ORIGINAL PROPOSAL
RESUBMISSION UPDATES:
Reduced the cost by 1/3 and dropped two of the minor features from the previous submission; custom notifications and proposals. This implements feedback received that a more focused app with clear value would make more sense. The listener/creator experience has also been improved with additional features.
I have also added a section on accountability and transparency.
PROPOSAL NAME
ApeCast - An app that supercharges your listening experience for all things ApeCoin (Resubmission)
PROPOSAL CATEGORY
Ecosystem Fund Allocation
TEAM DESCRIPTION
I am an engineer and product manager who runs a team that builds products for Web3 companies. We came together loosely with the belief that there are a ton of community-based products that need to be built given that Web3 is very much community-led. Especially in this market.
We built a discourse alternative for Web3 projects that also has an integrated wiki. I demoed the product to the admins about a year ago when I joined, but it wasn’t a good fit for our DAO. That was the initial meeting that got me into the DAO and I’ve been active ever since. I have worked in startups all my life and am familiar with delivering a lot of value with a small team.
My team for this consists of two other engineers and one designer. We have experience building iOS/Android apps and building out the necessary APIs to support them. We’ve already prepared some designs of what the app could look like because we were so excited about the potential!
ABSTRACT
ApeCast, your app with and audio library full of curated X Spaces and ApeCoin-related recordings! Save time by searching for keywords and listening to specific segments. Read summaries of the audio in the language of your choice for quick overviews. This app will help you catch up on spaces, while not having to listen to the whole thing which can sometimes be 3+ hours!
ApeCast will be released for both iOS and Android.
APP FEATURES
Listening Library
This will be a part of the app that will contain spaces and recordings organized by source. This section will also contain searchable transcriptions for each episode and summaries. The summaries will be automatically translated into multiple languages as well. Other features include:
- Background listening
- Toggle marking an episode as listened
- Ability to subscribe to specific sources only
The downloaded audio will be minimally processed and uploaded. The goal here is to serve two types of users. The first archetype is the user who normally listens live but missed it this time. This would provide an organized way to listen in after the fact. The second archetype is the user who doesn’t have time to listen to a 90m+ episode but wants to listen to specific parts where “…” is mentioned. So they use the search feature to scrub the transcript and listen to just that part. We believe this is a powerful use case for listeners of long spaces.
Initially, we intend to support ApeComms spaces, MOCA town halls, and Ape Assembly Meetings. If the community wants us to support more, we are happy to add up to a total of five sources.
All the translations will be done automatically using an AI translation tool. Since most times it’s quite accurate, this should suffice to get the meaning across. The initial set of supported languages will be French, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish.
Creator Portal
Verified creators will have access to a backend that will allow them to upload audio for processing. They can also edit the transcripts and summaries. This will provide them with more control over their product. Where possible we will auto upload the audio.
BENEFIT TO APECOIN ECOSYSTEM
The ApeCoin DAO is a collection of small communities with lots of overlap. Many different spaces hold discussions on AIPs but it’s difficult to keep up. It’s also annoying to search for a specific space from a previous week and listen. This app will improve ease of access, and create an archive of spaces and their transcripts. Those who don’t have a lot of time to quickly skim through the transcript can read the summary. We believe this will increase the number of people who engage in the ApeCoin ecosystem more regularly.
Translations and audio summaries can help expand our community. We have members from all over the world. While English may not be their first language, they spend a lot of time trying to understand what’s going on and be a part of the community. We believe in helping them along their journey.
PLATFORMS & TECHNOLOGIES
We will be building the apps using react native. The backend will be built using Python/Flask. The front end will be built using React.
COST JUSTIFICATION
We expect to spend the majority of the time developing the app and getting the app into the app store. The Apple app store especially is notoriously frustrating to get into so we expect that process to take a while and a lot of development cycles.
The rest of the time we will be working on the backend and the pipeline for processing the data. There will be a lot of steps, like generating the transcripts, creating summaries etc, all of which will have to be built in a fault tolerant way. This will take some time to get fully automated, so if we run into issues, we intend to do things manually, but eventually automate everything. All the AI related functions cost $ each time it’s run, so its impossible to predict exact amounts. However, we believe our stated budget should cover the costs for the year.
The smallest, and initial part will the the UX design and flows.
To execute on this project effectively we need infrastructure expertise as well as app development expertise. Both parts are meaty, and quite important for the functioning of the app.
STEPS TO IMPLEMENT & TIMELINE
The project will be implemented in a milestone-based format. The grant will cover the development of the app and one year of running costs, which will include backend/frontend hosting costs and AI usage fees. Throughout the year, we will also fix bugs and make UX improvements.
The timeline will start when the first payment is released.
- Initial Payment - 20000 APE
- Alpha version on the app store with audio library and listening function - 10000 APE (2 months)
- Add automated transcriptions and episode summaries - 10000 APE (1 month)
- Final polish and release on Android as well - 10000 APE (1 month)
Development Timeline: 4 months
ACCOUNTABILITY & TRANSPARENCY
If the proposal passes, we pledge to:
- Use the accepted AIP thread as a development diary. I commit to updating it at least every two weeks.
- Release monthly downloads and listener numbers after the release of the final version. Our goal will be to catch up to and then beat the X spaces listener numbers.
- Setup a bug report form and release data on bugs reported and fixed in our development diary.
OVERALL COST
50000 APE
Payments will be made upon the completion of each milestone, except for the initial payment.
DISCLAIMERS
If this proposal passes, it implies that the Ape Foundation gives us a license to use the ApeCoin logo and its related assets in the app.
Downloading and processing audio to a stream-ready format will be a semi-manual process. This means that episodes won’t be up immediately after completion. We will try to process and upload it within 48 hours.
All X Spaces will be reuploaded with the permission of the hosts. If they ask us to take down episodes for any reason, we will comply in good faith since they produce the content. Spaces will be downloaded on a best-effort basis. If X changes their internals, there might be a short period where we might not be able to download the spaces and we will request the hosts to upload the audio file manually.
AI translations will contain some errors or may sound a little awkward. We cannot be held responsible for any misunderstanding that occurs because of a bad translation. All content will be available in the original language so it’s up to the user to double-check details.
The screenshots shared are subject to change during implementation.