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Contents of the page
Project's News
The Capacity Exchange Project (2023–2025 +1)
Development
Outreach
The Capacity Exchange Initiative (2021–2022)

Project's News

The Capacity Exchange Project (2023–2025 +1)

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.

2023 / 2

June & July
―
Planning and Onboarding phase

August
―
Start of Technical Development

September
―
Start of Community Outreach

December
―
Start of Outreachy Internship


2024 / 1

March
―
End of Outreachy Internship

April
―
Start of Frontend Implementation

August
―
Prototype Launch at Wikimania


2024 / 2

September & October
―
Management transition

October
―
Technical Development Team Growth

October & November
―
Refactoring of Technical Plan

November
―
Community Outreach Facilitators Onboarding

November & December
―
Community Outreach and Testing Sessions


2025 / 1

January
―
Development of software's new version and Team Growth

February
―
Budget update; Team Growth; Launch of new versions of User and Organization profile

March
―
Launch of Software's New Version and Outreaching it

April
―
WMF agreement to integrate Let's Connect's profiles; Grant's Amendment - extra year

April & May
―
Refactoring of Outreach and Technical Plans - extra year

May
―
Completion of all planned deliveries

2025 / 2

June
―
Developing LC integration; End of cycle test and cleanup

July
―
In-person Technical meeting and next steps planning

July & August
―
Development and deployment of LC integration

September
―
Release of the Capacity Directory's translatable version; updated documentation

October
―
Let's Connect's clinics; development of new features; launch of Data Analytics page

November
―
Launch of Carousel of Suggestions feature & translation improvements

Development

Our technical plan guides our activities. The current version follows up its last versions, and aims to guide the third year of the second cycle of development, from June 2025 to June 2026. Before that, we followed the Technical Plan version 3.0, that was completed in June 2025.

At Wikimania 2024, we launched the CapX first version (capx.toolforge.org) for user testing. The Capacity Exchange team worked hard to incorporate all community feedback we received, and implemented a high-fidelity version in March 2025. Now, we are improving the available features and working to integrate it with more community activities.

Below are some project milestones for your acquaintance.

Promotional Video - Meet the Capacity Exchange
  • 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. In December, the CapX Working Team convened in São Paulo (Brazil) for a planning meeting.
Development team at the second cycle final meeting (May 2025). From left to right: on top are Victor Góis, Allan Rodrigues, Éder Porto, and Alberto Leôncio; at the bottom are Letícia Nascimento, Guilherme Gutz, and Amanda Jurno.
  • During January 2025, the development team worked non-stop to develop a full new version of the software. Another developer was brought in to help us make a great tool for the community.
  • In February 2025, we asked for a budget update that allowed us to bring along another developer and another outreach facilitator. Before that, we deployed part of the software's new version in which users can see and edit their own profiles, and the profile of the organizations they administrate.
  • In March 2025, the development team launched the software's new version. By sending emails to nearly 300 key-Wikimedians, the Outreach Facilitators collectively spread the word about it throughout the Movement. We also published a Diff and produced a unique promotional video.
  • An agreement to proceed with the integration of Let's Connect profiles and Capacity Exchange was signed in April 2025 by the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Brasil. To be able to consolidate this integration with Let's Connect, and have clarity about the project's future coordination, WMF used a grant amendment to extend the project iteration by one year. Consequently, the Capacity Exchange project will continue to be coordinated by Wikimedia Brasil until June 2026.
  • During April and May 2025, the team refactored both the Outreach Plan and the Technical Plan for the extra year to guide the activities during the next extra 12 months. The first document contains sensitive information and, therefore, is private.
  • Throughout May 2025, the Technical Plan v.3.0 final deliverables were the focus of the development team's efforts. With pride, we can say that we completed everything that was planned, leaving the code clean and open for anyone to use.
  • On the development side, the month of June 2025 was dedicated to testing and cleaning up the code. The team also worked on the integration of Let's Connect profiles, with the feature that automates the filling out of information by former members of the initiative. Additionally, we worked on organizing the project's documentation so we could publish a Diff post to communicate to the community about our efforts and achievements, and the report at the end of the Grant's second year.
  • The month of July 2025 was dedicated to organizing the development team, resolving pending issues so that the new cycle could begin smoothly and without any loose ends. At the end of the month, we held an in-person technical session where the team outlined next steps in development, and defined priorities and a work schedule for the upcoming months.
  • During July & August 2025, we continued the development and carried on the deployment of the Let's Connect profile integration, fixing several minor bugs reported by the community since the last release.
  • September 2025 was an important month for the CapX's development. Besides actively responding to feedback from LC participants and correcting some minor errors on the feature, we launched the long-awaited directly translatable version of the Capabilities Directory. With this improvment, users can easily translate the capacities and their description on MetaBase or through the Meta-Wiki translation tool. This has made it even easier to contribute to the linguistic expansion of the tool, making it even more inclusive.
  • Throughout October 2025, we began planning new features with some partners and launched the new Data Analysis page, where it is possible to browse the data from the CapX user database. We also conducted two clinic sessions with the Let's Connect team to present our partnership and the special feature we created for them within the tool.
  • In November 2025, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Volunteer Supporters Network Hub and the EduWiki Hub to formalize our partnership. We also launched a new feature called the Carousel of Suggestions, which displays possible matches on the user’s CapX homepage. We improved the ways of translating the tool and its Capacity Directory to prepare ourselves for the Translat-a-thon in partnership with the Language Diversity Hub.

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:

CapX Poster at CEE Meeting 2023

The Capacity Exchange Initiative (2021–2022)

For further information, see The Capacity Exchange initiative cXc.

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.

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