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ColivingDAO Insights: The Web3 Path for Regen Living
Hosted by ColivingDAO founders Daniel Aprea and Gareth Thompson, this podcast explores how Web3 technologies can enable sustainable, community-driven, and regenerative living.
Each episode of "ColivingDAO Insights" offers valuable perspectives, knowledge, and analysis on the practical applications of Web3 technologies in fostering regenerative living, such as decentralised ownership and governance models, proptech innovations, community living, and ways to regenerate both the planet and the economy.
ColivingDAO Insights: The Web3 Path for Regen Living
Connecting Residents: Digital Communication in Modern Coliving
Can effective communication truly transform your coliving experience? Discover how Daniel and Gareth believe it can, as they unpack the vital role of communication channels and technology in fostering a vibrant and satisfied coliving community. Drawing from their rich experiences, they highlight the significance of seamless interaction between residents and operators, and how understanding community needs can amplify the value of shared amenities.
Weighing the pros and cons of different digital communication platforms, from simple WhatsApp groups to advanced bespoke solutions, we shine a light on their potential to enhance social engagement and personalization. The discussion touches on the hybrid approach of integrating online and offline methods, emphasizing the importance of features like resident directories, event scheduling, and polls to build a connected community. Whether it's the ease of use of basic solutions or the comprehensive functionality of sophisticated platforms, every angle is explored.
Lastly, we venture into the inefficiencies of outdated booking systems and the impact on user experience, comparing third-party platforms with dedicated co-living apps. The episode concludes with a spotlight on the Coliving DAO platform, showcasing its Web3 capabilities for enhanced ownership and community interaction. We also offer insights for operators considering upgrades, and a sneak peek into the future of coliving with the latest trends and technologies. Tune in for an eye-opening exploration of community communication in coliving spaces!
Welcome everyone to another episode of CoLiving DAO Insights. This is your co-host, daniel, and I'm joined today, as usual, by my co-host, gareth. Hi, gareth.
Gareth:Hey Dan, Really good to be back.
Daniel:Awesome, good to have you here as well and what we're going to be talking about today is a very specific and important aspect of property and community management in co-living spaces, and we'll be discussing specifically channels and technology that can be used for these channels of communication among co-living residents themselves, as well as co-living residents and co-living operators. So, if you're an operator or a prospective operator, this is definitely something you want to pay attention to, and for everyone else interested in co-living, even as a resident or investor, you definitely want to find out more about this. So, gareth, let's dive in.
Gareth:Yeah, let's get in.
Daniel:This is a really good topic because this is a really big enabler of community and the experience of living in a co-living right and if you do this right, it can really amp up the experience for residents who live in the co-living communities Exactly, and the reason this is very important is because having a channel that allows you to communicate with residents in the first place is critical to understanding what the community wants and needs, what the community is all about, what the community is really there for and what they want more of, what they want less of. And also it's a way for you to communicate as well to the community. So if there's anything that you want them to know announcements, important information you're able to do that as well, so that communication is critical. What's also extremely important is really allowing people to do that as well, so that communication is critical. What's also extremely important is really allowing people to communicate among each other, and this is for a number of reasons.
Daniel:Now, it's very interesting we discussed this in other episodes as well that having neighbors it's not just something extra, just a feature. Having neighbors is effectively part of the benefits of living in a community. When people look at amenities, when people look at what a co-living space is offering, you can say, oh yeah, there's a cinema room, there is a spa, there is a gym, there's this, there's that, but most of these shared areas, especially when you look at things like a games room, when you look at things like a games room, when you look at things that are inherently social, they only really have value if there's a community there. There's no point having a lot of spaces if they're empty all the time and the best you can do is just be there by yourself. So really having other people living in the same community is huge value, but the way to really capture and maximize the value is to allow people to effectively communicate and effectively coordinate and create together as well. That is really critical. So having the right systems in place to make that happen really enhances the value of the co-living space.
Daniel:I'm just going to mention an example which is a study by Apartment Life, and they actually discovered that residents with over seven friends in a building have a 47% chance of renewing their contract, and that is much higher than the usual 29%. So 47% versus 29,. What this means is, if someone has friends and they're happy, the co-living operator is also going to have a financial benefit because the cost of sale and marketing is going to be lower to attract new residents. Also, the community can be stronger, so the management is easier and this also obviously results in better press, better reviews, which in turn can attract new members as well. So reducing turnover, attracting new members these are all huge, huge benefits. So by now, gareth, it should be pretty clear that it's very important to have interactive systems so that people can more easily make friends and feel that they're part of a community.
Gareth:Absolutely, dan, and you know we talk about that a lot. We talk about how co-living communities can really add a lot of value. A thriving community can add a lot of value to a co-living community, and you know this is intangible value, to some extent non-financial value, like social networks and having friendships, but this translates directly into a financial benefit for the co-living operators, which is really cool. And let's talk a bit about our personal experience here, because you know me and you have experienced this in real life, and we've we've experienced both the negative aspects of of a lack of platform connectivity with with our co-living neighbors and also connectivity that actually works right. So we both met as neighbors in one of the biggest co-living communities in the UK and we actually have personal experience of different systems and how those benefited the community and also negatively impacted the community when they didn't work so well. We've seen a huge range of different digital platform communication options, haven't we, dan?
Daniel:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely, and in a moment we'll share more about what our experience was as well, living in different communities, multiple communities, so we could really see the full spectrum. But let's introduce what the spectrum could potentially be. When it comes to solutions to allow residents and potentially management as well to communicate, there's different options and on the low-tech end of the spectrum, we have no system, no particular system in place, which means there's still a system, but it's no dedicated system. Dedicated system it could be simply text messages, email, so a lot of communication can happen by email or just hoping that people kind of physically bump into each other, so no tech involved, and then they stay connected in their own way. So no particular solution in place is definitely an option Not ideal, of course, as you can imagine, but it's definitely an option, definitely an option Not ideal, of course, as you can imagine, but definitely an option. And then gradually we can have solutions that are pretty much again low end on the tech spectrum, for example, simply having WhatsApp groups. And when we talk about the tech spectrum, it's important to understand as well that some of the solutions can be managed by the operator, whereas in some cases they're fully community-led, so that's a possibility as well. So having WhatsApp groups can either be the community operator has a WhatsApp group or a number of WhatsApp groups, where people get added when they join the community and potentially removed when they leave the community and there's a little bit of moderation done by the community manager. Or it could be fully community-led, meaning some community members create the groups and then new members as soon as they somehow bump into the old members, then they can talk and get added and so on. So that's a solution. We also experience things like that Personally. We'll tell you more about that in a sec.
Daniel:And then, if we continue, we have systems that are slightly more sophisticated but still very similar to having WhatsApp groups, for example, facebook groups that can potentially allow for more types of interactions, such as posting specific types of content, polls and different things. I mean a basic poll is also possible On WhatsApp. On Facebook there's more opportunities for sharing, resharing different posts and so on, and Telegram is an option as well. So you can imagine having generic technology that is meant to be used among people that want to communicate, but it's got nothing specific about call-in spaces at all. Then gradually, if we progress and we'll see advantages and disadvantages of each option, but just to give you an idea, an overview of what the spectrum could be like.
Daniel:Gradually, if we advance, we can see there can be specific solutions for co-living spaces, for example, having a resident portal online, so it could be a desktop solution where residents can log in and find information and have more features as well We'll talk about the features today as well. Or it could even be an app and we can have potentially, a third-party app. There's a number of companies that offer something like this as a SaaS, as a service, so software companies that create apps that can be customized to an extent. Some allow for more customizations than others and therefore the co-living operator can use a third-party app. Or an operator can also decide to create their own app, their own tech solution, and that's the more technologically advanced end of the spectrum. Again, there's pros and cons for each of these solutions, so we will delve into that. But, gareth, do you want to first share a little bit about the experience that we had personally in the multiple co-living spaces and service accommodation?
Gareth:Yeah, let's start with when we met in a co-living community as neighbors and at the time when I joined, the co-living community was using a Facebook group, so they didn't have a bespoke platform, they didn't have a community platform and it wasn't an independent platform communications channel, so they just used the Facebook group. But it was very lively. There was a lot of social interaction on that Facebook group and it was a great way to meet people because every week when new residents joined the building, they would just do a nice little introduction and say hey, welcome to our community to these new residents, and you could then connect with those residents and say hi and say welcome as well. And it was simple but it was really effective. And what was really interesting is that later on, the co-living community then hired a contractor to make a bespoke app, because they wanted more functionality and more control over the conversations that were taking place.
Gareth:And in the transition from the more informal Facebook group to that bespoke app, things just didn't work. There was a really there was a big transition issue, lots of teething problems and because the app was very badly designed, it was very difficult to actually find the core features like how do you chat to new people? How do you say hello to the new residents? All of that disappeared and the whole user experience changed and this really impacted the community. I felt because immediately, as a person who lived there, I was like, oh, I can't really connect with the new people anymore in that way that we did that nice little Facebook mechanism where we could say hi to the new residents and then connect with them and meet them at the resident meetups.
Daniel:So having a really good communications platform and managing a transition if you're going to actually design a bespoke platform is really important, then Absolutely, and this is not to say that Facebook is a better solution than a bespoke platform.
Daniel:It's really all about understanding how to use each platform in the best possible way and, just exactly like you say, gareth, managing the transition. That's critical as well, and we can have multiple examples too. We've been in places as well where, again, there was a Facebook solution, but it was pretty much unmanaged and it turned out it was mostly a marketplace rather than really a place where people can socialize. So we've been in communities where the vast majority of community polls would be about buying and selling stuff, which, again, is not particularly welcoming. It could be convenient for some, but it's not really a welcoming type of platform if all the content on the platform is transactional as opposed to geared towards building community. So a big thing is also understand how to manage these platforms as well, and if they're left to their own devices, then what would normally happen is that certain behaviors would continue indefinitely. So if some new members join and see that people only post something related to buying and selling stuff, it's unlikely that people will start naturally posting different things, right.
Gareth:Gareth. Yeah, you beat me to it, dan. So I lived in a fancy apartment block and they did have a bespoke sort of web page for communication, but it was incredibly basic and very bad user interface and people only posted hey, I have a table for sale, or you know, can you, can somebody come and pick up some free stuff because I'm moving out? It was very anti-social, very corporate and a very cold transactional atmosphere and it really, you know, living in a fancy apartment building and having that as your primary communications portal, it was really disappointing actually.
Daniel:Yeah, yeah, so we've experienced that with a dedicated portal as well as a Facebook group, and we've seen also what happens with WhatsApp groups, for example. We've experienced communities where the only real way to communicate with other members is WhatsApp groups that are fully led by the community, and in that case, again, it's a bit of a miss for an operator. It might work out in some cases if there is a strong selection of members and a strong onboarding and strong culture in the community, but if there is no particular pre-screening and the majority of the members don't have a common language, common culture when it comes to what it means to them to live together in a community, then it becomes quite random and eventually in our experience, gareth, as well, we realized a lot of groups were either dormant or not used for the purpose they were intended to and eventually, again, there were no real convenient ways to not just communicate but also discover Because we'll discuss what the main features are in a moment but discovering new members and discovering information about new members when someone new joins, what they like to do, what they're all about, is really a big advantage as well, and one of the biggest problems in the transition that, gareth, you mentioned earlier from Facebook to a Bespoke app is using Facebook. Surely there's disadvantages of using a third-party platform that is not even a dedicated platform for this purpose, but having Facebook had the advantage in that particular case of letting residents see some history of new members. So when someone has had a Facebook profile for years and just joins the community, when people can see their Facebook profile, they can find out a little bit more about this person.
Daniel:Oh, they work for this company, oh, they're interested in this, they do this in their spare time, this and that, so there's a lot of information there. It can be really bonding, whereas using a Beespoke app that is starting from zero so no pre-existing content every profile is just a name at best or, in some cases, some initials, without a picture. But even when people want to put some stuff there, it's going to be much more limited compared to a Facebook profile that has been going on for years. So we discussed our experience to highlight some pros and cons. Gareth, shall we go a little bit more in depth on the pros and cons of each solution?
Gareth:Yeah, let's do that. So if we start with, what should we start with? If we start with a bespoke solution, does that make sense?
Daniel:Yeah, let's go from the low tech end of the spoke solution. Does that make sense? Yeah, let's go from the low-tech end of the spectrum. So let's imagine not having any particular solution in place, or having a very basic solution in place. You can immediately imagine that there will be disadvantages, but it's also a little bit of convenience in some cases as well. So let's see, gareth, what can you say about that?
Gareth:Yeah. So if we start at the really low-tech option and this one is the worst is just to use email, right? So if you have a co-living operator and they email you and that is the only sort of community interaction and you're then left to fend to yourself, then you're kind of forced to go to those informal WhatsApp groups or other communication platforms to set up a community-driven, resident-first approach. Right? And as you said before, Dan, that can work if you have a really active, proactive community. But if you have to drive that from the ground up like the residents have to generate the energy to connect with each other and then run their own events, it takes a lot of energy and resources to get that moving. So email from the operator to the residents is the coldest, most transactional, most basic communication and that leads to residents having to set up their own informal communication platforms. That's the sort of lowest tech starting block.
Gareth:You could even start, arguably, offline, right, Residents could set up in-person events in order to connect with each other, but in this day and age it's very difficult, I think, to do that because people expect the digital connectivity. Sure, it might work if you have, like, an offline notice board that all the residents can see in a highly visible place. That can work. But if you don't have that sort of central lobby location where it's highly visible and people connect and see it every day, then it's difficult for that to work. But it could work. You could have an offline solution as the most low-tech way to connect people Absolutely, and offline solutions can work.
Daniel:I've seen them work in some cases, but they usually, in my experience, they worked as an addition to online solutions, rarely as just the only solution. And what I've seen, for example, which is interesting, is I've seen places where there were boards where residents could post things such as a skill exchange, such as common interest and what they're looking for. Again, the problem is, if someone doesn't go and check that board, then they'll never find out, and even if they do, then there might be some contact details on the board and then they still have to find a way to go and contact that person. The barrier is actually higher. The barrier is actually higher.
Gareth:There's a much lower barrier when someone is seeing someone else online and they can immediately contact that person through the same platform. Right, gareth? That's right, dan, and I remember when we lived in the co-living community there was a chalkboard that had all the sort of weeks events on it, and they did actually put some of the new residents' names on that chalkboard, but they also took a picture of it and posted it on the Facebook group in the early days of the co-living community. So they had that hybrid offline and online approach. That actually worked quite well, because the notice board was in a central location in the lobby and it was easy to see it and interact with it, and they combined that with a digital presence. So that was quite a simple approach and it did work well.
Daniel:Yeah, it did work well because it was combined with the online approach as well. So let's see specifically why it's important to have different platforms as well, because if you think about the basic need for people to just chat with each other, then obviously you would say, okay, whatsapp is enough, right, why do you even need more? But in reality, there are a lot more needs. And another need is a need for some sort of knowing who you live with, so having some sort of resident directory. And again, I've seen directories done offline in some spaces where people can have some sort of resident directory. And again I've seen directories done offline in some spaces where people can have some sort of profile, sometimes literally hanging off the wall, and they could put a picture of themselves and write some information about themselves. But again, this solution can work, but it's the same thing. How do you contact these people? Do you just wait until you bump into them? Or, if there's a phone number, are you really going to call them? Some people might, but it's not as easy as just press a button online. Other important reasons could be resident-led events as well as community-led events as well as operator-led events. Having polls, receiving feedback is really important as well. Giving the ability to residents to really create groups is quite critical as well, so that they can really discover who has a common passion. They can hang out around a specific passion and so on some common interests, hobbies and all that so that's also quite important.
Daniel:The ability to, as an operator, to send notification announcements, the ability for residents to book spaces there's a big one as well and we can talk about booking systems as well. We've experienced quite a wide variety of different booking systems for spaces and events and some of them working better than others, some of them working better than others. And having a place where people can access resources, whether it's documents, whether it's tips, whether it's information. Having a marketplace is useful. We mentioned that, so that's definitely a thing, as long as it's not the only purpose of the whole channel and having other opportunities to discover partnerships, amenities that are even outside of the building, so discover kind of the local neighborhood and so on.
Daniel:And potentially reporting if anything happens and if people need to contact support. It could potentially be done through the same platform as well. And if we extend that, why not? Residents could be using the same platform to pay rent and to be onboarded and to do a number of different things that are purely based on the interaction with the operator. So these are just some of the examples of features that are quite key for residents, but there can obviously be more, and that's why there's this need to have something more sophisticated. And, gareth, how can we gradually progress towards systems that work in a way that is more and more dedicated to this particular need?
Gareth:That's a really good question, dan. I think the best way to make better systems is to really think about not only the operator's needs, the operator of the co-living community, and consider the residents needs as well. So you talked about booking systems, dan, and being able to book spaces or to go to the gym, for example. Maybe in some places you need to book your gym spot.
Gareth:One of the major problems I've seen from my personal experience with booking systems and these can be quite terrible booking experiences actually because they're designed from the operator's point of view, from the operator's needs, there's no benefit in it for the residents. So, for example, if you need to book to go and use a facility, but the operators designed the booking system in a way that it's only there so that they can control the numbers or so they can track people, then the residents are really reluctant to go into the app or the web platform and use that booking system because they know there's no benefit, right, and so people just don't use it. And then, if they don't use it, there's like a shadow side to it where people are using the facilities but they're not booking. No one's checking, the operator doesn't get the benefit of knowing how many people are in the facility. The operator doesn't get the benefit of knowing how many people are in the facility. It can be overbooked, it can be underbooked and really the central fault there is that it's not designed with the residents in mind. So, for example and this is really funny, but it's such a great facility I lived in a fancy apartment block with a swimming pool and the operator then introduced a booking system to prevent overcrowding in the summer and they introduced a booking where you could book for four hours and that was your only option.
Gareth:So you had to book from like 9 am to 1 pm and be in that block, and if you were, if you were there at 9.05 in the morning and you wanted to book a morning swimming session, you're already locked out of the four-hour block because it's five minutes past nine, and this is crazy right, because most people want to go and swim for 20 minutes. So this was purely designed with the operator's interests in mind and not the residents.
Daniel:Exactly, and that's a very interesting example of ineffective design, because eventually this dissuades people from either using the facilities or from using the booking system and therefore it just completely destroys the point of having a booking system in the first place. I understand sometimes there might be a slight gray area when it comes to privacy. So, for example, do you want to create a booking system where people are able to see who else has booked at that time, or you don't want to allow that? And, of course, if there's any GDPR concerns, that's something to be taken into account. In general, if the community allows for that, it can be advantageous to let them know who's booked a space, because then they know that if they book the same space assuming that the space can be booked by multiple people at the same time they know who they're going to, who's already going to be there, but at the same time, if the community has a slightly different approach where privacy is more important, then this can be avoided, of course, just by showing numbers. So how many people have booked a space? So people can know okay, some people have booked, but I don't know who. But at least I know how many, so I know how crowded a certain space is going to be. If I go there, let's say, a gym or a swimming pool or something like that, or a cinema room and so on, or if a space is booked by someone and they cannot be allowed multiple bookings, then it probably doesn't matter too much at the point. So all the residents need to see is if the space is free or not free. So, again, booking systems quite an interesting one as well, let's see.
Daniel:So, going from WhatsApp group to Facebook group, we said there's already a big advantage. Now the major disadvantage again is that it's a platform that is controlled by a third party, completely controlled by a third party. So what this means is that all the content on the platform will belong to that platform. Some people do not use the platform because, in order to use the platform, they will have to agree to the platform's privacy policy, which is not your privacy policy, and some people don't want to agree to that. Some people maybe don't like the platform. Some people maybe they're sharing information on the platform that don't want to share with the other residents and they don't really have a choice, because once they post something on their Facebook profile and then they use Facebook to communicate with other residents, then they are limited in what they can hide. So this is also a solution that is not ideal. It works well for some people and in some cases, but it's not ideal because there will be a lot of people that don't want to use the platform, and if it's the only platform, then they might be left out.
Daniel:So there can be a space for a platform like that in a successful co-living space, of course, but certainly there's many limitations. So let's see what happens when platforms become more and more dedicated to co-living, so specific platforms that are not utilized outside of the co-living space and we mentioned desktop portals, which are less and less common nowadays, because a lot of people just use their phone, right, they use their mobile device as well. So having something that can only be used on desktop can have some limitations. So a platform that can be used both on mobile and desktop is certainly more in line with today's lifestyle. And what we have next is, if you look at apps, we have the example of third-party apps. So, gareth, what can we say about third-party apps that can be used by co-living spaces?
Gareth:Yeah.
Gareth:So this is the next level up in sophistication and there's huge advantages from using third-party apps because they're ready, built, ready to go, so a co-living community can then just use them.
Gareth:Huge advantages from using third-party apps because they're ready, built, ready to go, so a co-living community can then just um, use them and, you know, subscribe to the platform or or whatever the onboarding is.
Gareth:It's very easy to get access and then to use it for a co-living operator and then it unlocks all these extra features. You, you know it's a private community space, which is great for the residents. It's not a public platform and you can then start to build in dedicated community features like events, space bookings and functionality that works because it's been tested with other communities If it's a well-established third-party platform. So there's lots of advantages that get unlocked and start to enable the community to connect with each other, enable the community residents to organize their own events and also enable them to communicate with the operator and the management team and vice versa. The co-living operator management team can communicate with the residents because there are well-established chat functions or communication channels. So this is a much better option and starts to unlock some of the extra value that you get from living in a cool living community, dan.
Daniel:Absolutely, and a lot of these companies. They create something with the users in mind. So certainly many of the features will be quite useful and there's a certain level of customization that can be branded in some cases, for example, and so on, so there is a little bit of tailoring possible. On the other hand, it's still a third-party platform, so the major drawbacks are the usual when using a third-party platform a little bit less control over the data, having to trust a third party and also not having a huge level of customization, because, after all, what can be implemented is what the other platform is willing to implement, so what's already on the other platform.
Daniel:And sometimes it can be quite expensive to go from, let's say, a non-customized plan to a more bespoke plan if you want to add features and so on. So the cost can potentially skyrocket all of a sudden. Or as an operator, you can be stuck on an app that is not really serving the purpose. Some contracts might be somewhat tying the operator into long-term partnership when in reality things are not working too well and a change is required earlier. So a lot of different things can happen when interacting with a third party that is completely a third party, so that is simply a service provider, without really any stronger bond, any stronger interest, because, after all, if you're working with a service provider, all they care is that they get their subscription payment on a regular basis.
Daniel:There isn't really any particular interest in the success of the co-living space in general. It's more of a transactional relationship with a supplier, so to speak. Now, again, if we progress, we get to the point that we also experience, as well as residents, of having a complete bespoke solution. So a co-living operator hiring a team or a number of contractors that can create a platform or, let's say, an app where, effectively, there's full control over what functionalities to have, what to create, what not to create, and so on. So, gareth, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this solution?
Gareth:Yeah, so having your own bespoke, customized platform is really there's a huge number of advantages for co-living communities, right, because you can really start to model it on the specific needs of that co-living community.
Gareth:So we spoke about themed co-living communities in a previous podcast and that particular community may have very particular needs because they have a very specific interest, a very specific professional or personal interest. That is the theme of that co-living community, and so they might need some bespoke features that are not on the third-party platforms, for example, setting up partnerships with particular providers that are aligned with that co-living communities theme or that are only available in a certain location, for example, in the local neighbourhood. Maybe there are certain providers or resources that can only be connected to in a very customised way, and we spoke before about these themed communities and their needs. But also, if you have and we'll go into the benefits of the CoLiving DAO platform in a second which really addresses some of these needs and demonstrates why there are very particular needs for some co-living communities but yeah, dan, so it really enables that next level of customization. That's the key, right.
Daniel:Yeah. So enabling that next level of customization is extremely important to grow and get really the most benefits. It allows control over the data, having enough information, having pretty much every feature that a co-living space needs. However, this is not a simple exercise for a co-living space to develop a platform. If they're co-living operators, they're probably not necessarily software developers, so they would have to rely on a third party anyway to create the platform and then to manage the platform on an ongoing basis and so on, and this could be extremely expensive. And not just expensive, but also some things can get lost in translation and we experienced extremely poorly designed bespoke apps where you would think the advantage is to have something better, but in reality it ended up being much worse.
Daniel:And I remember the experience myself of having to use an app to create groups, to organize events, and discoverability was so terrible that no one could literally see the groups. So even if I had a group and have an event posted on the app, no one could really found that, and even myself. So the discoverability was so terrible. Even myself as the creator of the group and the creator of the event, I couldn't find it. I couldn't find the event, I couldn't find the group. It was extremely difficult. It would take me at least 10, 15 minutes just to figure out how to get back to the event page.
Daniel:So imagine someone who's looking for events and what to do on that day or that week having very slim chance of finding it. And if they find it, probably no one else has joined because no one else found it. So they think, oh, no one is going to go anyway. So such poor design is really a big cause for issues eventually in the community and a lot of people either stop organizing events or they stop using their platform and they revert back to having their own systems like WhatsApp messages and so on. Right, Gareth?
Gareth:Yeah, and we saw that in practice right when the co-living community we were in switched from Facebook to their own bespoke app and the big risk there that was realized and the risk actually materialized was that if you make a bespoke app and you get it wrong and you get the user interface wrong, then that transition is really broken and you've lost the trust of your co-living community residents.
Gareth:And it was funny because when the transition happened to this new terrible, clunky app with a really bad user interface, I was speaking to a user interface expert who was one of the residents and he actually put the app through a user interface checking system that gives you a score from zero to 100%, 100% being the best score you can possibly get, and the user interface in this particular app scored 11% and it was so bad.
Gareth:And that brings into the fore of you've got to make sure that the basics are right. If you go for a custom approach, you really need to make sure we won't go too deep into this, but some basic user interface elements, such as having all the main functionality on the homepage of the app or the homepage of a webpage if you're using desktop. The user interface expert I spoke to spoke about having like a cockpit approach. You need to imagine that you are the pilot of a plane when you're using an app and you have all the major functions displayed right in front of your eyes so you can see them and access them easily. And so this is really important, because the negative effect of not having that really good user interface is that you're actually preventing the community from connecting with each other, the residents from connecting with each other, so getting the user interface is really key.
Daniel:Absolutely so. We've seen that having bespoke, sophisticated systems again it's a massive challenge. In theory it's a solution that presents the most advantages, but in reality, what I've seen happen in communities that have taken this route and there's not many, because it takes a big budget, so it's only really justified for communities that can afford the budget. Then what happens very often is people. They just revert back to the most rudimental systems, and it's even worse because then they're not coordinated by the operator themselves. So eventually, rather than being on an operator-managed platform, they end up being on a purely community-led platform, and the idea originally was to have more data and more control, and eventually the operator has even less of both. So these are challenges. Now the good news is here. At Colvin Dow, the way we set up all the systems is that we can really get the best of both worlds, and let me explain how.
Daniel:Now, first of all, when it comes to the advantages of having a bespoke platform, Koldevin DAO is a solution that is extremely customized. Now, when we say that we really go beyond the third-party platform, that can be customized for a large number of reasons. One reason, which is pretty much the root reason of all this, is that CoLivingDAO is not going to be simply a transactional supplier and service provider and service provider. By creating a community as part of the Co-Living DAO Federation of Communities, effectively, you're entering a very long-term partnership. It's even more than a partnership with Co-Living DAO. So, gareth, do you want to explain why working with Co-Living DAO is something that goes far beyond having just a supplier?
Gareth:Yeah, absolutely, dan. So I spoke before. I gave the example of having a bad booking system, right, and we can use that to illustrate why the co-living dial platform would be far superior. And it really goes back to getting the interests of the operator and the residents into consideration, having both of them happy, right? So if you have a really good, bespoke co-living platform, both the operator needs and the resident needs are met.
Gareth:And at the core of Co-Living DAO we have a multi-stakeholder foundation right. Residents are co-owners and the co-living operators are co-owners. Both of them have legal power in decision-making. And so if we think about the co-living operators or co-owners, both of them have legal power in decision-making. And so if we think about the co-living community app and how residents and how operators interact together and have both of their needs met, then the design of the co-living DAO platform and the app that the residents and the operators use is designed in order to facilitate the needs and the interests of both of those groups, and so residents can go on and get access to meeting other residents, the chat forums, discussion boards and all the other great features to book events and so on in a way that really meets their needs, because they have legal power, they have decision making power on that platform and so ultimately they can actually go in and say hey guys, we need to improve the, the residence platform on the portal or the discussion boards, and that will be taken seriously because the residents are co-owners and the platform will be iterated and improved upon.
Gareth:That actually reaches the platform software developers who can then go and customize and iterate and improve it. And likewise, on the operator side, the operators have their needs met because they need to be able to communicate with the residents in the right way, and they need to be able to communicate with the residents in the right way and they need to be able to communicate with other employees. And if the platform itself isn't functioning in the correct way, they have the power to go and speak to the software developers and improve upon it and iterate on that. So at the foundation, because everyone's a co-owner and has legal power and decision-making power, the platform itself will evolve to meet the needs of both residents and the operator. Dan.
Daniel:Yeah. So in other words, to keep things simple, by utilizing the Call of Endow platform, you are effectively part of the Call of Endow Federation. So it's pretty much like having your own bespoke system without needing to hire external developers, without needing to contract anyone in particular, without needing to lead your own software development team and so on. So you can get very high level of customization that is fully tailored to your needs as an operator. This is massive because, as we said, colivin DAO has the best interest of the operator and the residents at heart, and that's purely by design. So there's a big advantage.
Daniel:Now, the Colivin DAO platform will have all the functionalities that are needed for a Colivin space to succeed, and most of them are there by default. And if there's any specific functionality that is needed in your co-living space, this is something that can potentially be introduced as well. Because of the nature of the relationship with the co-living DAO, being an operator in co-living DAO also means that you'll have some voting powers in the co-living DAO itself. So, again, there's nothing transactional about interacting with Colibin DAO. It's really almost like having a business arm that takes care of that software element without having to know anything about software, without having to worry about that part at all. So what we're doing really is combining the advantages of platforms that are difficult to create, platforms that are difficult to maintain, but they have very useful and effective features with the advantage of systems that are, on one hand, a bit too rudimental but, on the other hand, very low maintenance. So imagine using systems that are very simple, at the same time having all the functionalities that you need, right, gareth?
Gareth:Exactly so. Imagine you're an operator and you want to build a co-living DAO community, a co-living community, then you have the advantage of we've already built the bespoke platform and you get to just take that platform and start using it. But, as you said, dan, you can then customize it or white label it. So if your co-living community has a particular brand and a particular name, that's the name that goes on the platform for your co-living community and it's customizable too. So you get the best of both worlds.
Daniel:So that's the reason why we're offering all this here at Co-Living DAO, and all the important functionalities that I mentioned earlier, plus a lot more, will all be there, and in some cases, if you utilize a third-party community management platform, you'll still need the property management system. That is separate and therefore you might still be limited in functionalities. You'll have to figure out how to collect rent, how to manage onboarding, how to manage your residence in many other different ways, and so on. With the CoLivingDAO software solution, everything is in one place. So again, you don't need to worry about finding a lot of different pieces of software for all your needs. Everything is there, created with the level of customization that you need, while it has the level of simplicity that you want as well, because it's all there for you.
Gareth:One other big advantage that we didn't talk about, dan, is that it's a web3 platform for co-living DAO communities, and so it's taking all the advantages from the Web2 world where you have interactivity and you know residents being able to interact with other residents. You get that on a Web2 platform, but this is taken to the next level in a Web3 platform where you have rewards and ownership and real voting power and decision-making power, right.
Daniel:Exactly so. This is a Web3 project with Web3 capabilities, which, effectively, is something that enables people to have more ownership, to really exercise their governance rights, and it's all about UX. So here at Code Living Down, we massively prioritize user experience, so we make sure that every user can get the benefits of blockchain without the drawback of not knowing how to utilize it. So the UX can be exactly the same as a non-Web3 project, meaning, in terms of simplicity, something can be as simple as the very same apps that people have been using so far even simpler, even more intuitive while the back end of the software can be extremely more powerful, allowing for things such as decentralized governance and decentralized ownership that are usually not present because they haven't been introduced yet, and that's what we're introducing here at CoLivingDAO.
Daniel:Some other advantages can be granular rent reduction based on ownership, meaning the system can immediately calculate the rent that everyone owes without you having to do it manually, and so on, and again, I'm not going to go into the details of all the advantages. You can contact us directly if you want to find out more, or you can go to colivingdowio and you'll find out more there. But that's, in a nutshell, how we at Coliving Dow bring together the advantages of each solution. So, gareth, let's just recap what we covered today Different ways to manage property and community for co-living operators. So, if anyone here is an operator, or a resident, or an investor, or simply as a passion for co-living, this is what we covered today and feel free to share your thoughts by contacting us directly.
Gareth:Yeah. So to recap, for me, dan, the importance of having a software platform that meets the needs of co-living operators and residents is what we're building here at Co-Living DAO right a turnkey solution for operators, really bringing in the best of both worlds from multiple angles to make sure that both co-living operators and residents have a platform that meets their needs?
Daniel:Dan Exactly, and so what we're seeing today going from very low-tech, simple solutions but not very powerful, all the way to more complex solutions that are potentially more effective but harder to maintain, harder to put in place and harder to promote adoption of as well, because when something is not something people are familiar with, promoting adoption is a little bit harder.
Daniel:So again, if we can add an extra advantage with CoLivingDAO is that if people move from one CoLiving DAO community to another, they'll already be familiar with the co-living DAO infrastructure, which means that, effectively, even though the system is very powerful, someone new coming to your co-living community, if they already have experience with co-living DAO, they will already immediately understand how to use the systems and so on.
Daniel:So a little extra advantage there. But this covers pretty much what the options are, and if you're an operator and you have one solution in place, you may want to think about whether that solution is working well for you, if it's time to upgrade or simply change the nature of what you currently have, and you hopefully now have a little bit more clarity on what other options have been utilized so far and what's possible and what the pros and cons are. So thanks everyone for being here today. I hope you found it valuable and, for the ones of you that are interested in co-living, as well as Web3 and regeneration and the future of community living, make sure you subscribe to this podcast, because we'll be back as usual next week with more content. You.