Jakarta has long been a meeting point, from the era of Sunda Kelapa to Batavia. For centuries, the city served as a port where cultures from across the Indonesian archipelago came together.

Together with Hzu Hzu, Affandy Murad, Bangrapip, Kume Gucci, and Li Ersha, the Wikimedia Jakarta Community began the WikiRempah program initiated by Ana Ainina, Supardi Sahabu, and Sofi Solihah. 

Oceanmuse | CC-BY SA 4.0

WikiRempah is an initiative funded through the Wikimedia Foundation‘s Rapid Funds program and carried out in collaboration with communities supported by Wikimedia Indonesia.

Working alongside local communities across Indonesia, the initiative consists of field documentation, article development, dictionary entries, and recordings of local dialects, all of which will be made openly accessible through Wikimedia projects.

Far from Maluku, Yet Its Flavors Can Still Be Found in Jakarta

The presence of Maluku restaurants in Jakarta gave us an opportunity to introduce the richness of Maluku’s spices to more people without geographical barriers.

Behind every dish lies the story of spices that connected Maluku with the rest of the world. From Batavia, these journeys were documented through expeditions to Eastern Indonesia beginning in the sixteenth century.

Those expeditions trace their roots to Moloku Kie Raha, meaning the Four Mountains of Maluku, a name referring to the four historic sultanates of Ternate, Tidore, Jailolo, and Bacan.

How to Eat Papeda, a Traditional Maluku-Papua Dish | Affandy Murad, CC-BY-SA-4.0

From these islands, cloves and nutmeg linked the Indonesian archipelago with Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, shaping political, economic, and cultural relationships that extended far beyond the islands themselves.

During the meetup, contributors began writing Betawi Wikipedia articles about historical sites in Eastern Indonesia, documenting spice-related vocabulary in the Betawi Wiktionary, and compiling traditional recipes from the Spice Islands for Betawi Wikibooks.

Building Leadership Through Shared Trust

One aspect I truly appreciated throughout this project was the trust entrusted to me by the project lead, Ana Ainina. I was given the freedom to explore ideas, develop new approaches, and received full support that allowed the community meetup to exceed its original goals.

That trust also gave me the opportunity to look at the project from a broader perspective. Preparing for the expedition was not simply about organizing activities, it became a process of ensuring that every effort remained aligned with WikiRempah’s broader mission.

Once that foundation was established, responsibility for organizing the meetup was delegated to the local coordinator, who managed participant coordination, venue selection, and on-site implementation.

This distribution of responsibilities reflects how the Wikimedia Jakarta Community works. The community does not rely on a single individual; instead, each member is trusted to take ownership of their respective role.

Some coordinated participants, others prepared learning materials, documented the activities, or compiled lists of articles and documentation to be developed. Delegating responsibilities created opportunities for every contributor to help keep the entire process moving forward.

One thing became immediately clear during the preparation in Jakarta: everything moved quickly. Within less than a day, participants had been gathered, shared commitments were established, and both the venue and schedule had been agreed upon.

This strong teamwork became especially important while other contributors were already working in Maluku. From Jakarta, the community continued supporting the expedition by processing documentation, improving Wikimedia articles, and publishing updates about the project.

Looking back, the journey did not begin when the flight departed for Ternate. It began much earlier, when the team started working together in Jakarta, the city’s role was not merely as a departure point, but as the place where collaboration first took shape.

In this way, every member of the WikiRempah team and the Wikimedia Jakarta Community became part of the same mission: building open knowledge about the cultural heritage of Eastern Indonesia through community collaboration.

Wikimania 2026 brought the Wikimedia community together in Paris, and EduWiki was part of the week with two sessions centred on education.

On 22 July, the panel on AI and Wikipedia in Education: Opportunities, Ethics, and Equity in Practice brought 60 educators and Wikimedia programme leaders together to discuss how artificial intelligence is already affecting teaching and learning. On 24 July, the EduWiki Hub held its first in-person workshop, where 30 participants worked in groups of five to design impactful Wikimedia education activities around real situations in the Wikimedia and Education ecosystem.

Both sessions drew from experiences people are already having in classrooms, programmes, and Wikimedia communities.

AI and Wikipedia in Education

Around 60 participants joined AI and Wikipedia in Education: Opportunities, Ethics, and Equity in Practice.

Moderated by Filip Maljković, the panel featured Jackie Bucio from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, LiAnna Davis from Wiki Education, and Luisina Ferrante from Wikimedia Argentina.

Much of the discussion focused on AI literacy and the skills students need as generative AI becomes increasingly present in education. Panelists spoke about helping learners understand how these systems work, recognise their limitations, and evaluate the information they generate.

Jackie shared how generative AI is being incorporated into university learning environments to support research and source discovery. She also spoke about interviews with students that are helping educators understand how learners interact with AI and formulate prompts.

LiAnna shared experiences from Wiki Education’s work monitoring AI-generated content on English Wikipedia. Using Pangram, a tool that helps identify AI-generated text and potential plagiarism, she discussed the challenges of AI-generated citations and the importance of checking sources carefully.

This experience has also informed how Wiki Education approaches AI with students. AI can support parts of the research process, including identifying missing perspectives, finding potential resources, and improving categorisation. Verification remains especially important when information or sources have been suggested by generative AI.

The session included practical ideas that educators can bring into learning environments. Students can fact-check AI-generated responses, compare them with Wikipedia articles, examine differences between Wikipedia language editions, and evaluate generated information using reliable sources.

Luisina spoke about the uneven adoption of AI across regions and the importance of building educators’ capacity to understand and use these tools. She also highlighted Wikipedia’s usefulness for helping students examine different perspectives, identify gaps in knowledge, and recognize bias in AI-generated information.

The audience brought their own experiences into the discussion. One participant shared that some newcomers find creating an entirely new Wikipedia article easier than improving an existing one, which led to further discussion about newcomer experiences and responsible AI use within editing workflows.

Participants also learned about Paste Check, an initiative developed by the Wikimedia Foundation Product team that helps flag pasted or AI-generated content during editing.

The session gave educators and Wikimedians room to share what they are already seeing as AI becomes part of how students research and interact with information, and to consider how Wikimedia education programmes can respond.

Watch the session recording: Recording link

Bringing the EduWiki Workshop into the room

Two days later, we hosted Using Wikimedia in Education: A Practical Workshop by the EduWiki Hub.

This was a special edition of the EduWiki Workshop series. Previous workshops had connected participants virtually from different parts of the world. At Wikimania, we held the series in person for the first time.

The session was facilitated by the EduWiki Hub team together with the Wikimedia Brasil team and focused on challenges that educators, librarians, affiliates, and community organisers encounter when developing Wikimedia education initiatives.

Participants were divided into groups and given story cards based on different educational scenarios. Four scenarios were used during the workshop, and each group had to work with the situation in front of them and develop an activity that could respond to it.

The process began with understanding the context. Groups identified the educational challenge they wanted to address and considered how Wikimedia could fit into that setting. From there, they developed an activity, thought about who would participate and what they would need, and worked through how the idea could be implemented.

The groups produced different responses to the scenarios. Ideas included translation activities, using Wikimedia Commons andWiktionary within education, and introducing secondary school students to contributing to Wikipedia.

Participants also identified some of the practical considerations that would shape their ideas, including access to trainers, internet connectivity, learning materials, partnerships, funding, outreach, and continued support.

At the end, each group presented a pitch of the solution it had developed.

Finding the right support for an idea

As part of the exercise, groups were asked to identify at least one EduWiki Hub service that could support the activity they had designed.

Some services appeared repeatedly across the room.

EduWiki Mentorship was identified by several groups as useful for accessing guidance and support while developing an initiative. Participants also highlighted EduWiki Workshops and Knowledge Showcases as opportunities to continue learning from other programmes and practitioners. Open Educational Resources (OER) were another recurring choice, particularly for groups thinking about resources that could be used or adapted within their activities.

Seeing these services emerge from the group work gave us an opportunity to understand how participants might use them in response to challenges within their own education programmes.

The pitches also gave everyone in the room a chance to hear how the same design process could produce very different activities depending on the educational context.

Find the resources of the workshop, including the session recording on our Resources page

Connecting with other Wikimedia Hubs

The EduWiki Hub’s Wikimania activities also included participation in the Wikimedia Hubs Meetup, which brought together representatives from different hubs across the movement.

The EduWiki Hub team had an opportunity to share more about the Hub’s work and its progress during its pilot period, while also learning about the approaches being taken by other hubs. The discussion provided space to exchange experiences and consider how hubs can remain connected between major Wikimedia events.

One suggestion from the meeting was to explore quarterly opportunities for hubs to connect and continue sharing experiences, rather than relying mainly on in-person gatherings at international events.

Taking the ideas beyond Wikimania

Our time at Wikimania gave us an opportunity to engage with education at different stages.

The AI panel brought experiences from education programmes into a discussion that is becoming increasingly relevant to educators and learners. The workshop put participants in charge of developing their own responses to education scenarios and thinking through what it would take to implement them.

For the EduWiki Hub, Wikimania also marked the first time our workshop series moved from Zoom into a physical room. Participants could sit around the same tables, work directly on ideas together, and share what they developed with everyone in the room.

Beyond the public sessions, the EduWiki Hub team also used the week to coordinate upcoming activities and discuss the Hub’s evaluation, during our offline team meeting.

Thank you to Wikimedia Brasil for facilitating the workshop with the EduWiki Hub team, to Filip Maljković, Jackie Bucio, LiAnna Davis, and Luisina Ferrante for the AI and education discussion, and to everyone who joined both sessions and contributed their experiences and ideas.

We left Paris with plenty to build on, including the activities participants designed during our first in-person workshop, the questions and experiences shared during the AI panel, and new connections with other Wikimedia Hubs.

Get involved!

The EduWiki Hub invites you to take part in its growing initiatives:

Join the EduWiki community

Submit your Wikimedia education story to the Education Newsroom by the 26th of every month

Follow EduWiki Hub on social media Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Subscribe to the Education Newsletter to have This Month in Education delivered to you: Here

Explore the Hub’s monthly Open Educational Resources documentation

Collaborate with the Hub by contacting eduwikiug@gmail.com

06/08/2026-12/08/2026

Mapping

• SherbetS has proposed craft=meat_processing for small-scale facilities where hunters or animal owners bring a carcass to be cut into meat, as distinct from shop=butcher or industrial=slaughterhouse. RFC voting started on 30 July. The proposal grew out of an earlier discussion on how to tag deer processors, where commenters debated craft=butcher, man_made=works, and various animal-specific alternatives before settling on the more general wording. In the RFC thread, several contributors argued that craft=butcher would fit just as well and that ‘meat processing’ sounds too industrial in British English, while others worried the new tag could end up being used for large commercial plants too.
• Joost Schouppe started a discussion on differentiating police forces by government level (municipal, regional, national, gendarmerie, street warden), which grew into a formal RFC. The proposal defines police:branch=* with four values: gendarmerie, national_police, regional_police, and local_police, to classify which government level operates a police feature, alongside a separate police:specialisation key for topics like traffic or canine units. In the RFC thread, commenters questioned the ‘branch’ naming and whether four generic values can fit countries with far more complex police structures, such as Germany or Italy. The OSM Wiki Proposals account tooted that voting had opened, but Schouppe cancelled it a day later after reviewers asked for country examples and clearer definitions, sending both keys back to RFC.The OSM Wiki Proposals account tooted that voting had opened on fanfouer’s service supplies proposal. The proposal introduces line_management=service_supply to mark nodes where an individual household’s service drop or lateral taps a main utility line, plus an occupancy=* key to count connected supplies without mapping each one. The voting runs until 30 August. The idea was first floated a year ago as a way to ease mapping of overhead wires in dense residential streets, and the proposal has since been fleshed out with examples for power and telecommunications. Early votes are split with one voter having opposed extending line_management to non-power utilities before a separate pipeline proposal exists, while another approved it as filling a real gap.

Mapping campaigns

• The OpenStreetMap Colombia Community is organising and coordinating on-the-ground mapping to identify damaged or destroyed buildings in the area affected by the earthquake in San Jose del Palmar (Colombia), with the support of UN Mappers and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). Emílio Mariscal has created a web map using uMap to support the mapping campaign, which is using the Chat Map. There are projects for collaborative mapping on the HOT Tasking Manager: #61980, #61914, and # 61320.
• Semir Kahrimanovic has announced a new CompleteTheMap 2026 across Europe. New images from selected cities will be accepted from 10 August to 30 September with the sign-up deadline for entering the competition being 31 August.
• Italy’s OSM mapping community monthly project for August, ‘Restrizioni, Direzioni e cartelli’, is focusing on improving information on how to get to various places by including details for road navigation and better routing.

Community

• OpenStreetMap celebrated its 22nd birthday on 9 August and some well-known contributors to the OSM ecosystem responded with kind messages on social media: Yasmila Herrera (via Héctor Ortiz), the OSM LatAm community, Raquel Dezidério with the YouthMappers UFRJ, Dorothea Kazazi, Anne-Karoline Distel, and luiseme.
• Melany Ventura, a UI/UX designer, is the Trufi Association’s new Featured Volunteer, improving Trufi’s OSM-based journey planner apps, and more.
• In the latest episode of the Geomob Podcast, Dennis Luxen joined the show to discuss the history, and the technical and community-driven development of the Open Source Routing Machine, an open-source routing engine used in OpenStreetMap.
• Christoph Hormann commented on the recent discussion in the OpenStreetMap community regarding corporate influence on the project.
• Rphyrin is conducting a personal mapping campaign to add geolocated images to their corresponding OSM objects using the image=* tag. The results so far are being showcased through an Overpass Ultra query in a Mastodon post thread.
• Valère Déjo published an article on La Remuante, ‘A new cycle path on the map’, focusing on the city of Saint-Étienne (France), which is introducing new cycle paths and offering the opportunity to map them in OSM using Panoramax.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• Grant Slater reported that he is physically installing a new OpenStreetMap tile render server in Dublin, kindly sponsored by QGIS, which is expected to make tile rendering faster on the GIS.

Events

• In the newest episode of the Projets Libres podcast, Benoît Peyon, a member of the organising committee for State of the Map 2026, was interviewed about the event.
• The 1st Global Convening on Informal and Shared Mobility (GloCon 2026) will take place in Bangkok from 26 to 28 October. OSM advocates can meet thought leaders improving transport systems worldwide.
• On 12 August the HOT Asia Pacific Hub held its quarterly Regional Mapathon Asia-Pacific. During the event they announced several upcoming Open Mapping Guru Pro+ events in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal, and India, and the upcoming October–November 2026 Open Mapping Guru Network recruitment cycle. You can read more details.
• Wikimedia Italia reported ► that the University of Trento, together with GFOSS.it, hosted FOSS4G-IT and OSMit 2026 from 9 to 11 July.

Maps

• Björn showcased Hoscy, a web map where users can compare prices at ad-hoc EV charging stations. Here, ‘ad-hoc charging’ means EV charging where you pay as you go without having a contract, subscription, or membership with the charging network.
• Jvaclavik announced the release of OpenClimbing 2.0, an open-source climbing guide built on OpenStreetMap and other open data. Since 2023, the OpenClimbing project has been developed alongside OsmAPP in a shared codebase, but the developers recently decided to fork it into a separate repository.
• Nicofr77 has combined OpenStreetMap cycle route data, with the official French cycle route reference, to identify bike-and-train loops between two stations, allowing people to cycle one way and return ► by train.
• Dieter Petereit reported ► that a Norwegian developer, operating under the pseudonym ‘Flightmussy_CEO’, is currently developing World Train Map, a curated atlas of notable passenger rail routes around the world, which currently showcases 1,269 railway routes.
• Renaud Zi has developed a free tool that simulates the recent solar eclipse for any location in Europe. It combines building and forest data from OSM with NASA data. It has been pointed out on the forum that a licence is missing, and that strictly speaking, the code that is available for viewing may not be freely reused.

OSM in action

• Pit Stop App is a mobile app that shows petrol stations, restaurants, accommodation, and must-see attractions at every exit ahead on America’s interstate highways. Powered by OpenStreetMap data, the app determines which interstate you’re on and the direction you’re travelling, then lists everything available at upcoming exits, sorted by the order in which you’ll reach them.

Software

• [1] Matt Whilden has developed ‘OSM Vexillophile’, a web app that helps OSM users complete all the flags on their ‘How Did You Contribute?’ page by finding MapRoulette, Osmose, or HOT Tasking Manager tasks in countries where they are still missing a flag.
• Devinius has built Knudli, a Flutter app that helps users discover playgrounds using OpenStreetMap data.

Programming

• Sarah Hoffmann announced, on the OSM Community forum, that she has lowered limits for clients to be automatically banned on overpass-api.de. She is going to ban apps completely if they receive a high number of HTTP 429 (Too many requests) or are hosted on a fast-deployment platform.
• Benjamin Altpeter has developed scripts to convert the iD editor’s presets for OpenStreetMap into JOSM presets. This lets users take advantage of JOSM’s powerful advanced features, while still benefiting from the familiar terms and aliases provided by iD presets, making it much easier to find the right preset, even if they don’t already know the correct OpenStreetMap tag.

Releases

• The team behind the OSM website are back with a recap of the latest changes. The month of July and a bit of August include an all-new notifications page, offering an alternative to the usual emails about new comments, followers, GPX uploads, notes, and diaries. Work has also be done to improve database backups, which in turn benefits the generation of weekly planet files. Moderators can now define zones with disabled anonymous notes themselves.
• Martin Raifer released OpenStreetMap iD version 2.42.0.
• Pavel Zbytovský announced the release of OsmAPP versions 1.8.0 and 1.9.0.
• Anders has announced there is a new beta version of the Mapillary app, which includes two new layers: ‘Best captures’ and ‘Captures needed’, new filters, and the option to display traffic signs and POI features on the map.

Did you know that …

• … Sybren A Stüvel recently learned about Touch Mapper? This is a web app that uses OpenStreetMap data to create printable 3D models of an area, allowing people with little or no vision to literally get a feel for the place.
• … Alex Hoferek presented the results of his research, on the profile of OSM corporate editors, at State of the Map 2024? The presentation details the characteristics of their activities, such as length of employment time and the most commonly mapped feature types, as well as the challenges these contributors faced in participating in the OSM ecosystem.
• … the ‘Sustainable Digitalisation’ community of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety, in collaboration with Wikimedia Germany and the Action Alliance for New Social Media, has published a practical guide titled ‘Free Knowledge’? Among other things, the guide introduces OpenStreetMap, and highlights various resources and ways to contribute to OSM.

OSM in the media

• In an interview with Heise, OSM contributor Bastian Greshake Tzovaras talked about how OpenStreetMap differs from commercial map providers and which niche OSM fills.
• Keith Storm explained his ‘Run Greenville Project‘, a personal project to run every road and trail in Greenville County, South Carolina, USA, using the Wandrer app, which relies on OpenStreetMap data. He shared various remarkable experiences from the project, including getting featured by a local news station, becoming involved in a dispute with locals who were not particularly fond of strangers, discovering various historical sites, being swarmed by unidentified animals that eventually led him to undergo a full series of rabies vaccinations, and even encountering traces of crime scenes.

Other “geo” things

• Nigeria’s crude oil brings prosperity, but also environmental destruction and poverty. The book Black Gold: a blessing or a curse?, by Igbanibo Kubulaemugh Divine, used satellite data and real-life examples to reveal this downside.
• Through the UN Maps Learning Hub, UN Mappers is offering a self-training platform accessible to anyone and have released a new free QGIS training course.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	Venue	What	When
		Hochschule Rhein-Sieg	OSM auf der FrOSCon 2026 in Sankt Augustin	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
	Hannover	Hannover Congress Centrum	OSM auf der Maker Faire Hannover 2026	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
		Stadt- und Waagenmuseum Oschatz	Kartenwerkstatt Oschatz	2026-08-16
			OSM Chennai Mapping Party – Tambaram Market	2026-08-16
	Braunschweig	Stratum 0	Braunschweiger Mappertreffen im Stratum 0 Hackerspace	2026-08-18
			Missing Maps London Mid-Month for Advanced Mappers (no training provided) (Online) [eng]	2026-08-18
	Magdeburg	Netz39 e.V. , Leibnizstraße 32, 39104 Magdeburg	3. OSM Stammtisch Magdeburg	2026-08-18
	Bonn	Dotty’s	203. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn	2026-08-18
	Chemnitz	Kaffeesatz, Chemnitz	OSM-Stammtisch Chemnitz	2026-08-18
	Derby	The Brunswick, Railway Terrace, Derby	East Midlands pub meet-up	2026-08-18
		Online	Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online)	2026-08-18
	Karlsruhe	Vogelbräu Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe	2026-08-19
	Amsterdam	TomTom HQ	Maptime Amsterdam: 2026 Summertime Maptime	2026-08-20
	Potsdam	MachBar	Potsdamer Mappertreffen × 218. OSM-Stammtisch Berlin-Brandenburg	2026-08-21
	Stadtgebiet Bremen	Online und im Hackerspace Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen	2026-08-24
	Berlin	Online	OSM-Verkehrswende #78	2026-08-25
	Düsseldorf	Online bei https://meet.jit.si/OSM-DUS-2026	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)	2026-08-26
	Würzburg	FabLab Würzburg	Würzburger OSM-Treffen	2026-08-26
	Wien	Schlupfwinkel (Kleine Neugasse 10, 1040 Wien)	79. Wiener OSM-Stammtisch	2026-08-26
			OpenStreetMap West Bengal Mapping Party + AnkushTheHero Day	2026-08-27
		Cité Descartes	State of the Map 2026	2026-08-28 – 2026-08-30
	Essen	Verkehrs- und Umweltzentrum	Essen OSM-Treffen	2026-08-28
	Hannover	Kuriosum	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover	2026-08-31
	Hannover	Kuriosum	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover	2026-08-31
	Heidelberg	DEZERNAT#16	Rhein-Neckar OSM Treffen	2026-08-31

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 MarcoR, MatthiasMatthias, Nakaner, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, Ted Johnson, Andrew Davidson, barefootstache, derFred.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

In the world of the open Wikimedia movement, we often find ourselves trapped in metrics: how many thousands of new articles were created this week? But what is the value of thousands of articles if they end up as a “fleeting glimpse of shallow information”—consisting of merely two stub paragraphs with minimal citations?

Wiki Batu Basurek

In this project (batu basurek is the Minangkabau term for ancient inscriptions), we chose a more challenging path: focusing on quality. We completed and enriched stub articles about 13th and 14th-century inscriptions in West Sumatra province, Indonesia, transforming them from basic two-paragraph stubs into comprehensive documentation—complete with transliteration, historical analysis, verified academic references, and updated photography.

When Wikipedia Becomes the Last Line of Defense

Why is documenting these inscriptions so crucial? The answer lies in the field.

While conducting field surveys in preparation for our projects, we encountered a stark contrast. On one hand, some cultural heritage sites are neatly maintained and well-managed. On the other hand, there are historical sites standing isolated in the middle of rice paddies, weathering away with neglected information boards, and vulnerable to the erosion of time.

When public attention and physical heritage face the threat of fading due to neglect, accurate digital documentation on Wikipedia becomes the last line of defense. If we do not document and verify them today, these traces of civilization could vanish forever or slip into prolonged obscurity. It would be a profound loss if such valuable knowledge remained restricted only to specialists.

The Peer-Mentorship Model: The Secret Recipe of Our Collaboration

Transforming a stub article into a high-standard reference piece is no easy task for new editors. The key to the success of Wiki Batu Basurek lies in the role of the core organizers acting as “chief editors,” alongside a peer-mentorship system that pairs newcomer volunteers with experienced editors across communities (Wikimedia Jakarta and Wikimedia Padang).

The core organizers did not simply invite volunteers to edit; they prepared a comprehensive “ammo kit” prior to the events:

• Partnership and Permitting: Establishing collaboration with a government agency for cultural heritage preservation (the West Sum
• atra Cultural Heritage Agency) that oversees the inscription sites (the Adityawarman Inscription Complex and the Ponggongan site) to secure access permits and documentation rights.

• Digitalization and Reference Curation: Aggregating hard-to-find references—such as epigraphy guidebooks and academic journals—into a shared repository.

• Structural Drafting Guides: Providing standardized editing templates covering discovery context, transliteration, translation, and reference lists.

• High-Quality Photo Repository: Uploading high-resolution, updated visual documentation from field visits directly to Wikimedia Commons.

Equipped with this kit, new editors no longer felt overwhelmed in front of a blank screen. They worked side-by-side in small groups to analyze references. The result? Article quality improved significantly, and community writing capacity grew rapidly.

Moving Forward: Wiki Prasasti

Currently, we are submitting the proposal for Wiki Prasasti (prasasti is the Indonesian term for ancient inscriptions) through the Wikimedia Foundation’s Rapid Fund. This follow-up project aims to expand our mission to the historical regions of Banten, Bogor, and Jakarta, on Java island.

We want to prove that article-writing projects do not always have to be content factories driven solely by quantity. Instead, they can serve as “guardians of civilization’s collective memory” through high-quality, comprehensive articles that inform the wider public. We hope this initiative inspires Wikimedia communities in Indonesia and around the world to continuously emphasize quality and depth of coverage in their future writing projects.

On August 16, 2025, our community gathered at the SeedSpace hall on the 7th floor of Tanzanite Park, Victoria. True to the venue’s name, that day marked the planting of a crucial seed: a collective effort to revitalize and expand the Swahili Wiktionary.

On that unforgettable day for the Wikimedia movement in Tanzania, the Jenga Wikipedia ya Kiswahili affiliate community committed to an ambitious target: to reach 100,000 entries by August 16, 2026. At the launch of this vision, the Wiktionary statistics banner stood at just 15,926 entries. Through targeted campaign efforts alone, our contributors generated over 11,300 entries—a testament to absolute dedication and a shared resolve to advance open knowledge in Swahili. View full report on Meta: Jenga Wikipedia ya Kiswahili/Report 2025— 2026 – Meta-Wiki

Our initial strategy relied on a structured rotation across Wikimedia platforms—dedicating one month to Wikipedia and the next to Wiktionary. We sustained this momentum from June 2025 through April 11, 2026, when we officially joined forces with the Wikimedians of Arusha Community User Group.

This strategic partnership provided a vital boost to our Wiktionary pipeline. We maintained an unrelenting pace, moving seamlessly from event to event and driving growth across all fronts to ensure we hit our six-figure target by this historic date.

Today, the dream we dared to envision has officially become reality. We have crossed the threshold with a total of 100,002 entries (view our milestone documentation here: https://sw.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Matukio_ya_hivi_karibuni).

Transforming ambitious vision into tangible reality requires extraordinary team commitment. Warm congratulations to the entire Jenga Wikipedia ya Kiswahili team and our partners, including Muddyb, Aneth, Bycashtz, Riccardo, ChriKo, Tuma Mwenda, Sci-Fusion, Elizabeth Samwel, Alex Rweyemamu, Babu Monte, Said Mfaume, Bhoketz, Gunda2026, Katanga Selemani, Ngwana Mwanza, Nyaluhanga, MhandoKy, Nshala Masele, Mabula255, Magesa125, Ngwanamalundi, Nyalukasa, ShijaOne, NgwanduBoy, Sengi Duru, Dudumizi Irene, Keituga Said, Kisinga123, AHMADI SAIDI SAIDI, DANIEL FAIDA JOHN, Haitham Mwalimu Haji, and Halima Nurdin Mwadau, among many others.

As we look ahead to the coming year, our mission continues unabated: to reach 200,000 entries before August 2027. With our current momentum, we may well achieve this goal as early as April 2027!

Swahili Wiktionary Growth: The Data Behind Our 100K Milestone

Between April 8 and August 15, 2026, Swahili Wiktionary surged from 74,000 to 100,000 entries—adding 26,000 new entries in just 129 days.

Key Metrics:

• Daily Average: ~201.5 new entries per day
• Average Speed: 1,000 entries every 4.8 days
• Peak Momentum: May 11–14 (2,000 entries in just 3 days)

Growth Phases

• Phase 1: High-Speed Surge (April 8 – May 29)
  • Progress: 74,000 ➔ 91,000 entries (+17,000)
  • Pace: 1,000 entries every 3 days
• Phase 2: Steady Expansion (June 1 – July 13)
  • Progress: 91,000 ➔ 97,000 entries (+6,000)
  • Pace: 1,000 entries every 7.5 days
• Phase 3: The Final Push (July 13 – August 15)
  • Progress: 97,000 ➔ 100,000 entries (+3,000)
  • Pace: Crossing the finish line on August 15

Milestone Timeline

Respectfully submitted,

Muddyb

Jenga Wikipedia ya Kiswahili

Continuing our work in the wish #3 of the Lusophone Technological Wishlist within the 32nd round of Outreachy…

Over the past weeks, development focused on MediaWiki, Visual Editor and their core extension ecosystem. While the validation logic itself was initially expected to be straightforward, configuring the local ecosystem presented the first major complexity. Setting up VisualEditor, Citoid, and Cite locally required carefully identifying and setting up the exact suite of dependencies needed to replicate Wikipedia’s production environment.

Following mentor recommendations, the setup was built using a Wikimedia dockerized environment. To ensure accurate citation formatting and parsing, the following extensions were required to integrate:

• Cite, Citoid which are required to search, retrieve, and translate inputs (ISBN, DOI, or URL) into reference nodes.
• TemplateData, Scribunto, TemplateStyles to support structured citation template rendering.

A key learning in this initial stage was that a mismatch between Citoid’s expected metadata structure and the local template key identifiers causes a parsing failure. After fixing, the end-to-end debugging automation citation flow was ready to use. 

The next phase was development iterations and workflow progressions. The first ‘proof of concept’ successfully captured duplicate reference nodes within the Automatic Tab and displayed a prompt within the dialog. Then a direct redirect button was introduced to transfer users to the Re-Use tab. The initial patch was submitted to Gerrit for review. The feedback from mentors included establishing unit tests, fixing bugs and improving the validation logic. 

In collaboration with project mentors we explored different alternatives to resolve duplicates. One option was to resolve this duplicate in the active dialog instead of redirecting. This first attempt worked but ignored the option to add details in a reference. So, the flow was adjusted back to redirect to the Re-Use tab and enhanced to include the details information when present.

Wikimedia provides extensive documentation. Covering extension configuration, core file structures and navigating a high volume of technical resources was initially overwhelming. 

As part of the next steps and status at this stage, the patch for the VisualEditor duplicate reference validation is currently under review on Gerrit. While awaiting further feedback to polish this implementation, project efforts are transitioning to new objectives on the Lusophone wishlist, specifically wish #8.

It is expected a transition to work mainly on Python instead of Javascript and focus on reviewing the WikiScore project codebase and updating it to support Wikidata. Further updates on the patch status and the initial findings on WikiScore will be detailed in the next progress report. 

The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group successfully organized the Art and Feminism Writing Challenge 2026 across three of its active Wiki Hubs, namely the Bimbico Wiki Hub, the TACE Wiki Hub, and the BACE Wiki Hub. The challenge was held from July 19th to August 3rd, 2026, bringing together passionate volunteers who worked diligently to improve the coverage of women on Wikimedia platforms.

The challenge specifically focused on women in the healthcare sector. Participants created and improved articles about notable women whose work and achievements have made significant contributions to healthcare, medicine, nursing, public health, medical research, and related fields. Through this initiative, contributors helped address the gender gap in online knowledge by ensuring that the stories and accomplishments of these remarkable women were better documented and made freely accessible to people around the world.

The challenge also served as an opportunity for participants to strengthen their research, writing, referencing, and editing skills while contributing high-quality content to Wikimedia projects. Editors from the three Wiki Hubs worked with dedication and demonstrated that community collaboration remains one of the strongest pillars of the Wikimedia movement.

The contributions from each Wiki Hub can be explored through the links below:

• Bimbico Wiki Hub Articles
• TACE Wiki Hub Articles
• BACE Wiki Hub Articles

To recognize the commitment and outstanding performance of participants, the following prizes were awarded:

• 1st Prize: GH₵300.00
• 2nd Prize: GH₵250.00
• 3rd Prize: GH₵150.00
• Top Female Contributor: A special award was presented to the highest-performing female participant who did not place first, second, or third overall.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the DWUG Art and Feminism Editing Challenge 2026.

Bimbico Wiki Hub

• 1st Prize: Wattara Tizaabeni
• 2nd Prize: N-Nyeyam4
• 3rd Prize: Fawuzan Abdul Somed
• Top Female Contributor: Nasiba Haruna

BACE Wiki Hub

• 1st Prize: Samaru Samaru

TACE Wiki Hub

• 1st Prize: Abdul Gafaru100%
• 2nd Prize: Issah Rufai
• 3rd Prize: Phasy GH
• Top Female Contributor: Mbahayam

These awards recognized the time, effort, and dedication invested by participants throughout the competition. While only a few contributors received prizes, every participant made a valuable contribution to expanding free knowledge and improving the representation of women in health-related fields on Wikimedia platforms.

The Dagbani Wikimedians User Group extends its sincere appreciation to every participant from the Bimbico Wiki Hub, TACE Wiki Hub, and BACE Wiki Hub for embracing this challenge and contributing to its success. We also extend our gratitude to the facilitators and volunteers whose guidance and encouragement supported participants throughout the campaign.

The articles produced during the challenge stand as a lasting contribution to the Wikimedia movement. Every well-researched article helps preserve knowledge, increases the visibility of accomplished women in healthcare, and ensures that reliable information remains freely available to readers everywhere.

Congratulations once again to all the winners and participants. Your dedication, commitment, and contributions have strengthened Wikimedia projects and demonstrated the important role that community volunteers continue to play in documenting knowledge that matters. We thank everyone who supported the success of the Art and Feminism Writing Challenge 2026 and look forward to even greater achievements in future community initiatives.

This year, I had the opportunity to attend Wikimania 2026 through a scholarship provided by the Wikimedia User Group Uganda, which enabled me to participate in this global gathering of Wikimedians, connect with contributors from around the world, and learn about the many ways the Wikimedia movement is working to make knowledge accessible to everyone.

Beyond Connectivity: Keeping Wikipedia Within Reach

Among the many inspiring sessions I attended, one that stood out to me was “How to Use Wikipedia Offline: Offline Access Tools and Use Cases”. The session challenged my perception of Wikipedia by showing that free knowledge should not depend on an internet connection. I was introduced to offline tools such as Kiwix, which enables users to download Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects for offline use, and Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB), an open-source solution that creates local digital libraries using low-cost devices. Learning how these tools are being used in schools, remote communities, and other underserved areas demonstrated how Wikimedia continues to bridge the knowledge gap for people facing limited connectivity.

What inspired me most was seeing how technology can help bridge knowledge gaps. The session reflected the Wikimania 2026 themes of Freedom, Equity, and Reliability, reminding me that access to knowledge should not depend on where someone lives or whether they have internet access.

As someone passionate about technology and community impact, this session inspired me to think more about solutions that can help bridge digital gaps, especially in communities where access to information remains a challenge. It was a powerful reminder that the Wikimedia movement is not just building a collection of knowledge-it is working to make that knowledge available to everyone, everywhere.

Learning Never Stops in Wikimedia

Another session that expanded my perspective was “Three Things About Wikimedia That Even Experienced Wikimedians Might Not Know”, presented by Anton Protsiuk from Wikimedia Ukraine. Going into the session, I expected to learn a few interesting tips. Instead, I came away with a broader appreciation of how rich and constantly evolving the Wikimedia ecosystem is.

One lesson that stood out to me was that contributing to Wikimedia is a continuous learning journey. New tools, features, and workflows are constantly being developed, meaning that even experienced contributors benefit from exploring beyond the projects they use every day. This reminded me that curiosity is one of the most valuable qualities a Wikimedian can have.

The session also made me reflect on the importance of knowledge sharing within local communities. Sometimes valuable tools remain underused simply because contributors are unaware that they exist. Creating opportunities for experienced and new Wikimedians to learn from one another can strengthen the quality of contributions and make participation more enjoyable. It is an idea I hope to encourage within Wikimedia User Group Uganda through peer learning and community discussions.

Turning Contributors into Community Leaders

There was a kind of discussion that particularly resonated with my own leadership experience “Social Integration of the New Generations: How Do We Turn Casual Editors into Community Leaders?” The session shifted my perspective from simply attracting new contributors to thinking about how communities can intentionally support their long-term growth.The presenters emphasized that thriving Wikimedia communities are built through mentorship, inclusion, and creating opportunities for volunteers to take on meaningful responsibilities. Recruiting new editors is important, but retaining them requires helping them feel that they belong and that their contributions matter.

Having previously served in student leadership, I could easily relate to this idea. Strong communities do not grow by chance; they grow because people are encouraged, supported, and trusted to contribute. This session inspired me to think about how Wikimedia User Group Uganda can continue creating pathways for new contributors to develop confidence, participate more actively, and eventually become organizers, trainers, and community leaders themselves.

Reflecting on my Wikimania 2026 experience, I realized that although each session explored a different topic, they all shared a common message: free knowledge is sustained through both innovation and people. Offline access tools help ensure that knowledge reaches everyone, continuous learning helps contributors improve, and leadership development ensures that Wikimedia communities continue to grow equally.These lessons have encouraged me to think differently about my own contributions. I hope to promote awareness of offline Wikimedia tools where they can have the greatest impact, continue exploring the broader Wikimedia ecosystem, and support initiatives that help new contributors grow into active community members. It is about ensuring that knowledge remains accessible, empowering people to contribute, and building communities that will sustain free knowledge for generations to come.

Community Synergy in the Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0 Series

Developing and maintaining a regional language Wikipedia project always has its own challenges. However, it becomes a deeply meaningful journey when undertaken together. Some time ago, I had the opportunity to be a trainer in the WikiLatih Sundanese Wikipedia event held in Tasikmalaya.

This training is part of the Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0 series, an initiative supported by a Rapid Fund grant from the Wikimedia Foundation that specifically focuses on documenting cultural heritage in West Java and Banten, Indonesia. This event in Tasikmalaya felt very special because its implementation was the result of a close collaboration between two driving communities: the Wikimedia Bandung Community and the Kuluwung Community. The presence of the Kuluwung Community as a local partner provided tremendous energy in embracing the participants and ensuring the event ran smoothly.

Why West Java and Banten Cultural Heritage?

In line with the main objective of Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0, the focus of our training was to document various buildings, sites, and cultural heritage structures scattered across the West Java and Banten regions. The selection of this theme was not without reason. The West Java and Banten regions possess extraordinary historical and cultural wealth, but unfortunately, many historical sites or cultural heritages still lack adequate documentation or articles on the internet. Writing about these cultural heritages on the Sundanese Wikipedia serves a dual purpose: preserving the historical information of the sites while simultaneously maintaining the existence of the Sundanese language in the digital realm.

Training Dynamics: Enthusiasm and Challenges

As a trainer, standing in front of the participants in Tasikmalaya left a profound impression on me. The event was attended by around 15 participants with diverse backgrounds, ranging from university students, teachers, and local cultural activists, to high school students with an interest in writing. Their enthusiasm was palpable from the very beginning of the event.

Of course, transforming enthusiasm into an encyclopedic article comes with its own set of challenges. When the practical session began, I observed several obstacles that the participants had to face. The first challenge was the issue of references; the history of many local cultural heritages is primarily passed down orally, making it difficult to find reliable and verifiable written sources that meet Wikipedia’s standards. The second challenge was the language barrier. Writing in everyday Sundanese is certainly different from writing in a standard and neutral encyclopedic Sundanese. We had many discussions regarding the selection of appropriate equivalent words or technical terms. Moreover, in its daily use, the Sundanese language has a lot of diversity, commonly referred to as “Basa Sunda Wewengkon” (regional Sundanese dialects).

Celebrating Achievements and Future Hopes

Despite facing technical and language difficulties, the participants’ eagerness to learn successfully overcame these obstacles. As a trainer, the most satisfying moment was guiding them as they clicked the “Publish” (Terbitkeun) button for the first time.

Through this collaboration in Tasikmalaya, we successfully edited and initiated around 15 new articles about cultural heritage in West Java and Banten. Some of the articles successfully created and developed by the participants include Bumi Ageung Cikidang, Pendopo Tasikmalaya, and Masjid H. Bakri Tasikmalaya; for more details, you can visit Category:Artikel WikiLatih WCB 3.0.

This WikiLatih event is clear proof that synergy is the key to the Wikimedia movement. The support from Wikimedia Indonesia through Wiki Cagar Budaya 3.0, as well as the collaboration between the Wikimedia Bandung Community and the Kuluwung Community, has not only succeeded in enriching the article repository on the Sundanese Wikipedia but also in cultivating new seeds of volunteers.

It is my hope that this small step, which started in Tasikmalaya, does not stop here. Hopefully, in the future, more people will be moved to participate in preserving their cultural heritage and mother tongue through Wikimedia projects.

Urang lestarikeun budaya, urang majukeun basa Sunda! (Let’s preserve our culture, let’s advance the Sundanese language!)

Previously, I had attended several Wikimedia events in the ESEAP (East, Southeast Asia, and Pacific) region, such as the ESEAP Conference in Kota Kinabalu in 2024 and the ESEAP Strategy Summit 2025. At the ESEAP Conference in Kota Kinabalu, I was only familiar with the Kent Wiki Club, which is part of the Wikimedia Community User Group Malaysia. Therefore, I wasn’t entirely sure what my role would be. However, with the help of the organizers—and since Kota Kinabalu was the host city—I participated as a translator for the Kadazandusun language. At that time, I was grateful to have received full sponsorship. Similarly, at the 2025 ESEAP Strategy Summit held in Manila, I mostly served as an observer. Back then, I still felt shy and lacked the confidence to approach others. I had many questions I wanted to ask, but sometimes shyness made me choose to just listen. I saw the Wikimedia community as a large one, with many experienced contributors. I admired the passion of the Wikimedians, but I still felt small within that community. However, Wikimania Paris 2026 provided a different experience.

I came as a participant, but I left as part of the community

Before this, I viewed the conference as a place to attend sessions, listen to presentations, and take home new knowledge. However, during my time in Paris, I began to realize that Wikimania isn’t just about the sessions held in the conference halls. Behind every presentation and Wikimedia project are people with their own stories, experiences, and passions. I began to muster the courage to interact with other participants. I spoke with people from various countries, listened to their experiences, and shared a bit about my journey as a Wikimedian from Sabah involved in Wikimedia. Rather than just observing this community from the outside, I began to feel that my own experiences also had a place here.

A trial is not just about science, but about people

One of the most important things I learned at Wikimania Paris was the value of the connections made throughout the event. I used to think that the success of attending a conference lay in gaining as much knowledge as possible from the sessions. But in Paris, I realized that casual conversations, new encounters, and the relationships formed were also among the most meaningful parts of the experience. Every person I met had a different story to tell. Some had been contributing to Wikimedia for a long time, some worked in specific fields, and others, like me, were still learning and figuring out how to contribute. Although we came from different countries and cultures, we shared one common belief: that knowledge should be shared openly.

The moment that made me feel accepted

One of my most vivid memories from Wikimania Paris 2026 was when I joined the WikiChoir.

Standing in front of the Wikimedia community from around the world and singing with them gave me a feeling that’s hard to describe. At first, I came to Wikimania as someone who wanted to learn from this community. But by then, I no longer felt like a guest. I stood alongside them. I sang with them. I became a part of them. That moment made me realize that the Wikimedia community isn’t just about edits, articles, or digital projects. It’s also about people who share the same passion and give each other space to grow.

That feeling grew even stronger during the farewell ceremony. When it came time to say goodbye to friends I’d just met, I didn’t expect to feel so emotional. Even though we were together for only a short time, the experiences we shared made those connections feel meaningful. Watching one person after another say “bye” and leave the venue made me realize that Wikimania isn’t just an event we attend, but an experience that leaves a lasting impression.

This experience didn’t end in Paris

In the past, I might have viewed the opportunity to attend an international event as a personal achievement. However, after Wikimania Paris 2026, I began to see it as a responsibility. This experience shouldn’t end when I leave Paris. Instead, the knowledge, inspiration, and enthusiasm I’ve gained need to be brought back to the community in Malaysia. I want to share that anyone can be part of the Wikimedia movement. You don’t have to start with something big. Sometimes, a small edit, a shared image, or a tip shared with someone else can also make a difference.

Looking at Wikipedia from a New Perspective

After Wikimania Paris 2026, I no longer see Wikipedia as just a website. Now I see it as the result of human effort. Behind every article is a contributor who has dedicated their time. Behind every image is someone who wants to share a story. Behind every Wikimedia project is a community that believes knowledge should be accessible to everyone. From someone who used to be more of a silent observer, I’m now more confident in participating, sharing my experiences, and continuing to contribute to this community. Because ultimately, Wikimania isn’t just about the place we go to, but about who we become after that experience. Thank you, Wikimania Paris 2026!

On 20 and 27 June 2026, Wikimedia Ukraine held a forum for Ukrainian Wikipedia’s administrators and patrollers – one day online, one day in-person in Kyiv. Around 30 people took part across the two weekends: about 20 joined the online day, 18 came to Kyiv, and a few did both.

It was our second such event after an online forum in 2021 – and the first one since we’ve launched a full-fledged program of support for users with extended rights. Here’s a brief look at how the forum came about and how it looked like.

Why we’re doing this

Ukrainian Wikipedia has around 50 administrators and around 600 patrollers – the volunteers who review incoming edits, revert vandalism, close deletion discussions and generally keep the encyclopedia reliable. Their job has not been getting easier, partly because of pressures the whole movement shares and partly because of ones specific to Ukraine under Russia’s military invasion.

The community is, of course, self-governed, and an affiliate does not tell it how to run itself. But there is quite a lot a chapter can do still: training, materials, awards, and simply getting people into the same room. Wikimedia Ukraine had done this occasionally for years – an admin forum, an award, training sessions – and in 2024 we decided to make support for users with extended rights (UWERs) a strategic priority for 2025–2026.

Before designing anything, we spent some time working out what was actually needed –  a community survey, 1:1 interviews, and analysis of international experience. This work helped design our program of support for admins and patrollers, and the forum was a part of it.

The online day

The online day on 20 June had eight sessions. It opened with networking and introductions, then moved to a discussion of Ukrainian Wikipedia’s most pressing problems, such as AI and undisclosed paid editing. 

A separate session dealt with the Arbitration Committee – its current problems and needs, and the fact that new ArbCom members get no onboarding materials or training at all when they take the job on.

The rest of the day was practical:

• Media skills, run by Wikimedia Ukraine’s press secretary. Administrators and patrollers regularly end up acting as “Wikipedia spokespersons” whether or not they signed up for it, so the session covered how to talk about wiki projects on social media and to journalists, and what the chapter can offer to people who want to build a public profile.
• How edit filters work – a walkthrough of the mechanics for people who deal with their output daily.
• A demo of a mass patrolling tool.
• How to “torment” new users in the right way training to discuss ways of communicating with the new users to find a balance of creating a safe space for them to make mistakes and learn, but also knowing when to stop investing in them

We also ran a blitz award for standout anti-vandalism work. It went to Mykola7, an Ukrainian Wikipedia administrator (and a global steward).

The offline day in Kyiv

On 27 June we gathered everyone who could travel in Kyiv, at the Ukrainian-Danish Youth House, which hosted the event.

Because a good part of the group had only ever met each other through talk pages, we started with a teambuilding activity led by Ukrainian Wikipedia editor Maryna Lebid, built around reading and reflecting on short literary texts.

The first substantive session was a general exchange of technical lifehacks: participants shared their own tips for patrolling, dealing with vandals and performing admin actions.

After that, Asaf Bartov of the Wikimedia Foundation ran a training on making hard decisions. This was developed at the request from the community in the past, as users with extended rights “are often expected to make difficult decisions under uncertainty: when evidence is incomplete, emotions are high, policies are imperfect, and inaction can itself cause harm”, and the session was not focusing on specific on-wiki rules, but on “exploring how to distinguish good decisions from lucky outcomes, how to act responsibly without becoming overconfident or isolated, how to make uncertainty explicit, and how to recognize when an individual case points to a deeper governance or policy problem”

The rest of the day went to a separate discussion of undisclosed paid editing, a long-running problem with few easy solutions.

What participants told us afterwards

In the post-event surveys, participants rated the forum highly and agreed that something like it should happen regularly – roughly once a year. The clearest point for improvement was raising attendance, especially in-person. Getting people to travel is genuinely difficult during Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, but we think there is still room to do better next year.

Where the forum sits in the larger program

The forum is the most visible part of a broader program of support for users with extended rights. It runs along four strands:

• Training events and materials. Short online and hybrid events on topics like technical lifehacks and advanced copyright questions, plus asynchronous materials – text and video – for onboarding new patrollers and administrators.
• Motivation. We have long sent a “wiki condensed milk” award to the most active patrollers and administrators, and we now have a separate award for standout anti-vandalism work. Besides, thematic campaigns give people something to work on together.
• Networking. Short informal online events (such as a failfest), and now the larger hybrid forum.
• Bringing in new volunteers. Training in shorter and longer formats, and general promotion of the idea that community members can and should take on patrolling and adminship.

Next, we plan to keep the regular online events going, keep developing the asynchronous materials, and try to make the forum annual. 

Materials from the forum are available at https://w.wiki/Rwfz (in Ukrainian). If your affiliate runs something similar, or is considering it, we would be glad to share our experience and learn from yours.

You could be a Wikimedian all your life, editing in your small corner of the world, but nothing beats being in the same space with over a thousand fellow Wikimedians who have flown, trained and travelled from every corner of the world.

Being in that space, the realisation that this is beyond clicking some keys on your keyboard and pressing the publish button hit me so hard. This was a movement. I had always known it was a movement, but never had I ever seen it so clearly as I did during Wikimania 2026 in Paris.

My Wikimania started a day early during the Day Zero preconference Advocacy workshop, where I presented on Free Knowledge Africa’s ongoing open access campaign in Nigeria. I walked in expecting to just share our work, what we had done and where we were going, but I walked out with something bigger. Listening to the other presenter describe their own battles for open access, the different laws they were pushing against, the wins they celebrated and the losses they counted, I got a clearer sense of where our campaign fits into a much larger global picture. Some of our challenges in Nigeria weren’t unique at all, and some of what we had already achieved was further ahead than I had given us credit for. It was an equally humbling and energising experience, the kind of perspective you can only get by putting your work next to everyone else’s in the same room.

The days that followed were a mix of exciting sessions and the unexpected hallway conversations. When you see session topics like ‘Three things about Wikimedia that even experienced Wikimedians might not know’ or ‘Wiki Unpopular Opinions’, you know you are in for a treat. As someone invested in the open GLAM space, the GLAM-related sessions were my favourite. It was all so exciting seeing incredible things people were doing in the space and grabbing one or two things to go replicate in my own community. Let’s not forget the hallway unplanned conversations that became even more exciting than some planned sessions. Every conversation felt like a session of its own. Ideas and perspectives coming together that quietly rearrange the way you think about your own work.

Of course, there were other sessions that were a lot more ‘fun’. The ‘Play Wiki board game to discover Wikipedia’ just put the whole Wikipedia building blocks into a more tangible perspective. Seeing NPOV, Structure, Citations, and References all displayed on a board representing how a Wikipedia article comes together was a wonderful experience. Discovering more of Paris during the Photowork, the Wiki Fashion Show, and the Karaoke session made the week even more magical.

If I am being honest, the most magical part of the whole week was the closing ceremony. Listening to the closing remarks, reinforcing why what we do actually matters, especially in the world we find ourselves in right now, was a much-needed encouragement. And to top it off was the beautiful rendition of ‘Oh Wikipedia’ by the Wiki Choir and Orchestra. I am certain I am not the only one who still has the song ringing in my ears two weeks after the conference. I catch myself humming the lyrics in the middle of an ordinary day, and it brings me right back into that room

I left Wikimania Paris 2026 with new connections, new friends, strengthened belief in the work we do and a new favourite song. I can’t wait to see where this renewed energy takes me personally and us all as a movement next.

Maura Hametz is a professor of history at James Madison University. She first incorporated the Wikipedia Assignment in fall 2025.

Teaching is about knowledge acquisition.  AI is a tool for knowledge acquisition. So, why is generative AI the subject of so much angst for me and my students? 

In my undergraduate upper division history classes, the Wikipedia Assignment is a forum to explore how, why, and where we acquire knowledge and, hopefully, to contribute to expanding knowledge available to the public.  It has also become a launch pad for discussions about new and ever-expanding generative AI.  AI is a tool. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. AI emphasizes process. Wikipedia focuses on content. At their core, both AI and Wikipedia disseminate information and expand access to knowledge. 

Two student training modules “Using AI tools with Wikipedia” and “Large Language Models” on the Wiki Education dashboard address generative AI, explaining Wikipedia’s ban on using AI-generated content, but also opening the door to use AI for inspiration. The materials emphasize partnership, encouraging students to follow instructors’ guidelines and institutional policies to work effectively and productively to successfully publish their work to Wikipedia.  

The two modules quickly became an AI life raft for me and an inspiration for discussions of sources, research, writing, and research ethics in the classroom.  Wiki Education provides ethical guidelines and technical assistance that helped me to ground my thoughts as, along with my colleagues, I struggled to craft AI strategies and adjust assignments and teaching.  This guidance and support also helped me to navigate the waters of new institutional policies, procedures, and guidelines to encourage appropriate uses of AI.  Wiki Education’s videos, examples, policies, and review systems provide guardrails in a supported environment where professional assistance alleviates worry about lack of familiarity or discomfort with emerging technologies.  

This support system allowed me to focus on the aspects of my assignment important to classroom goals and learning objectives rather than on my own anxieties about unpreparedness or uncertainty in detecting or assessing the role played by generative AI in producing specific content. The materials offer simple, but not simplistic, discussions of AI chatbots and explain how Wiki Education uses an AI detector called  Pangram.  The automatic check on students’ work saved me from having to assess and learn how to use detection software.  It allowed me to focus on how, rather than when, to respond to potentially inappropriate use of AI.  Wiki Education communicated potential problems to me and to students, taking away the guesswork.  

While I recognized the piece of mind the Wiki Education resources gave me, I was not immediately aware of how the Wiki Education approach helped forge a community in the classroom, uniting me and the students as fellow travelers exploring the new technology rather than pitting us against each other trying to suss out how the technology could be deployed and what uses of it were appropriate. Headlines decry AI’s “invasion,” blaming the ready availability of generative AI for an increase in cheating, decrease in critical thinking, and cognitive off-load, conjuring dystopian visions of “professor” bots grading work generated by “student” bots.  Classroom discussions revealed that students were often as uncertain, insecure, and anxious as instructors about generative AI’s use.  What I found in the Wikipedia Assignment was a foundation for guided discussions of the use, abuse, or uncertainties of AI usage and practical suggestions for meeting the challenges it posed, not condemnation or unbridled praise of the technology.  

The explanation of LLM’s as “pattern completion programs” explains replications of information and errors in an accessible way, spurring discussion of “loops” of suspect information and engaging students in thinking about how to “set things right” through careful work in original sources and publication in relevant Wikipedia articles. In one class, the examples of AI “Hallucinations” led students into an impromptu competition to find and correct hallucinated content on the internet, learning along the way how information was processed and distorted.  Discussion of LLM’s lack of transparency related to proprietary technology and algorithms encouraged consideration of bias as well as authority and power in the dissemination of information.

Wiki Education’s fact verification messages, sent to both the student and the instructor, allowed us to figure out problems, inconsistencies, and errors in their work together, based not on my critical assessment, but on an “outside” query, presenting things to be explored and explained, not defended.  The process seemed less accusatory and more collaborative.  Why was the writing flagged?  What about the content triggered the review?  As use of the sandbox was optional for my students, in several cases the content reflected traces of use of Grammarly and other writing aids.  In cases where it signaled inappropriate attribution or generated content, the discussion of the “flag” focused on the use of sources and the processes of citation and attribution, rather than on an explanation of what made me suspect the use of AI.  The tools therefore provide greater accountability and verifiability, while at the same time decreasing potential for interpersonal tensions or misunderstanding.

The messages also provide concrete evidence to allow students to voice their anxieties, to share their interactions with generative AI and Wiki Education, and to discuss the benefits and limitations of technology in completing their assignments.  “Hey dude, chill out, I got the same message,” followed by some version of “and this is how Dr. H and I addressed it,” prompted several discussions about how to cite sources, use direct quotes, or incorporate new material.

In my classroom, the Wiki Education materials on AI helped students to collect their thoughts and approach generative AI use from an analytical, rather than emotional, perspective.  Using the materials as a foundation, they acquired a common language to discuss the advantages and limitations of AI and to share how they had used it successfully or unsuccessfully in other classes and in their daily lives.

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. 

This year, Paris was the host city for Wikimania and just a direct train away, I was able to participate in person.

Overview

As usual, I used the learning pattern Documenting your event experience, continuously documenting what I was doing, and who I spoke with, along with notes of thoughts that I got (if you want all the details and not this me-centric overview, check out that last link; I have comments on almost every session). There were many side events and some not in the schedule, but it is safe to say that I partook in more than 20 sessions and was listed as a speaker for two others. During the main days, I spent all my time at the venue when there were sessions on the program and didn’t go on any tours. I have later watched another 26 sessions (but am still catching up on sessions that I missed), so I feel that I have really indulged in the conference. I will delve deeper into the different aspects of my Wikimania experience below.

Podcast

I managed to get hold of one of the organizers for the online parts and recorded a pre-conference interview. Per Wikipediapodden tradition, we did record one episode leading up to Wikimania and one episode summarizing it. These two are, as usual, only available in Swedish.

My sessions

Tabular data vs. structured data – How do we get to a win-win solution?

Early session in the main hall, but it got quite full anyway. Tiny struggle with tech before we got started, but then the panel really took off. Lots of good questions from the audience, both online and in person. I hope we managed to raise the conundrum and plant a few seeds for solutions and that this was a good revival of the discussion.

Putting CommonsDB into use

This was part of my consulting with Wikimedia Sverige and a workshop that got even more productive than I anticipated. I also blogged about the experience, so you can read even more details over at: CommonsDB gaining insights at Wikimania.

Govdirectory – collaborating for impact

A follow-up from the poster last year, this time trying to incorporate even more of the collaborative aspects of the WikiProject. Unfortunately, my poster was one of the ones farthest away from where people were passing by, but since they were up the entire conference, I think many people got a chance to see it. What was good this year was that they had made it easy to unmount and bring along home, so now I can still enjoy it.

Virtual room – lunch session

The organizers did some live streams where they invited speakers for a kind of after-match commentary/interview. It was quite fun, and I was also scheduled for a morning session, but that failed due to technical problems.

Wikimedians for Sustainable Development

While the user group Wikimedians for Sustainable Development didn’t organize any official user group sessions, many members were presenting, and even more people in the community had sessions related to the sustainable development goals. So once again, I created a subpage where I roughly categorized them by SDG goal and type of session. By a bit of a chance, I also managed to squeeze back in a lunch meetup (that had first been rejected due to limited space) that we called Climate change, environmental issues & sustainable development lunch. It was well attended, and I got positive energy from seeing so many in the movement working in the same topic space.

Overall impressions

This was my 18th Wikimania and I must say it was quite a solid one. The venue was good, the scheduling worked nicely, and the hallway track opportunities were perhaps the best so far. I still think there is more potential in connecting the online participants into the conference. Not everyone can go; this year it was attenuated by it selling out super quickly, so a huge part of the community is not there in person. The only big fail was the catering, as the labeling and knowledge by the staff made this, in my opinion, the second worst Wikimania food-wise.

P.S. Videos are still being uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, and after that all Eventyay content will be migrated to the Wikimania wiki, so expect a few link changes on this post (and possible glitches when there is work in progress).

• From the team: July and Wikimania Have Come and Gone
• Brazil report: Strategic Workshops, Academic Publications, and Bidding Farewell to NeuroMat
• Colombia report: Colombia at Wikimania 2026: panel on how the far-right affects open knowledge institutions
• Egypt report: From Al-Ahram to Zamalek: Exploring Archives and Art Galleries
• France report: GLAM Presentations at Wikimania 2026 + Wiki Fashion Show
• New Zealand report: Launch of Wikifying a Conference handbook; Wikipedia Workshop at Te Toi Uku
• Poland report: GLAM-Wiki partnerships continue opening collections
• Sweden report: At Wikimania and copyright process
• Switzerland report: Faces and Masks – the interwoven relation, Wikimania Paris
• UK report: Wikimania report + New articles in Hindi
• USA report: GLAM USA Report (Past & Upcoming)
• Biodiversity Heritage Library report: Updates on work by BHLWiki Working Group members
• Memory of the World report: Academic paper in preparation
• Wiki Knowledge Park report: Preserving Islamic Cultural Heritage: The GLAM and Metadata Impact of Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026
• Calendar: August’s GLAM events

30/07/2026-05/08/2026

Mapping campaigns

• Uber has proposed, on the OSM Community forum, an organised editing activity to improve pedestrian mapping in 21 countries. Various mappers criticise it due to a lack of details and because Uber has a poor track record in the UK.

Community

• Rphyrin made an Overpass Ultra script for viewing image=* tags in OpenStreetMap.
• MideaFind has used OpenStreetMap data to collect the locations of stores that might sell portable air conditioners.
• Andrea Grandi explained why Book Corners won’t sync contributions back to OpenStreetMap. Pieter Vander Vennet responded in his blog.

Imports

• Oscar Car Rental announced ► that they are planning an organised editing activity to add their 93 missing car rental locations in Germany, along with performing some data maintenance.

OSM research

• Marni Davis documented Atlanta’s immigrant population in the late 19th century, visualising their neighbourhoods on an OpenHistoricalMap basemap.

Maps

• ^[1] Victor Rotariu and his team are developing a live urban heat map that estimates street-level thermal conditions at a resolution of roughly 25 metres. This data will power a new ‘Cool’ routing mode. Rather than selecting only the fastest or shortest cycling route, Cool mode will identify the route with the lowest estimated heat exposure. The goal is simple: help cyclists avoid the hottest streets, enjoy a more comfortable ride, and arrive at their destination with less sweat on hot summer days.

OSM in action

• A 23-year-old student developer from South Korea has created a navigation app for finding shade covered areas, which has shot to the top of the App Store’s navigation apps. The app uses OpenStreetMap data to plot routes.

Software

• HeiGIT presented their latest update on the roadmap toward the new ohsome API 2.0, outlining the next steps in the evolution of the ohsome platform for analysing OpenStreetMap data. The update introduced planned developments, improvements, and future directions aimed at creating a more flexible, efficient, and sustainable API for OSM history data analytics.

Releases

• The CoMaps team published release 2026.07.16, which is now available via Codeberg, F-Droid, Google Play, and the iOS AppStore. This version adds a preview of turn-by-turn directions when creating a route, adds lane guidance and improved next turn descriptions for iOS/CarPlay, per-transport-mode routing options, support for more OSM tags, and many further bug fixes and improvements.
• Organic Maps July 2026 has been released, bringing a collection of bug fixes and general improvements.
• A note for mappers resolving notes: Organic Maps version 2026.07.15 has fixed a long-standing issue, where notes left inside large forest polygons and road lines would always move to the centre of the object. Notes are now added at the user’s click location.
• Tina announced that OsmAnd Astronomy, currently available in the OsmAnd Android 5.4 beta (on paid plans Maps+ and OsmAnd Pro), now includes tools for exploring solar and lunar events. Users can move through a timeline to preview upcoming astronomical events, check eclipse visibility from any location on Earth, and watch exactly how each solar or lunar eclipse will unfold before it actually occurs.
• HeiGIT reported the release of Ohsome-Planet version of 1.3.1, codename ‘Baarle-Hertog‘. This tool is designed to facilitate the transformation of raw OpenStreetMap history data into the geoParquet format, making it more accessible for spatial data analysis.

Did you know that …

• … the OSM Apps Catalog allows you to browse a list of thousands of various map apps?

OSM in the media

• BRUZZ, a local newspaper in Brussels, commented ► on the rise in recent years of private swimming pools in residential neighbourhoods. They praised OSM volunteers for having mapped them and showed maps with their locations.
• Heise’s c’t Open Source Spotlight newsletter reported ► on CoMaps and interviewed OSM community member Bastian Greshake Tzovaras about CoMaps, OSM and free software in general.

Other “geo” things

• Google had integrated its AI image generator ‘Nano Banana 2’ into Google Earth. They removed it two days later after people started abusing it, as the BBC reported.
• The Times of India explained how Polynesian navigators crossed the Pacific Ocean by reading the stars, ocean swells, winds, birds, and clouds to find their way.
• In response to the recent news about Moroccan migrants crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, OpenCage reshared their previously published geo-trivia posts about Spain and Morocco.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	Venue	What	When
		Online	Racha Mapping Party	2026-07-27 – 2026-08-09
	नई दिल्ली	Jitsi Meet (online)	OSM’s 22nd Birthday × OSM India Monthly Online Mapathon	2026-08-08 – 2026-08-09
	臺北市	國立臺灣科技大學研揚大樓412-1教室	COSCUP 2026 State of the Map Taiwan 2026 / Wikidata Community Summit 2026	2026-08-09
	New Delhi	Indian Coffee House, Connaught Place	OSM’s 22nd Birthday × OSM Delhi Mapping Party No.30	2026-08-09
	大阪市	11F, Urban Net Midosuji Building, 4-2-13 Awajicho	OpenStreetMap関西カンファレンス2026 / OSM Kansai Conference 2026	2026-08-09
	København	Cafe Bevar’s	OSMmapperCPH	2026-08-09
	臺北市	MozSpace Taipei	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #91	2026-08-10
	Zürich	Bitwäscherei Zürich	190. OSM-Stammtisch Zürich	2026-08-11
	Hamburg	Voraussichtlich: “Variable”, Karolinenstraße 23	Hamburger Mappertreffen	2026-08-11
		temporärhaus	OSM-Stammtisch Ulm/Neu-Ulm	2026-08-11
			Missing Maps Online Mapathon von Ärzte ohne Grenzen	2026-08-12
	München	Echardinger Einkehr	Münchner OSM-Treffen	2026-08-12
			UN Mappers Mappy Hour	2026-08-13
		Hochschule Rhein-Sieg	OSM auf der FrOSCon 2026 in Sankt Augustin	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
	Hannover	Hannover Congress Centrum	OSM auf der Maker Faire Hannover 2026	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
		Stadt- und Waagenmuseum Oschatz	Kartenwerkstatt Oschatz	2026-08-16
	Magdeburg	Netz39 e.V. , Leibnizstraße 32, 39104 Magdeburg	3. OSM Stammtisch Magdeburg	2026-08-18
			Missing Maps London Mid-Month for Advanced Mappers (no training provided) (Online) [eng]	2026-08-18
	Chemnitz	Kaffeesatz, Chemnitz	OSM-Stammtisch Chemnitz	2026-08-18
	Bonn	Dotty’s	203. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn	2026-08-18
	Derby	The Brunswick, Railway Terrace, Derby	East Midlands pub meet-up	2026-08-18
		Online	Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online)	2026-08-18
	Karlsruhe	Vogelbräu Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe	2026-08-19
	Amsterdam	TomTom HQ	Maptime Amsterdam: 2026 Summertime Maptime	2026-08-20
	Potsdam	MachBar	Potsdamer Mappertreffen	2026-08-21
	Stadtgebiet Bremen	Online und im Hackerspace Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen	2026-08-24

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 HeiGIT, MatthiasMatthias, Nakaner, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, Andrew Davidson, TrickyFoxy, barefootstache, derFred.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.