A new format sparked curiosity at Wikimania 2026: the Team Challenges, a new pre-hackathon initiative designed to bring together people with different skills, experiences, interests, and both technical and non-technical backgrounds to collaborate around a shared challenge: creating and improving tools within the Wikimedia ecosystem in order to co-design the tools that diverse communities need.

As a pilot experience, this space explored new ways of building knowledge within the Wikimedia movement. More than a competition, it became a collaborative laboratory where diversity of perspectives was the main resource for developing new ideas.

It was in this context that Team 09S – Amériques was formed, bringing together participants from different countries who spent two intensive days working collaboratively on a proposal centered on the use and reuse of Wikidata queries through the Query Reuser tool.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the experience was that many team members had only ever met online. Some had never worked together before and came from very different Wikimedia communities. Yet that diversity ultimately became one of the team’s greatest strengths.

Different Experiences Create Better Ideas

Each participant arrived with different interests, skills, and backgrounds. Some had extensive experience developing tools; others had deep knowledge of Wikidata, programming, or translation. Some worked in cultural heritage, historical memory, environmental initiatives, or Indigenous languages, while others were participating in this type of collaborative space for the very first time.

One of the most rewarding aspects of the experience was seeing that these differences did not hinder collaboration. Instead, they expanded the possibilities for finding new solutions.

Conversations developed through active listening, the exchange of perspectives, and genuine curiosity about how each person’s experience could contribute to the shared challenge.

Activating Collective Knowledge

One of the greatest lessons from the experience was realizing that knowledge does not reside solely in tools or technical expertise. Its real value emerged when ideas began to connect.

A question raised from the perspective of one community found answers in the experience of another. A concern related to cultural heritage could be complemented by expertise in open data. A need connected to biodiversity revealed new possibilities within Wikidata. Gradually, the challenge stopped belonging to individuals and became a collective construction.

It became an exercise in co-creation where every contribution opened the door to new possibilities.

From Local Interests to a Shared Vision

Although participants approached the challenge from different perspectives, common themes quickly emerged: historical memory, history, cultural heritage, the environment, and the public domain.

These topics, deeply relevant across Latin America, began to stand out as priority areas where tools such as Query Reuser could enable new ways to reuse information, discover data, and strengthen Wikimedia projects. Rather than solving a single problem, the team started imagining possibilities that could benefit many different communities.

 Learning Through Diversity

Another especially valuable aspect of this gathering was seeing people with different levels of Wikimedia experience collaborate as equals.

For example, participants who were relatively new to the Wikimedia ecosystem brought questions that longtime contributors often no longer think to ask.

Likewise, more experienced Wikimedians helped broaden the discussion to an international perspective, demonstrating how an idea developed in Latin America could address needs shared by communities across the movement and in many different linguistic contexts.

Each contribution expanded the conversation. Diversity became more than a characteristic of the group, it became the driving force behind the creative process.

More Than a Product, an Experience

By the end of the sessions, the outcome was not just a technical proposal. It was also a network of people who now share common interests, new knowledge, and future opportunities for collaboration.

The ideas developed during these two days represent only a starting point, a prototype. Many are still in their early stages and will continue to grow through future conversations, partnerships, and community contributions.

Perhaps that is the greatest achievement of the Team Challenges: demonstrating that when people with different experiences come together around a shared purpose, collective knowledge finds new ways to flourish.

The Nzinga Award

Named in honor of Nzinga of Ndongo, the African queen, diplomat, and political leader, the team received the Nzinga Award, recognizing the group that most successfully fostered an environment conducive to collaboration among people with diverse experiences, Wikimedia and technical expertise, and community-based knowledge.

On July 21, 2026, via the Eventyay platform, I had the opportunity to remotely attend part of the pre-conference for the WikiWomen+ Summit. Some of the discussions focused on ways to combat gender inequality within Wikimedia projects.

During the live-streamed WikiWomen+ Summit, global participants engaged in a lively chat room discussion. They discussed technical challenges content creation and community representation. Uganda, Spain, Nigeria, Bolivia and other countries all had strong and active representation. Attendees greeted each other and praised key presentations including information on the upcoming Celebrate Women initiative.

Despite technical issues like video and audio streams, members actively shared resources links LinkedIn profiles and contact details to foster collaboration. The conversation covered important topics like integrating more African languages like Hausa to address content gaps, using Wikipedia in school curricula to bridge the gender gap and concerns about AI-generated search impacting site traffic and reliability. Playful banter about event merchandise, tea breaks and mobile app features feed kept the session vibrant. The session ended with users completing feedback surveys and expressing enthusiasm for future events.

Below are some conversations I captured during the event:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the speakers at today’s event, as well as the other online participants, whose comments were also very interesting.

As we kick off the new fiscal year, we’re pleased to share Wiki Education’s 2026–2027 Annual Plan, a look back at a year shaped by rapid change and a look forward at how we’ll strengthen our programs, technology, and organization in the year to come.

Looking Back: 2025–2026

Fiscal year 2025–2026 was a year of navigating profound shifts in the external environment while continuing to deliver strong results across our priority areas. AI’s growing role in how knowledge is produced, interpreted, and shared made this a pivotal year for our mission.

As more students turned to AI tools to draft and revise their coursework, we saw a real risk of hallucinated or unverifiable content making its way onto Wikipedia from our program participants. In response, we built and refined new systems to scan student contributions for likely AI use, developed new training modules and resources to support both students and instructors, and launched a partnership with Princeton University’s Humans and Machines Lab to study how students use AI in educational settings. (Read more about our approach to AI in this recent blog post.)

The focus of our Scholars & Scientists work this year was our 250 by 2026 initiative in collaboration with the American Association for State and Local History, which brought more than 250 historians and cultural heritage professionals to Wikipedia to strengthen coverage of American history ahead of the nation’s semiquincentennial. We’re absolutely thrilled with the impact of this effort. Our Scholars & Scientists Program also continued to support subject-matter experts in improving Wikipedia on topics ranging from disability and environmental justice to rare diseases and public health.

Looking Ahead: 2026–2027

In the coming fiscal year, we’ll focus on strengthening our impact while continuing to navigate an information ecosystem being reshaped by artificial intelligence. That means maintaining rigorous quality standards to protect Wikipedia’s reliability while also exploring constructive uses of AI, including tools that could help identify inconsistencies between article content and sources.

A flagship initiative for our year will be Documenting America, a new collaboration with the American Association for State and Local History that builds on the success of the 250 by 2026 initiative. The project will engage subject-matter experts to strengthen Wikipedia’s coverage of state history, expand general American history content, increase the number of historical images on Wikimedia Commons, and address gaps in content related to civics and democracy.

In the Wikipedia Student Program, we’ll continue our Knowledge Equity initiative, including expanding outreach to humanities instructors. We’ll also keep working to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of women and people of color in STEM, and roll out new programmatic support, including a streamlined assignment option and expanded workshops for faculty new to the project.

On the technology side, we’ll deepen our collaboration with academic researchers studying AI’s effects on Wikipedia content, launch our first Canvas integration for the Dashboard, and continue exploring how AI coding tools can help us build and maintain our technical infrastructure.

The Wiki Education Board of Trustees approved our new annual plan during their June meeting. 

We thank our Board, program participants, funders, partners, and global community for their continued support of Wiki Education and our shared goals. Here’s to the year ahead!

For the complete 2026–2027 Annual Plan, please visit wikiedu.org/annual-plan

Jul 30, 10:08 UTC
Monitoring - There are reports of connectivity issues from Russia outside of our control. The issues mostly affect image and media serving.

On 7 March 2026, African & Proud officially launched Culture Connect 2026  a cultural initiative designed to celebrate Africa’s rich diversity while promoting cultural preservation through Wikimedia projects and open knowledge platforms.

The virtual launch event brought together participants, cultural enthusiasts, and Wikimedia contributors from across Africa to explore the role of culture in shaping identity, fostering community connections, and strengthening continental collaboration. Under the theme of African Festivals, African Cuisine, African Film & Cinema, and Wikivoyage, the initiative seeks to document and amplify African stories that are often underrepresented online.

Strengthening Partnerships Across Africa

A major highlight of the launch was the introduction of strategic partners supporting the initiative. African&Proud reaffirmed its collaboration with the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group, a community dedicated to promoting Wikimedia projects in the Dagbani language and supporting other indigenous languages in the region.

The event also welcomed participation from the Global WikiEducation Initiative (GWEI) in Tanzania, an education-focused movement committed to integrating Wikimedia projects and open knowledge resources into educational systems. Their involvement marks an important step toward expanding Culture Connect Africa beyond Nigeria and fostering stronger regional cooperation across African Wikimedia communities.

Prior to the public launch, organizers held a series of planning and partnership meetings with representatives from Tanzania and existing partners to discuss the long-term sustainability of the initiative, knowledge-sharing opportunities, and future collaborative activities.

Culture Connect Africa 2026 is more than a cultural awareness campaign. The initiative leverages Wikimedia platforms as tools for documenting and preserving African heritage through collaborative editing, training programs, edit-a-thons, and community engagement activities.

Notable Contributions from the Contest

As part of the launch activities, participants contributed to improving the representation of African film and cinema on Wikipedia through article creation and enhancement efforts.

Among the notable articles developed during the contest were:

• Son of the Soil (2025 film)
• Finding Me (2025 film)
• A Night in 2005
• Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards 

These contributions helped expand information about African cinema and storytelling on Wikipedia while supporting the initiative’s broader goal of ensuring African narratives are documented and accessible to global audiences.

Looking Ahead

Culture Connect Africa 2026 will focus its activities across Ghana, Tanzania, and Nigeria, creating opportunities for cultural exchange, community engagement, and knowledge sharing. Future activities will include thematic campaigns, trainings, edit-a-thons, and partnerships that highlight African festivals, cuisines, films, travel destinations, and other aspects of cultural heritage.

The session recordings are available here. . If you wish to become an active member of our community, please take a moment to complete the registration form. For those who may want to join our WhatsApp Community, you can do so here.

Let’s work together to bridge the gap in information about Africa on Wikipedia and sister projects. Together, let’s make African culture more visible by editing one article at a time!  

Dr. SYED MUZAMMILUDDIN

Vernon Rock Light, originally posted on Panoramio.com by JWarnes under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, uploaded on Wikimedia Commons by Muhandes — a significant addition to the Wikiproject Lighthouses Australia.

The Wikimedia movement thrives because of volunteers who dedicate their time, expertise, and patience to building free knowledge. While many contributors are remembered for the articles they write, others leave a legacy embedded deep within Wikipedia’s technical infrastructure. Muhandes (David) belonged to the latter group—a volunteer whose careful engineering and unwavering commitment quietly shaped the experience of millions of readers and thousands of editors.

For years, Muhandes was one of the English Wikipedia’s most respected technical contributors. As a Template Editor, he maintained some of the encyclopedia’s most widely used templates, particularly the complex infrastructure that powers music sales and certification tables. These templates standardize information from organizations such as the RIAA, BPI, and IFPI, ensuring that certification data is presented consistently across tens of thousands of articles.

The work demanded precision. A single edit to a heavily transcluded template could affect thousands of pages. Muhandes approached that responsibility with exceptional care, making improvements that were rarely visible to readers but essential to the reliability and stability of Wikipedia.

His contributions extended beyond template engineering. Muhandes uploaded freely licensed media to Wikimedia Commons, assisted with copyright compliance, and carried out extensive maintenance work using specialized editing tools. He routinely repaired formatting errors, corrected syntax, and improved articles in ways that made collaboration easier for everyone else.

Beyond his technical expertise, Muhandes was a valued member of the editing community. He regularly helped fellow volunteers understand Wikipedia’s policies on copyright, conflict of interest, article ownership, and template implementation. His calm, thoughtful approach to discussion reflected a belief that collaboration and consensus are fundamental to Wikimedia’s success.

“I really don’t have much time, so the fact that I need to spend it fixing errors which should not be there if you checked any of those citations, bothers me.” With these poignant words on a fellow user’s talk page, Muhandes offered the Wikimedia community a glimpse into the difficult reality he was facing. In March 2024, he was diagnosed with stage T4 pancreatic cancer in the head of the pancreas after developing obstructive jaundice caused by the tumour blocking the common bile duct. Despite the diagnosis, he continued contributing to Wikipedia whenever his health permitted, quietly maintaining templates and improving articles with the same meticulous care for which he was known. His treatment involved multiple endoscopic procedures to insert a stent and relieve the bile duct obstruction. In February 2026, he underwent a celiac plexus nerve block, which significantly eased his pain for several months. However, the disease continued to progress. He found it increasingly difficult to eat, resulting in rapid weight loss and severe muscle wasting. An MRI later confirmed that the cancer had metastasized to his liver. Even as his health declined, Muhandes remained committed to the Wikimedia projects, making his final months a testament to his resilience, dedication, and unwavering commitment to improving free knowledge.

Although English Wikipedia was his primary home, Muhandes also contributed to Wikimedia Commons and the Hebrew Wikipedia, demonstrating a commitment to the broader Wikimedia movement and its multilingual mission.

Following the news of his passing in May 2026, fellow editors reflected on the lasting impact of his work. User:7&6=thirteen, who wrote an obituary in his memory, offered a tribute that captured both the technical and human dimensions of Muhandes’ contributions:

“I praise Muhandes for his quiet brilliance, tireless work ethic, and unwavering fidelity to the truth. He was an engineer not just of articles, but of human progress — patiently assembling the blocks of knowledge upon which future generations will stand.”

Those words resonate with anyone who has worked on Wikimedia projects. Much of Wikipedia’s success depends on volunteers whose work is largely invisible, yet indispensable. Muhandes exemplified that spirit through years of careful stewardship and technical excellence.

Another longtime Wikipedian, Gerda Arendt, expressed a similarly heartfelt sentiment on Muhandes’ talk page:

“While missing you, your contributions will stay.”

It is a simple message, but one that speaks to an enduring truth about Wikimedia. Editors may one day leave the keyboard, but their work continues to educate, inform, and inspire millions of people across the world. Every template that still functions flawlessly, every maintenance edit that prevents future errors, and every improvement that makes Wikipedia easier to build upon becomes part of a lasting legacy.

Muhandes may have preferred to work behind the scenes, but the impact of that work reaches far beyond the technical pages where it was created. His dedication strengthened the infrastructure that countless volunteers rely upon every day, making Wikipedia more accurate, more consistent, and more resilient.

In remembering Muhandes, the Wikimedia community also celebrates a broader truth: free knowledge is sustained not only by those who write articles, but also by those who quietly build and maintain the foundations that allow those articles to exist. His legacy will endure in the code, templates, and collaborative spirit that continue to support one of humanity’s greatest shared knowledge projects.

Thank you, Muhandes. Your contributions remain woven into the fabric of Wikimedia, continuing to serve readers and editors long after the final edit was made.

We are super happy to share the final results and stories from Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026. This year, our campaign grew bigger than ever, engaging volunteers across South Asia, ESEAP, MENA, Sub-Saharan Africa, CEECA, Europe, and the Americas.

A Truly Global Effort

In 2026, the campaign saw remarkable participation. We had 557 participants joining from 36 countries, including contributors from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Uganda, Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria, and many others. Through both online and offline events, such as edit-a-thons, workshops, and Iftar gatherings, volunteers shared local stories that enrich Wikipedia and its sister projects.

More than 460 active editors and 97 organizers supported the activities. Together, they created and improved 8,986 Wikipedia articles. Wikimedia Commons also received a huge boost with 5,607 images uploaded. Because we love structured data, We are very happy to announce that we created 536 new Wikidata items. This means hundreds of cultural heritage sites and historical figures now have their own Q-ids and proper data.

Empowering Communities and Building Skills

Beyond content creation, the campaign helped local communities grow and build skills. For example, in Uganda, the team hosted a community Iftar dinner at Zebra Boxing Club with 200 people, combining local street cleanups with photo documentation of local Eid celebrations. In Egypt, the edit-a-thon inspired a new sustainable project called the Islamic Cairo Documentation Project to document local monuments.

In Tatar Wikipedia, we saw a very interesting competition. A young biologist from Moscow, Dina Abdullina, wrote articless! Also in Uzbekistan, organizers led photo walks to the Center of Islamic Civilization in Tashkent. This approach helps reduce knowledge gaps and promotes cultural diversity across our movement.

Celebrating Success

To honor the efforts of our contributors, we announced our global winners. For the article writing competition, Tahir697 from Urdu Wikipedia took the 1st prize with 1,360 articles. Tuhin (Bangla Wikipedia) took 2nd prize with 916 articles, and Mishary94 (Arabic Wikipedia) took 3rd with 691 articles.

In the Wikimedia Commons photo competition, Mumun96 from Indonesia won 1st prize for a beautiful photo of Gumeno village’s traditional iftar. Abdul Kaium Tito from Bangladesh won 2nd prize for capturing a prayer on a ship deck, and Thie Abdoul from Guinea won 3rd prize for a photo of a young girl reading the holy Qur’an.

Panpanchik, a winner from Uzbek Wikipedia, said it best: “What matters most is not winning, but making the effort to contribute. Think about how the article you write can help people gain accurate information about Islam… you are contributing to free knowledge.”

Looking Forward

The success of Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026 shows the power of collaborative knowledge projects. Plans are already underway to expand the campaign in 2027. We learned from our participants that new photographers still struggle with the Commons Upload Wizard and copyright rules. Next year, we will try to provide better guides and give small microgrants to local organizers so they can easily run physical events.

Spring 2026 was a particularly full season for the GLAM-Wiki movement. Between the April, May, and June issues of This Month in GLAM, dozens of affiliates, residencies, and contributor projects reported in — from a threatened postal museum in Belgium to a sauna festival in northern Finland. Rather than walk through the newsletters month by month, this post pulls the highlights together under the four strategic pillars: small GLAMs, minority and underrepresented languages, community (mental) health, and robust technical infrastructure. Links throughout point back to the original contributions so you can read the full story and thank the authors directly.

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1. Small GLAMs: small institutions, outsized contributions

Some of the quarter’s most affecting stories came from small, local, or precarious institutions rather than national flagship museums.

The starkest example was in Belgium: the Musée des Postes restantes in Hermalle-sous-Huy was facing closure, putting its collection of postal uniforms, seals, and supplies at risk of being dispersed. A joint French-Belgian Wikimedia volunteer team mobilized within weeks, photographing 669 objects (1,280 photos) over a single weekend with support from Wikimedia Belgium and Wikimedia France — a rescue-digitization effort framed explicitly as what Wikimedia has stood for over 25 years: preserving heritage before it’s lost.

Elsewhere, small and local museums featured throughout:

• In Bangladesh, an offline edit-a-thon at the Cultural Academy of Ethnic Minorities in Dinajpur (the third in a series of local-museum-focused Museum Day events) produced eight new articles on museums in northern Bangladesh that previously had no online presence.
• In Egypt, Wikimedia Egypt’s GLAM team specifically sought out the Museum of the Egyptian National Library and Archives because it had no Wikipedia article or Commons images — it now has 82 uploaded photos.
• In Argentina, the Digitization Project signed a new agreement with the Municipality of Coronda (Santa Fe) and its municipal “José Manuel Maciel” museum, providing scanning equipment directly to a local institution.
• In Mexico, the Hackatón BAM BUAP drew in smaller, non-Mexican ethnographic holdings — Museum Rietberg in Zurich (681 pre-Columbian artifacts) and the Wereldmuseum’s Puebla-region textile collection — alongside a new WikiClub aimed at recruiting Mexican contributors.
• In North Macedonia, Wikimedia MKD began a new partnership with the Botanical Garden at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Skopje, alongside continuing monthly work with the Macedonian National Herbarium.
• In Poland, new GLAM-Wiki relationships launched with university libraries in Toruń and Wrocław (April) and a further new partnership with Wrocław University Library (June) — institutions without prior Wikimedia collaboration history.
• In Brazil, smaller and specialized collections — the Eva Klabin House Museum’s fashion archive, the Centro de Memória-Unicamp’s 19th/20th-century criminal case files, and the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi’s herbarium (now over 19,000 uploaded specimens) — all received sustained upload campaigns.
• In Italy, the Italian Institute of Germanic Studies’ Giuseppe Gabetti Collection — a niche archive of century-old Italy-Greenland scientific exchange — was digitized under a Wikimedia Italia MAB grant, alongside new first-contact partnerships with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin and the Biblioteca Nazionale di Potenza.

The throughline: much of the quarter’s most durable impact came not from marquee national institutions, but from small archives, municipal museums, and regional collections getting their first real presence on Wikimedia projects.

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2. Minority and underrepresented languages

Language equity was a consistent priority as well, spanning oral history archiving, translation, and in-person advocacy for minority-language communities.

OpenSpeaks Archives (April) anchored much of this work. It has worked with nearly 20 South Asian communities to document Indigenous and low-resourced languages (including Kusunda, Sora, and Gorum), depositing media in the Endangered Languages Archive and Language Archive Cologne. In May, OpenSpeaks released three new tools — Subtitler, Tome, and Bento — purpose-built for field documentation of oral knowledge in Indigenous and minority languages, designed to work offline and with unreliable connectivity, addressing a gap that mainstream subtitle and metadata tools don’t cover.

The Khalili Foundation partnership with Wikimedia UK continued producing translations into underrepresented-on-Wikipedia languages throughout the quarter — new or expanded articles in Persian, Urdu, Kurdish, and Simple English, alongside a growing count of Memory of the World articles in languages including Lezgian, Kazakh, Pashto, Mongolian, Slovene, and Afrikaans. See the April, May, and June UK reports, and the parallel April, May, and June Memory of the World reports.

In Poland (May), Kamila Neuman represented Wikimedia projects at a UNESCO Chair seminar on intangible cultural heritage, pointing to the Wayuunaiki-language Wikipedia (created by the Indigenous Wayuu community) and the “Wikipedia na Kurpiowszczyźnie” initiative as examples of Wikimedia serving linguistic diversity and community self-representation.

Finland (June) provided the quarter’s most concentrated minority-language moment: the Wikimedia Northern Europe meetup in Oulu was co-organized with the Inari Saami Wikimedians User Group and Anarâškielâ servi ry, with minority-language work as an explicit agenda theme. Finnish Wikipedians received Finland’s State Award for Public Information, with the citation specifically noting contributions across Finnish, Swedish, Northern Sámi, and Inari Sámi editions. Days later, at the related Oulu Löyly festival, a Content Partnerships Hub-hosted panel featured Daniel Antal’s work connecting Livonian and Udmurt communities to materials about them held in outside collections, and a dedicated working group (“Oral-to-Written”) tackled how fluent speakers of Saami and other under-resourced languages can contribute without needing to be confident writers.

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3. Community (mental) health: capacity building, new skills, and hard lessons

This theme showed up both as structured capacity-building and, notably, as candid reflection on the human cost of institutional projects.

The most striking contribution here was Romaine’s two-part account (May) of setting up a Wikimedian in Residence project at Maastricht University. It’s an honest piece of GLAM-Wiki reporting about what residencies can cost the people doing them, and worth a direct read.

Elsewhere, capacity building was also substantial:

• Poland’s Wikimedians in Residence network held recurring peer-learning sessions throughout the quarter (continuing into June), working toward a shared onboarding guidebook for new residents.
• WikiCon Australia (April) hosted substantive sessions on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) and Indigenous Data Sovereignty, with participants stressing the need for genuine relationship-building with Indigenous communities rather than transactional data extraction.
• The Czech Republic’s ongoing FZU partnership was framed explicitly as “two-way learning” — academics gaining Wikimedia literacy while the public got rare access to research facilities like electron microscope labs.
• At GLAM Labs Futures 2026 in Edinburgh, a session titled “Learning from failure: When Labs go wrong” made institutional honesty about setbacks part of the formal program, not an aside.
• The Oulu Löyly festival devoted an entire strand to “heritage at risk” and community resilience, discussing how conflict, geopolitical disruption, and resource scarcity affect the mental and organizational sustainability of small heritage communities — not just their collections.
• In Mexico, organizers were candid about the structural challenge behind their WikiClub: Mexico has roughly 5 active Wikipedia contributors per million inhabitants, compared to 45 in Spain — a capacity gap the hackathon aimed to address directly rather than paper over.

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4. Robust technical infrastructure

Tooling and infrastructure work threaded through every month, often emerging from hackathons and community-built prototypes rather than top-down development.

GLAM Tool Hospital, a Phabricator ticket-generation portal that lets GLAM professionals report bugs or request features without needing their own Phabricator accounts, was built at the Wikimedia Hackathon in Milan and first reported via New Zealand’s May update; it was live and being promoted at the June Global GLAM Call.

OpenSpeaks’ Subtitler, Tome, and Bento tools (May) (also covered above under languages) represent a meaningful infrastructure contribution: browser-based, offline-first utilities addressing a real gap in affordable subtitling and metadata tooling for field documentation.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library completed its technical transition away from the Smithsonian across the quarter — securing CLIR as a new fiscal sponsor and beginning 2027–2030 strategic planning (May), then physically moving its servers to the Field Museum (June) — all while BHL-Wiki working group volunteers kept up parallel work disambiguating BHL creators and reconciling Wikidata identifiers, including a new Wikidata property for Darwin Correspondence Project identifiers.

In the Netherlands (May), Maastricht’s Wikimedian in Residence weighed Omeka S, WordPress, university self-hosting, professional hosting, Wikibase.cloud, and Miraheze before settling on Miraheze — a useful practical case study for other institutions facing the same build-vs-host decision.

At Oulu Löyly (June), infrastructure conversations went further afield: the ECHOLOT project and its ECCCH (European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage) were presented as a federated model allowing institutions to maintain sovereign knowledge bases while still publishing to Europeana and Wikimedia platforms; CommonsDB was demoed as a tool for making the rights status of shared materials verifiable as they move between systems; and a hands-on working group built ORLA, an AI-assisted self-assessment tool to help institutions plan their path from closed to open collections.

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Global GLAM Calls

Throughout this period the GLAM Community has been meeting online each month to get further insight and perspectives on these various topics and activities. In April we heard from CommonsDB, AI Bridges, Partnerships in the ESEAP region, as well as details about the Content Partnerships Hub Steering Committee. In May we heard about rediscovered Commons upload capabilities, the Open Heritage Statement, and how and why everyone should be a translation admin! Then, last month in June we had a preview of the Team Challenges at Wikimania, the GLAM Tool Hospital, Event Registration Extension, and the new visual identity of the Content Partnerships Hub.

These calls are always recorded so you can go back and watch it anytime!

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Looking ahead

Taken together, the quarter’s reporting suggests a movement increasingly comfortable naming its own weak points alongside its wins — precarious small institutions, language communities still underserved by both Wikimedia and mainstream AI tooling, the real human toll of residency work, and infrastructure that’s still being patched together hackathon by hackathon. The next Global GLAM Call is scheduled for 28 July, right after Wikimania in Paris.

This post draws on the April, May, and June 2026 issues of This Month in GLAM.

Individual contribution links above point to each story’s dedicated page — please visit them to read the full report and leave a comment for the author.

Language is one of humanity’s most powerful tools for connection, culture, and self-expression. Yet, for millions in the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities, indigenous sign languages remain vastly under-documented and underrepresented in global digital archives.

That narrative took a major leap forward in Delta State, Nigeria, through an inspiring initiative: Voices in our Hands: Kids in Sign Spaces.

Aligning directly with the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2030 Movement Strategy for digital inclusivity and equity, this pioneering documentation project funded by the Igbo Wikimedians Usergroup empowers Nigerian deaf children to become active creators of open knowledge by digitally archiving Nigerian Sign Language (NSL).

The Heart of the Project: Madonna School for Children with Special Needs

Located in Okpanam, near Asaba in Delta State, the Madonna School for Children with Special Needs served as the vibrant hub for this initiative.

Instead of treating hearing-impaired students merely as passive subjects or beneficiaries, this project placed cameras and digital tools directly into the students’ hands. The children collaborated with project organizers to demonstrate, record, annotate, and upload their own everyday NSL vocabulary.

Key Highlight: By centering deaf children as both primary contributors and ultimate beneficiaries, the project fosters digital literacy while celebrating their native visual language.

Project Timeline & Key Milestones

Execution took place across July 2026 with dedicated hands-on workshops and recording sessions:

• July 5 – July 19, 2026: Project planning and coordination period across Asaba and Okpanam.
• Thursday, July 9, 2026 (Photo & Video Shoot Day): Students and facilitators gathered for interactive sessions, capturing clear photographic and video demonstrations of essential NSL signs.
• Sunday, July 12, 2026 (Event & Upload Day): A community celebration where participants organized media assets, created global Wikimedia accounts, and learned the fundamentals of uploading to Wikimedia Commons.

Key Outcomes & Tangible Impact

By bridging community action with open technology, the project delivered several immediate and long-term milestones:

1. Digital Media Preservation: Created an open-access repository of approximately 100 photographic and video files documenting core Nigerian Sign Language vocabulary.
2. Empowering Young Contributors: Trained students and teachers in basic media literacy, digital tagging, and the mechanics of open-license content publishing.
3. Global Wikimedia Accounts: Onboarded new young editors to the global Wikimedia ecosystem, giving them a platform to contribute to free knowledge initiatives in the future.
4. Educational & Policy Foundations: Provided a foundational, open-source resource that educators, policy advocates, and developers can use to build accessible educational tools and inclusive policies across Nigeria.

Why Indigenous Sign Language Preservation Matters

Indigenous sign languages carry unique cultural nuances, idioms, and localized expressions that standardized international sign systems often overlook. Without systematic documentation, indigenous dialects face the risk of marginalization.

Projects like Voices in Our Hands demonstrate how open-access platforms like Wikimedia Commons can democratize language preservation. When young learners see their language validated on a global stage, it strengthens cultural pride and ensures future generations have accessible learning tools.

Looking Ahead

Voices in Our Hands: Kids in Sign Spaces stands as a proof of concept for how local grassroots action can intersect with global digital networks. As these videos and images go live on Wikimedia Commons, they carry a clear message: deaf voices are vibrant, valuable, and deserve to be heard across the world.

View our digital archive on Nigerian Sign Language here

What happens when a musical tradition begins to fade from everyday life, but finds a new home on Wikipedia?

From 26–27 June 2026, Wikimedia volunteers, academics, and cultural practitioners gathered at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) for AfroCuration Ghana 2026. The event builds on the AfroCuration concept introduced by the Moleskine Foundation. The Twi Wikimedia community together with the Global Open Initiative Foundation (GOIF), welcomed participants from the Ewe, Dagbani, Moore, Dagaare, Kusaal and Gurene Wikimedia communities for AfroCuration Ghana 2026 under the theme: Advancing African Culture through Traditional Ghanaian Music and Symbols. The event highlighted Highlife music and Ghana’s musical heritage across local-language Wikipedia projects.

Why Highlife Music?

In 2025, UNESCO inscribed Ghana’s Highlife music and dance on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Highlife music remains one of Ghana’s most influential musical traditions. It is celebrated across Ghana and parts of West Africa, blending everyday life experiences with storytelling through music and dance, using distinctive rhythms and lyrics that reflect lived experiences. Highlife is performed with guitars, brass instruments, drums, xylophones and other percussion instruments. It continues to be performed at weddings, funerals, and other festive occasions. Over the years, Highlife has evolved from Palmwine Highlife, Brass Band Highlife, Dance Band Highlife, Guitar Band Highlife, Burger Highlife and other contemporary forms.

Highlife’s sound and rhythm have become the foundation of much of modern African music, and many contemporary Hiplife and Afrobeats musicians continue to draw inspiration from the genre. However, many young listeners are less familiar with the musicians, instruments, and histories that shaped it. As this musical heritage becomes less popular, documenting it becomes even more important. As Wikimedia volunteers, we noticed cultural-themed documentation projects encourage building editor capacity, engagement, and participant retention.

Preparing the Campaign

To support the editing campaign in December 2025, we reached out to Retroghana, whose archive helped us to identify notable musicians, songs and albums for documentation. We curated a list of articles and Wikidata items, many of which already existed on English Wikipedia. Later in early 2026, we met with leaders from the participating language communities to plan the campaign. Registered participants were assigned articles, and training workshops refreshed editing skills while introducing new contributors to the project. In total, 94 editors registered to participate, with many beginning their contributions before the event.

AfroCuration in Action: From Listening to Documenting

In partnership with the Department of Communication and Languages, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Education (Adjumako Campus), language lecturers were invited to support the in-person event. More than 100 participants attended over the two days, with some joining online. Professor Opanyin Agyekum of the University of Ghana and Professor Charles Marfo Provost of College of Humanities and Social Sciences, KNUST and other guests delivered keynote presentations and raised discussions on the relationship between language, music, and cultural preservation.

Two Days of Learning Through Culture

The event commenced in a calm and welcoming atmosphere. Participants embraced the cultural dress theme by wearing traditional Ghanaian attire, creating a vibrant visual celebration that complemented the discussions on music, language and heritage. Throughout the event, Highlife music from artists including: Agya Koo Nimo, Nana Ampadu, Awurama Badu, Victor Olaiya (Nigeria), and S. E. Rogie (Sierra Leone) played in the background providing a musical backdrop.

Mr. Korankye, a Highlife musician, educated and entertained guests with demonstration of the Seperewa, a traditional Akan harp-lute with a wooden frame and multiple strings. The Seprewa has long been associated early Highlife music. Through the use of proverbs and stories expressed through rhythm, the instrument became an important part of musical expression and performance.

Community Building and Impact

By the end of the campaign, participants from all communities had created or improved 400 articles and Wikidata items. These contributions expanded coverage of Ghanaian Highlife music, musicians, and African traditional instruments. Beyond the numbers, we found the conversations and connections built during the event equally valuable—a reminder that no editor works in isolation; we are all part of a wider Wikimedia community.

Participants Takeaways

Feedback gathered after the event showed that, for many participants, AfroCuration is more than a thematic article contest. Participants described it as a space to learn more about contributing to local-language Wikipedia projects, network with others, and support the broader goal of improving the representation of African contexts on open knowledge platforms.

Beyond the Event

Not every aspect of Highlife music history could be documented, largely because much of the information exists through personal accounts from musicians and other contributors that could not be verified through reliable published sources. Also, Wikimedia Commons was initially included in the project, copyright considerations meant the team had to focus on creating and translating existing articles. AfroCuration continues to serve as an awareness and advocacy campaign for documenting cultural heritage on open knowledge platforms.

Across the Wikimedia movement, many affiliates face similar long-term challenges, including volunteer turnover, burnout, declining community activity, and the difficulty of preparing new leaders to sustain local communities. While introductory editing workshops remain valuable, they rarely provide the continuous learning pathways needed to build resilient and self-sustaining Wikimedia communities.

Many WMF affiliates offer training sessions, which is nothing new. It’s easy to organize a session and invite people to learn about some Wikimedia projects. However, this traditional approach isn’t always successful or effective, and can be a waste of resources. You face several challenges: not everyone attending the sessions is at the same level, or even has a basic understanding. Unfortunately, many are filled with misinformation about Wikimedia projects, they ask many questions, and you might encounter the biggest problem: why would someone want to learn about volunteering with Wikimedia projects?

Therefore, this requires significant preparation to bring these individuals to at least a basic level, where they understand all the essential information about Wikimedia projects and how they work, thus capturing their interest and motivating them. Implementing this through traditional methods (training sessions or workshops) can be difficult due to a lack of instructors and organizers, and attendance may be low.

Therefore, it was essential to think outside the box, utilizing modern technologies and artificial intelligence (thanks to our tech club), by creating an online training platform and a simple, easy-to-understand, customized training path. Every step in the training is carefully planned and incorporates feedback from previous training sessions. After completing the first phase, participants move on to the second phase, which provides them with tasks to complete and practice. Technical support, a database, and a Q&A bot are also essential.

At the end of this program, you have a new volunteer for Wikimedia projects. This is where the importance of the third phase comes in: specialized training programs. New volunteers don’t necessarily have to be editors. Some may have technical or programming experience, document scanning, photography, or experience in administration and organization, making them valuable assets to the group’s activities. Others may have teaching experience but simply need to learn everything about Wikimedia projects to be able to conduct training sessions for others.

EWUG developed five specialized programs covering the diverse needs of the movement for the first time in MENA region. which establish a structured, continuous training ecosystem. Beyond introducing new editors, these programs prepare future trainers, community organizers, mentors, photographers, and technical contributors, creating a sustainable pipeline of volunteers capable of leading initiatives, supporting community growth, documenting cultural heritage, and developing technical solutions for Wikimedia projects.

What are training programs?

Masar Program

The Masar Program is online program which serves as the primary gateway for joining the EWUG, providing newcomers with a structured introduction to the Wikimedia movement and its free knowledge projects. The Arabic word Masar (مسار) means “path,” reflecting the program’s mission of guiding volunteers through a clear, step-by-step learning journey.

The program offers a progressive curriculum that begins with the fundamentals before gradually introducing more advanced topics. Participants learn through interactive video lessons, simplified educational resources, and AI-assisted tools that answer questions and help overcome common editing challenges.

Rather than treating training as a one-time activity, Masar provides a flexible, self-paced learning experience supported by continuous guidance. Alongside editing skills, participants explore the principles of free knowledge, Wikimedia’s values, and collaborative contribution, helping them become confident, long-term contributors. Upon completing the program, participants are expected to actively contribute across Wikimedia projects.

The Organizers Program

Successful volunteer communities depend on organizers who can transform ideas into impactful initiatives and inspire others to participate. To strengthen this capacity, the EWUG launched the Organizers Training Program to prepare a new generation of community organizers with the leadership and practical skills needed to coordinate Wikimedia activities effectively.

The program extends beyond administrative training, encompassing event planning, project coordination, volunteer management, partnership development, reporting, time management, and the effective use of digital tools. Participants reinforce these skills through hands-on experience by helping organize EWUG activities and events throughout the year.

Beyond organizing events, the program develops future community leaders. Participants gradually assume greater responsibilities while gaining practical experience in leading initiatives and managing projects. They also learn about Wikimedia’s governance structures. They are encouraged to participate in committees and working groups across the Wikimedia movement, strengthening the representation of the MENA region in global decision-making.

Ultimately, the program aims not only to increase the number of organizers, but to cultivate capable leaders who can sustain initiatives, empower volunteers, build strategic partnerships, and support the long-term growth of Wikimedia communities.

Mentors Program (TOT)

The experience accumulated by volunteers over years of contributing to Wikimedia projects is among the movement’s most valuable assets. Yet its true value is realized only when that knowledge is shared, passed on to new contributors, and transformed into institutional memory that strengthens the sustainability of the community. Guided by this principle, the EWUG launched the Mentors Program (TOT), an initiative designed to foster a culture of peer learning, knowledge exchange, and mutual support among volunteers. Mentorship within the program extends well beyond providing technical assistance to new editors.

It focuses on preparing volunteers who possess strong communication, coaching, leadership, and problem-solving skills, enabling them to guide newcomers, support organizers, and contribute to the successful delivery of community activities. The group firmly believes that a sustainable Wikimedia community can only flourish when experienced contributors actively help newcomers overcome their initial challenges and inspire them to remain engaged. In this way, the Mentorship Program serves as a vital bridge between generations of Wikimedians, ensuring that knowledge, experience, and community values continue to be passed from one generation to the next.

Photographers Training Program

As the demand for freely licensed, high-quality images documenting Egypt’s cultural and natural heritage continues to grow, the EWUG established the Photographers Training Program to combine photography skills with the mission of advancing free knowledge. The program prepares a new generation of volunteer photographers capable of producing high-quality visual content that enriches Wikimedia projects while strengthening the digital representation of culture, heritage, and knowledge. Participants learn the fundamentals of photography and develop the skills needed to create accurate, educational, and visually compelling images.

Rather than viewing photography solely as an artistic practice, the program promotes it as a powerful tool for documenting heritage, culture, everyday life, and places of encyclopedic value. This approach complements the group’s broader documentation initiatives, including heritage documentation projects, photographic expeditions, and international campaigns such as Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Africa, and Wiki Loves Folklore, all of which expand the world’s collection of freely accessible visual knowledge.

Participants also receive practical training on contributing to Wikimedia Commons, learning how to upload, describe, categorize, and organize media using appropriate metadata while gaining a solid understanding of copyright and free licenses.

To ensure the program’s long-term sustainability, EWUG established the Free Images Team, a collaborative network where volunteer photographers exchange expertise, support documentation initiatives, and participate in local and international events. The team’s first major activity, the workshop From a Shot to a Story, combined theoretical instruction with hands-on field training. Together, the program and the Free Images Team form a sustainable capacity-building model that develops skilled photographers while creating a long-term volunteer network dedicated to continuously expanding Wikimedia’s collection of freely licensed visual knowledge.

Technical Program

Behind every article that is written, every image that is uploaded, and every piece of knowledge that reaches a reader lies a sophisticated technical infrastructure that keeps Wikimedia projects alive and evolving. The editing tools used by contributors, the bots that automate thousands of routine tasks, the applications, dashboards, and analytics platforms are all the product of a global community of developers and technical volunteers dedicated to strengthening the foundations of free knowledge. Recognizing the growing importance of this ecosystem, the EWUG launched its Technical Training Program to prepare a new generation of technical contributors capable of developing software solutions that support Wikimedia projects, address the needs of local and regional communities, and broaden opportunities for participation in the free knowledge movement.

The program offers hands-on training in programming, MediaWiki development, automation, bot creation, free and open-source software, data analysis, database queries, and artificial intelligence—fields that have become increasingly essential to the continued evolution of Wikimedia projects. It also encourages experienced participants to move beyond learning and become mentors themselves, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the technical community and the continuous transfer of expertise to future generations of developers.

An Integrated Ecosystem for Building a More Sustainable Community

Although these five training programs serve different audiences and areas of Wikimedia work, they are designed as parts of a single long-term capacity-building strategy rather than independent initiatives. Together, they create a continuous learning pathway that enables volunteers to grow, develop new skills, and gradually assume greater responsibilities within the Wikimedia movement. A participant may begin through the Masar Program, later become an organizer, mentor, photographer, or technical contributor, following a flexible journey shaped by individual interests and community needs.

Frequently asked questions

The post Wikimedia Foundation Statement on US unionization request appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

16/07/2026-22/07/2026

Mapping campaigns

• Ranjeet Jadhav, of Mid-Day, reported that Jaipur-based long-distance hiker Manav Singh Shekhawat has mapped more than 2,000 km of trekking trails in the Sahyadri Mountains on OpenStreetMap after walking nearly 3,500 km across the range.

Community

• In the latest OpenCage’s OpenStreetMap interview series, Matt Whilden spoke about his journey as an OSM mapper, his work supporting the community through the OpenStreetMap US Board, and his passion for creative mapping.
• Jikke Meyer plans to map football stadiums on OpenStreetMap, starting from Botswana in Africa.
• Volker Krause joined an in-person workshop at HTW Berlin to discuss topics related to mapping indoor spaces in OpenStreetMap.

Local chapter news

• OSM Malaga tooted that the Ruedas Redondas association, a cycling users’ association in Malaga, has added a bicycle parking map ► to its website based on OpenStreetMap data. As they explained on their website, it is the ‘most complete and up-to-date’ bicycle parking map of the city, thanks to the collaborative work of the local OSM community.

Maps

• Nicolas Seriot has developed Cartopolis, a web app that renders OpenStreetMap data in a map style reminiscent of the late 1990s.
• HeiGIT presented a custom openrouteservice instance for disaster response in Venezuela, combining OpenStreetMap with real-time road-blockage data from HDX to dynamically route humanitarian vehicles around damaged or impassable infrastructure.
• Jaz Michaelking developed Fediverse Near Me, a web map based on OSM that visualises a curated selection of well-moderated social web providers that are open for registration and serve specific countries, regions, or cities.
• Alessandro Lorenzi has created OpenStreetPhoto, an interactive map that displays all the photos linked to a feature in the OpenStreetMap database. It is currently only available for Italy.
• Using the world’s restaurant data from OpenStreetMap, Vladimir Terentyev has developed a world map of dish names on restaurant signs, attempting to answer the research question: ‘Where does plov end and biryani begin, and who really draws these limits’?

OSM in action

• Stefan Keller presented two web mapping applications built on OpenStreetMap and open government data. VivaMap combines OSM POIs and buildings with official datasets to let users build customised quality-of-life indicators for Swiss neighbourhoods, while UrbanistMap lets communities collaboratively geolocate and visualise urban development projects worldwide. UrbanistMap is well suited to encouraging mappers with local knowledge to update the data in OSM.

Software

• ^[1] Oleksandr Nazarenko has built Pidyizdy, a navigation app focused on showing the exact location of building entrances and apartment number ranges. It is designed for couriers, taxi drivers, and utility service workers, so they don’t have to wander around apartment yards searching for the entrance.
• Pavel Gavrilov tried darkonus’ recently released JOSM plugin, FilletTools (we reported earlier). The plugin allows users to round the corners of lines and polygons, as well as convert freehand strokes into smooth ways. Pavel praised FilletTools, noting that new JOSM plugins rarely have such a strong case for becoming a standard tool in many users’ workflows.
• AnyFinder, originally released as a freemium app in 2019 for iPhone and iPad, is now available as a free browser-based application for finding, adding and editing OpenStreetMap places from phones, tablets, or desktop computers. AnyFinder uses Overpass and Postpass as its backend query engines. The app’s catalogue currently contains 286 place categories in 66 groups, from restaurants and shops to public services and natural features.Categories define what kind of place to search for, while 128 filters refine results by properties such as wheelchair access, cuisine, fuel type, or available facilities. The current dataset covers 47 structured features and 435 OSM tags. Changes to places can be submitted directly to OpenStreetMap through the app using an OpenStreetMap account.
• Tina and Eugene introduced OsmAnd’s measuring tools, including Distance by Tap, Ruler, Radius Ruler, and Target Line.
• Tina and Eugene reported also that OsmAnd has discontinued ‘merged’ maps, which were large country- or region-level files assembled from smaller regional maps. Users who have one of these maps installed will no longer receive updates for it.
• David Larlet reported that uMap has received a grant through the NGI0 Commons Fund to integrate vector tiles into uMap. The current work is focused on vector tile customisation, allowing users to modify the map style, such as removing buildings or changing road colours, so the basemap can better fit the purpose of their map.
• Stadia Maps explained that moving from a geocoding prototype to a production-level application often reveals a frustrating reality: ‘standard’ industry pricing is rarely as simple as it looks. Most caching solutions charge steep premiums (often 6–8x normal query cost) to store results, and some impose strict rules limiting caching to single-user sessions only.
• OSM user SmallCat has published josm-account-manager, a plugin that lets you manage multiple account profiles and different endpoints in JOSM. It is available for installation from JOSM‘s plugin source.
• Koharachan announced , in her OSM User Diary, a fork of iD she is working on, and described its special features that ease mapping. She said that this editor introduces some AI assistance.
• Fedilab developed PawFed, a collaborative map for animal welfare. Mention @PawFed from your Mastodon account with relevant hashtags and a location, and your report will appear on the map. Shelters, veterinary clinics, lost or found animals, food donations, and other information that can help animals are displayed on the map.
• Venetis Charalampidis reported on the progress of the closures.osm.ch Google Summer of Code 2026 project, noting that one of its goals, adding a Valhalla-powered routing endpoint that genuinely avoids closed roads, has now been completed.

Programming

• Marcos Dione has developed a map showing the sizes of city blocks in Marseille by processing the street network data from OpenStreetMap.
• The Austrian-German OSM tile hoster Maptoolkit has launched a free vector tile server that permits commercial use. The cartography features rather opinionated cartography, with a focus on tourism and outdoor, including outdoor-specific styles (Hiking, Cycling, Winter), global hill-shading, contour lines, water depths, 3D terrain, and a maximum data zoom of 15 globally. It is hosted in the EU and privacy-friendly: No API key, login, or cookies. Fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This service supports custom style sheets, including a new, beginner-friendly map editor at mapmaker.maptoolkit.org. It includes AI-ready documentation. You’ll also find an interesting comparison with OpenFreeMap, Protomaps, Versatiles, and OpenMapTiles on the page.

Releases

• uMap version 3.8.0a4 was released on 18 July 2026.

Did you know that …

• … Observing the City has made ‘Where is Downtown’? This is a web app that lets users draw what they consider to be the ‘downtown’ of a given city and compares their definition with everyone else’s.

OSM in the media

• The online magazine Konvert featured articles on volunteer projects such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, iNaturalist, Project Gutenberg, and Stack Overflow, and spoke ► to some of the participants of these projects.

Other “geo” things

• clement_igonet revealed on OSM US’s Slack that he had built a small MapLibre application that shows a time-slider over European administrative boundaries, where the polygons come from an API that models them with valid periods (from sources as INSEE COG, IGN Admin Express and Eurostat GISCO, all open data, no OSM data involved for now). The demo is available. You can watch a short video. The API in the background is api.confinia.io and the source is available on GitHub.
• The NOAA Office for Coastal Management runs four major programmes, one of which is the Digital Coast. In this context, the Sea Level Calculator has been launched, which estimates scenarios for changes in mean sea level, showing the sections of the coastline that would be affected (in monitoring regions). To assist researchers and other users, a series of short videos has been made available.
• HeiGIT has launched a new newsletter, Point of Interest. The first issue focuses on the latest evolution of openrouteservice, its newest developments for humanitarian (and other) uses, and where HeiGIT is heading next.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	Venue	What	When
			MapCup Asia Pacific 2026	2026-07-01 – 2026-07-31
		Hotel Sadanand, Crawford Market	OSM Mumbai Mapping Party No.12 (Masjid Bunder)	2026-07-26
		Online	Racha Mapping Party	2026-07-27 – 2026-08-02
	Braunschweig	Stratum 0	Braunschweiger Mappertreffen im Stratum 0 Hackerspace	2026-07-28
	Kiel	Mango’s, Kiel	Kieler Mapper*innentreffen	2026-07-28
	Berlin	Online	OSM-Verkehrswende #77	2026-07-28
	Mannheim	RaumZeitLabor, Mannheim	Rhein-Neckar OSM Treffen	2026-07-29
	Düsseldorf	Online bei https://meet.jit.si/OSM-DUS-2026	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)	2026-07-29
			UN Mappers Community Discussion: Community Chapters Initiative	2026-07-31
	Hannover	Endhaltestelle Roderbruch der Stadtbahnlinie 4	Mapping Party	2026-07-31
	Thiruvananthapuram	Kazhakoottam Market bus stop	Mapping Party at Kazhakoottam	2026-08-01
	Uppsala	Datorföreningen Update	Kartträff i Uppsala. Tema Cykelinfrastruktur	2026-08-02
	Salzburg	Bewohnerservice Elisabeth-Vorstadt	OSM-Treffpunkt	2026-08-04
			Missing Maps London Mapathon (with Training) Beginner Friendly (Online) [eng]	2026-08-04
			iD Community Chat	2026-08-05
	Stuttgart	Biergarten Tschechen & Söhne	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen	2026-08-05
	Angers	L’Arrière Train, 3 rue de Frémur, Angers	Angers Rencontre mensuelle OpenStreetMap	2026-08-06
		Bar Le Schmilblik	Rencontre mensuelle des contributeurs Paris sud	2026-08-06
	København	Cafe Bevar’s	OSMmapperCPH	2026-08-09
	New Delhi	North Delhi	OSM Delhi Mapping Party No.31 (North Zone)	2026-08-09
	臺北市	MozSpace Taipei	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #91	2026-08-10

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, Andrew Davidson, barefootstache, derFred, 快乐的老鼠宝宝.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

Wikimania the wonderful gathering of Wikimedians is on in Paris. I have been there before, I have presented at several Wikimanias. It is truly awesome. It is the one place where all aspects of what the Wikimedia Foundation is come together, mingle and have a conversation. There is one inescapable fact; it is mostly about Wikipedia and at that, if it does not fit the English Wikipedia community, conversations will not bring you much.

The two biggest revolutions that happened lead to two new projects and apart from their function they did not change English Wikipedia. It was too expensive to have the same picture on all projects, pictures are now stored at Commons. The English community objected to its policy of only freely licensed pictures so nothing changed as they may still serve licensed materials as an illustration. Articles on the same subject were linked through "interwiki links" the process to maintain them was too costly, a centralised database was created, the links are now stable at Wikidata. The English community was not bothered because it were nerds mostly from other projects who maintained those interwiki links.

The decisions to have both Commons and Wikidata were made by the Wikimedia Foundation.

The 25th birthday of Wikipedia is celebrated in Paris and it has its challenges and opportunities. The biggest challenges in my opinion are communities that are aging and decreasing in size and information that is outdated or incomplete. Opportunities can be found in the "sum of all the knowledge that we already have". One iterative question for an AI: "What are the inconsistencies within our Wikipedias". Another is to have Abstract Wikipedia provide information for all the misses when an article is locally missing.

Why not challenge our public to be part of the solution?

Thanks,

       GerardM

PS Great tools like Scholia should be adopted by the Foundation so that it is always available and we could open up our references in a more informed fashion.

In 2024, I presented a paper on “Parametric Type Design” based on the technology behind the Nupuram font at the Grapholinguistics conference in Italy.

The proceedings of the conference—edited by Yannis Haralambous—are now published as a two-volume set. Print editions are available on Amazon, and free digital versions are accessible online.

Grapholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field dedicated to the scientific study of written language, bringing together typographers, computer scientists, linguists, font designers, psychologists, archaeologists, and educators.

Whitney Lew James is an associate teaching professor in the University Writing Program at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. James has incorporated the Wikipedia assignment into her courses since 2024.

In the age of AI, has the Wikipedia assignment played a role in how you think about teaching research, source evaluation, and writing? If so, how?

I integrated the Wikipedia assignment into my course as the main research project just as genAI chatbots were becoming ubiquitous, and this was a very happy coincidence. From the beginning, Wikipedia drew me in because it helps students develop information literacy and practice collaborative writing. This has been strongly reinforced as genAI use spreads and increases. The Wikipedia assignment is an invaluable learning experience for students because it gives them real world experience collaborating with others and sharing their research with the public.

In the context of AI, how does the Wikipedia assignment compare to a traditional assignment?

I used the Wikipedia assignment as a replacement for a literature review-style essay because both emphasize research synthesis over explicit argumentation. As a form of public writing, Wikipedia assignments are much more relevant to students. The responsibility of accurately sharing information with the public makes this both a higher stakes and more rewarding assignment than a traditional research assignment that is produced only for professors. Because the Wikipedia community demands human-generated content, students are more likely to take this seriously, rather than a traditional assignment whose rules and expectations are only established and enforced by the instructor. 

Were there any moments this term where student work was flagged as potential AI text, and it became a learning opportunity?

As an instructor, I’ve learned a lot about students’ understanding of what “using genAI” is through the flagging. I teach first-year students and they often have an unclear idea of what constitutes using genAI in writing and sometimes very different ideas than I do. Being able to have conversations with students about how they are and are not to use genAI helps me learn about how genAI is being used and discussed in their other courses, disciplines, and the wider world. I would say I’ve learned just as much as students have through this process.

Did you notice any shift in how your students thought about knowledge production and AI throughout the project?

I pair the Wikipedia assignment with library sessions focused on the concept of research as a conversation. Together, these help students understand that research is an ongoing process that incorporates multiple viewpoints, rather than a task to be completed once to find sources that support your existing viewpoint. The emphasis on citation on Wikipedia also helps students understand the value of knowing where your information is coming from. When other Wikipedians flag their sources as low quality, they learn how seriously they need to examine their sources, which can be really difficult given the ever-expanding media landscape.

What advice would you give to a professor incorporating a Wikipedia assignment for the first time?

Go for it! Don’t be afraid. Learn with your students. In terms of genAI and Wikipedia, take the time to talk to your students about what genAI is and why it is not used on Wikipedia. Be clear about how the genAI detectors work, why they are being used by Wiki Education, and how you will respond to text being flagged. There is so much anxiety and confusion about genAI and genAI detectors, so it is important to not let this erode trust between instructors and students.

---

Learn more about how Wiki Education handles generative AI usage, why verifiability remains a top concern, and what we’re doing moving forward in this recent blog post.

Interested in incorporating a Wikipedia assignment into your course? Visit teach.wikiedu.org to learn more about the free resources, digital tools, and staff support that Wiki Education offers to postsecondary instructors in the United States and Canada.

Want to learn more about AI and Wikipedia? Our next edition of our Speaker Series is themed around just that, and will feature Dr. James as a panelist! Save the date: Wednesday, September 2, at 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern. Sign up to be notified about this webinar and future Speaker Series events at www.wikiedu.org/speaker-series

On Diff, the aggregator for Wikimedia news, a case was made to support sign languages particularly for Wiktionary. Sign languages are used to communicate, there are many hundreds of sign languages, only half the people who know how to sign are deaf. There is one writing system, SignWriting that can be used for all sign languages.

There are a few misconceptions in the Wiktionary proposal; with over 300 sign languages, there is a potential for over 300 translations for each concept. Sign languages are not to be linked to countries; there are countries with multiple indigenous sign languages. All languages have their own ISO-639 language code the same, ase for instance is the code for American Sign Language. 

The characters of the SignWriting script are included in the same standard that includes all other scripts like Cyrillic or Devangari. The consequence is that as your computer supports UNICODE, your computer will be able to show texts written in SignWriting when you have a supporting font. At that Google may be your friend with its Noto Sans font and the Wikimedia Foundation may provision readers of its projects content.

A decade ago, there was a concerted effort from within the SignWriting movement to have Wikipedias in multiple sign languages. Much of what transpired can still be read on my blog. At the time the Wikimedia Foundation did not have the bandwidth to support the technical requirements in MediaWiki. It is why the deaf who express themselves with their sign language have no platform within the Wikimedia Foundation.

Thanks,

        GerardM

Paris, France, 22 July 2026 — This week, Paris hosts Wikimania 2026, the twenty-first edition of the flagship annual conference that celebrates Wikipedia, Wikimedia projects, and the global community of volunteers (Wikimedians) who make them possible. Taking place from 21–25 July 2026, this marks the first time the annual gathering is hosted in France with more than1,200 anticipated attendees in-person from around the world. This edition of Wikimania is hosted by Wikimedia France; WikiFranca; and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects.

The conference comes at a historic moment for the website, as Wikipedia celebrated its 25th birthday in January, marking a quarter-century of free, trusted, and human-built knowledge for the world. Created in 2001, Wikipedia has grown into one of the most popular and trusted websites in the world, with more than 67 million articles across over 300 languages. Every month, nearly 250,000 volunteers contribute their time to create, improve, and curate information across Wikipedia. Through an open, transparent, and collaborative process, volunteers work to ensure that knowledge remains neutral, reliable, and accessible to everyone.

The theme of Wikimania 2026, “Liberté, Équité, Fiabilité” (Freedom, Equity, Reliability), will guide discussions on the future of free knowledge at a time when artificial intelligence, disinformation, online trust, and access to information are reshaping the digital landscape.

“As Wikipedia celebrates 25 years, we’re entering a new era for knowledge. Artificial intelligence is transforming how people discover and consume information, making human collaboration more essential than ever,” said Bernadette Meehan, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Wikimania is a venue to celebrate the human endeavor that makes Wikipedia possible: the thousands of volunteers who work together across borders to create, improve, and steward information the world can rely on.”

“Wikimedia France is pleased to host Wikimania 2026, the world’s largest gathering of contributors, researchers, and advocates of free knowledge,” said Rémy Gerbet, Executive Director of  Wikimedia France. “At a time when our information ecosystem is facing unprecedented challenges, this year’s conference will serve as a key forum for reaffirming the digital commons as an essential foundation for technological sovereignty and trustworthy information. We demonstrate that a decentralized movement fostering community autonomy is a guarantee of resilience and innovation; we have proven this over the past 25 years and will continue to do so in the future.”

Across five days, the Wikimania programme will include keynote sessions, workshops, community meet-ups, policy discussions, cultural events, and technical collaborations focused on the Wikimedia projects and the wider digital knowledge ecosystem.

Programme highlights include:

• Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary: Sessions reflecting on how Wikipedia has evolved from an experimental online encyclopedia into a global public resource, and what the next 25 years of free knowledge may look like.  
• Wikipedia in the age of AI: Discussions on how generative AI is changing the way people search for and consume information, and how Wikimedia projects can continue to support reliable, human-centred knowledge online.
• The Wikimedian of the Year Awards: Presented by Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, these awards recognise exceptional volunteer contributors from across the Wikimedia movement.
• Public policy and digital rights: Conversations on online safety, content reuse and attribution, privacy, open-source technology, and the role of digital public goods in democratic societies.
• The Wikimedia community in France: Sessions and activities highlighting the work of local volunteers, cultural institutions, and partners who contribute to the growth of free knowledge in France and beyond.
• Wikipedia Puzzle globe activation: As we continue to celebrate Wikipedia’s 25th birthday year, volunteers will create a one-of-a-kind 100 m² puzzle made up of nearly 950 pieces, forming the iconic Wikipedia globe. This will be one of the largest puzzles to ever be built in France.
• UNESCO Keynote: Mariya Gabriel, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO, will deliver a keynote address at Wikimania 2026 about the value of open knowledge as a global public good.
• The Team Challenges Wikimania Hackathon: Professionals from all backgrounds will collaborate on ten key technical challenges that directly address the complex problems encountered daily on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. 

Wikimania 2026 will be offered in a hybrid format, offering an opportunity  for a global audience to engage in the rich discussions in-person and virtually. To ensure participation of people from various countries, the conference will be translated into multiple languages including Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.  The event will also be available to watch live on virtual streaming platforms. Follow the event on social media using #Wikimania2026. The full programme for Wikimania 2026 is available online.

For media inquiries, please contact press@wikimedia.org.

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About Wikimania

Wikimania is the annual gathering that brings together the global community of volunteers who make Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects possible. It is a space for Wikimedians to connect, share ideas, learn from one another, and shape the future of free knowledge. The first Wikimania was held in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2005, and the event has since become the flagship international conference of the Wikimedia movement.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. We support the people, technology, and policies that enable reliable information to be shared with the world. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA. Visit our website to learn more about the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia.

About Wikimedia France

Wikimedia France is the non-profit organization that develops and promotes Wikimedia’s free knowledge projects, including Wikipedia, across France. Its mission is to enable everyone to freely access and contribute to the sum of all knowledge. To defend a collaborative, open, and alternative web, the association conducts national advocacy for digital commons. It builds cultural, scientific, and educational partnerships, while providing logistical, legal, and human support to its community of thousands of volunteers. Active for over 20 years, Wikimedia France works to make free knowledge an essential pillar of democracy.

About WikiFranca

WikiFranca is the Wikimedian association that brings together various French-speaking groups, both formal and informal, of the Wikimedia Movement. WikiFranca currently brings together 27 member groups from 3 continents. Its aim is to encourage activities in French on the various Wikimedia Projects, both online and in the field, and to promote collaboration and cooperation between French-speaking Wikimedians around the world, by offering support for their activities or organizing collaborative international projects.

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