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Update on subscriptions

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Kristina Hoeppner's profile picture
Kristina Hoeppner
Posts: 4862

17 July 2024, 21:47

Hello,

It's been a year since we officially launched the Mahara subscriptions, and on behalf of our team at Catalyst, I'd like to thank everyone who's come on board to support our community through their financial contribution in form of a subscription. Here's an overview of the impact that these subscriptions have already made.

Impact of subscriptions

  1. Long-term commitment: Your support enabled us to establish a roadmap with short, medium, and long-term goals, shared with the community for feedback. These roadmap items are now in our issue and enhancement tracker for further review.
  2. Mahara UX review: Over the past six months, our Business Analyst, Rob Hill, gathered feedback from community members, created wireframes, and conducted one-on-one interviews to identify successes and pain points. You can recap the wireframe walkthrough. We also set up a forum for detailed discussions, forming the basis for future development work with the community.
  3. Easier community involvement:
    • We consolidated our issue and enhancement tracker, code review system, and wiki into GitLab for a unified interface. Access is provided to up to five representatives per organisation. If you need more, you can reply to this email.
    • We’re developing a feature allowing administrators to send bug reports directly from their Mahara site without needing a GitLab account.
    • The Mahara forums remain publicly accessible for discussions.

  1. Regular communication: Since April 2011, we've published a quarterly newsletter and invite community members to submit article suggestions. Additionally:

    • We renamed developer meetings to 'Mahara AMA' (Ask Me Anything) to be inclusive of all community members. These monthly sessions alternate start times to accommodate different time zones and are advertised in the news forum and on our event registration page.
    • We posted short videos about new features, the roadmap, and wireframes on our YouTube channel.
    • We created a LinkedIn page to share updates, including podcast interviews with community members.
    • We set up a Mastodon account for updates in the Fediverse.
    • We publish a monthly Catalyst Mahara newsletter for frequent updates on upcoming events and Catalyst-specific news.

What's next?

In the coming year, we'll enhance Mahara usability and add innovative features for contemporary portfolio practice. Share your feedback, ideas, and code contributions. If you fix an issue or create a new feature on your local Mahara instance, we'd love to hear from you.

New subscription fees from 1 September 2024

We published new fees for a Mahara subscription that will commence on or after 1 September 2024. The current fees, published on 20 October 2023, apply to organisations that sign up for a subscription before that date.

Additionally, in recognition of early adoption and support of the Mahara project, we are holding the subscription fees at the current rate for the first renewal of a one-year subscription for organisations that have already signed up or that will start their subscription before 1 September 2024.

Connect with us at events

September 2024

  • Mahara Hui Tāmaki Makaurau (4 September): We will hold a half-day regional Mahara Hui in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to share portfolio practice in the healthcare sector and in tertiary institutions in Aotearoa New Zealand. I'll share more information shortly.

  • EPEPLA workshop (9 September): Robert Lyon, our Technical Lead, and I will participate remotely in this workshop to discuss artificial intelligence and portfolios.

  • Eportfolio Forum (10-11 September): I will participate remotely, contributing to several sessions.

October - November 2024

  • San Francisco Bay Area (14-18 October): AAEEBL is planning a meet-up with portfolio practitioners during that time. Details will be shared in time.

  • MoodleMoot Global in Mérida, México (22-24 October)

  • Europe (29 October - 26 November): Do you want to plan a half-day or one-day local or regional Mahara Hui to connect staff and portfolio practitioners? I will be travelling mainly in BeNeLux, France, Germany, and Switzerland and would love to meet up to learn from you, share what our Mahara team is working on, and discuss ideas you are passionate about in your portfolio practice.

  • Online Educa Berlin (27-29 November): This is the last chance for the year for a catch-up in the Northern hemisphere. I’ll return to late spring in Aotearoa New Zealand after that event.

Thank you

Kristina

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