# 2021 IPFS Project Planning
As 2020 comes to a close and we look ahead to 2021, it’s time to evaluate what’s important for the IPFS Project to focus on next year -- and we need your help! Get involved now and shape the IPFS project plan for the next year. Help us reflect on IPFS progress and status, how the wider ecosystem and internet has evolved over the past year, and chart a course for our work in 2021 that optimizes for the long term success of our mission.
This post can also be found in the IPFS Roadmap Github repo (opens new window).
# Potential Themes for 2021
The IPFS team has started evaluating potential themes to guide the project in 2021. These themes are high level outcomes that would take a quarter or more and multiple initiatives to complete. See the Roadmap repo (opens new window) for a first pass at themes that resonate with the core IPFS Working Groups. The final north star for 2021 might be a combination of them or something that emerges from your input. As usual, this is a collaborative effort to assess what is important for the IPFS Project to achieve next year - work that we hope spans the efforts of many teams and projects - so we hope this process is a great feedback mechanism for many groups throughout the IPFS Ecosystem!
# Proposal Process
We want to hear from you in the form of public Github issues. Issues should contain a potential theme that you think IPFS should tackle in 2021 - and why. Your theme proposals can be at any level of granularity — from general direction for the project, to specific features or tooling improvements, to ecosystem needs — everything is in scope. We want to hear what’s on your mind, what direction you want to take IPFS, and what your pain points are.
Aside from new theme proposals, we’d also very much appreciate comments on theme proposals, especially if there are additional important workstreams you’d like to see as part of that theme. Existing proposals for themes can be found here (opens new window).
To suggest a theme proposal, please create a new 2021 Proposal issue (opens new window) in this repo. The hope with using github issues is to allow for clarifying conversation in comments, help others build on your great ideas, and also be inspired to propose their own thoughts. You are welcome to submit more than one proposal!
# The 2021 Theme Proposal template (opens new window) includes
- Theme title
- Description: What is the objective of the theme, what problem does it solve, and what would executing on it entail?
- Hypothesis: What do you need to believe for this to make sense as a 2021 theme?
- Vision statement: If executing on the theme or initiative is massively successful, what would the state of the IPFS project look like?
- Why focus this year: Why does it make sense to focus on this theme or initiative this year?
- Example workstreams: What are potential workstreams, milestones, etc. that this initiative or theme might involve?
Feel free to include any other relevant content!
Check out existing proposals for themes here (opens new window) if helpful.
# 2021 Planning Process Timeline 📆
- Nov 19 - Dec 7: Open call for 2021 Proposals (add yours here (opens new window))
- Dec 16 - Dec 20: IPFS 2021 planning “Spike”
- Dec 20 - Jan 11: Review and feedback on 2021 theme(s) with key stakeholders
- Jan 18: Finalize and present 2021 theme(s) and updated roadmap