Decentralised Media Knowledge Archive and Open Publishing Toolkit

# Open Grant Proposal: Decentralised Media Knowledge Archive and Open Publishing Toolkit

**Project Name:**Decentralised Media Knowledge Archive and Open Publishing Toolkit

**Proposal Category:** Integrations

**Individual or Entity Name:** Proudly Associated (Pty) Ltd, represented by founder and project lead Heath Muchena, operates Decentralised News and will be the legal entity responsible for administering the grant and delivering the project.

**Proposer:** `decentralised-news`

**Project Repo(s)** A new public repository will be created following grant approval and execution of the grant agreement, in accordance with the instruction not to begin grant-funded work before the agreement is signed.

**(Optional) Filecoin ecosystem affiliations:** None
**(Optional) Technical Sponsor:** None at the time of submission

**Do you agree to open source all work you do on behalf of this RFP under the MIT/Apache-2 dual-license?:** Yes

# Project Summary

The Decentralised Media Knowledge Archive and Open Publishing Toolkit will be an open-source, WordPress-first integration that enables independent publishers to preserve articles, research, images and publication metadata through paid, on-chain Filecoin storage. Digital publications contain valuable historical and public-interest information, yet most depend on centralized hosting, proprietary content-management systems and continued domain ownership. If a publication closes, loses its hosting or suffers database failure, years of information can disappear without a verifiable public record.

The toolkit will export eligible WordPress content into standardized preservation packages and store them using current Filecoin Onchain Cloud infrastructure. It will create public manifests connecting each original URL to its content identifier, checksum, publication history, storage status and retrieval status. The project will also include automated retrieval verification, a documented restoration workflow and a lightweight public archive explorer. This will be a Filecoin-native integration generating paid, on-chain storage activity, not an IPFS-only backup project.

Decentralised News will serve as the first production deployment, archiving at least 500 eligible articles with their associated media and metadata. The grant will produce reusable source code, data schemas, installation documentation and publisher onboarding guidance under the required MIT/Apache-2 dual licence. Other publishers will be able to deploy the integration and connect their own Filecoin storage arrangements, converting a single media archive into a repeatable public toolkit for generating durable publishing workloads and sustained Filecoin storage demand.

## Impact

Independent publishers face a preservation gap between conventional website backups and durable, independently verifiable archives. Their content is usually stored inside centralized hosting accounts and proprietary operational workflows, while adopting Filecoin directly requires technical knowledge of content packaging, storage payments, identifiers, retrieval and lifecycle monitoring. Filecoin currently lacks a simple, reusable publishing workflow that converts ordinary CMS content into paid, on-chain storage with a public record connecting the original publication to its preserved version.

Getting this right would give Filecoin a repeatable integration for a large, data-producing vertical while giving publishers a practical method of protecting public-interest information. A successful toolkit would turn continuously produced articles, images and metadata into ongoing Filecoin storage workloads rather than a one-time demonstration. If this gap is not addressed, independent publications will remain dependent on centralized infrastructure, valuable archives may disappear when organizations close or hosting fails, and Filecoin may miss an opportunity to demonstrate clear product-market fit within digital publishing and knowledge preservation.

Success will mean that the integration is deployed in production, at least 500 eligible Decentralised News articles and associated assets are placed into paid Filecoin storage, archived records can be independently verified and retrieved, and restoration from the archive is successfully tested. The project will also target onboarding at least three additional publishers or publishing projects into documented pilots. The wider impact will be an open-source reference implementation that other media organizations, researchers, civil-society groups and public-interest archives can reuse, creating a pathway from one flagship deployment to sustained Filecoin demand across the publishing ecosystem.

## Outcomes

The final outcome will be a production-tested, open-source publishing preservation toolkit that connects WordPress-based publications to paid, on-chain Filecoin storage. Decentralised News will serve as the first live deployment, ensuring the software is tested against real articles, images, metadata and publishing workflows rather than synthetic demonstration files.

Software Deliverables
1. WordPress Publishing Connector

An administrator-facing WordPress integration that can:

Select eligible posts and associated media for archiving
Export article content, title, author, publication date, modification date, categories, canonical URL and structured metadata
Package the content and media into a standardized preservation bundle
Detect whether an item is new, updated or previously archived
Prevent unnecessary duplicate storage
Display archiving status, errors and relevant storage identifiers
2. Filecoin Storage Integration

A storage pipeline using supported Filecoin Onchain Cloud tooling that can:

Submit publishing packages to paid Filecoin storage
Record the resulting content identifiers and relevant on-chain storage references
Track storage status and failed submissions
Retry interrupted or unsuccessful archival operations
Produce verifiable evidence that the production archive is using Filecoin storage rather than operating solely as an IPFS pinning service
3. Open Archive Manifest Standard

Each archived item will receive a machine-readable manifest containing:

Original publication URL
Content identifier
Content checksum
Article and media references
Publication and modification timestamps
Archive creation date
Storage status
Retrieval status
Relevant Filecoin references
Version relationship where an article has been updated

The manifest schema will be documented so other developers and publishers can reproduce or extend it.

4. Retrieval Verification System

The toolkit will perform scheduled retrieval checks and record whether archived content remains available and unchanged. Retrieved content will be checked against its original checksum, and failures will be logged for investigation.

5. Restoration Workflow

The project will include a documented method for retrieving preserved publication packages and reconstructing them into an accessible format if the original website or hosting environment becomes unavailable.

6. Public Archive Explorer

A lightweight public interface will allow users to:

Search archived publication records
Browse records by title, author, category or publication date
Resolve an original URL to its archived record
Inspect content identifiers, checksums and preservation metadata
View storage and retrieval status
Retrieve preserved resources where licensing and access permissions permit
7. Documentation and Open-Source Release

The final release will include:

Source code under the MIT/Apache-2 dual licence
Installation and configuration instructions
Filecoin storage setup guidance
Manifest and data-schema documentation
Security and privacy considerations
Troubleshooting and restoration guidance
Example integrations and test data
Contributor and maintenance documentation
Production and Adoption Outcomes

Decentralised News will onboard at least 500 eligible articles with their associated media and metadata. The project will also seek to onboard at least three external publishers or publishing projects into documented pilots. Each external pilot will install or test the toolkit and archive a representative collection of at least 10 eligible publishing records.

Success Metrics

Project success will be measured using the following metrics:

A publicly accessible and reproducible open-source software release
At least 500 Decentralised News articles archived through paid Filecoin storage
A machine-readable manifest generated for 100% of successfully archived items
At least 95% of eligible publishing packages archived successfully on the initial attempt or documented retry
Checksum verification passing for 100% of successfully retrieved test items
Scheduled retrieval testing performed on a representative sample of the archive
At least 95% successful retrieval availability during the grant’s testing period
At least three documented external publisher or publishing-project pilots
At least 30 records archived across the external pilot deployments
A completed restoration test demonstrating that archived content and media can be reconstructed independently of the original website
Public reporting of total data stored, storage expenditure, archival success rates, retrieval performance, identified failures and corrective actions
Publication of a final implementation and impact report

Success will not be measured by impressions or promotional reach alone. The primary indicators will be working software, paid on-chain storage usage, verifiable preservation, successful retrieval and evidence that publishers other than Decentralised News can deploy the integration.

## Data Onboarding

The following projections represent cumulative unique source data, excluding replication, duplicate test uploads and storage overhead:

Month 1: 50 GB
Month 3: 500 GB
Month 6: 1.5 TB
Month 12: 3 TB

The initial dataset will comprise eligible Decentralised News articles, images, thumbnails, structured publication metadata, original research datasets and DN-owned or appropriately licensed video and audio assets. No third-party copyrighted material will be copied into the archive without the necessary rights or permissions.

Month 1: 50 GB

The first month will onboard a controlled production corpus used to validate content packaging, paid storage submission, manifest generation, checksum verification and retrieval. This phase will include an initial selection of Decentralised News articles and media assets, alongside non-sensitive test data.

Month 3: 500 GB

By Month 3, the production deployment will include at least 500 eligible Decentralised News articles and associated images, metadata, research files and selected DN-owned multimedia assets. Each successfully archived package will have a corresponding public manifest and verifiable Filecoin storage reference.

Month 6: 1.5 TB

Growth will come from continued archival of new Decentralised News material, expansion of the eligible multimedia archive and at least three external publishing pilots. Participating publishers will connect their own eligible content collections and test the same preservation and retrieval workflow.

Month 12: 3 TB

The twelve-month target assumes continued automated ingestion from Decentralised News, ongoing publisher participation and expansion to additional eligible publishing collections. The WordPress integration will allow new and updated content to be identified and archived without rebuilding the entire dataset.

Data-onboarding progress will be measured using:

Unique data volume stored
Number of publication records archived
Number of media assets preserved
Paid on-chain storage activity
Successful storage submissions
Public manifests generated
Retrieval success rates
Checksum verification results
Number of participating publishers
Storage expenditure and cost per gigabyte

Initial storage arrangements will be configured for a minimum twelve-month preservation period where supported. The project’s sustainability model is designed so that Decentralised News and participating publishers can continue paying for their own storage and renewals after the grant-funded implementation period.

## Adoption, Reach, and Growth Strategies

The primary users are independent digital publishers that need durable, verifiable preservation but do not have specialist Filecoin engineering capabilities. Initial target segments include crypto and Web3 publications, regional news organizations, independent journalism projects, research publishers, nonprofit media organizations and public-interest archives operating WordPress websites.

WordPress powers more than 43% of websites globally, so the long-term addressable market is substantial. Our initial serviceable audience will be a focused cohort of 100 publishers whose content has clear preservation value and who can realistically adopt an open-source Filecoin integration. A secondary audience consists of readers, researchers, journalists and archivists who need to discover, retrieve or verify preserved publication records.

Decentralised News currently engages these audiences through its publishing, research, video and community network, which spans more than 30 digital surfaces.

Publisher Onboarding Strategy

A publisher will be considered successfully activated when it has:

Installed or deployed the toolkit
Configured a paid Filecoin storage connection
Archived at least one eligible publication package
Generated a valid public manifest
Successfully retrieved and checksum-verified the archived package

This definition ensures adoption is measured through functioning Filecoin usage rather than website visits, downloads or expressions of interest.

First 10 Publishers

Decentralised News will be the first production user and reference deployment. The next nine publishers will be recruited through targeted outreach to existing media, content, technology and Web3 relationships.

Early adopters will receive:

A direct product demonstration
Technical readiness assessment
Assisted installation and configuration
Guidance on selecting eligible content
Help completing their first paid storage submission
Retrieval and restoration testing
A structured feedback session
Inclusion in anonymized implementation findings where appropriate

The objective of the first cohort is to identify installation friction, documentation gaps, unexpected WordPress configurations and publisher-specific requirements before broader distribution.

At least three external publishing projects will complete documented pilots during the grant delivery period. The remaining first-cohort onboarding will continue as the toolkit stabilizes.

First 100 Publishers

Growth from 10 to 100 publishers will use a repeatable self-service and community-led model:

Publication of the plugin through appropriate WordPress distribution channels
Public GitHub repository with installation and troubleshooting documentation
Step-by-step written and video implementation tutorials
A public case study based on the Decentralised News deployment
Demonstrations showing archival, verification, retrieval and restoration
Outreach to independent publishing, journalism, nonprofit, Web3 and research communities
Engagement through relevant Filecoin developer and ecosystem channels
Publisher referral and contributor pathways
Reusable onboarding templates for hosting providers, agencies and technical consultants

The toolkit will remain free and open source. Publishers will connect and pay for their own Filecoin storage, allowing growth to generate independent paid network demand rather than requiring continued grant subsidies for every deployment.

Reader Reach and Awareness

Decentralised News will use its existing publishing, video, social and community network to explain why verifiable preservation matters and demonstrate how archived records can be inspected and retrieved.

Grant-funded communications will include:

A public launch announcement
A publisher implementation guide
A nontechnical guide to decentralized media preservation
Technical walkthroughs for developers and website administrators
Video demonstrations
Progress and impact reports
Outreach to relevant media and preservation communities

Grant-funded materials will not contain affiliate links or paid provider placement.

Growth and Adoption Metrics

Adoption will be measured through:

Number of qualified publisher leads
Product demonstrations completed
Plugin or repository installations
Publishers completing configuration
Publishers completing their first paid Filecoin archive
Publishers completing successful retrieval verification
Active publishers after 30 and 90 days
Number of publication records archived
Unique data volume stored
Paid on-chain storage activity generated
Retrieval success rate
Publisher satisfaction and implementation feedback
Documentation issues identified and resolved

The grant-period target is one full Decentralised News production deployment and at least three external publisher pilots. The twelve-month growth target is 100 publishers that have completed at least one verified archival workflow, with retention measured by continued archiving, storage renewal or successful scheduled retrieval after initial onboarding.

## Development Roadmap

The proposed development period is 2 November 2026 to 30 April 2027, followed by a 90-day corrective-maintenance period. These dates assume the grant agreement is signed by 30 October 2026. If contracting concludes later, the milestones will retain the same durations and move forward accordingly.

The three-person core team will consist of:

Project Lead and Publishing Product Owner: Product scope, publishing requirements, data governance, acceptance testing, publisher recruitment and reporting.
Lead Full-Stack/Filecoin Engineer: Architecture, WordPress development, Filecoin integration, storage workflows, retrieval and testing.
UX, QA and Documentation Specialist: Interface design, device testing, documentation, publisher onboarding and quality assurance.

MILESTONE 1: ARCHITECTURE, DATA STANDARD AND FILECOIN PROOF OF CONCEPT

Dates: 2 November to 27 November 2026

Duration: 4 weeks

Team: 2 people

Funding: US$6,000

This milestone will establish the technical and governance foundation. The team will map WordPress content structures to standardized preservation packages, define the archive manifest and establish how storage, payment, retrieval and version information will be recorded.

A limited proof of concept will test the complete workflow using eligible Decentralised News content. The test will export WordPress content, package it with associated media, submit it through a supported paid Filecoin storage workflow, record the resulting identifiers and retrieve the stored package for checksum verification.

Functionality and deliverables:

Public project repository under the MIT/Apache-2 dual licence.
Technical architecture and data-flow specification.
WordPress content and metadata mapping.
Version 1 of the archive manifest schema.
Content packaging and checksum method.
Documented Filecoin Onchain Cloud storage approach.
At least one successful paid storage, retrieval and verification workflow.
At least 25 publication records and selected media assets processed.
Initial data onboarding targeting 50 GB.
Documented security, privacy, licensing and content-eligibility rules.
Development, testing and reporting environments.

Acceptance criteria:

A preservation package can be produced from WordPress content and stored through Filecoin.
The stored package can be retrieved independently.
The retrieved package matches its original checksum.
The manifest links the original publication to its preserved version and Filecoin references.
The architecture, schema and proof-of-concept results are publicly documented.

Use of funds:

System architecture, Filecoin integration research, WordPress data mapping, manifest design, proof-of-concept engineering, initial storage expenditure and technical documentation.

MILESTONE 2: WORDPRESS CONNECTOR AND PAID STORAGE BETA

Dates: 30 November 2026 to 29 January 2027

Duration: 9 weeks

Team: 3 people

Funding: US$12,000

This milestone will convert the proof of concept into a functional WordPress administrator tool. Publishers will be able to select eligible content, create preservation packages, submit them to Filecoin storage and review the resulting status and identifiers without manually constructing storage requests.

The beta will support new and updated content while preventing unnecessary duplicate submissions. Failed archival attempts will produce actionable error messages and may be retried from the administrator interface.

Functionality and deliverables:

Installable WordPress beta.
Administrator configuration interface.
Individual and batch content selection.
Export of article text, titles, authors, dates, categories, canonical URLs and structured metadata.
Packaging of associated images and eligible media.
Content-checksum generation.
Detection of new, modified and previously archived content.
Paid Filecoin storage submission.
Recording of content identifiers and relevant on-chain references.
Archive-status and error reporting.
Retry workflow for failed submissions.
Version relationships for updated articles.
Machine-readable archive manifests.
Public beta documentation.
Functional, integration and failure-condition testing.

Production targets:

At least 300 eligible Decentralised News publication records and associated media processed.
Cumulative data onboarding targeting 500 GB.
At least 40 documented functional and integration tests.
No unresolved critical defects affecting storage submission, identifier recording or checksum generation.

Acceptance criteria:

A WordPress administrator can archive content without manually constructing Filecoin storage calls.
New, updated and previously archived items are identified correctly.
Every successful archive produces a valid manifest.
Failed jobs are logged and can be retried.
The beta source code and documentation are publicly available.

Use of funds:

WordPress plugin development, Filecoin integration, administrator interface design, data packaging, version control, error handling, testing, documentation and production storage costs.

MILESTONE 3: ARCHIVE EXPLORER, RETRIEVAL MONITORING AND PRODUCTION DEPLOYMENT

Dates: 1 February to 12 March 2027

Duration: 6 weeks

Team: 3 people

Funding: US$7,000

This milestone will add the public verification, retrieval and restoration functions that distinguish the toolkit from a conventional backup plugin. It will also complete the first production deployment on Decentralised News.

Functionality and deliverables:

Public archive explorer.
Search by title, author, category, date, original URL or content identifier.
Public display of checksums and preservation metadata.
Scheduled retrieval checks.
Retrieval-status history and failure logging.
Checksum validation of retrieved packages.
Administrator alerts for failed retrieval tests.
Documented content-restoration workflow.
Export or reconstruction of archived content into an accessible format.
Production deployment on Decentralised News.
Initial external publisher pilot.

Production targets:

At least 500 eligible Decentralised News articles archived.
A manifest generated for every successfully archived item.
At least 95% archival success on initial submission or documented retry.
At least 95% retrieval availability during testing.
100% checksum agreement for successfully retrieved test items.
One successful restoration exercise completed independently of the primary website.
At least one external publisher completing a test deployment.

Acceptance criteria:

A reader can resolve an original URL to its archive record.
Archived packages can be retrieved and checksum-verified.
Retrieval tests run on a documented schedule.
Selected content can be restored independently of the primary website.
The Decentralised News production archive is publicly verifiable.
Known limitations and non-critical issues are documented.

Use of funds:

Archive-explorer development, search and metadata interface, retrieval monitoring, restoration tooling, production deployment, quality assurance, accessibility testing and initial publisher onboarding.

MILESTONE 4: EXTERNAL ADOPTION, DOCUMENTATION AND FINAL RELEASE

Dates: 15 March to 30 April 2027

Duration: 7 weeks

Team: 3 people

Funding: US$5,000

This milestone will validate that the toolkit can be used outside Decentralised News. The team will onboard external publisher pilots, improve the installation experience, finalize documentation and release version 1.0.

Functionality and deliverables:

At least three external publishers or publishing projects completing documented pilots.
At least 10 eligible records archived by each external pilot.
Installation and configuration guide.
Filecoin storage and payment setup guide.
Publisher content-selection and licensing guide.
Retrieval and disaster-restoration guide.
Troubleshooting documentation.
Technical contributor documentation.
Public implementation case study.
Demonstration video and publisher walkthrough.
Version 1.0 tagged in the public repository.
Submission to an appropriate WordPress plugin-distribution channel.
Final impact and expenditure report.
Cumulative data onboarding targeting 1.5 TB by the end of Month 6.

Acceptance criteria:

Three external pilots complete a paid storage and verified retrieval workflow.
Pilot feedback and implementation issues are documented.
Critical pilot-blocking defects are corrected.
A new publisher can follow the documentation without direct involvement from the lead engineer.
All promised code, schemas, documentation and reports are publicly available.
Final reporting includes storage volume, paid on-chain activity, archival success, retrieval performance, costs, failures and corrective actions.

Use of funds:

External publisher onboarding, documentation, technical support, adoption materials, final quality assurance, release management, impact measurement and grant reporting.

FUNDING SUMMARY

Milestone 1: US$6,000

Milestone 2: US$12,000

Milestone 3: US$7,000

Milestone 4: US$5,000

Total funding requested: US$30,000

POST-GRANT MAINTENANCE

From 1 May to 30 July 2027, the team will provide 90 days of corrective maintenance at no additional grant cost. This will cover critical defects, broken storage or retrieval integrations, manifest errors and material documentation corrections.

After the grant period, Decentralised News will continue operating its archive and paying for its own storage. Participating publishers will fund their respective storage arrangements. The post-grant target is to expand cumulative unique data onboarding from 1.5 TB at Month 6 to 3 TB by Month 12.

## Total Budget Requested

Total Budget Requested: US$30,000

Milestone 1: Architecture and Filecoin Proof of Concept

Completion date: 27 November 2026
Funding: US$6,000

Deliverables: Public repository, technical architecture, archive manifest, WordPress content mapping, paid Filecoin storage proof of concept, retrieval testing and checksum verification.

Milestone 2: WordPress Connector and Paid Storage Beta

Completion date: 29 January 2027
Funding: US$12,000

Deliverables: Installable WordPress beta, content and media packaging, paid Filecoin storage submission, status tracking, error handling, versioning, public documentation and 500 GB cumulative data onboarding.

Milestone 3: Archive Explorer and Production Deployment

Completion date: 12 March 2027
Funding: US$7,000

Deliverables: Public archive explorer, retrieval monitoring, checksum validation, restoration workflow, at least 500 Decentralised News articles archived and the first external publisher pilot.

Milestone 4: External Adoption and Final Release

Completion date: 30 April 2027
Funding: US$5,000

Deliverables: Three external publisher pilots, complete installation and retrieval documentation, version 1.0 release, public case study, final impact report and 1.5 TB cumulative data onboarding.

## Maintenance and Upgrade Plans

Decentralised News will maintain the toolkit because it will remain part of our own production publishing and archival infrastructure after the grant period. We will continue funding the storage of Decentralised News content on Filecoin and operating the archive, retrieval monitor, and restoration workflow.

The project will include a 90-day corrective maintenance period from 1 May to 30 July 2027 at no additional grant cost. During this period, we will address critical defects, integration failures, manifest errors, documentation problems, and compatibility issues affecting the supported WordPress and Filecoin Onchain Cloud workflows.

After this period, we plan to:

Maintain the public source-code repository and issue tracker
Review and respond to security and reliability issues
Publish documented software releases using semantic versioning
Monitor compatibility with supported WordPress versions and Filecoin services
Maintain deployment, recovery, and publisher onboarding documentation
Review community contributions and improvement requests
Continue scheduled retrieval testing on the Decentralised News archive

Each participating publisher will retain control of its data and will be responsible for its own ongoing Filecoin storage costs. This avoids dependence on Decentralised News as a permanent storage intermediary and allows publishers to continue using or adapting the open-source toolkit independently.

Future upgrades will be prioritized using evidence from the Decentralised News deployment, external publisher pilots, GitHub issues, and community feedback. Potential improvements include WordPress multisite support, additional CMS integrations, command-line and API interfaces, richer content-versioning controls, multilingual documentation, and improved archive analytics. These are longer-term roadmap items rather than commitments under the initial grant.

The core toolkit and all grant-funded outputs will remain free and open source. If publisher demand develops, optional implementation, customization, or technical-support services may help fund continued maintenance without restricting self-hosting, creating vendor lock-in, or placing essential functionality behind a paid service.

# Team

## Team Members

Gomez Walumbe
Akankwasa Devis

## Team Member LinkedIn Profiles

https://www.linkedin.com/in/heath-muchena/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chisomo-wisiki/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gomezgani-walumbe-430586248/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/akankwasa-devis-85b3b321b/

## Team Website

https://decentralised.news/
https://decentralised.news/about

## Relevant Experience

Our team combines blockchain publishing, production content operations, full-stack software development, data infrastructure, systems security, project administration, and open-source documentation. This combination is directly relevant because the proposed project is not only a storage integration. It must work within a real publishing environment, preserve structured editorial content, interact reliably with Filecoin services, provide public verification tools, and remain usable by publishers without specialist blockchain knowledge.

Decentralised News provides the project with an existing production environment and a substantial archive of blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, AI, and financial-technology content. The team already manages the publication, updating, distribution, and long-term organization of this material across websites, video channels, social platforms, and community surfaces. This gives us direct knowledge of the problems publishers face when content is altered, lost, removed, migrated, or trapped within centralized platforms.

Our developers bring experience in software engineering, full-stack application development, API integrations, automation, data systems, and security-aware system design. These capabilities will be applied to the WordPress integration, Filecoin storage pipeline, content packaging, manifest generation, archive registry, retrieval monitoring, public explorer, and restoration workflow.

Our strongest advantage is that we are building for a real operational need rather than creating a speculative demonstration. Decentralised News will be the first production user, provide at least 500 eligible articles for the pilot, test the system through normal publishing workflows, fund its own ongoing storage, and continue operating the archive after the grant period. The resulting software will then be documented and released as an open-source toolkit that other publishers can install, test, and improve.

We do not claim that the team has already completed an identical Filecoin publishing system. The grant enables us to combine our existing publishing, software, data, and blockchain experience to build one through a clearly defined architecture, implementation, testing, and production deployment process. Filecoin-specific technical decisions will be validated against current ecosystem documentation and tested during the architecture milestone before full-scale onboarding begins.

Team Members
Team Member 1: Heath Muchena, Project Lead

Profile: https://linktr.ee/heathmuchena

Heath Muchena is the founder and publisher of Decentralised News and an author focused on blockchain, decentralized finance, tokenization, artificial intelligence, and emerging technology. His work includes operating digital publishing platforms, producing blockchain research and education, developing digital products, managing distributed contributors, and translating complex technologies into practical resources for broader audiences.

For this project, Heath will serve as project lead and product owner. His responsibilities will include defining publisher requirements, coordinating the team, managing the grant and milestone reporting, selecting the initial Decentralised News archive, validating the WordPress editorial workflow, overseeing external publisher engagement, and ensuring that the final toolkit addresses genuine publishing and preservation needs.

Team Member 2: Chisomo Wisiki, Software Developer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chisomo-wisiki/

GitHub: https://github.com/chisomowisck

Chisomo Wisiki is a software engineer with experience in software development and system implementation. His public GitHub profile provides a reference point for his development work and technical activity.

For this project, Chisomo’s primary responsibilities will include backend development, WordPress integration, Filecoin API or SDK integration, archive job processing, manifest generation, content verification, error handling, automated testing, and deployment support. He will also contribute to technical documentation and the preparation of the public open-source repository.

Team Member 3: Gomezgani Walumbe, Full-Stack Developer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gomezgani-walumbe-430586248/

Gomezgani Walumbe is a full-stack developer with experience spanning application development, data infrastructure, automation, artificial intelligence systems, and security-related technical work.

For this project, Gomezgani will focus on the public archive explorer, administrative interfaces, retrieval-monitoring dashboard, frontend and backend integration, data handling, deployment workflows, and system-security considerations. He will also help test the restoration process and ensure that the public interface remains accessible, responsive, and understandable to non-technical users.

Team Member 4: Akankwasa Devis, Administration and Documentation

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akankwasa-devis-85b3b321b/

Akankwasa Devis has a legal and administrative background, alongside experience connected to NGO leadership and crypto and Web3 media.

For this project, Devis will support administration, documentation, milestone tracking, meeting coordination, publisher onboarding records, community communication, licence and attribution checks, grant reporting, and the organization of testing feedback. This role will help ensure that technical work is properly documented and that deliverables, decisions, risks, and expenditure records remain organized throughout the project.

Together, the team covers the four capabilities the project requires: publisher and product leadership, backend and integration development, full-stack application delivery, and operational administration. Decentralised News also provides an immediate production deployment environment, a substantial content archive, established distribution channels, and a long-term incentive to maintain the software after grant completion.

## Team code repositories

Technical Lead: Chisomo Wisiki https://github.com/chisomowisck

We learned about the Filecoin Open Grants Program while researching active ecosystem funding opportunities for open-source infrastructure, public goods, decentralized publishing, and blockchain-based data preservation.

Best email address for the grant agreement and general next steps:

EMAIL ADDRESS: press@decentralised.news

Decentralised News will serve as the first production user of the toolkit, giving the project an immediate real-world testing environment and an initial archive of at least 500 eligible articles and associated assets. This means the grant will support a working deployment rather than a standalone proof of concept with no committed user.

All grant-funded software, technical documentation, manifest specifications, deployment instructions, and publisher onboarding resources will be released publicly under the proposed open-source licence. Decentralised News will pay for its own ongoing Filecoin storage after the grant. External publishers will retain control of their data and storage arrangements, helping to prevent vendor lock-in or long-term dependence on our organization.

We are comfortable with milestone-based funding and transparent progress reporting. Where practical, milestone evidence will include public source-code releases, demonstrations, archived content identifiers, retrieval-test results, documentation, and deployment records. The project also includes a 90-day corrective maintenance period following final delivery at no additional grant cost.

We welcome technical feedback from the Filecoin community, particularly concerning storage architecture, retrieval reliability, data-verification standards, and compatibility with current Filecoin services. We are prepared to adjust implementation details during the architecture milestone if a more reliable or ecosystem-aligned technical approach is recommended.

Additional team profiles, technical documentation, repository links, budget information, or organizational details can be provided upon request. We would also be happy to participate in a technical review or community discussion before the proposal proceeds to final approval.

The proposal describes a future repository rather than naming existing files, tests, or entry points. Start by reviewing the planned WordPress connector, Filecoin storage pipeline, manifest schema, retrieval verification, and archive explorer requirements; completion would require the production-tested toolkit and the listed storage, retrieval, restoration, documentation, and pilot outcomes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.