Grants:Project/MSIG/WMB/Capacity Exchange 2023-2025
wmnobrasil.org• User:CCosta (WMB)Applications are not required to be in English. Please complete the application in your preferred language.
Project Goal[edit]
What will be the outputs of your project and how will those outputs contribute to advancing a specific Movement Strategy Initiative
- What specific Movement Strategy Initiative does your project focus on and why? Please select one of the initiatives described here
The Capacity Exchange focuses on Global Approach to Local Skills Development, in particular the first two points from Recommendation 6:
- Establish a methodology that maps assets and needs and generates aggregated data for deploying skills development initiatives based on real needs.
- Establish a service that facilitates connecting/matching peers across the Movement for teaching and learning skills (e.g. peer-learning, networking, and pooling of information from partners and allies).
Capacity-building has been one of the central elements of movement strategy, and throughout the drafting, transition and implementation phases it has been prioritized repeatedly by communities and affiliates. The Capacity Exchange aims to create a centrally-designed tool that allows for decentralized capacity building.
Wiki Movimento Brasil proposes to coordinate and administer this project –with the guidance of an international Advisory Board containing affiliates and individuals. –This project relates directly to the Strategic Manifesto 2023-2025 that Wiki Movimento Brasil has published, specifically:
- "(Re)imagine the socio-technical infrastructure of the Wikimedia Movement", which leads to the following action points:
- Research and identify needs of the Wikimedia Movement that can be addressed by developing or improving tools.
- Connect social and technical resources to explore solutions that facilitate the entry and retention of new contributors and partners.
- Collaborate with the Wikimedia Movement and with external stakeholders to develop open technologies that share the strategic direction of knowledge as a service.
- "Deepen and direct networks of governance within the Wikimedia Movement", which leads to the following action points:
- Organize collective strategic processes to strengthen and expand international and thematic cooperation of Wiki Movimento Brasil.
- Cooperate with affiliates and other stakeholders in discussions and decisions about the emerging governance structures in the Wikimedia Movement.
- Identify shared challenges in the Wikimedia Movement to develop a community of mutual learning.
- What will be the outputs of your project and how will those outputs contribute to advancing a specific Movement Strategy Initiative?
The central output will be an interactive, online platform, backed by a database, that allows Wikimedians across the globe to publish information about themselves and their affiliates , conduct searches and (directly) connect to each other. This virtual connection structure can be used by the movement globally. At the same time it can be localized and adapted at the level of regional hubs or language communities.
The Capacity Exchange addresses all four points in the Initiative 32/Recommendation 6 (in cursive):
Create a systematic, global approach to skill development for local communities, their people, and their organizations. This requires us to:
- Establish a methodology that maps assets and needs and generates aggregated data for deploying skills development initiatives based on real needs.
By creating a platform which people can use to enter their assets, shareable skills as well as their needs, we develop a real-time map of capacities in the movement. Analyzing the data from that map will allow capacity building providers in the movement to address unmet needs, as well as those needs that are voiced by larger groups of Wikimedians and could be met by group learning formats rather than one-on-one, peer-to-peer support.
- Establish a service that facilitates connecting/matching peers across the Movement for teaching and learning skills (e.g. peer-learning, networking, and pooling of information from partners and allies).
Capacity Exchange's main purpose is to connect people with each other. The existing platforms (Meta-Wiki, Facebook, LinkedIn) all have limitations in terms of their ability to facilitate a safe space, respectful exchange and mutual aid among people, many of them volunteers who are working on growing their communities and their content on the Wikimedia projects. On the Capacity Exchange, people and affiliates can voluntarily offer their skills, their services, and their shareable resources. Those looking for similar resources can then search, find and connect.
- Encourage a diversity of methods, including training, mentoring, consulting, online learning, peer-to-peer support, and events.
The MS recommendation recognizes that to date in the Movement we have equated capacity building with training, and have not utilized the full set of proven practices available in this field. The Capacity Exchange responds to the largest missing item in the movement’s toolbox: peer support. Assuming that the knowledge around organizing and growing communities lies with the very people engaging in that work every day, Capacity Exchange tries to unleash the power of those people in supporting their peers in other regions and other contexts.
We assume that learning is always a multi-directional process, and that peers will learn from each other as they compare experiences, tools and ideas. The forms that peer support can take are as diverse as our communities: one-on-one quick assistance, communities of practice, long-term mentoring relationships, hands-on clinics, and other events, online and in-person.
- Create incentives for skill development (online and offline) through the recognition of skills (e.g. through open badges).
Incentives and recognition will be built during the midterm development of the program, and could parallel or be integrated with existing recognition methods on meta. Another incentive could be in the form of data on the frequency of results and number of profile visits based on user queries.
It is worth noticing that Capacity Exchange's platform is complementary to current initiatives focusing on skill development, including initiatives led by the Wikimedia Foundation (Let’s Connect, Organizer Lab, Leadership Development Working Group) and other stakeholders in the Wikimedia Movement (Volunteer Supporters Network, CALIBRA, Skill Development Needs Assessment For Arabic Wikipedia and Arabic Wikisource, Wiki Mentor Africa, Grand Tour of Wikimedia, Skills and Leadership Development Initiative for Wikifranca User group, Wikimedia Developer Portal). Though the Capacity Exchange team does not intend to do a complete mapping of capacity initiatives, it will actively coordinate with other initiatives to develop a platform that becomes a cornerstone of the movement’s capacity building infrastructure.
The Capacity Exchange platform will not address the development of a knowledge base, a major gap in the Wikimedia capacity ecosystem, and a yet unaddressed initiative from the strategy recommendations. Yet, the proposed platform might spark a growing interest in the movement to handle this gap.
The technical characteristics have not all been decided yet, as these decisions will necessarily rely on coordinating with multiple stakeholders based on the current prototype. Licensing and code will remain open. Documentation will be made systematically available on tech hubs (ie, github and/or toolhub), to be potentially replicated (as Outreach Dashboard is for example).
Project Background[edit]
- When do you intend to begin this project and when will it be completed?
The project began in 2021, when a group of mostly European-based Wikimedians began working on the concept, taxonomy and user design of a possible platform. Forked from the open source software of the now defunct OER World Map, and with the help of a software developer from WMDE, the software was adapted to the language of Wikimedians.
A small Rapid Grant from MSIG resulted in translation and first outreach and review activities, as well as a draft implementation plan that is the base for this proposal. The software is currently accessible in English, Portuguese and German, and easily adaptable to be used in additional languages.
User tests were conducted in Q3/4 2022, and some of the feedback has been incorporated. Summarizing the feedback from the user tests, we come to the following points:
- The overall conclusion was that something like the Capacity Exchange is of great added value to the Wikimedia Movement
- The platform has already been tailored to use Movement-wide terms (eg: affiliates, MediaWiki) which tie into the areas of expertise
- While finding other individuals is relatively easy, it is harder to connect with them (right now this is just a link to the person's Meta-Wiki page). It needs to be easier to connect to individuals in a safe way.
- It’s important to track the success of the connections that have been made. This is especially important for our collaboration with the “Let’s Connect” program.
- There are lots of small changes to be made on the platform which will make it more user-friendly.
In the next phase we propose to accomplish the activities described below. This phase is to be completed within 24 months. The project is expected to be launched in Q2/2023.
- Where will your project activities be happening?
The working group has grown in the meantime and includes Wikimedians from Africa and South America. The work occurs virtually across the globe. However, the program coordination will be hosted by the applicant affiliate, Wiki Movimento Brasil.
Wiki Movimento Brasil has been increasingly active in strategy-implementation projects, with funding from MSIG, including:
- a research on governance in the Portuguese-speaking community;
- a leadership training program for (and with) Brazilian Wikimedians;
- support to an investigation about the different experiences of the active women contributors on the Lusophone Wikimedia.
These projects have had a common focus around making our movement more inclusive and equitable. Wiki Movimento Brasil, with guidance from the CapX Advisory Board, will bring this focus to the development of the proposed platform for capacity building.
Wiki Movimento Brasil will provide the usual, basic overhead, such as financial and administrative support (examples: management of contracting, legal services, bookkeeping, grant compliance, tax compliance, and maintaining audited financials), and in addition will provide strategic guidance and in-depth collaboration on technical development, community growth and support of other project activities, with the guidance of the Advisory Board. Wiki Movimento Brasil will also be responsible for hiring the program manager and the software developer, setting up roles and responsibilities for these positions, with the guidance of the Advisory Board. Community outreach facilitators will be selected by the program manager, with the guidance of the Advisory Board.
- Are you collaborating with other communities or affiliates on this project? Please provide details of how partners intend to work together to achieve the project goal.
A variety of individuals, some of them from affiliates, are currently active in the CapX team, which will evolve into the Advisory Board. The composition of this group is likely to change as we add more Wikimedians from additional communities. Currently, the group has members from Wikimedia Deutschland, Wikimedia Nederland, WikiBlind, Wikimedia LGBT+, Wikimedia Community Ireland, Igbo Wikimedians User Group, Global Open Initiative and Wiki Movimento Brasil.
The governance between the project team, having Wiki Movimento Brasil as the leading organization, and the Advisory Board will be decided as an early step in this project.
The Wikimedia Foundation is also a stakeholder for this proposal in the Wikimedia Movement, though it is not the community or an affiliate. We are closely working with the WMF Community Resources Team, specifically the Let’s Connect program, which has complementary goals, and has made some great advances recently in advancing peer support as a capacity building method.
- What specific challenge will your project be aiming to solve? And what opportunities do you plan to take advantage of to solve the problem?
There are several big challenges with capacity building in the Wikimedia movement, Capacity Exchange focuses on addressing a few of them:
- Discoverability - Current resources for peer connection in the movement are frequently outdated, not well organized or findable (especially outside of the English language). Capacity Exchange will offer a living, real time database of Wikimedians willing to assist or needing guidance from other Wikimedians, using a shared in a translatable interface.
- Assessment - Many capacity-building activities conducted for Movement stakeholders have been designed without proper data input and evidence of need, informed by the priorities of the provider rather than the needs of the participants. While there have been many approaches to assessing Wikimedia affiliates’ and individuals’ capacity needs, no one approach has been sustained, nor has one been widely accepted by communities. Capacity Exchange will continue to make connections and collect data as a real-time, continuous assessment of both the needs and the assets of Wikimedians.
- Better understanding the power of peer support - Peer support is a form of capacity-building that does currently exist in the movement. However, it is not sufficiently formalized, sustained, supported, noted, documented, rewarded or evaluated. Capacity Exchange seeks to support strengthening a culture of mutual aid and to scale access to peer support activities. This will allow us to better understand the impact and the role of peer support in an ecosystem of capacity-building that includes other methods such as training, technical assistance and targeted funding.
- Sustainability - A major focus of the platform design will be to carefully include incentives for sustained community contribution and engagement, so that the investment that is made in this proposal is not limited to a one-round product but leads to an evolving community process.
- Does this project aim to apply one of the examples shared in the call for grants and if so which one?
No.
Project Activities[edit]
- What specific activities will be carried out during this project? Please describe the specific activities that will be carried out during this project.
- Establish precise roles and responsibilities for the initiative
- Hire contractors
- .66 FTE program manager
- .33 FTE x 4 community outreach facilitators
- .5 FTE software developer
- designer (on demand)
(these FTE calculations are still subject to change as we finalize the roles and responsibilities matrix and the budget)
- Establish an Advisory Board consisting of current working group members and others who may wish to join, and establish a working modus for the board and the staff.
- Develop project schedule, technical roadmap, engagement plan and risk management matrix
- Clarify data privacy, licensing and safety requirements
- Establish or deepen collaborative connections with partners in the movement working on complementary initiatives, if and as they emerge (leadership development, online courses, Let’s Connect, knowledge database, hubs, capacity-building funding)
- Continue to improve the software and the platform
- Tackle substantial challenges to deal with additional requirements such as connecting individuals and analytics
- Assure functionality for leaving and tracking needs and requests
- Assure GDPR compliance
- Make incremental changes (together with volunteers) in order to respond to feedback from users
- Explore connections to platforms maintained by other entities in the movement (such as “Meta”, “Baserow” and Wikispore.org)
- Ensure the platform receives security patches and is futureproof
More details on these issues can be found in the initial Technical Roadmap Document, to be further developed once the team is set up.
- Create translation paths for platform UI and test, translate documentation and promo materials
- Design and run consultations with the community (i.e., surveys, focus groups) on a regular basis, engage participants to update and clean their profiles
- Through the outreach facilitators conduct outreach to potential users all across the movement through
- Wikimedia conferences, regional meetings and other gatherings
- Meta, the Strategy Forum, and email lists
- social media
- podcasts
- sign-up/data entry events
- special outreach to emerging communities
- special outreach to affiliates, in particular emerging hubs
- Assure evaluation, iteration and adaptation (continuous quality improvement)
- agree on indicators
- measure
- analyze
- improve, re-assess
- Curate content and interactions to comply with the WM Safe Space policy and Universal Code of Conduct
- Determine feasibility and need for additional services, including
- navigators/help-desk/language-proxies
- capacity assessments (online?)
- event and project categories
- incentives and badges
- Determine future ‘location’ of the service, based on capacities and structure of capacity ecosystem at the end of 2024
Wiki Movimento Brasil considers FTE at 30 hours a week.
- How do you intend to keep communities updated on the progress and outcomes of the project? Please add the names or usernames of these individuals responsible for updating the community
- Establish a simple page with sections on development, deployment and other updates
- Share major updates in movement media (like Diff, Signpost, podcasts, github…)
- Establish relations with key social media account holders in the WM movement
- Localize outreach actions in each context (language, thematic and geographic community)
- Utilize platforms such as Village Pump on meta, the Movement Strategy Forum and the various mailing lists of communities to enhance our reach to as many community members as possible
- Outreach and eventually give talks about the platform on Movement events.
A thorough communications plan will be devised as part of the role of the program coordinator, as this proposal relies directly on setting up outreach strategies.
- Please add the names or usernames of these individuals responsible for updating the community
Wiki Movimento Brasil staff members or contractors, listed on this category page, with guidance from the CapX Advisory Board
- Who will be responsible for delivering on this project and what are their roles and responsibilities?
Wiki Movimento Brasil staff members or contractors, listed on this category page, with guidance from the CapX Advisory Board
Additional information[edit]
- If your activities include community discussions, what is your plan for ensuring that the conversations are productive? Provide a link to a Friendly Space Policy or UCoC that will be implemented to support these discussions.
It will be the task of the program coordinator, with support from the Communications team of Wiki Movimento Brasil and guidance from the Advisory Board, to build an engagement plan. This plan as any activity done in the context of this project will take into account Wiki Movimento Brasil's friendly space policy.
- If your activities include the use of paid online tools, please describe what tools these are and how you intend to use them.
Paid online tools will not be needed. Capacity Exchange uses open source software originally designed by OER World Map. Staff to assure development and maintenance of the software is added in the personnel section of the budget.
- Do your activities include the translation of materials, and if so, in what languages will the translation be done? Please include details of those responsible for making the translations.
We have considered translation to languages in which outreach will happen. This has been included in the budget.
- Are there any other details you would like to share? Consider providing rationale, research or community discussion outputs, and any other similar information, that will give more context on your proposed project.
A note on the long-term view of the Capacity Exchange: Many projects have been started around assessing and addressing capacity needs and assets of Wikimedia movement stakeholders over the last decade, and none of them have been sustained. The 2030 Movement Strategy recommendations for the first time attempted to create the vision of a holistic, people-centric ecosystem that allows the movement to grow, and Wikimedians to support each other while building the social fabric of the movement. Capacity Exchange is one central connecting piece of this ecosystem. It will take time to build, iterate, disseminate, populate and make its use a second nature to Wikimedians.
The now completed first phase of the project created momentum, consensus on urgencies, some funding, and resulted in a user-tested prototype. This next two-year phase requires dedicated staff to improve the product, scale the use, and situate the initiative in the movement and hopefully in the development of the capacity building ecosystem.
After these two years, the initiative will require sustained financial investment from movement funds. Where the platform will be technically housed next, depends on factors currently unknown. This decision should be made in the second year of funding, and the main criterion should be sustainability. The Exchange may continue to be located at WMB, an affiliate that is poised to take responsibility for movement infrastructure. It may also be located at a regional or thematic hub, together with a knowledge base, leadership development programs, Let’s Connect, online classes, and other related and compatible projects.
Outcomes[edit]
A detailed evaluation plan with goals, objectives and indicators will be added here.
After your activities are complete, we would like to understand the draft implementation plan for your community. You will be required to prepare a document detailing this plan around a movement strategy initiative. This report can be prepared through Meta-wiki using the Share your results button on this page. The report can be prepared in your language, and is not required to be written in English.
In this report, you will be asked to:
- Provide a link to the draft implementation plan document or Wikimedia page
- Describe what activities supported the development of the plan
- Describe how and where you have communicated your plan to relevant communities.
- Report on how your funding was spent
Your draft implementation plan document should address the following questions clearly:
- What movement strategy initiative or goal are you addressing?
- What activities will you be doing to address that initiative?
- What do you expect will happen as a result of your activities? How do those outcomes address the movement strategy initiative?
- How will you measure or evaluate your activities? What tools or methods will you use to evaluate your activities?
To create a draft implementation plan, we recommend the use of a logic model, which will help you and your team think about goals, activities, outcomes, and other factors in an organized way. Please refer the following resources to develop a logic model:
- Overview of logic models on Meta-wiki
- Example logic models for reference for other movement activities (such as partnerships and edit-a-thons)
- Blank logic model template on Google Drive
Please confirm below that you will be able to prepare a draft implementation plan document by the end of your grant:
- I confirm.
Optionally, you are welcome to include other information you'd like to share around participation and representation in your activities. Please include any additional outcomes you would like to report on below:
Budget[edit]
How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!
A detailed budget is available on this link
TOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED USD: USD 168,662.47
Completing your application[edit]
Once you have completed the application, please do the following:
- Change the application status from
status=drafttostatus=proposedin the {{Probox}} template. - Contact strategy2030
wikimedia.org to confirm your submission, as well as to request any support around your application.
Endorsements[edit]
An endorsement from community members (especially from outside your community) will be part of the considerations when reviewing your application. Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!
- Philip Kopetzky (talk) 17:10, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
- Chinmayee Mishra (talk) 09:51, 9 June 2023 (UTC)