Wikimedia Brasil/Report/2025/Learning/EduWiki Hub/en

Second semester (English version)

Launching the Team

Introduction

The EduWiki Hub is an innovative pilot project funded by Wikimedia Foundation and led by a dedicated team of five members from the global Wikimedia community under the fiscal sponsorship of Wikimedia Brazil. The Hub seeks to promote capacity building within the Wikimedia context, increasing access to open education resources while supporting the strategic objectives and planning of WMB.

Over the course of six months, actions were developed to build capacities within the Wikimedia community, with the support of an Advisory Committee and Working Groups (WGs) that will assist in the Hub’s decision-making. The team dedicated to the EduWiki Hub was structured to supervise and support the WGs involved in the project, considering administrative, communication, technical, and design development needs, in addition to project management.

This case study relates to axes 3 and 4 of the 2023–2025 Strategy “Fostering and diversifying partnerships for free knowledge in Brazil” and “Promoting knowledge equity,” as the project works to develop international education networks that promote open educational resources on a global scale.

Questions

How can global projects strengthen the impact of Wikimedia initiatives by developing partnerships, capacities, and events that connect and empower the community for educational impact?
What is the importance of considering diverse contexts and realities when designing and implementing projects—especially at a global level?

Context

The EduWiki Hub pilot project emerged from improvement needs identified by the EduWiki User Group. Created in 2018, the group develops actions to facilitate, support, and mobilize educational initiatives within the Wikimedia movement, its projects, and among other actors and educational spaces connected to open education and knowledge. However, its work faced challenges such as differing time zones among coordinators, programmatic isolation within internal volunteer structures, and limited scalability of tools used to support local educational work.

Thus, between 2023 and 2024, 52 leaders worked on developing a Theory of Change that considered an ecosystem tailored to the group’s profiles and needs—an inclusive, service-centered ecosystem capable of strengthening networks, scaling tools, and influencing education policies.

Ultimately, the Hub was established following a meeting held in April 2025, during which 46 educators and affiliate leaders committed to implementing the pilot project with a dedicated team.

Operationalization

With institutional and financial support from Wikimedia Brazil, the project was launched in August 2025, and since then, five professionals have been hired:

Bukola James, Coordinator - responsible for coordinating activities, supervising and supporting the Working Groups and executing implementation plans;
Barakat Adegboye, Communication Assistant - responsible for communication and the reach of newsletters, social media, and events;
Rhoda Jame, Graphic Designer - responsible for the distinctive and high-impact visual resources that support the EduWiki Hub's campaigns, events, and training materials;
Rita Maliqi, Administrative Assistant - responsible for preparing logistics, documentation, and reports to ensure that services are delivered effectively;
José Camejo, Senior Software Developer - responsible for managing technical priorities, such as dashboards and repositories.

The Hub also includes an Advisory Committee, comprised of members from the EduWiki User Group Council, responsible for overseeing the EduWiki Hub to ensure strategic alignment and governance. There are also four geographically diverse thematic Working Groups that support the project’s strategy by gathering regional input and coordinating activities with the Council and Hub team. These groups comprise affiliate education staff, volunteer educators, and Wikimedia community members from around the world. The themes include: Outreach, Open Educational Resources (OER) Curation, Technical Infrastructure, and Capacity Building.

As mentioned earlier, the Hub idea emerged from an online meeting (“The Future of EduWiki”) aimed at outlining strategies for continuity and sustainability of the group, leading to the creation of the EduWiki Hub. From that point, the group was responsible for finalizing the Hub model, considering Wikimedia Brasil’s support, and defining the WGs.

For the development of the project, the following metrics were considered:

Hiring five people for the Hub's core team;
Formation of four Working Groups with advisory members of 5-8 each from diverse backgrounds;
Holding seven bimonthly workshops;
Holding seven knowledge-sharing events by 2027;
Launching a mentoring program with 10 mentor-mentee pairs within 18 months;
Consolidation of six partnerships;
Launch of monthly newsletters with an increasingly focused contribution;
Development of a global and Open Directory of Open Educational Resources.

Thus, the Hub’s structure enables the development of an ecosystem of affiliates, educational organizations, universities, nonprofit organizations, partners, and global volunteer communities.

Results

In August 2025, hiring for coordination and communications support positions was completed, and the Hub was launched and presented by Bukola James atWikimania 2025 in Nairóbi, Kenya. The project was featured in the panel “The Future of Hubs in Wikimedia Context,” where the coordinator discussed the transition from the EduWiki User Group to a Hub structure and the importance of the project for expanding and sustaining Wikimedia’s global educational impact.

In September, the 1st EduWiki Knowledge Showcase took place, hiring efforts continued, and the WGs received 130 applications from the eight regions recognized within the EduWiki movement. That month, the Hub team also advanced discussions on a partnership with the Capacity Exchange.

In October, a community capacity-building workshop titled “Children & Wikis” was held with 51 participants and facilitated by a consultant from the EduWiki User Group. In November, the Hub was presented at GLAMWiki 2025 (Portugal), at Wiki Indaba (Tanzania), and at WECUDI2025 (Mexico).

In November, the composition of the WGs was finalized with 23 members. The mentorship program received 63 applications, with 4 mentors and 10 mentees selected and initiated to begin their activities. The Hub team also completed updates to the Wikimedia Education website design and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Capacity Exchange team.

Regarding communication metrics, the team actively maintains its social media channels. It has produced regular newsletters: 18 in August, 14 in September, 11 in October, and 19 in November, which were also published in local languages, such as Bahasa Indonesia, English and Arabic.

Overall, the results show that the project is progressing on schedule, validating the team’s capacity-building and execution goals and highlighting the project’s potential for global engagement.

Analysis

The project coordinator noted that community feedback highlighted the need for multilingual support across all Hub activities. As a result, the team encourages submissions of newsletters in English or any other language, relying on the Wikimedia community support for translations. The EduWiki Hub team is exploring options to establish strong translation and interpretation support in 2026.

During the second half of 2025, the team identified the need to pause some activities—such as WG selections and mentorship calls—to update objectives and project scope, enabling clearer definitions of roles and responsibilities for both the team and the community.

The coordinator also considers the high number of WG and mentorship applications an indication of the Hub’s potential for transformation and impact, as well as the importance of selection criteria that consider experience and representation.

The team also recognized the importance of flexible planning and timelines that take into account community contexts, needs, and feedback.

Overall, this case study demonstrates success in hiring key roles, forming the advisory committee, and executing programs and community engagement strategies. These achievements highlight the impact that global partnership models can have on the Wikimedia movement, especially in education.

Remaining challenges include linguistic diversity, which may hinder full community engagement, and the need to establish expectations to prevent work overload through clear workloads and documented processes. Operational delays highlighted the importance of contextualized planning and anticipating bureaucratic requirements.

Guidance

The EduWiki Hub experience highlights the potential for replicating the project model in other initiatives, broadening impact across the Wikimedia ecosystem. The project coordinator suggests that the team and advisory structure could be adapted for other affiliates or User Groups, such as GLAM, Climate, Gender, or Indigenous Knowledge Hubs.

The mentorship program, OER curation, workshops, and online presentations illustrate potential pathways to strengthen peer learning and maintain global community engagement.

To address language diversity challenges, open communication within the team is essential to finding solutions, such as hiring interpreters for Hub activities, involving WG members in translation tasks, and conducting targeted outreach in underrepresented regions.

Legacy

In six months, the EduWiki Hub has already increased global visibility of Wikimedia educational initiatives and strengthened community engagement across diverse contexts. The Hub supports the strategic vision and impact of Wikimedia Brasil, expanding partnerships and developing actions and learnings that value underrepresented knowledge.

The actions described in this case study can be replicated in other communities and contexts to promote global connection and impact.

Finally, this case may be of interest to members of the Advisory Committee and WGs, Wikimedian community members, partners, education professionals, and Wikimedia Brasil as the project’s funder and supporter.

Bibliographical References