[Video Disruptor] ARGO Academy

Application by: patrick-skinner

What is your project, and what problem does it solve?

Problem:

Rising demand for technical video education and challenges in updating content due to rapid tech changes.

Solution:

ARGO offers modular video education within technical docs, on-chain certifications, and community tokengating. This approach simplifies updating courses and streamlines hiring.

Think:

Udemy + Gitbook with On-Chain Certifications = ARGO

Link to public GitHub repo (if applicable)

https://github.com/Argo-Academy

Link to demo website (if applicable)

https://argo.academy

Please describe in more detail why this proposal is valuable for the Livepeer ecosystem

-Modular education has the highest video completion rate out of any form of video content.
-Modular video education content, especially the Livepeer Certified Course, will empower developers building with Livepeer to more effectively build video storage/streaming apps.

Please describe in details what your final deliverable for this project will be.

ARGO Launches:

• Private Alpha: Open now
• Selective Beta: Jan 25, 2024
• Public: Feb 23, 2024 (ETHDenver announcement)

Deliverables:

• Newsletter on grant award & Livepeer usage within a week
• Monthly internal ARGO course (Starting Feb 2024)
• Bi-monthly paid partner course
• Collaboration with Livepeer for a developer course on video apps.

How will this deliverable benefit the Livepeer ecosystem?

-Modular education has the highest video completion rate out of any form of video content.
-Modular video education content, especially the Livepeer Certified Course, will empower developers building with Livepeer to more effectively build video storage/streaming apps.

Please break up your development work into a clear set of milestones

Number	Description	Deliverable	Amount	Start Date	End Date
1	Selective Beta Launch: ARGO Academy will launch to the Developer DAO community, allowing the community to test and iterate necessary developmental changes before ETHDenver.	Have Livepeer fully integrated as ARGO's video storage/streaming provider.	$5,000.00	1/25/2024	2/23/2024
3	1 Internal Course Produced Per Month: 1st course will be the "Road to Web3: Citizen". This course will be developed to onboard non-technical professionals into web3 to help fill the demand of non-technical positions. This positions include, but are not limited to: -Marketing -Recruiting -Business Development -UI/UX Design -Product Managers -Account Managers -Customer Support	-Fully comprehensive & modular course -On-Chain Certifications available upon course completion	$5,000.00	1/25/2024	2/23/2024
2	Livepeer's Certified Developer Course	Develop a full course with multiple modules (chapters) that educate developers on how to effectively develop video storage/streaming apps with Livepeer. This course will need to be approved and signed off on by the Livepeer team to maintain On Chain certification validity.	$5,000.00	1/15/2024	3/15/2024

What is the total amount requested (in USD)?

15000

Specify your team's long-term plans to maintain this software and upgrade it over time

Future of technical documentation: ARGO.

• ARGO Docs for integrated documentation and in-house video academy.
• Upcoming:

1. ARGO Docs release (now only at ARGO Academy for course production: https://argo.academy)
2. ARGO Webinars for livestreamed workshops from docs.

Please describe (in words) your team's relevant experience, and why you think you are the right team to build this project. You can cite your team's prior experience in similar domains, doing similar dev work, individual team members' backgrounds, etc.

Patrick Skinner - Current Founder & CTO
https://patrickskinner.tech
https://github.com/PSkinnerTech
https://twitter.com/PSkinnerTech

Active contributing Developer DAO member | DevRel | Full-Stack Engineer | Technical Writer | Technical Video Content Creator

Overall Winner of Streamr x D_D Hackathon:
-Project Submitted: https://guardianwatch.app

I created ARGO to solve a problem I often see as a DevRel. Long-from technical video tutorials are a very heavy lift and they are only viable for about 3-6 months, depending on the development pace of the technology discussed.

I'm actively looking for a Co-Founder, team members and creators.

Who is your target user group? How do you plan on getting your users to use this?

Developers/Engineers that actively use eLearning methods like YouTube & Udemy.

Developer DAO is my 1st target. See D_D Proposal Here:
https://forum.developerdao.com/t/draft-argo-academy-an-academy-alternative-2024-q1/2864/23

Next target will be companies to partner with and develop courses in ARGO. Direct outreach will be the initial method.

How did you learn about the Livepeer Grants Program?

Manny Nnarang & Nader Dabit, separately, suggested I look into the Livepeer grants program for ARGO

Was this project started at a hackathon or another web3 event? Which one?

No. This project was started out of the frustration of trying to develop and manage long-form technical video tutorials.

Please include any additional information that you think would be useful in helping us to evaluate your proposal.

Increase in Technical Video Education Demand:
https://docs.argo.academy/Welcome/the-tech-video-industry

Demo Video:
https://www.loom.com/share/7b0d0f16bb3e446b817cf58a4d4cc7fb?sid=6bf28713-ea90-4cdf-a48f-4deadd7d87a8

Pitch Deck:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15vN2oCAZTLESQlbEbHGu5mrdzT3tphD8/view?usp=drive\_link

Founder Intro Video:
https://youtu.be/B0KZCEw-4PA

Waitlist Signup:
https://waitlist.argo.academy/waitlist

No repository files, tests, or implementation entry points are identified in the proposal. Start by reviewing the linked ARGO Academy repository and demo, then compare them with the listed milestones; completion would need to be measured against the proposed Livepeer integration and course deliverables.