A call for co-conspirators to help us co-create the future

It’s almost time to start our next collective research effort — which means we’re back with a peek behind the curtain.

Whether you were directly involved or not, you’ve likely heard about RADAR’s first collective futures report —  A Future In Sync. Published during our Proof of Community cycle, we were absolutely gobsmacked by both the result and the response. Since then, we’ve been gearing up for what’s next: re-thinking RADAR’s reason for being and re-evaluating what that means for our process. And now, we’re ready to go.

Our vision for cycle #2

We’ve always believed in building the Future of Futures, but it took our Proof of Community cycle to truly cement what that could mean.

You see, we once thought we were building a better model for a broken industry.

But as we began to build, digging deeply to understand what a new model of futures could truly look like, we saw an even more radical potential for change. To not only shift the ownership model for futures research and culturally impactful ideas, but for the realities that they anticipate.

Building the future of futures could quite literally mean creating an entirely new market for an emerging future, just around the corner.

We believe in breaking the legacy paradigm where research too often sits static; that we should be accountable to turning passive reporting into forward motion that results in products, services, and concepts that bring us closer to the better future we’ve discovered.

We also believe that better futures aren’t built in bubbles. And that the more committed and thoughtful brains, hands, and resources we can put behind a vision of the future, the more likely we’ll all be to manifest — and benefit from — its fruition. So that’s just what we’re working toward.

Think of RADAR as a research & venture ecosystem where anyone can co-create, co-invest, and become a meaningful stakeholder in the visions of the future we discover. We don’t just talk about these futures; we make them a reality, together.

Each research effort marks the start of our Futures Flywheel. In each cycle, we’ll create the conditions for our ‘meme’ of the future to spread rapidly from person to person. We’ll enable anyone to become stakeholders in the future, raising a treasury to fund it. We’ll jumpstart the building of the future, inspiring and attracting hundreds of ideas and innovators, putting the power in the hands of tokenholders to decide what to fund. And then we’ll help them fly the nest, with the emergent community becoming its own self-sustaining DAO that will continue its pursuit of the future we’ve built together.

The next piece you see from us will be a deep dive into our new incubate process and the launch of future collectives — but for now…

Let’s talk research, and what it looks like for this cycle:

We have a new focus to explore…

We’ll be running three cycles in 2023 — and while you’ll have to wait a bit longer to hear about most of them (we’re in the midst of SuperCuration as we speak), we’re ready to unveil our first topic, our first area of exploration and investigation: Play. If you’ll recall, the very last chapter of A Future In Sync zeroed in on a set of New Behaviors, one of them being activating more playfulness, whimsy, and mischief in our world. It’s a topic we haven’t stopped thinking about since, because it’s not just a set of new behaviors —  it’s a new mindset and a new approach to how we exist in, interact with, and build the world. One that has the ability to impact just about any and everything.

From the obvious dig sites to, to ones that feel slightly farther adrift, to all of the things we’ve yet to discover.

Because that’s what makes research at RADAR so special. While we may start with a curated set of hypotheses and inquiries, we allow our global collective of foresight practitioners, strategists, writers, web3 experts, topical specialists, and liminal community members alike to take it from there. And we follow their lead, because what we’re beholden to is the cultivation of this better future — not a specific set client questions to be answered or boxes to be checked.

We have a new approach to revenue & compensation.

Last year, we were focused on the output of our process – the report itself. A priority in this process was to make sure everyone who worked on the report was fairly compensated, so we bootstrapped funding up front that ensured the project team and community contributors got an equitable split for their time spent. It was safe. We were early. And as we’ve said time and time again, we were building the plane as we flew it.

But boy, was it a special flight. Now that we know that we can produce something spectacular as a collective, it’s time to not only get experimental with our output, but also how we think about funding and compensation.

In a fractional funding process, we’ll be building a coalition of Angels, Advocates, and Sponsors to share in our vision and pursuit of A More Play-full Future. These patrons fund our research process and contributors to co-create the report, and while our process and output will be open-source, we’ll also release a collectible edition of the report to show support even after its launch.

• Angels: Angels not only stake their claim as first believers in RADAR‘s research into play, but also enable others to explore, engage, deep dive, create and cultivate this future.

• Advocates: Advocates are excited about the future of play. They hold quality research content in high regard, showing their support early in RADAR’s process as they anticipate the release of our reporting.

• Partners: Partners are like-minded brands, funds, and other organizations that share our interest in bringing this future to life. They’re co-signers invested in the mutual benefit of this work bearing fruit.

• Collectors: Collectors may have waited to see the output before apeing in…but at this point, they’re not gonna want to miss it.

Each level of support comes with its own set of benefits, so keep an eye out for more details on our upcoming mint (but you know, we’ll let you know).

Anyway, let’s talk compensation. In context of this new framework, we’re inviting contributors to the report to share in the fruits of our collective labor: creating a revenue split among the project team, community contributors, and RADAR’s treasury that incentivizes all of us to make the experience as special as possible and create value that pays off, literally.

The more value we create as a collective, the more abundance we create for one another — split equitably among contributors based on brilliance of output, not input of time.

And it means we’re ready to enroll our team.

So at this point, we’re sure you’re wondering — what does the team look like? Who’s involved, and who exactly qualifies for that abundant split at the end of the day? The short answer is: anyone in the RADAR community that generates clear value within the report and its surrounding efforts

The long answer includes:

• (1) Community Synthesist: The Community Synthesist will be the eyes and ears on the ground relative to the community’s involvement with the project, responsible for shaping an approach to community-fueled primary research, and deeply involved in shaping the report as it progresses. Interested in being the ultimate dot-connector in Discord? This one’s for you.

• (1) Cross-Over Specialist: The Crossover Specialist will have one foot in research and another in incubate as we seek to work closer together, earlier on with our Incubate Squad counterparts during this next iteration cycle. Have a brain that sees from both sides? We want you!

• (2) Primary Authors: The Primary Authors will be proven storytellers — but that doesn’t mean they’ll only be involved in the end-game. They’ll be involved throughout the process, working to surface themes, shape narrative, and consider primary research opportunities. Are you a wordsmith that loves to dive deep? Come write with us!

• (1) Project Manager: The Project Manager will be the get-it-done’r when it comes to all things Research and Incubate this cycle. This role will run the length of the full cycle, from research through the production of the Futurethon. Organized and on top of things? This might be you.

• (2) Editors: Someone did the math and let us know A Future In Sync was the length of a novella. This next report shouldn’t be quite that hefty, but it will still require the fresh eyes and sharp thinking that comes with editorial support. Love the Oxford Comma? Have an unrelenting desire to correct grammatical errors when they arise? Come prove it :)

• (∞) Research Contributors: Surrounding the core project team are contributing members of the Research Squad. These members offer their input in a range of ways — and the scale of their contributions vary. This one’s the wildcard — we can’t wait to see what you’ll bring.

  You can see a full breakdown of the roles, including expectations on time commitment & value creation, in our Notion hub here.

We couldn’t be more excited to kick off our next cycle — and can’t wait to see who makes up the team as we explore A More Play-full Future together.

Last go, we saw so many people passionate about cultivating A Future In Sync join us on our journey and fall down the RADAR rabbit hole as they did. With our new vision and evolved process, our collective ability to manifest this future (and the next, and the next) is even closer within reach.

If that kind of ‘future of futures’ sounds compelling to you, we’d love for you to join us. To apply to any of the research roles listed above (and yes, you can express interest in more than one), fill out our survey here. There are so many ways to contribute — we hope you’ll find one that meets you where you are.

If research isn’t your jam, but RADAR sounds like it might be, our community application is always live here.