. Money makes things much easier. That is why we are very happy about this opportunity and thankful that there are programs like this to promote open source work.
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