Finding the Strength Through the Blockchain
I did not realise what blockchain was 6 months back, in fact I was not even educated about Bitcoin (BTC). It wasn't until 
Today is the day (23rd February, 2018) that we will be presenting our work to MMU Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) under the MMU startup Scheme to fund our comic project. Whether we succeed or not, it will be evaluated by our Research Management Centre (RMC). I am a little nervous and a little excited. If the funding gets through it would mean that there good exposure of my students' work in the printed media and funding to do marketing and other promotional activities.
The guy above, his name is 
This talented gentleman is the man who dislike the limelight, but he is the hardest worker in the group. He is like the steemengine of the train. The train would not move without him. He likes to work behind the stage and he stays back in the office 4 days straight to help us with this presentation.
If there is ever a role for the best man, he should get it. A low key artist that is more about others than himself. He is as much a talent as he is as a hard worker.
In our project we identify our objectives and the challenges facing our industry. Only with a proper understanding of the industry and the target market we are able to create a list of project goals and how to achieve it based on community standards. We want a project that gives an insight into the comic industry from the perspective of the audience and the market players.
It has been a tumultuous ride in this industry and the students needs to understand that. The basic objective of this project is to unmasked the challenges facing the creative industry and how we can leverage on current trend and technology to have a better reach to the audiences. Of course the final reward would be recognition and monetary incentives.
What I can proudly say about this project is we are not short of talented people to help fuel the creative creation behind it all. The various styles and ideas from these young blood are very refreshing and something quite unthinkable but always in a positive way.
It astonishes me how social media and the easy access to different type of artwork and creative design has shaped their understanding and creative development as students. This various styles and approaches are a breath of fresh air in the industry. We must not think of us in isolation and how we must protect the traditional way of doing things. Since the world has evolved so fast, the more innovative thing to do is embrace change and infuse differences in generating interesting and compelling work.
The picture above is the pool of talents from MMU's comic club and these pictures are taken during our very first meeting.
Prior to successfully getting the funding, we managed to secure pre-seeding fund to participate in Research Innovation Commercialization and Entrepreneurship Showcase 2017 (RICES2017). The result of this participation are as follows:-
- 100 booklets;
- 2 banners
- 4 posters
...and a lot of cheers and hype.
Then Came Steemit
This is where we managed to capitalise on the steem blockchain to understand the value of social media marketing at zero costs. Yes, we managed to do it through a social media platform that does not force us to buy audience and or to seed followers or to force its users and subscribers to watch or read things that does not interest them.
We managed to do it all through steemit.com. This is the part that is quite revolutionary in our industry. This is the part where we realise the idea of creating our community and engaging with our audiences and we also started to fully appreciate the value of team work. Through steemit, we formed one community that many would have come to know as #steem-cartoon.
We made many friends and there are communities out there that never let us down and gave us support more than what we could have asked. They are #ocd, #steemiteducation, #curie and many others.
Then there was the ultimate recognition by the National Museum which is a Tier A exhibition for artists. Never in my wildest dream I would have thought that a small project would receive a nationwide recognition by exhibiting the works of my students with some work of the greatest artists in Malaysia such as Jaafar Taib, Ujang, 
Where I Meet My Best Friend
This is the very first presentation by
I take this opportunity to stress that #steem-cartoon is entirely a communal initiative that falls under no umbrella or patronage of any community but it is fueled by the generous collaboration with different communities that exists in Steemit and we are proud to stand tall on our own. We are.
Our student's achievement through Steemit was quite astonishing. We were quite unable to believe that a relatively newcomer to the steem blockchain is able to hit more than $300 in revenue with just one post. That being given the high value of Steem Dollar translate to even more than $300.
I can't deny that the monetary return is a very good incentive but I also acknowledge that the sharing and commenting part is a very important part for educational growth.
I am proud to announce that in mere 77 days merely based on my students' work and my friends from the comic industry in steemit, we managed to rake in approximately SBD15k which is approximately Ringgit Malaysia 246k in terms of income. Given a local and relatable context, it would mean that one would have easily afforded the purchase of a modest apartment NOT in the heart of the city.
The Next Frontier
In order to get the funding, we need to have a map. This map is a general map of our expansion of our project and we are moving towards merchanding and publication. Our course my eyes are set on steemit but steemit does not require us to spend any money which is the best platform for exposure.
I got to rest now because presentation comes in the next few hours. Wish me luck guys. You can ask me after 23rd February, 2018 how it went. Fingers crossed! I believe we can nail this.
