Shaolin’s Story—DIMO's New Community Manager

My journey into DIMO started towards the end of 2021. Seeing the partnership between DIMO and Helium being announced got me excited for a new project to sink my teeth into. Little did I know at the time that this new project would turn into something much more.

When I first joined the DIMO discord it had just under 200 members, we're about to hit 6000! The devices were not being sold and the anxiety of what to come was building. I think back on my first happy hour with the core team and getting to ask the preliminary questions as all new members would - What is the purpose of the project? How does it work with Helium? When could I expect to get my hands on one of these devices? Not only was the core team able to answer all of these questions but they provided clear and concise information on what the future of this project could be. I felt like achilles being dipped in a pool of knowledge

Then the day finally came, the devices went on sale! I ordered as fast as I could! It was pretty seamless to get these ordered and the promise of a short ship time was refreshing coming from several months of waiting for other projects. I was ecstatic to be one of the first to order a groundbreaking device. From here I got heavily involved in the DIMO discord and started conversing with the other community members who were also as excited as I was about this product. After a couple of weeks in, Rob Solomon, one of the co-founders, announced a new role deemed contributor, the purpose of this was to help shape the DIMO community. So many opportunities to throw my hat in and learn about everyone's strengths and weaknesses and how we can come together to develop something that is unique to us.

After helping out in the community for a while I was able to become a contributor, a happy day for me. From here I went on to help out the newest members to the server and answer any questions they had. I started contributing documentation to the gitbook on connecting cars. I found myself discussing ideas with other contributors during the weekly Happy Hour. Being able to be one of the alpha testers let me see exactly what everyone was in store for.

It seems one conversation led to another, before a life-changing one followed from the string. After being accepted as a device alpha tester, I was eligible to receive DIMO data miner early in exchange for helping the project. By pure coincidence, I was moving in a couple short days. I contacted Alex Rawitz, the COO of Digital Infrastructure inc (from here on I will refer to this as D.inc) to let him know that I needed to update the shipping address, and one thing led to another, and I ended up asking about employment at D.inc.

I was told to check out a couple roles and see what one caught my eye. Engineer, Fleet Manager, Data Analyst, but the one that spoke to me was Community Manager. This role was a lot like what I was currently doing, but gave me the opportunity to do much more. After interviewing with Alex and Rob, they suggested that I answer some questions and present my answers to the rest of the founders. I did just that and more.

As I type this I have a week left working as a System Administrator, the feeling of butterflies in my stomach and overflowing with excitement for what is to come on this new journey.

My plan as Community Manager is to help guide new members, experienced users and DIMO contributors towards making DIMO the best it can be. I plan on helping transition someone brand new to a full on DIMO enthusiast. To launch that enthusiast into a contributor. Then finally setting that contributor up to allow them to run wild with their ideas, converting their energy to production for DIMO. I promise all of you that I will do whatever it is my power to best guide you along your path into DIMO, and to help everyone in the community, contributor or not, to get the most out of DIMO.

DIMO can disrupt the automobile industry with what it sets out to accomplish. How do we accomplish this though? Connecting vehicles of course! Modern cars can produce an astounding amount of data: 2.5 GB an hour! That’s about 1500x more than browsing the web. Automation and electrification will only grow this number even more. DIMO’s goal is to get this data into the hands of the driver instead of into the pockets of OEMs. Each user of DIMO will have the ability to capture their own data and use it how they see fit.

But the vision is even bigger than that too. I believe that this project can change so much in the world we live in. We have gone from physical maps to GPS, taxi services to ride-hailing, stationary workstations to pocketable supercomputers. DIMO can be the next big thing that changes mobility and we all can benefit from it.

We just backed the car out of the driveway.

Time to see what this baby can do! - Shaolin