From my [recap post](https://jasonbenn.com/6ec347ace5ad43cb9d5b3bc9ca212b7a): > - **HammingBio kicked ass**. HammingBio sucked up a full two months of my time and aged me by two years. I kept getting more ambitous about the features I'd build: > > - I built the app [Idea Ranker](https://ideas.neighborhoodsf.com/) (sign in with my email to check it out), as an attempt to collectively snapshot the frontier of biotech. Users submit 2+ Big Ideas in biology, collectively rank ideas via pairwise ranking and ELO scores, which produces a big ordered list of ideas, each with checkboxes, so you can indicate which ones you’re interested in. After the event the app put the group for each idea into their own email threads. The app was definitely cool, but the impact is middling, honestly — the email threads haven’t gotten much activity (my theory: unconferences are about intellectual fun and diverse ideas, not about doing work). I think I'll move this whole mechanism into the application process for the next event. I think I can use it to collectively generate an unconference agenda that’s full of thoughtful, highly-upvoted conversations. I’d like to try using the wisdom of the crowds to recruit ideal panelists for each discussion, too. > - I built the app Announcer, a failed attempt to keep people on-time during the event by automating announcements about the agenda throughout the day (I'll try again with a visual component next time). > - I productionized a third app, Meal Matchmaker, building on the highly successful experiment at Califlorence AGI last June I described in [Update #10](https://jasonbenn.com/community/10-the-unconference-to-community-pipeline) (see "What was cool..."). > - We approved candidates with a college admissions-style "board" of volunteer domain experts (Noah MacCallum, Tina Jia, and Lan Dao). > - We ran a sponsorship sales funnel for the first time (moderately successful!). > - We organized 5 hours of lightning talks on Saturday, which was a surprisingly big effort. > - We organized a prize competition: the Idea Ranker leaderboard winners won a [genetically modified bacteria](https://www.luminaprobiotic.com/) that _cures you of cavities for the rest of your life_. I got it too! It’s subtle, but I’m almost positive my mouth smells better in the morning. > - Lots of other reflections and improvement ideas [here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ij5mlUzRTo6kis2k2NQRU-KTkadYsjhHJFKyZSM8r2w/edit?usp=sharing). > > - **HammingBio has spun out the seed of a potential all-women Bio Village**. The experiment this time is whether they can find their own houses, like Treehouse eventually did, without my meeting with them every week for 5 months. They're enthusiastic but it's moving slowly - we shall see! For future unconferences, I think I'll facilitate 1:1 meetings between folks that are interested in coliving _before_ the event, as they fill out applications. That way, there will be a cohesive community nucleus at the event, which I bet will be a huge upgrade to their momentum. > > - **The unconferences have product-market fit; I'm thinking about ways to increase their cadence without sacrificing sustainability**. I'm thinking about how to delegate most of what is stressful to coordination mechanisms that leverage the wisdom of the crowd. I think a (nearly) fully self-organizing unconference is possible and would be an awesome experience. I'd like to spend most of Q3 designing and building out these ideas. Next up is #5, [Califlorence Education](https://bit.ly/califlorence-ed-interest-form). I'm super excited about this.  [And here's the original homepage](https://helix-orchid-hsjm.squarespace.com/): ![[Pasted image 20240807183422.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240807183437.png]] ![[Pasted image 20240807183451.png]]