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title: One year old!
tags: [Blogpost]

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tags: Blogpost
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# One year old!

One year ago the [Alkemio platform](https://alkem.io) was launched. We made available the public preview in partnership with [Digicampus](https://digicampus.tech), including an initial set of Challenges. It already feels like such a long time ago, even if only 1 year. When you are running every day it is hard to appreciate the distance that has been travelled...until you pause to look back!

Any initiative lives by the strength of the community around it. And Alkemio can count itself lucky to have a committed core team and super early partners. And special mention has to go to [Digicampus](https://digicampus.tech) who have been huge throughout for Alkemio. 

## Metrics
Comparing where we are now to a year ago is always hard: there are do many intangibles. But we can at last share some metrics, to give a flavor of the progress. 

**Community and usage**: 
* **Partners**: at launch we had one strategic partner: [Digicampus](https://digicampus.tech), but over the months since the launch we are delighted that organizations such as [UWV](https://uwv.nl), [VNG](https://vng.nl) and [Ministerie Binnenlandse Zaken](https://) from the Dutch public sector have joined as partners, working with us to guide the roadmap. And we have established partnerships outside The Netherlands, notably with [STOP THE TRAFFIK](https://stopthetraffik.org) who are using the platform to prevent human trafficing amongst Ukranian regugees.
* **Users**: obviously we started with a few users at launch, but the sign ups have continued to accelerate, with there now being 300+ users signed up.
* **Hubs**: again starting from 1 at launch, but there are currently 13 Hubs on [the platform](https://alkem.io), plus another 16 populated [demonstration Hubs](https://demo.alkem.io). 
* **Challenges**: From the initial 6 that were put up by Digicampus there are now 52 challenges. Plus more than 200 Opportunities.
* **Countries**: from an initial base in The Netherlands, we are also now also working actively with partners in Ireland and the UK.

**Alkemio platform and organization**:
* **Core team size**: The organization itself has also made big progress, welcoming **10 new core team members** since the start of 2022 alone! A jump like that, more than doubling the organization, was hugely needed as there is a lot to be done. The ambition level and the potential in the platform means that we will need to grow more near term...
* **Lines of code**: The code base has grown enormously over the past year, adding approximately 300,000 lines of code. This has nearly tripled the code base, and is a reflection of the scope the platform is supporting.  
* **Countries** - from being a core team in The Netherlands and Bulgaria, we now also have core team members in France, Japan, Serbia, Georgia and Spain. Really getting international!

Again, these metrics are a proxy for the wider progress - but hopefully they at least give an impression of what has been achieved.

## Next phase
And as we approach 1 year since the launch of the public preview, and 2 years since the foundation was established, it is clear that we are moving onto the next phase for Alkemio:
* **User centric**: We are taking big steps in making the platform more user centric, starting with the imminent [launch of a revamped home page](https://alkemio.foundation/post) and with [the Hub moving to be on the alkem.io domain](https://alkemio.foundation/post).
* **Customer success**: Usage is key: we need to work every day to deepen our collective understanding of what is needed to make our partners successful in realizing change. Their input is hugely valuable and appreciated always.
* **Communications**: We are formalizing our Manifesto. As the community around Alkemio increases in size, it is critical to have a reference written statement about what you stand for: the Manifesto. And the Manifesto is the start of a wider communications push: increasing our visibility / brand - and pushing into new areas of usage. 
* **Scaling**: As a platform play, the network effect increases the value for everyone involved. What is needed to get to 10,000 users? 100,000? 1,000,000? And scaling also means resources to scale, so we will be active over the second half of 2022 on this topic.


> "**And to be honest what we have now is still only the start!**"

It is a robust platform for managing Challenges throughout their lifecycles, and the community around the challenges at each level. But there is so much additional value in the near term roadmap: community call outs, best practices to guide collaboration, analytics to understand communities,  easy communication amongst all participants, incentives, formalizing agreements...the list goes on! 

The need and potential of Alkemio is clear: we simply need a platform for managing our Challenges. The base already established will enable us to unlock huge new areas of value for society over the coming years. Looking forward hugely to working this with everyone involved - and seeing where we are in 1, 2 and 10 years!

**Helping society work better on challenges, together.**

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<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.canva.com&#x2F;design&#x2F;DAFEaJxODSI&#x2F;view?utm_content=DAFEaJxODSI&amp;utm_campaign=designshare&amp;utm_medium=embeds&amp;utm_source=link" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ALKEMIO One Year An</a> by NEL

