Inspiration
The last few years have seen a dramatic shift in how groups host meetings. Many organizations have permanently transitioned to online meetings as their primary way to communicate.
While it is convenient and flexible to gather online, the lack of "presence" between participants often leads to unstructured discussions that don't further the group's agenda.
Robert's Rules On-Chain (RROC) is a dApp designed to keep online meetings efficient and on track.
RROC uses smart contracts to guide organized discussions. Meeting participants interact with these contracts to reach a quorum, introduce motions, and vote as a group.
Problems Solved
Robert's Rules On-Chain organizes meetings in a number of ways:
Structure: Meetings are broken down into individual actions that must be accomplished in sequence. These actions define the structure of the meeting and ensure all participants are engaging in the same discussion topic.
Leadership Roles: Participants are assigned either a 'chairperson' or 'member' role which determines the actions they can take during the meeting. The chairperson facilitates the discussion while members debate and vote on topics.
Transparency: All actions taken during the meeting are logged to the blockchain. This allows anyone outside the meeting to get an understanding of what was discussed and how each member voted.
What it does
Robert's Rules On-Chain is dApp that helps groups run efficient meetings online. It establishes a meeting structure that keeps discussions on topic, lets participants be heard, and organizes member voting.
The meeting structure is based on the widely-used and well-tested Robert's Rules of Order, which are a set of rules and procedures that facilitate group discussion and decision-making.
Common procedures from Robert's Rules of Order include:
Establishing Quorum: The meeting chairperson determines that enough members are present to meet voting thresholds.
Introducing Motions: Members can introduce motions, which are proposed decisions or actions for the group to take.
Debating: Members discuss the current motion, which must be resolved before the meeting progresses. During this step, every member has the right to speak.
Voting: After debating, each member publicly casts a vote on the motion. A majority vote is required for it to pass.
Robert's Rules On-Chain uses the blockchain to implement Robert's Rules of Order for online meetings.
How it Works
Robert's Rules On-Chain consists of a web front-end and companion smart contracts. It is intended to be used alongside online meeting tools like Zoom or Skype.
When an organizer sends out a meeting link to participants, they would also include a link to a unique meeting dashboard on the RROC website.
Within this dashboard, participants are able to connect their cryptocurrency wallets to be verified as participants in the meeting.
The meeting host is the designated "chairperson", which grants dashboard access to actions such as establishing a quorum, recognizing speakers, and resolving disputes. All other participants are "members" who have access to actions such as initiating a motion and voting.
During a meeting, participants interact with the RROC website to perform meeting actions. Each action creates a new transaction on the blockchain that requires a wallet signature from the user.
Actions can only take place in a defined order. For example, once one motion is introduced, members are unable to introduce a new motion from the dashboard until the current motion is resolved.
All meeting participants can use the dashboard to read the current motion, see who is the recognized speaker, and place a vote when required.
The RROC dashboard keeps all participants informed about the current state of the discussion. This knowledge and structure make for efficient group decision-making.
Transparency
Every meeting action that is performed gets logged on the blockchain.
The participant who took the action, as well as the action details, are contained within a blockchain transaction. For example, a "New Motion" action will log the member who initiated it and a text description of the motion.
Each meeting can be summarized by viewing the list of transactions that occurred during it. This allows any outside observer to clearly see what was discussed and how each member voted.
Many organizations work in the interest of others and have an obligation to make their meetings public. The blockchain enables this transparency by storing meeting details and making them available to anyone.
Example Meeting
Alice is the leader of a local school board. She wants to host an online meeting to discuss new school policies with the board.
Alice sends out a Zoom link to the other board members, as well as a link to a unique RROC page for this meeting.
Each member joins the Zoom meeting and opens the RROC dashboard in their browser. They then connect their browser wallets to the dApp.
Alice sees in the dashboard that all members have connected, and there is enough participation for the meeting to begin.
Bob wants the group to decide on school funding for the year. He uses the dashboard to propose a new motion - "Certify the proposed budget". Another member uses the dashboard to second this motion. Both actions are logged to the blockchain.
Alice, using the dashboard, recognizes members to speak on the topic. When enough debate has occurred, she prompts the group to vote on the motion. Each member votes using the dashboard.
The motion is passed and the dashboard opens up for further meeting actions to be initiated.
When the meeting is concluded, a full list of actions is viewable on the blockchain. Alice creates a summary of the meeting from the blockchain transactions and sends it out to her constituents.
How we built it
The completed version of Robert's Rules On-Chain would consist of two parts - smart contracts that control meetings, and a web frontend that interacts with them.
Smart Contract
Each meeting will be controlled by an individual smart contract that defines the rules and procedures for the meeting.
At the start of a new meeting, an instance of an "RROC Meeting" contract will be deployed to the blockchain.
The user who deploys the contract, typically the meeting host, will be assigned the "chairperson" role within the contract. Their address is stored within the contract to define this.
The chairperson calls an "AddMembers" contract function to store the wallet addresses of other users with whom the chairperson wants to interact with the contract. These are the meeting "members".
Each meeting action is represented as a function within the contract. For example, the "newMotion" function is called by members to initiate the contract logic for a new meeting motion.
The functions are designed to have user permissions - some can only be called by the chairperson, while others can only be called by members. This enforces meeting roles by limiting the actions each participant can perform.
Functions are also limited by the contract's meeting state. If one motion has already been initiated, the "newMotion" function will reject further calls until the current motion is resolved.
Motions are stored as structure variables that store information like the member that initiated it and a text description of the motion. When voting takes place on the motion, the voting results are stored as well.
Web Frontend
The RROC website provides a browser interface that meeting participants interact with.
When a group wants to conduct a meeting, the host can create a "New Meeting" on the RROC website and get a shareable link that invites others to join it.
When participants navigate to the RROC meeting dashboard, they can use their browser's cypto wallet (ex. MetaMask) to connect to the meeting.
The dashboard will display a stream of meeting actions as they occur in real-time. Members will see new motions be introduced, see who is recognized to speak, and see the vote totals for motions.
The interface also shows a list of actions that the participant can perform. These actions will be limited to the participant's role in the meeting (ie. chairperson vs. member) and the current state of the meeting.
Each time a participant selects an action to take, they are prompted to sign a wallet transaction to interact with the smart contract that is controlling the meeting.
Commercial Viability
The larger market for Robert's Rules On-Chain is organizations that conduct their meetings online and who routinely find themselves wasting time running inefficient meetings.
The more specific target is the subset of these organizations that also have an obligation of transparency to the public - such as local city councils, school boards, or non-profits.
Robert's Rules On-Chain can help these organizations to keep meetings on track and organized, as well as open and transparent to their constituents using the blockchain.
The business model for RROC would be as a SASS product that charges organizations a subscription fee to use. The model may include free tiers with limited options, and full-priced tiers targeted at larger organizations.
Challenges we ran into
One challenge I ran into during this project was creating the overall pitch to inform users how Robert's Rules On-Chain can be a viable commercial product.
My background is in the technical development of apps, so participating in the "marketing" of the product is not something I typically do. However, the process of creating a pitch helped me center my ideas for the product and made me look at it from all angles to justify how it can be useful.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I'm proud of the level of technical detail I am able to describe how Robert's Rules On-Chain would operate.
I have a strong background in Solidity development which has allowed me to understand what is feasible when it comes to smart contract functionality.
That knowledge has been helpful in designing a dApp that I know can be built and deployed to the blockchain - nothing described in the project's functionality is beyond the scope of what is possible with smart contracts.
What we learned
During the course of this project, I learned about the concept of design thinking and how to implement it.
As a developer that leans on the technical side of projects, framing my development around design thinking was a new process.
For most projects, I'm focused on the technical achievements that can be made, but for this Ideathon it was key to put the customer and their problem at the forefront. This knowledge will help me create better, customer-centered projects going forward.
What's next for Robert's Rules On-Chain
I'd like to pursue making Robert's Rules On-Chain a viable commercial product. The design, feasibility, and market for the product have been researched enough to believe it would be a helpful tool for many organizations.
The first step towards production would be building out an initial wireframe for the dApp to further tune the workflow of the meeting dashboard. The dashboard is the interface that users interact with, so its functionality and design need to be tested and polished.
The next step would be to create a minimum viable product (MVP). This alpha version of RROC would include a basic set of features - the ability to connect a wallet and perform key meeting actions. A functioning MVP would allow for user testing that could deliver constructive feedback.
A beta version of RROC can then be marketed to interested customers. The initial target market would be organizations that have moved their meetings online, and who have a public audience - Municipalities, school boards, and non-profits.
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