CULTURE3 Everything Is About To Change User Guide

CULTURE 3 Everything Is About To Change User Guide

Culture 3 overview

Introduction

Culture3 is a cultural media house navigating the future of the internet.

Through shining the light on emotive artistry, innovative builders, and meaningful communities, we help the world understand how blockchain, artificial intelligence, and the metaverse are changing everything.

Our aim is to be the authoritative observer, elevating the tone of the conversation amongst aficionados, newcomers, and those not yet familiar with these technologies.

We achieve this in two key ways. Our public pillar seeks to inspire, educate, and inform individuals through our media, whilst we also seek to engage tier 1 brands on building web3 activations (at the intersection of blockchain and the metaverse). Think long-form reports, web3 strategies, and a partnership ecosystem of the best team to bring brands into the future of the internet.

Our mission

Everything is about to change. Blockchain, artificial intelligence, and extended reality are transforming culture as we know it and the internet is being entirely rebuilt in its image.

Our mission: make sure the change is good. Today, conversations about these technologies are clouded by fear, uncertainty, and doubt. By exhibiting the best of them, we can shift the narrative and inspire the world.

What we do

There are two ways to win on the internet. and we believe that reaching hearts and minds is more valuable than eyes and ears. We amplify uplifting stories from a diverse and eclectic collection of artists, builders, and communities to elevate the tone of the conversation, and help onboard tier 1 brands into the future of the internet.

Our Culture stories feature explorations, reviews, and interviews with leaders across art film, music, and storytelling, showing how artists create work in ways that wasn’t possible before.

Our Commerce stories provide insight on how builders are leveraging new technologies to pioneering new enterprises, illustrating the genuine opportunities that blockchain, Al, and extended reality provides commerce and society.

Our Communities stories exhibit how social innovators are creating new methods of organization and impact fundamentally asking the question of how technology is changing the way that society works.

Beyond this, we help brands navigate the future of the internet by developing thought leadership, providing advice, and offering curated web3 services.

Value proposition

Culture3 helps people understand the future of the internet.

Specifically, that means exploring what blockchain. artificial intelligence, and the metaverse means for culture. commerce. and society. In a complex world of negative news at one extreme and hype at the other, Culture3 provides an antidote, celebrating the artists, builders, and communities that illustrate precisely why everything is about to change, and why that’s good.

Reading about Culture will give readers an insight in how technology is enabling a new wave of artists and genuine cultural integrity and how culture is evolving in art film, music, \and storytelling in its broadest sense.

Reading about Commerce will help readers understand the full commercial potential of blockchain, Al, and extended reality, exploring the people and projects realizing them and how industries and companies are re-wiring their business models for the future of the internet.

Reading about Communities will help readers make connections between technology and society, giving them an edge for navigating the social landscape and helping them understand how they can leverage new technology to build communities that unite people around common goals and missions.

Audience

We are targeted at curious, passionate, and intelligent readers who want to learn about how blockchain, artificial intelligence, and extended reality are changing our world.

Our core audience is commercial decision makers and innovation leaders across any industry and across all points on the spectrum of technical knowledge. These people are looking for articles that are insightful and authoritative whilst being easy to read and engaging: maturity without condescension or stilted prose.

More broadly, our general audience is people who are familiar with these technologies but feel underserved by the existing cultural offering, which we believe lacks depth and substance. These people care about artists – and their stories, their art and their message: they care about innovations, particularly how entrepreneurs are using technology to improve and create new opportunities: they care about how technology is influencing society and the communities and people that define its direction.

In addition, we care about reaching people who are unfamiliar our industry, but have an open mind, and are prepared to go elsewhere for more than the foundational technical explainers like what a DAO is or how an NFT works. Culture3 where people realize how everything is about to change.

Voice & tone

Our tone of voice is authoritative and mature. Confident in exposition and delightful in prose, our stories are engaging to read – even joyous when it comes to more artistic pieces – and illustrate insights with clarity a111d precision. We are sophisticated writers who take pride in the stories we tell.

We take care not to oversell the contributions of builders or hype those of artists. and rather than telling the reader that ‘web3 is eating the world’, we show it explaining the insight and uses cases. hinting at what this means for an industry or a community, and letting the reader make the very final step.

Examples of our best pieces.-

• The Future of Music Streaming
• Decentralized Data Storage
• Web3 in Sports Fan Groups
• NFT s and the Future of Branding
• In conversation with Joanna

Writing style

Overview

Culture3’s publication language is British English. Paragraphs should flow naturally and should not all be short. We tend to be objective rather than opinion-led, and whilst this emphasis, as well as those themes of substance and sophistication, should permeate throughout all our stories, it is important that, in telling diverse and eclectic stories, our writers speak with diverse and eclectic voices.

The desired reading level is OECD level 4 (ranging from a sophisticated 3 to a 5):

• Below Level 1 : Adults can read brief texts on familiar topics and locate a single piece of specific information.
• Level 1 : Adults can read relatively short digital or print texts to locate a single piece of information t hat is identical to information in a question they may be asked about a story.
• Level 2: Adults can make matches between the story and information within it, including an ability to paraphrase or make low-level inferences.
• Level 3: Adults can navigate dense. lengthy. or complex stories. (Level 3 is considered the minimum literacy skill level required for coping with everyday life.)
• Level 4 : Adults can integrate, interpret, or synthesis information from complex stories, and can identify and understand specific, non-central idea(s) to evaluate evidence-based claims and other persuasive attempts.
• Level 5: Adults can search for, and integrate. information across multiple. dense stories; construct syntheses of similar and contrasting ideas; or evaluate evidence-based arguments. Adults understand subtle cues and can make high-level inferences or use specialized background knowledge.

Culture

Culture stories will cover (NFT) artistry across Art, Film, Music, and Storytelling. These stories are typically interview-based, focusing usually on a particular creator, but from time to time, may also tell the story of a particular initiative.

For example, a story about a particular art project, a film funded by NFTs, or a web3-augmented streaming service, are all focused on projects rather than people, and would still fall in this category, but should still lean on quotes from individuals involved (such as token holders).

For such stories, writing with prose that is simply a joy to read. which explores the art, the artist, and their stories. is important. These stories will also express clearly (though not abrasively) how what the artist is doing is supported or made possible with web3 technologies. A Culture 3 example here: an example article from elsewhere is this.

Commerce

Builders stories will cover projects and questions across blockchain, artificial intelligence, and extended reality which:

• do something uniquely useful and new (eg: blockchain, smart contracts. NFTs),
• do something that makes those technologies better (eg: reducing gas fees. improving environmental efficiency, or simply something new)
• create a step-improvement in an existing process
• explore the long-term impact of those technologies

Gaming is an important example. Web3 games are big, but Culture3 stories will tend to focus on them insofar as they are ‘uniquely useful’, eg: if they are better than existing games (which is a high bar). or insofar as the story provides insight as to how the gaming industry will develop (which is the recommended angle for covering gaming). Games are also influential as a cultural medium, and games which influence culture in the same way art or film can will be categorized as Artists stories; such stories are strongly encouraged.

For example, we have published two pieces of a three-part p2e gaming series (part one and part two) exploring how the gaming model can succeed.

For such stories. the emphasis is upon insight: a clear and convincing narrative that illustrates a perspective on the future of the internet. The style should still be delightful and the prose a joy to read, but for our audience reading such articles, the joy comes from clear, moderated, and well- justified insights about how blockchain. Al, or XR is changing everything – or rather, some specific and specified parts of an industry.

Communities

Communities stories will cover either how existing communities are using web3 and why, how new communities are being built on web3, and what blockchain, Al, and extended reality mean for society more broadly. Of all three story types, Communities stories are the most narrative driven – and should be relatively quote-heavy for this reason. More broadly, they should synthesis the insight of Builders stories and the prose of Artists stories. There is also space in this section for long-form essays (1,500-3,000 words) with opinion, comment, or argument about the long-term future developments of technology, society, and the systems that govern it.

An article will only ever be one of Culture. Commerce, or Communities,  and within that. can be only one sub-category.
Articles may also be a range of tags, like photography, collector, rap, live events, sport, financial services, Latin America, or equality.

House style

These technical house style points are also less prescriptive than the rest of this guide. More of a strong recommendation than an instruction, try to fallow this style when possible, but there is no need to rip up a piece to tick all of these boxes.

This section is particularly unfinished and wifi evolve as we publish.

• Capitalize job titles, but try to avoid using them repeatedly; instead of saying a person’s title, say what they are responsible for if you can
• Try to avoid overdoing the adverbs
• Use first names, rather than second names, to create a more intimate tone
• Use Oxford commas in lists (a comma before the ‘and’ in a list of three or more, such as “her collections are a unique study of the world, honing in on the wonders of colour, life, love, and all in between”); semi colons and em dashes are welcome, but are neither encouraged nor discouraged, whilst ellipses are strongly discouraged – use am em dash instead
• Referring to web3: we spell web3 with a lowercase ‘w’, and it is something that you bring your art to, rather than onto or into; we often also speak of ‘the web3 space’ or ‘the NFT space’
• Show. rather than tell: for the phrase “the entire collection sold out rapidly, speaking to the power of her imagery”, you can cut “speaking to the power of her imagery”; show the power of her imagery by referencing how many items were in the collection or what the floor price is, rather than simply saying that “X speaks to the power of her imagery”
• Try to avoid repeating generic words: for example, rather than “her images are the biggest tool that connects her to life”, where there is a repetition of “her”, try “her images are how she expresses herself in life”
• Choose words that are more sophisticated and moderated, rather than sensationalist: for example, ‘harm’, ‘unsettle’, or ‘undermine’, rather than ‘ruin’
• Avoid writing more words than necessary. For example, rather than “After bringing her work into the Web3 space, she was able to give her photographs an even louder voice”, try “By bringing her work to web3, she could give her photographs an even louder voice”
• Keep links to a minimum and italicize them: links to NFT collections or other pages that are integral to the story are okay, but avoid citing the work of others unless necessary or providing links to simply reinforce your argument; instead, repeat the message of the desire-to- link content in your own words, make it easy for the reader to follow your narrative, and keep them focused on your article, not someone else’s.
  • A link to a subject’s Twitter handle will be included at the foot of the article: no need to include in the body.
• Contractions, such as contriving ‘don’t’ from ‘do not’ are strongly discouraged

Technical language

This section is also particularly unfinished and will grow as we publish, but it covers words to explain, key terms the audience expects to see. and language to avoid,

Phrases to explau1 and how to explain then1

Free to use all of these words and phrases without explanation when used in passing. or if explaining them would unsettled your writing. such as “in addition to feeling connected to their PFP and their DA Os and dApps. everyone across the web3 space feels a certain affinity … ”

• DAO or decentralized autonomous organization
  • But if ‘DAO’ is a key part of t he message of the sentence, it should be briefly explained in a matter- of-fact tone. such as “while the internet already made it possible to connect with fans all over the world, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are taking sports-based communities and fan clubs to new level of engagement. With transparent governance rules. embedded in code on the blockchain and enforced automatically, many DAOs have been created to change the way that the traditionally gate-kept sports industry functions.”
• Metaverse (the metaverse is one of those words that’s difficult to define precisely)
  • Metaverse is a term coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash. In Stephenson’s vision, the metaverse is a virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space. Think virtual reality plus augmented reality; think the internet come to life around us.
  • In the novel, people use VR headsets to enter the metaverse, where they can communicate and interact with others as if they were in the same physical space. Stephenson describes the metaverse as a “vast immersive, three-dimensional space that extends for beyond the boundaries of your screen.”
  • But the word ‘metaverse’ defines a spectrum rather than an idea. On one end, you have closed metaverses operated by a single company, such as Roblox or Fortnite. On the other, you have the open metaverse. which Stephenson describes. In the middle, you have single organizations or small groups trying to build an open metaverse which they manage.

Language to avoid and what to use i11stead

• Hype language, eg: instead of “NFTs have transformed countless industries”, “NFTs have demonstrated their ability to transform industries from music to real estate”
• Language too embedded in the web3 subculture. like ‘PFP’ or ‘dApps’.
  • For PFP, refer initially to ‘profile picture’
  • For ‘d Apps’, refer instead to decentralized apps, but in general. try to stay away from this idea. and focus on the specific parts of the opp are decentralized , Bonus points if you avoid the word ”decentralization”. and instead use something clearer. like ‘cannot be changed without the consent of customers’.

Quality control

All stories should have at least one quote from a relevant figure. For Artists stories, this is likely to be the artist themselves, or at least a description of an artwork on their website or a market place. For Builders stories, this could be from a company or developer building a particular product or from an individual or company that uses the product or is a big name in the web3 space. For Communities stories – likely to be particularly quote-heavy – this is likeliest to be members or organizers of that community.
It is highly recommended to paste your story into Grammarly to clean up disjointed sentences and grammar slips before submitting the first draft. (Beware that Grammarly does not default to British English.)

Complaints and retraction procedure

Despite our rigorous editing and publishing process, it is possible that we publish content that, upon further consideration, including or excluding a complaint, we may wish to retract.

In particular, we strive to publish accurate content without the appearance of misleading readers. Whilst we expect readers to be cognizant that nothing we publish is financial advice, we are also motivated to bring a mature tone to every article that implies our articles are informational and nothing more. Beyond that, we are keen to maintain the highest standards in our journalism, and welcome corrections of all sizes.

To make a complaint about an inaccuracy or a misleading statement, email us at [email protected] to specify the offending statement, a justification, and any suggested alternative. Whilst we can be reached on Twitter, we guarantee a response to all emails with the subject line ‘Complaint about Culture 3 article’.

We will reflect on our published phrase and the broader context internally, and reply within 7 days, bearing, above all, the best way to communicate the truth in a way that aligns with our editorial tone. If we decided the make a correction, we will make this known publicly on the article page.

Pitching

Questions to consider when crafting a pitch. in order of importance:

• What is the unexpected or new angle to this story?
• Is this story emotional. relatable or educational? How so?
• What makes it ‘shareable’?
• What is the (non-seasonal) ‘why now’ hook?
• Could you provide visual (photo and video) assets to accompany the piece?

An example of a good pitch: (it does not need to be this long – and the example will be updated to a web3 pitch soon)

Sardinia’s sacred pasta

Sardinia is home to one of the rarest dishes in the world: sufilindeu (‘The Threads of God’). It ‘s mode by pulling and folding semolina dough into 256 perfectly even strands of pasta with the tips of your fingers and then layering the needle-thin wires diagonally in on intricate pattern. It’s so difficult to prepare that for more than 200 years, it has only been served to the faithful who complete a 20-mile pilgrimage on foot from the town of Nuoro to Lula for the Feast of Son Francesco.

Why now hook:

Today, there are only five women alive who still know how to make su filindeu. The most renowned guardian of the tradition is Paola Abraini, a slight grandmother who has recently started doing something new with the sacred dish: She’s making it for a handful of restaurant s. On a recent t rip back to Sardinia, I tasted Paola’s heavenly su filindeu pasta for the first time in a bowl of mutton broth soup with grated sharp pecorino. Next week. she’s invited me into her home to reveal how she makes it.

Sharable element:

I’ll report (and film) the tightly guarded technique behind one of Italy’s most endangered culinary treasures. and include a sidebar highlighting the three places around the regional capitol of Nuoro where people can taste it. I’ll also detail the surprising story behind the dish – it involves an outlaw who hid out in a cave. The video can be featured on Facebook to help promote the story.

What will we likely reject?

• Stories that don’t have a clear angle on ‘why web3 makes this possible’
• Substance-less lists. bullets of projects. and ideas without real writing attached
• Pieces that don’t keep our broader audience in mind (stories related to our core audience are preferred)
• Any ideas that are too general

Editing process

After an article has been commission post -pitch, the article will proceed through our rigorous pitching process. During the first d raft phase, Culture 3 is always on-hand to providing research and writing support. Upon completion of the first draft. the article goes through two edit s, being returned to the writer for a second draft in between them. During these two edits, performed by two separate editors and aided by the writer(s), we focus on tone, broad structure, cosmetic edits (such as typos), and east he tics (such as visuals), to ensure that we consistently publish high quality art icles.

Things to know as a Culture3 writer

Advice on reaching out

Culture 3 is a new outlet. and for 2022 at least, many story subjects will not have heard of us. We recommend mentioning the following points when reaching out:

• Culture 3 is bringing a mature observation of web3 to the world, exhibiting how artists, builders, and communities, augmented by web3, are influencing society and building the future of the internet.
• We’re a web3 media organization founded by Misan Harriman, currently chair of the Southbank Centre (Europe’s largest cultural venue) and working extensively with the Tezos Foundation
  • Including these links is recommended, or tagging @misanharriman when DMing on Twitter
• Backed by Tezos and co-producing TED’s first ever dedicated tech conference (link).

Community engagement

To help our writers meet each other, we have a Discord server to which all frequent Culture3 writers are invited. As we build Culture3, we will all build a network of contacts that others could benefit from. Everyone is welcome to reach out to the team (or to each other via email or Discord) to ask for help getting in touch with specific people.

To help our writers engage with the community, we have a small budget to subsidize purchases of certain tokens and other assets. Typically, these will be purchased by use and loaned to you for a defined period of time. However, in some cases we will simply reimburse you for a purchase that you are welcome to retain. In all cases, email the Culture3 team to discuss this and the value proposition of a purchase.

Payment

We can pay writers in USDC as well as a range of traditional currencies.

Process for updating this guide

This guide is a living and dynamic document. It will evolve as Culture3 evolves as an organization , and that includes as we collaborate with you and the entirety of the writing team. It will be subject to regular reviews and, all writers are invited to discuss refinements and updates at any time, which will be made on a significantly more frequent and ad hoc basis.
The next review will occur on October 31st, 2 023. Email [email protected] to suggest refinements or updates at any point.

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