There are some big decisions to be made on the future direction and operation of Steem. Steemit Inc is keen to hand the running of the steem blockchain to the Community. But there is no established mechanism in place for wide discussion, debate and decision on the important choices that need to be made and the plans that need to be put into action. For many weeks now I have been running my Thursday radio show on MSP Waves in an open forum style format each with 10 - 20 guests discussing various steem based topics. I am therefore offering up my Thursday show slot for the coming weeks as a platform for all to join to take forward the discussions that need to be had on what comes next for steem. --- #### Open To All

The forums will be open for all to participate either on voice or in chat. Anyone and everyone with an interest in the future of steem will be welcome. Witnesses, community leaders, investors, developers, content creators and curators. Clearly this will be a big task. But if there is sufficient interest we can work together to find the optimal ways of running these forums. There will be some obvious limitations on numbers, timings, language etc but I see these forums as a starting point to evolve and build upon - at least until the immediate issues are resolved and actioned. --- #### Weekly Themes

There are also many diverse issues and topics that need to be aired and debated. Much more than can be covered in one 3 hour timespan. I therefore suggest we extend these forums over a number of weeks each covering a particular area, for example... * **Forum 1 (13 December) : Technology - nodes, RocksDB, SMTs etc** * **Forum 2 (20 December) : DApps, Apps & Developments - nodes, business plans, delegations, marketing** * **Forum 3 (03 January) : Revenue streams, advertising etc** * **Forum 4 (10 January) : Marketing & Onboarding** * **Forum 5 (17 January) : Content creation, curation** These topics, the grouping, the order and priority are all open for discussion. I am trying to put some lines in the sand before the tide washes them away. For each forum it would be useful to define beforehand some key questions to be addressed, and to identify some ideal action pointers to come out of the forums. --- #### Questions

1. **Do people of Steem think these discussion forums are a good idea and worthwhile?** 2. **If they are, who would be willing to help me organise them, moderate them, promote them, document them etc?** 3. **Who would be willing to participate in the forums?** --- --- #### Who's In?

I will do some shameless tagging here in the hope that GINA will whisper into the right ears. I am bound to miss people out as it is now 3.51am but I am hoping people like @llfarms and @paulag might be interested in helping organise these forums as I saw them mention the idea of holding some form of IRL event for a similar purpose in the coming months. Possibly @johnspalding, @shadowspub and @carrieallen might also be interested in helping with the running of the forums. In terms of participants there are many I would be delighted to see get involved including @therealwolf, @blocktrades, @meno, @prc, @aggroed, @nathanmars, @timcliff, @starkerz, @anomadsoul, @hightouch, @coruscate, @lukestokes, @followbtcnews, @drakos, @pharesim, @themarkymark, @exyle, @jackmiller, @ura-soul, @tarazkp, @crypto.talk, @coingecko, @denmarkguy, @enginewitty, @anarcotech, @yabapmatt, @techslut, @elear, @fyrstikken, @dragosroua, @taskmaster4450, @abh12345, @theycallmedan, @derangedvisions, @fulltimegeek, @someguy123, @gtg, @stoodkev, @heimindanger, @bitrocker2020, @luzcypher, @crimsonclad, @whatsup ... --- --- My standard show slot that I am putting forward for these forums is Thursdays 8pm - 11pm UTC on MSP Waves based in the PAL / MSP Discord server. I am sure if need be different timeslots on MSP could be used if the timezones are difficult. Check on worldtimebuddy.com for UTC to local time conversion. --- --- **This is what I can offer to help move Steem forward.** **Over to the you, Steem Community...** --- [ graphic by @pennsif ]