Capacity Exchange/Activities
Latest News
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'Meet the Capacity Exchange' on Diff
(November, 2023)
The Capacity Exchange Project (2023-2025)
The second phase of the CapX began in June 2023. In August 2023, backend development started after careful planning. Outreach activities began in September of that year. From December 2023 to March 2024, we hosted an Outreachy Internship. In April 2024, we started the frontend implementation. And in August 2024 we presented the second phase's prototype.
June & July
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Planning and Onboarding phase
August
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Start of Technical Development
September
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Start of Community Outreach
December
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Start of Outreachy Internship
March
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End of Outreachy Internship
April
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Start of Frontend Implementation
August
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Prototype Launch at Wikimania
September & October
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Management transition
October
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Technical Development Team Growth
October & November
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Refactoring of Technical Plan
November
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Community Outreach Facilitators Onboarding
November & December
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Community Outreach and Testing Sessions
Development
Our technical plan guides our activities. The current version follows up its second and first versions, and aims to guide the second cycle of development, from the initial launch to June 2025. To ensure the project's technical sustainability, we switched the programming language to Python (using the Django framework).
At Wikimania 2024, we launched the CapX prototype (capx.toolforge.org) for user testing. The Capacity Exchange team has been working to incorporate all community feedback we received since then, and we expect to deploy a new version of it at the beginning of 2025.
Below are some project milestones for your acquaintance.
- In December 2023, we conducted focus groups to assess the CapX previous pilot and identify its gaps and strengths. Such an assessment is presently steering, in 2024, our development route.
- Also in December 2023, CapX onboarded an intern from Outreachy Round 27, within the initiative Assist Capacity Exchange Development. During the internship, we collaborated with the project Lusophone Technological Wishlist on our common effort to (re)imagine the sociotechnical infrastructure of the Wikimedia Movement from a Global South perspective. The internship ended in March 2024.
- In March 2024, we onboarded a new software developer responsible for the frontend, which started being implemented on April 2024.
- In July 2024, the CapX Working Team convened in São Paulo (Brazil) for a planning meeting. And in August, 2024, we presented capx.toolforge.org at Wikimania 2024, in Poland.
- In September 2024, we began the process of slowly transitioning Capacity Exchange's management. For two months, Andi Inácio and Amanda Jurno co-managed the project, before Andi stepped-out to pursue a PhD scholarship abroad.
- In October 2024, we concluded the process of selecting two new members of the CapX Technical Development team. We then started to onobard CapX's new front-end developer and designer UX/UI.
- Through the months of October and November 2024, the team refactored the Technical Plan, which follows up its second and first versions, and aims to guide the second cycle of the software development.
- In November and December 2024, we conducted focus groups to assess the CapX current version and identify its gaps and strengths. Currently, the team is engaged in incorporating all community feedback into a fresh version of the software.
Outreach
Outreach activities (such as community communication, strategic meetings, and focal groups), aim to consult different key stakeholders within the Wikimedia Movement. Our goal is to assess Wikimedians' needs and perspectives regarding the proposed sociotechnical solution for community capacity building based on peer learning. The ongoing consultation aims to gather feedback regarding our pilot platforms, thereby enabling us to enhance existing features and develop new ones.
Outreach facilitators promoted capacity exchange at the following events:
- WECUDI (La Plata, Argentina)
- CEE Meeting (Tbilisi, Georgia)
- WikiConvention francophone (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)
- Wiki Women Camp (New Delhi, India)
- Glam Wiki (Montevideo, Uruguay)
- Wikimedia Summit 2024 (Berlin, Germany)
- Wikimania 2024 (Katowice, Poland)
- WikiIndaba 2024, (Johannesburg, South Africa)
The Capacity Exchange Initiative (2021–2022)
The initial phase of the Capacity Exchange was led by a voluntary working group of Wikimedians, after a pitch at a Wikimedia European Affiliates meeting. This group formulated the concept, taxonomy, and pilot platform for the initiative.
The working group delivered a pilot software based on the OER World Map. The pilot was then tested by a small group of interested future users, who provided initial feedback on it.
Trans-localizing its activities, the platform care started to be transitioned to Wiki Movimento Brasil, as of November 2022. The project proposal for the new phase was then presented to the MSIG.