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Khlongs and Subaks Workshop

A Workshop On Open Distributed AI x Blockchain Protocols in Southeast Asia

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The Khlongs and Subaks workshop is an intensive, immersive 5-day workshop to be held April 21-25, 2025, at CMKL University in Bangkok, devoted to exploring opportunities at the intersection of two rapidly evolving technological frontiers: open distributed AI and blockchain protocols. Our goal is to seed a region-wide "full-stack" conversation and persistent scene around these two macro technology trends, at the technical, cultural, and public-policy levels. We will adopt an open-source and a loosely “d/acc” approach (an emerging philosophy of AI that combines an accelerationist approach with decentralized, defensive, and democratic elements).

We hope to draw on the unique historic strengths of the region to identify and develop an approach to this emerging space of opportunities that is both uniquely Southeast Asian and globally relevant. Participants will ideally bring some existing relevant expertise and background in the themes, and take away a strong and grounded sense of regional technology opportunities and futures, as well as a network of relationships.

The workshop name is meant to evoke both the technological themes, and the regional cultural approach to them. "Khlong" is ****a Thai term for canals essential to irrigation and community connectivity, while "Subak" is the term for the traditional Balinese cooperative rice irrigation and water governance system. The waterways and systems epitomized by khlongs and subaks provided connection and transportation, shaped the geography of trade and the economy, and — in a world where wet rice was both the principal staple food and the highest-yielding crop per land unit — determined the spread and distribution of productivity, wealth, and societal power. We believe these historic governance patterns, culture, and technologies associated with rice farming can serve as evocative motifs and rich sources of inspiration for navigating and civilizing today’s emerging technological frontiers and the societal challenges they pose.

The workshop is co-organized by CMKL University, the Summer of Protocols (SoP) program (funded by the Ethereum Foundation), GCC, and Seapunk Studios, and is free to attend. Limited regional travel support is available for participants who might need it. This is the second annual workshop in this series, and follows the 2024 Datus and Nusas workshop held in Singapore. The Khlongs and Subaks workshop will aim to continue the long-term mission of the SoP program to foster a thriving technological scene around protocols in the region.

The workshop will feature three distinct but interrelated tracks:

  1. Public Policy and Regional Technology Cooperation: This track is dedicated to designing collaborative regional frameworks for AI and blockchain governance in the region. Participants will explore policies that promote inclusivity, privacy, data sovereignty, and cross-border collaboration. Drawing parallels to the cooperative management of water resources in rice farming, this track aims to develop sustainable policies that act as the lifeblood of regional innovation. This track will involve daily plenary panels or talks, followed by discussions. Track participants will ideally have a background in public policy focused on technology, economics, or finance.
  2. Cultural-Technical Interaction: This track will focus on structured workshop exercises through the week, as well as local field trips, designed to establish strong connections and regional context and influence for the other two tracks.
  3. Hands-on Hacking and Technical Exploration: This track will be built around challenge problems: e.g., getting two or more AI models to programmatically interact to respond to user prompts, using distributed coordination architectures including, but not limited to, blockchain protocols, etc. Participants will identify a small demonstration project that can be done in a week, and work together through the week in daily coworking sessions facilitated by CMKL computer science faculty members and SoP mentors. The goal will be to both demonstrate something interesting on the final day, as well as suggest directions for longer-term research, development, and exploration.

Prequel Event: Silicon Archipelago

A Salon On Open Distributed Southeast Asian Tech Futures

Earlier this month (Friday, March 14) we hosted an online salon (Silicon Archipelago) as a prequel taster to the workshop. We discussed technology futures in Southeast Asia, and the region’s potential to become a powerhouse of open, distributed computing protocol technologies, in particular distributed AI and blockchains.

Below is a video along with session slides and links shared by participants during the salon.

https://riverside.fm/shared/exported-clip/1568ac80ff925737fd20

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