Re-Public's Vision for 2022

Now that the Re-Public mobile app is live in both the App Store (iOS) and the Play Store (Android), let's look ahead to what's next:

• Education
• Ecosystem
• Community
• Sustainable work

Education

The current app focuses on data collection, and 2022 will be a huge year for expanding the types of data that users can capture for themselves. But it's also time to introduce visualization of that data and education around why Re-Public exists.

In our preliminary user testing, it became clear that for Re-Public to be a tool that anyone can use, it must make clear the value it provides, which in turn means helping users understand the problem that it solves.

Many of us in the data ownership space have been here so long that we assume everyone sees the problem as we do. The truth is we're still quite niche. Sure, the world is coming around slowly, but there's much farther to go than it seems.

So 2022 will be about pushing the app to give users a visceral sense of the data they generate. The sheer volume, the different types, and the market value for all of it.

In the short term this means not only collecting the data, but offering several types of visualizations. Plus a general re-framing of the power dynamic between people and the software they use. Re-Public is a tool to help users achieve their goals, not an extractive app that leverages users in order to achieve its own goals.

Ecosystem

Another big goal of 2022 will be building an ecosystem around Re-Public. We need developers to be able to easily jump in and build their own collection and visualization tools for devices and data types that we don't even know exist.

Re-Public won't be able to build every integration for even the most popular devices and products, so we need to foster an environment where it's simple for people to contribute. In the short-term this means releasing the open-source code for the mobile app, but will soon turn into offering developer APIs and SDKs for third-parties to use.

Community

We already have top-down data collection products and we've seen how well that works. To be successful, Re-Public will have to be driven forward by its users and the community they form.

As much as possible, product development will be driven by user governance and feedback. In the beginning this will be interpretted by a core team, but eventually the hope is that product development will be decentralized and autonomous. More on that later in the year.

For now, community will take the shape of a Discord server, to which we are slowly inviting users. Expect a public invite in the very near future. Contact us directly on Twitter (@republicdao) or email ([email protected])

Sustainable Work

Re-Public won't do any good if its team burns out in six months. Just as we're rethinking the data economy, we're rethinking what it means to build an organization that can last forever. Our hunch is that it cannot look like a traditional software company – grinding on deadlines, churning through devs, putting revenue and profits first.

This year will be about building a humane and joyful collaboration environment. We'll show that empathy does not come at a price of productivity. That it's a marathon, not a sprint. That no business or piece of software is worth prioritizing over people. That we need not take things seriously in order to do serious work.

Expect some sort of guidelines about how we collaborate at Re-Public in the coming months.

Join Us

If this sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, there are several things you can do to get involved.

• Download the app on iOS or Android
• Follow us on Twitter @republicdao
• Subscribe to newsletter (via the Subscribe button at the top of the page)

Thanks for reading!

Cover image by Patrick Fore on Unsplash