This week we spoke with Steff Browne, Founder of Jovian, a force for positive social change among emerging decentralized autonomous organizations. Jovian is also a new member of the Panvala League Community!
The Value of Shared Knowledge
Steff Browne is an individual who thinks meaningfully about the big picture. An art curator turned DAO whisperer, she is not interested in fleeting success, but sustainable impact. Steff has a background in working with DAO’s and worker collectives, helping them solve difficult challenges around coordination. Before launching Jovian, she worked with Aragon conducting user research on DAO’s deemed successful. She described this research as “fascinating, in depth, and on the front lines of experimentation.” To Steff, it was abundantly clear that this kind of information held immense value for new and existing DAO structures. With this insight in mind, she set out to further her research and create a public hub for knowledge and resource sharing alongside a co-researcher, Jesse Miller—they called the project Jovian. “The way to iterate faster and get better outcomes is to share knowledge faster, clearer, and sooner. Jovian’s mission is to increase the circulation of quality insights.”
Jovian takes a humanist, macro approach to looking at technologies and how they are adopted. “We are willing to slow down, complicate, and bring in more points of view. We are not just optimizing for efficiency, we’re trying to actually improve the world and human lives.” Jovian aims to look at DAO’s with a level of depth and complexity that may seem inconvenient in comparison to a culture of urgency. When looking at the tremendous mobilization of people forming organizations inside of web3, Jovian sees this as more than a technological advancement, but as a multifaceted shift that will have a great impact on society. “That impact is substantial, significant, important, and worthy of really intentional research, review, and reflection.” Steff believes that the ultimate realization of a technology is the human beings that it helps, and this is the core concept behind Jovian’s work.
“Technology has the potential to empower a lot of people—but is it going to? Only if we use it in certain ways. Only if we modify it, customize it, review the ways in which it is being deployed, and build the rest of the structures, soft governance, and culture to ensure we get the outcomes we want.” — Steff Browne
Connect with Jovian
Steff and the Jovian crew are equipped to take on the difficult questions that are facing decentralized organizations. If you or someone you know could benefit from this kind of assistance, please reach out! You can find the Jovian community on Telegram, Discord, and Twitter—you can also check out their community calendar or reach out to Steff directly on Telegram @SteffBrowne!
Thank you to Steff & the Jovian community, and welcome to the Panvala League!