Who are the BeefLegends?

BeefLegends, as part of Project Demos, was designed around what our doctoral researcher Jock McQueenie has described as the “3Cs”, where commerce, community and creative intertwine to create new models of value creation and transfer.

It is focused on the interaction of the blockchain and the digital realm with what happens ‘on the ground’ amongst people and with people, it’s aim is to:

• Help communicate Beefledger and engage the community of production

• Build capacity in the community of production

• Develop content in various forms that connects the two ends of the supply chain

What initiatives have been undertaken to date?

Iteration 1:

Our first iteration was to explore the role of digital creative capacity and narrative building from the point of view of the producer community. Here, we worked closely with students from Mt Gambier High in South Australia’s Limestone Coast. A project was designed through which students created digital content “telling the story” of locally produced beef (from Blue Lake Station), and the stories of those involved in the production. With the support of creative digital professionals, a video was produced incorporating the narrative structure developed by the students.

Iteration 2:

The video was incorporated into BeefLedger’s research and development activities in the China market. Here, consumers and other buyers were able to scan the BeefLedger Smart Fingerprint (powered by Laava) and access a range of data about the product. Some of this data was authenticated on the BeefLedger Proof of Authority Network. Amongst the data, a short video could be directly viewed from the smartphone.

Iteration 3:

So far, this work has been largely “one directional”. In the course of the research collaboration with QUT, we have also explored more complex “value loops” where consumers are prosumerised as creators of digital content value themselves. New iterations of two-way engagement and communications between producer and consumer communities has thus begun to unfold. This is nascent work at the moment, and COVID19 has been disruptive to progressing the interactions. However, there’s been little doubt that we have been breaking new ground in ways in which digital narratives operate as a ‘data glue’ that enables the flow of information value throughout a supply chain ecosystem.