The Igbo Wikimedians User Group’s 72 hours virtual marathon edit-a-thon once again advanced the mission of preserving the Igbo language through open knowledge, emphasizing quality contributions over sheer volume. Launched in April 2025, the project has achieved notable success thanks to community-wide collaboration and active participation. The May 2026 edition was organized to build on that momentum while strengthening the skills of contributors.

We kicked off with our standard orientation session, helping participants get comfortable with the workflow and understand their assigned tasks. As organizers, we walked everyone through practical techniques for correcting errors and adding DEFAULTSORT templates to pages. From 28 to 31 May 2026, editors committed 72 hours to enhancing the Igbo Wikipedia. Throughout the marathon, participants concentrated specifically on:

1. Adding {{DEFAULTSORT}} to biography pages for better organization and accessibility.
2. Fixing reference errors in Igbo Wikipedia to ensure integrity.

The outcomes were both measurable and inspiring. We resolved reference errors in 789 articles and enhanced 789 biography pages with . Yet beyond the numbers, what consistently stands out is the dedication of contributors across all skill levels. This project not only boosts content quality but also deepens community engagement and builds capacity among Igbo Wikimedians.

Collectively, with every single edit, we are shaping a dynamic digital future for the Igbo language and for open knowledge as a whole. I extend my profound gratitude to all participants, and to my co-organizers – Lucy Iwuala, Mark Lapang, and Hilary Ogali, for their exceptional teamwork and dedication. I eagerly anticipate the next edition of this project.

Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that anyone can edit. It is a sister project of Wikipedia and serves as a central repository for structured data, so rather than paving pages with text, it stores data in a structured format that can be queried and reused across different platforms.

One of the key features of Wikidata is its ability to handle deletion requests, which are known as RFDs (Requests for Deletion), a similar process happens on Wikipedia. These requests allow users to propose the removal of items from the database that are deemed unnecessary, incorrect, or otherwise unsuitable for inclusion.

I was recently asked if there was currently any “tracking of the amount of deletion requests on WD over time”, with a specific focus on promotional editing, number of requests, and administrator burden. I was not aware of any such tracking, so I decided to investigate the data and see what insights could be gleaned from it, and possibly help out with whatever then end up happening as part of T429036 [Analytics] [Request] Baseline data for Item deletions which looks like it will happen soon.

Approach

All of the requests for deletion go via the RFD page on Wikidata. This page is treated as a talk page, with each section being a request for deletion. Each section has a title, which is the item, or items being requested for deletion, and a body, which contains the reason and any discussion around the request. The page is often maintained by bots in terms of marking when deletions occur, and when requests are closed, so the page is a good source of data for analysis. And like many other talk pages, it is also archived, with older requests being moved to archive pages. The main RFD page has been around for a while, and the archive pages go back to 2012.

Data Gathering

I’m trying out marimo for my data gathering things time, when I would normally use a standard IPython notebook. It’s self described as “a next generation Python notebook”.

So first off, I started by iterating through the archive pages, and downloading them all into local .wiki files, to speed up further processing.

You can find the notebook in this gist, and this resulted in a bunch of files that look something like this…

{{Archive|category=Archived requests for deletion}}

=== [[Q259]] ===
This item is a duplicate of [[Q35]]. --[[User:Hydriz|Hydriz]] ([[User talk:Hydriz|talk]]) 11:45, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
:{{done}} (as staff) --[[User:Denny Vrandečić (WMDE)|Denny Vrandečić (WMDE)]] ([[User talk:Denny Vrandečić (WMDE)|talk]]) 12:27, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

=== [[Q292]] ===
Duplicate of [[Q2]] (Earth). [[User:Emijrp|Emijrp]] ([[User talk:Emijrp|talk]]) 12:21, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
:Oh I did it as a steward, does someone know if am I allowed to use my tools here? --[[User:Vituzzu|Vituzzu]] ([[User talk:Vituzzu|talk]]) 12:25, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
:: Yes, you are. The project has no admins of its own (only some staff who help out right now). If the stewards take over, staff would be happy to step down from that task.
:: And ideally, the users will soon have their own admins and bureaucrats to deal with it :)  --[[User:Denny Vrandečić (WMDE)|Denny Vrandečić (WMDE)]] ([[User talk:Denny Vrandečić (WMDE)|talk]]) 12:27, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
:::Yep, it's quite common for new wiki but this is a special one ;)
:::Anyway I'm quite interested in helping so if needed do not hesitate to poke me.
:::--[[User:Vituzzu|Vituzzu]] ([[User talk:Vituzzu|talk]]) 12:29, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

=== [[Q304]] ===
And [[Q254]]. Mozart. [[User:Emijrp|Emijrp]] ([[User talk:Emijrp|talk]]) 12:35, 30 October 2012 (UTC)
:{{done}} by Vituzzu. --[[User:Hydriz|Hydriz]] ([[User talk:Hydriz|talk]]) 13:48, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

In total this is around 185MB of text.

Analysis

Next, some actual analysis of the data. I used a combination of regexes and the mwparserfromhell library to parse the wiki text when iterating through the files.

Signals

The script analyzes the initial_reason and section heading using regular expressions to detect specific themes. It categorizes discussions by searching for keywords related to:

• Promotional content: (e.g., spam, marketing, self-promotion).
• Notability: (e.g., lack of references/sources).
• Duplicate/Vandalism: Identifying specific policy-based reasons for deletion.

Specifically using these patterns:

SHARED_SIGNAL_PATTERNS = {
    "is_promotional_signal": r"\b(?:promo|promotion|promotional|advert|advertisement|advertising|marketing|brand|company|business|self[- ]?promo|coi|spam|hoax|vandal)\b",
    "is_notability_signal": r"\b(?:notable|notability|reference|references|source|sources)\b",
    "is_duplicate_signal": r"\b(?:duplicate)\b",
    "is_vandalism_signal": r"\b(?:vandal|vandalism)\b",
}

These were extracted using some more code, which looked at the most common words that appeared in the RFDs. (notebook code)

Outcomes

Since administrative outcomes are often recorded in varying ways, the script uses a tiered approach to determine the result:

• Template Detection: Primarily looks for specific Wiki-templates (e.g., {{deleted}}, {{kept}}).
• Heuristic Fallback: If templates are missing, it searches for text strings in the comment history to “guess” the outcome (e.g., “not deleted,” “on hold”).
• Timeline Mapping: It uses the last identified outcome in a discussion to set the final state for that RfD.

Things get a little messy here, as the outcome is not always clear, sometimes there are duplicate outcomes, and sometimes the outcome is not recorded at all. The script tries to handle this as best as possible, but there are some cases where it is not clear what the outcome was, but for the most part, it is possible to get a good idea of what happened in a generalized way through the years.

Overall, the raw data summarized looks something like this, but the graphs below are far more interesting!

Aggregation & Visualization

So, what can we see? (You can run the notebook yourself too, and see the code)

Looking at RFDs over time, there are a high number from the early years, which skew the perspective of the last 10 slightly, and also it should be noted that we are only half way through 2026 right now…

I really don’t know what happened back in 2013 and 2014 for sure, but these spikes were spread out throughout the months of those years, and there were up to 40k RFDs in June 2014 for example. One of the peak days was June 18th, where I see lots of listings that show Merged with [[Q12345]], via The Game which seems to imply there was a tool aiding these deletion requests, and that this was prior to merging being a functionality of Wikibase on Wikidata.

So if we zoom in on the more stable data, and also project the second half of this year, we get a clearer picture showing and upward trend since 2019, with around 14k RFDs predicated this year, which is around 38 a day, and double the number back in 2018 and 2019.

In general this is between 7k and 15k per year, and if I had to guess, we would see merge edits from 2015 onward to replace

And if we have a quick look at the outcomes, we can see that most are deleted or done, generally around 85-90%, with a small slither of other outcomes.

On to the signals! The chart below tracks the percentage of deletion requests flagged with promotional or notability-related keywords over time.

Several clear patterns emerge from the data:

• Long-term Upward Trend: There has been a steady, significant increase in signal-bearing deletion requests since 2012. What was once a relatively quiet process potentially using other words, has become increasingly dominated by these specific types of issues.
• The 2020 Shift: A notable “step change” occurs around 2020. Before this, the rates were lower and more erratic. Since 2020, both promotional and notability signals have stabilized at a much higher baseline, rarely dipping back to pre-2020 levels. 2020 also aligns with the larger increase in baseline RFDs being recorded, but remember, this graphs is a % rate anyway…
• Promotional vs. Notability: While both signals have trended upward, they often move in tandem. This suggests that the issues driving deletions on Wikidata are frequently overlapping—many items flagged for notability concerns are often simultaneously flagged for promotional content, indicating a clear intersection between these two types of problematic editing.
• Recent Volatility: In the most recent months (2025–2026), we see higher volatility, and higher overall rates.

Now, what does this actually mean in terms of admiistrative load on the project? The below graph is interactive, and starts of with the total closed RFDs hidden.

We can see that the 2013/2014 period again stands out, and that large number of RFDs being created and closed during that period lead to the number of RFDs that an admin on average would close skyrocketing. This also highlight another interesting month, May 2017, which also has a spike in RFDs closed per closing admin. One of the largest days was May 22nd and it looks like many items that were empty were found, and reported for deletion.

If we again zoom into the time period after 2015, we can see a fairly consistent set of data in terms of unique closing admins per month, and also average RFDs closed by an admin per month. Note this is only an average, not an exact calculation on a per admin basis.

Taking a quick look at the users and bots that have interacted with the most distinct RFDs, the top 10 are:

User	RFDs
BeneBot*	245716
DeltaBot	98131
Succu	15156
Marcol-it	14230
Calak	8442
Ary29	8423
Lymantria	6676
AttoRenato	4875
GZWDer	4482
Dorades	4445

I’m down at number 202, with only 454 RFDs myself.

Further thoughts

This really only scratches the surface in terms of what could be determined from this treasure trove of archived discussions around deletions, a few things that would be well worth trying to determine in my opinion:

• There are many things deleted on Wikidata that do not end up having an RFD entry, as admins just go and deleted them, so that data should really be pulled in to get a full deletion rate picture.
• In terms of “overload” of the system, the time that a bad item exists for before it is deleted might be a very good indicator, this would likely require non public data sets however to determine the dates of deleted revisions of these deleted items.
• I decided to leave the signal analysis to the initial comment and or reason, and I imagine if the entire conversation around deletion was checked you’d end up with slightly inflated rates when it comes to the signals.

So, to whoever gets to look at T429036 [Analytics] [Request] Baseline data for Item deletions, good luck, and have fun!

And a note on marimo, its not terrible, I quite like it, the automatic sandboxing and vscode integration is rather neat.

On May 6th and June 10th, 2026, students enrolled in the course Digital Humanities: The Case of Wikipedia at the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (PUCV), Chile, took part in Wiki-Jardín Valparaíso, a two-session Wikimedia training initiative integrated into the course curriculum.

The programme was designed as an introductory learning experience that familiarised students with Wikipedia and the wider Wikimedia ecosystem. Rather than concentrating on the immediate creation of finished articles, the initiative focused on developing the fundamental skills required to participate effectively in collaborative knowledge projects.

During the first session, held on May 6th, students were introduced to Wikimedia projects, Wikipedia’s core principles, and the role of open knowledge communities in contemporary society. Participants created user accounts, explored Wikipedia’s editing environment, and learned the key policies that guide content creation, including verifiability, the use of reliable sources, and the neutral point of view.

The second session, held on June 10th, focused on practical editorial work. Students began identifying topics and sources that could contribute to improving existing content on the Spanish-language Wikipedia. Some participants worked on film-related articles, locating and documenting news coverage and other reliable sources that could strengthen existing entries. Others focused on articles about Chilean comedians, gathering published material that could support the expansion and improvement of biographical content. Through this process, students learned how to evaluate sources, verify information, and prepare content in accordance with Wikipedia’s editorial standards.

As most participants were new to Wikipedia editing, the work produced during the programme remains at an early stage of development. The primary objective of the initiative was therefore educational: to provide students with the technical, research, and editorial skills necessary to contribute to Wikimedia projects in a responsible and informed manner.

The course Digital Humanities: The Case of Wikipedia examines Wikipedia both as a subject of academic inquiry and as a pedagogical tool. Drawing on perspectives from the Digital Humanities, it explores collaborative knowledge production, digital literacy, governance, participation, and the social impact of open knowledge communities.

Wiki-Jardín Valparaíso reflects ongoing efforts to strengthen connections between higher education and the Wikimedia movement by introducing students to the principles and practices of open knowledge. The initiative also demonstrates how universities can support the creation, improvement, and public dissemination of freely accessible knowledge.

We thank all participating students for their contributions.

04/06/2026-10/06/2026

Community

• Anne-Karoline Distel announced that a new video on mapping historic lifting stones is now available on YouTube. Historically, lifting stones were used to test the physical strength of men.
• The MapLibre May 2026 newsletter has been published, authored by Bart Louwers, Frank Elsinga, Harel Mazor, Ramya Ragupathy, and Stephanie May.
• HOT has published an open course on seagrass mapping to support coastal conservation efforts. The initiative outlines how seagrass imagery will be collected using drones and later mapped through an OpenStreetMap-based technology stack, including iD.
• Rtnf tried the newly released OSRM Trip demo page to solve a simple Travelling Salesman Problem that he encountered daily while living in Bandung.
• Raquel Dezidério Souto described in her user diary what it was like to sponsor the CityMapper externship project and how she got to know the OSM Africa community whilst attending SotM Africa 2024.

Local chapter news

• Katja Hafernkorn reported ► that FOSSGIS participated in the exhibitors’ forum at KonGeoS Dessau 2026, providing information about Open Source GIS, OpenStreetMap, and the FOSSGIS association.
• FOSSGIS e.V. advertised ► a vacancy for a position focused on OpenStreetMap training and community work. The application deadline is 8 July 2026.

Events

• An additional uMap has been published for the State of the Map 2026 (Paris), providing detailed information on the locations of various facilities at the event venue.The interactive map also includes public transportation guidance to the Musée des Arts et Métiers, which will host the conference’s Saturday evening social event. In addition, attendees can use the map to navigate between the SotM venue and Disneyland Paris, including access to the TGV station at Marne-la-Vallée.
• You can find information about the State of the Map 2026 on the uMap provided by the event’s organisers.There is also a call for sponsorship on LinkedIn and on the event’s promotional document.
• Andres Gomez Casanova reported that the State of the Map Colombia 2026 will take place at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the National University of Colombia in Bogotá from 3 and 4 July 2026.

OSM research

• HeiGIT presented new research on training deep learning for land-use and land-cover mapping, with landscape metrics derived from OpenStreetMap, supporting more spatially consistent and interpretable GeoAI models.

Maps

• ^[1] With Spieli, m_fuhrmann has launched a new, user-friendly web map for playgrounds. The project is based on a fork of the ‘Berlin Playground Map’ and is firmly committed to an open ecosystem. While the playground data comes directly from OpenStreetMap, images are integrated via Panoramax and reviews via Mangrove Reviews.Particularly noteworthy is the technical architecture: Spieli is designed as a federated network of independent data nodes, enabling decentralized hosting and high scalability.For parents, the site offers helpful filters (e.g., by flooring type or accessibility) as well as suggestions for nearby points of interest (such as ice cream shops ).

  Mappers benefit from integrated data quality assessment and direct links to MapComplete, making it easy to improve the data.

  The project is currently seeking active support: Anyone with resources to spare is invited to host their own data nodes (https://mfuhrmann.github.io/spieli/) (e.g., for additional federal states or abroad). Discussion is possible via Matrix (https://matrix.to/#/#spieli:matrix.org), and the source code is available on GitHub (https://github.com/mfuhrmann/spieli).

• Christoph Hormann continued an in-depth discussion on non-locality in tiled rule-based map rendering, building on an earlier article that helped renew interest in OSM-Carto development.

OSM in action

• Bayreuther Tagblatt used ► an OpenStreetMap-based map to visualise road closure areas related to the 10th ‘Mainauenlauf’ running event, scheduled to take place on Sunday 14 June 2026.
• Niederrhein Nachrichten used ► an OpenStreetMap-based map to highlight parking areas available for visitors attending the Kleve Children’s Festival, scheduled to be held at the Kleve Zoo on Sunday 14 June.
• FerryGoGo helps travellers explore ferry routes worldwide through interactive maps, local route guides and practical advice built around real journeys by sea. It uses OpenStreetMap and shows ferry routes, ports and connections across each country.
• Phystech Mission have used an OpenStreetMap-based map to visualise the locations of technology companies and research institutes where graduates of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology are employed.
• Mediazona, BBC Russian Service, and a team of volunteers have created an interactive map showing the geographic distribution of confirmed Russian military casualties in their war against Ukraine. The dataset is compiled from open sources, including obituaries, media reports, local government publications, and other publicly available records, while the basemap uses OpenFreeMap tiles generated from OpenStreetMap data. Click the map icon at the bottom of the page to open the map.

Licenses

• Editora IVIDES ► has published a Swahili translation [sw] of Tout savoir sur la licence ODbL: la licence d’OpenStreetMap pour cartographier en commun, originally written in French by the Fédération des pros d’OSM, Kila Kitu Unachohitaji Kujua Kuhusu Leseni ya ODbL. The translation from English into Swahili was carried out by Hemed Lungo and Tatu Sultan Lungo (Tanzania) and edited by Raquel Deziderio Souto, who wrote about this on LinkedIn.

Software

• OsmAnd is celebrating its 16th birthday, and to mark the occasion they will be giving away a 1- or 3-month Pro subscription to anyone who answers the quiz correctly by Monday 15 June.
• Marina Petkova and François Lacombe have authored ► an article ‘Tracking and Promoting Contributions to OSM with Podoma’. Podoma is a programme for monitoring contributions to OSM, allowing users to measure and visualise activity related to a specific topic or area (we reported earlier).

Programming

• Timo Roest posted, on LinkedIn, about a custom PySpark data source to read .PBF files, seamlessly integrating osmium-powered OSM data ingestion into the Spark ecosystem. He explained how it works, and worked through a refresher on OSM data structures and why parsing them is a challenge.

Releases

• A new release of OSRM, version 26.6.1, is now available. Users can try out the updated demo ahead of its integration into the official front end.
• Alexis Lecanu has released Baba version 1.22.0, for contributing to Panoramax on Android, featuring several feature additions and bug fixes.

OSM in the media

• Danmarks Radio, Denmark’s national broadcaster, used an OpenStreetMap-based map to illustrate a major railway disruption caused by a damaged overhead power line near Sorø. The disruption was believed to have occurred after a train’s pantograph became entangled ► in an overhead wire, forcing rail services between Ringsted and Slagelse to stop.

Other “geo” things

• Patty Heyda outlined the concept of ‘counter maps’, describing them as cartographic reinterpretations that challenge established assumptions and broaden dominant narratives to include previously excluded perspectives. As mapping becomes increasingly shaped by political interests, remapping practices are presented as a way to expose underlying systems of power to public view. The concept has also influenced activists, who use counter mapping to re-integrate previously omitted information into mainstream representations.
• YellowMap ►, a company based in Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) is sponsoring ► MapLibre. According to the company, the decision to migrate to MapLibre was driven by a desire to modernise and add functionality. At the core of YellowMap’s product offering is SmartMaps, built to address the strict data privacy demands of the European B2B market.
• Jeremy Hsu, of Ars Technica, highlighted a preprint paper by Todd Humphreys and colleagues investigating ‘continental-scale’ GPS interference across Europe.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	Venue	What	When
	Oakland	Beauty Supply Arts	A Synesthete’s Atlas: Cartographic (& other) Improvisations	2026-06-13
	Chennai Corporation	Koyambedu Market	Come map Koyambedu Market, Chennai with us on June 14th, 2026!	2026-06-14
	København	Cafe Bevar’s	OSMmapperCPH	2026-06-14
			Missing Maps London Mid-Month (Without Training) Advanced Mappers (Online) [eng]	2026-06-16
	Budapest	Cartographia Kft.	OSM térképest – 2026 június 16	2026-06-16
	Madrid	Online	Mappy Hour OSM España	2026-06-16
	Lyon	Tubà	Réunion du groupe local de Lyon	2026-06-16
	Bonn	Dotty’s	201. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn	2026-06-16
	Chemnitz	Kaffeesatz, Chemnitz	OSM-Stammtisch Chemnitz	2026-06-16
	City of Edinburgh	Summerhall/The Royal Dick	OSM Edinburgh Social	2026-06-16
	Strasbourg	Bar La Perestroïka	1er Apéro du groupe local de Strasbourg	2026-06-16
		Online	Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online)	2026-06-16
		MJC de Vienne	Rencontre des contributeurs de Vienne (38)	2026-06-17
	Stainach-Pürgg	Online	21. Österreichischer OSM-Stammtisch (online)	2026-06-17
			Mapping missing buildings in La Paz, Bolivia	2026-06-18
	Essen	Verkehrs- und Umweltzentrum	Essen OSM-Treffen	2026-06-18
			UN 2.0 Week 2026: UN Mappers Mappy Hour	2026-06-19
	بلدية دمشق القديمة	Online	ReMapping Syria 2025: Humanitarian Mapping & Community Collaboration Webinar	2026-06-19
			UN Mappers Mappy Hour: Progress and Highlights of the UN Maps Community Ambassador Pilot Initiative	2026-06-19
	Torino		OpenStreetMap Mapping Party: Torino at a walking pace!	2026-06-19
	Stuttgart	Technische Hochschule Stuttgart	Missing Maps Mapathon in Stuttgart	2026-06-19
	Potsdam	Waschbar	Potsdamer Mappertreffen	2026-06-19
	Catania	@Localhost	Modifichiamo Wiki e OSM insieme!	2026-06-19
	Metz	l’Arob@se	Atelier du groupe local de Metz – Partez en voyage avec OpenStreetMap	2026-06-20
		Mitarbeiterparkplatz antonius, Fulda	Sommermapping 2026	2026-06-21
			Missing Maps : Mapathon en ligne – CartONG [fr]	2026-06-22
	Stadtgebiet Bremen	Online und im Hackerspace Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen	2026-06-22
			Missing Maps Validathon	2026-06-23
	Magdeburg	Netz39 e.V. , Leibnizstraße 32, 39104 Magdeburg	2. OSM Stammtisch Magdeburg	2026-06-23
	Berlin	Online	OSM-Verkehrswende #76	2026-06-23
	Würzburg	FabLab Würzburg	Würzburger OSM-Treffen	2026-06-24
	Freiburg im Breisgau	CCCFR, Adlerstr. 12a, Freiburg/Brsg.	OSM-Treffen Freiburg im Breisgau	2026-06-25
	Dar es-Salaam		State of the Map Africa 2026	2026-06-26 – 2026-06-28
		[online]	Capacitação OSM 2026 – IVIDES DATA ® – Formulários Web com KoboToolbox	2026-06-26
			OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting	2026-06-26
	Düsseldorf	Online bei https://meet.jit.si/OSM-DUS-2026	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)	2026-06-26
		Biblioteca Alda Merini in via Edmondo De Amicis	Mapathon @ Casorate Sempione	2026-06-27
			OSM Mumbai Mapping Party No.11 (Trans-Harbour Line – South)	2026-06-27
	Hannover	Kuriosum	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover	2026-06-29
	Heidelberg	DEZERNAT#16	Rhein-Neckar OSM Treffen	2026-06-29

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, PierZen, Raquel IVIDES DATA, Strubbl, Andrew Davidson, barefootstache, derFred, izen57, s8321414.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

I used to think International Women’s Day was reserved for ‘the experts’, the women who had already ‘made it.’ I didn’t realize it was actually a space for those of us currently in the messy middle of figuring things out, too.

When I saw the theme of this year’s celebration, “GIVE TO GAIN 2026“, I had questions in my curious mind. Do I have anything impactful to give? What will I gain? Money?😄

Thankfully, Africa Wiki Women hosted an insightful online event and my mind was stilled after a period of looking for answers. We listened to amazing women: Carolyn Seaman (CEO, Girls Voices Initiative), Rejoice Agbi (Executive Director, Heels and Sips Network and Groom Careers), and Obiageli Ezeilo (Founder, Wiki for Senior Citizens Network).

Here is what I found out:

There is no contribution too small to be considered an impact. Offering to help someone get something right is a “give” and when the impact multiplies from one to another, “we are gaining” and “we are getting better together”. One of the speakers shared how she mentored someone I learn from (a lot) on how to settle into the Wikimedia ecosystem and contribute effectively. Now I think I get the gist.

Celebrating IWD for the first time taught me that knowledge becomes practical when you can pass it to others around you.

I crowned the celebration with a Unilorin Wikimedia Fan Club in-person event and edit-a-thon on Wikipedia and Wikidata titled “Voices of Change: Documenting Women Activists and Politicians as part of IWD’26“. So, it’s safe to say that I just concluded the celebration but the impact continues.

After the event, we took pictures. I met Fatimah Bello, one of the event organisers and a guest on an episode of Africa Wiki Women Voices Podcast.

Hi there! My name is Adeyinka Ekundayo, and I am a Wikimedian. I hope you enjoyed reading this and gained a thing or two from my IWD 2026 Celebration.

The East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Wikimedia Conference (ESEAP Conference) is a regional conference organized by the Wikimedia communities in East, Southeast Asia (also known as the Far East) and the Western Pacific Region. The conference aims to bring people in this region to share their views, challenges and best practices in their communities as well as individual efforts in the Wikimedia movement.

ESEAP Conference itself has been held five times, 4 times in-person and once virtually due to the Covid-19. As a relatively new contributor, I actually have applied for ESEAP Conference scholarship twice: in 2024 and in 2026. The first application failed but luckily the second one succeed.

The fifth ESEAP Conference was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on 15–17 May 2026. It’s held in a hybrid format. The conference took place at Kaohsiung Exhibition Center and some sessions could be participated online. Undoubtedly, it’s an awesome experience to be able to attend this conference in person (on-site). It’s also my first time visiting Taiwan and meeting wiki contributors from the ESEAP regions. There were many new faces that I hadn’t met before, but I did’t feel awkward at all. It’s such a proof that Wikimedians adhere to the friendly space policy. I felt good and welcomed, especially by the local organizers.

As far as I know, this is the first time that ESEAP Conference scholarship applicants have been encouraged to submit their applications in English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, or Tagalog. There are also dedicated sessions for women, youth, and the ESEAP Hub. The theme of the 2026 ESEAP Conference, “A New Era for the ESEAP Hub: Pioneering a Shared Future,” has truly been well realized.

The ESEAP 2026 Conference agenda included short presentations, submissions, poster sessions, cultural visits, night market explorations, meetups as well as social and exchange forums. I attended several sessions that piqued my interest, such as Wiki Women Summit Icebreaker and Introductions, ESEAP Community strategies and advocacy for women in Wikimedia: Roundtable and Panel, Mapping the Wiki women’s movement, The UCoC Ecosystem Five Years On: Insights, Challenges, and Opportunities for ESEAP, Everyone needs offline access – even if they think they don’t, OpenRefine for all: The Powerful Tools to Work on Open Data and Wikidata, and many more. I joined International collaboration for the Yokohama Editathon as well as Fitting Sign Languages into Wiktionary and Decolonize of Name of Species sessions for I served as a room assistant there.

During this conference, I gained new knowledge, great tools which helped me contribute better to wiki project and, of course, new acquaintances. For me, the most exciting moment was when we attended the social dinner. There, we enjoyed food together, sang and danced together, and took photos with the other attendees. It was truly a blast!

My first impression of the ESEAP Conference was very positive. The organizing team worked very well to ensure the conference ran smoothly. They’d ensured that all conference attendees wouldn’t experience any problems from the pre-travel until they returned home safely. Even, when I had some leg problem, the organizers immediately helped me resolve it and arranged a taxi for transportation between my hotel and the conference venue. This is great and in line with Wikimedia’s movement to be inclusive and open to all contributors. The local organizers were very responsive in handling these unprecedented circumstances, and I greatly appreciated that. Thanks to God for this precious journey!

See you at the next ESEAP Conference, Folks!

The Igbo Wikimedians User Group (IWUG), as a community, began the year 2026 with renewed energy and enthusiasm, continuing its journey to promote the Igbo language, culture, and heritage through the world’s largest encyclopedia and its sister projects, from community training and global campaigns to grassroots innovation through micro-grants.

The first quarter of 2026 was a period of growth, learning, and impact, which demonstrated the strength of community-led collaboration and the growing capacity of volunteers to organise impactful projects and events that address knowledge gaps while promoting the visibility of Igbo language, culture, and heritage online, and we are excited to reflect on these milestones achieved through the collective efforts of Igbo Wikimedians. 

2026 Quarter 1 at a Glance

The impact of IWUG’s activities during the first quarter can be summarised through a number of key milestones. These figures represent the collective efforts of volunteers, trainers, organisers, facilitators, and project leaders who worked tirelessly throughout the quarter to advance Wikimedia’s vision of knowledge equity through:

• Capacity Building Webinars
• Global Wikimedia Events and Campaigns
• Community-Led Micro-Grant Projects

The IWUG Capacity Building Through Webinars and Workshops

Building capacity remained a core priority for IWUG, and during the first quarter, through a series of workshops and training sessions, community members gained practical skills needed to contribute more effectively across Wikimedia projects.

A major highlight was the January and March editions of the 72-Hour Virtual Marathon Edit-a-thon, one of the community’s flagship recurring projects. Across both editions, volunteers worked collaboratively to improve content quality on Igbo Wikipedia. Together, participants fixed 1,426 articles with reference errors, added DEFAULTSORT templates to 1,479 biography articles, and strengthened article discoverability through the addition of Wikidata sitelinks.

The community also organised training sessions on the User page, event page and metapage creation, Diff blog creation, Wikimedia category creation, etc., with the sole aim of helping contributors better organise and document their Wikimedia activities. These sessions provided practical skills that support both content contributors and future project organisers. Beyond technical training, these workshops created opportunities for mentorship, peer learning, ensuring that both new and experienced contributors continue to share their knowledge and grow within the movement.

Connecting Local Impact to Global Wikimedia Campaigns

With each month of the year 2026, the community members actively participated in and celebrated several global Wikimedia campaigns, such as:

• Wikipedia’s 25th Birthday Celebration
• Wiki Loves Mother Tongue 2026
• Wiki Loves Folklore 2026
• Feminism and Folklore 2026, and 
• Wiki Loves Africa 2026

These campaigns provided contributors with opportunities to document culture, language, history, and underrepresented knowledge while connecting local efforts to global Wikimedia conversations.

Participation in these campaigns not only improved content across Wikimedia projects but also, through celebrations like the Wikipedia 25th birthday in-person event, provided an opportunity for community members to celebrate their individual contributions to our collective mission while also fostering networking, collaboration, and stronger community bonds physically.

Empowering Community-Led Innovation Through Micro-Grants

One of the most impactful aspects of Quarter 1 was the implementation of the IWUG 1st Quarter Micro-Grant Program, which empowered community members to design and lead projects addressing specific knowledge gaps within their immediate communities.

These funded projects covered a broad range of themes, including women’s representation, public health, language preservation, education, digital literacy, literature, and structured data and through these projects, organisers engaged students, educators, nursing mothers, language enthusiasts, and experienced Wikimedians in activities that expanded participation and increased content contributions across Wikimedia platforms.

Beyond content creation, these projects strengthened leadership development within the community by providing organisers with practical experience in project management, community engagement, reporting, and volunteer coordination.

The Quarter’s Community Highlights

For the 2026 first quarter, several activities by the Igbo Wikimedians User Group stood out for their significant contributions and impact, and these include:

• The Health Translation Project, a collaborative project between the Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan and the Igbo Wiki Fan Club, IMSU, resulted in over 400 health-related articles being translated into Igbo, helping to improve access to health information for Igbo-speaking audiences.

• The World Poetry Day Celebration brought together over 35 participants and resulted in the creation and improvement of hundreds of Wikiquote entries while celebrating poetry as a tool for preserving and promoting the Igbo language.

• Through the Celebrating African Women Through Quotes project, contributors created 38 new articles and improved approximately 180 existing articles on Igbo Wikiquote, increasing the visibility of African women and their contributions.

• The Naija Book Bank project enriched Wikidata with over 130 new items related to Nigerian publications while introducing new volunteers to structured data contributions.

• The inaugural Wikisource Loves Proofreading Campaign engaged volunteers in preserving Igbo literary works through collaborative proofreading, resulting in 334 proofread pages and more than 1,200 edits.

Meanwhile, these projects focused on language preservation achieved remarkable outcomes through the creation of audio-enabled Wiktionary entries, documentation of Igbo proverbs, expansion of lexicographical data on Wikidata, and the upload of hundreds of pronunciation recordings to Wikimedia Commons.

These activities collectively demonstrate the diversity of IWUG’s work and its commitment to preserving language, improving knowledge access, and strengthening community participation.

Looking Ahead to Quarter 2

As the Igbo Wikimedians User Group enters the second quarter of 2026, the community looks forward to launching additional trainings, supporting a new cohort of community-led projects, deepening partnerships, and increasing contributions across Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikisource.

The achievements recorded during the first quarter reflect what is possible when volunteers come together around a shared vision of knowledge equity, language preservation, and community empowerment, and with this, we look forward to achieving even greater milestones in Quarter 2 and continuing the contribution to the sum of all knowledge.

You can learn more about these projects on the IWUG 2026 Activities page.

The northern regions of Ghana are home to some of the most vibrant cultural traditions you will find anywhere, from funeral ceremonies and chiefly coronations to ancient weaving practices and lively market days. But for a long time, very little of this was visible on Wikimedia Commons. Through Wiki Loves Folklore 2026, our community decided it was time to change that.

We did not get all the funding we applied for, but that did not stop us. We went ahead with the core plans and managed to achieve results we are genuinely proud of. One may want to know how we achieved that. We undertook a number of activities that helped us during the campaign.

Workshops and Editathons

We held three training sessions in total, one online and two face-to-face workshops. Between 20 and 40 people took part, some joining for the first time and others who had contributed to Wikimedia before. The online session was useful for reaching people who could not travel, while the in-person workshops gave everyone a chance to actually sit down and do the work together by uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons and adding information to Wikidata about the places and cultural subjects we were documenting.

What stood out most was how much more people learned by doing rather than just listening. And for the newcomers especially, seeing their very first contributions appear live on Wikimedia was a moment that genuinely excited them and kept them engaged. One thing we will always do from now on is come to every session with ready-made examples and practice exercises. Walking people through the process slowly, particularly the parts about usage rights and how content is organised, makes a real difference.

Photowalk and Cultural Documentation

We took one photowalk through parts of the North-East and Northern regions of Ghana. The communities we visited gave us a warm welcome and allowed us to document a wide variety of cultural life, including funeral performances, traditional dances, weaving and craft work, food preparation, market scenes, the coronation of chiefs, different styles of dress, and everyday moments like fetching water from dams and wells.

More than 600 photos from the photowalk were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, and across the whole project we uploaded over 2,400 images nationally. A good number of these cover cultural subjects that were barely visible or completely absent from the platform before. Communities also let us capture audio and video, which was a pleasant surprise and a sign of just how much people in these areas want their culture to be known and preserved.

None of this would have been easy without the relationships we built with people on the ground before we even arrived. That trust is what opened doors. Going forward, we will always make sure we have backup plans for locations in case something unexpected happens in a community, and we will never go into an area without a trusted local contact by our side.

Structured Tagging Campaign

After the uploads, we ran a tagging campaign using the ISA Tool to add descriptions and labels to the files so they are easier to find and more useful to people who might want to use them. Most participants were more focused on getting the photos uploaded than on the tagging side of things, which is understandable for a first experience. The few who did engage with the tool made a noticeable difference to how the files show up in searches. We are planning follow-up sessions to give this part of the work the attention it deserves

What We Learned

Before this project, there was almost nothing on Wikimedia Commons representing the folk cultural life of the North-East and Savannah regions. We covered multiple cultural subjects that had no open-access visual record anywher, not just on Wikimedia. Over 2,400 images now exist where almost none did before. Honestly, the gap was even bigger than we expected, and that only strengthened our belief that this work needs to continue.

We also came to understand that getting files uploaded is really just the beginning. What makes those files useful in the long run is the work that comes after, and that includes adding proper descriptions, organising them into the right categories, and tagging them so people can actually find them. That is something we will build into our plans from the start in future projects.

Between five and ten new volunteers from these regions are now actively involved in Wikimedia. That may sound modest, but in communities where Wikimedia was practically unheard of before, it is a real achievement. There are now Wikipedia Incubators for both Mampruli and Gonja, the main languages of the North-East and Savannah regions, though both still need more people and more skills development to really take off. What we learned is that getting people involved from underserved communities is not something that happens after one workshop. It takes time, it takes trust, and it takes ongoing support.

Looking Ahead

We are not done. We plan to go back to the North-East and Savannah regions with more photowalks, better prepared and with contingency plans in place. We will spend more time on the post-upload work, tagging, Wikidata entries, and tracking how our files are actually being used. We will also put in place a proper support plan for the new volunteers we have brought in, so they can grow into confident, regular contributors. We want to build stronger ties with local cultural institutions and community leaders to make future documentation richer and more representative. And we will keep making the case for more Wikimedia projects in these regions, using what we have documented as evidence of how much still needs to be done.

Our Final Word

The cultures of northern Ghana have always deserved a place in the world’s shared knowledge. We are glad we could play a small part in making that happen. Our deepest thanks go to the Wikimedia Foundation, to every volunteer who gave their time, and most of all to the communities who trusted us with their stories and their heritage.

If you are doing similar work on indigenous languages or cultural documentation in underrepresented communities, we would be happy to connect and share what we know.

The Wiki Afrodemics Project continues its mission of improving the representation of African academics and scientists across Wikimedia projects through the Wiki Afrodemics Mentorship Programme Cohort 1. Building on the broader work of the project, this phase introduces a stronger pan-African and multilingual approach to address persistent content and participation gaps across the continent.

Addressing Content and Participation Gaps

Despite the progress of the Wiki Afrodemics Project, ongoing analysis continues to reveal major disparities in the representation of African academics and scientists. Many Francophone and underrepresented countries still have very limited documentation of scholars, reflecting wider gaps in content coverage, language inclusion, and community participation.

These challenges highlight the need for targeted, community-driven approaches that go beyond content creation to focus on sustainable contributor development across both Francophone and Anglophone regions.

The Mentorship Approach

To respond to these gaps, the Wiki Afrodemics Mentorship Programme was designed as a structured capacity-building initiative focused on mentorship, hands-on practice, and leadership development. The programme emphasizes practical learning through guided training in Wikipedia editing, Wikidata contribution, and resource mobilisation.

Participants receive continuous mentorship through interactive sessions and collaborative activities aimed at strengthening both individual skills and community capacity within the Wikimedia ecosystem.

Participants

The programme onboarded 20 participants from underrepresented African countries, with priority given to contributors working on African academics and scientists.

Participants will:

• Receive structured mentorship across Wikipedia and Wikidata
• Engage in hands-on editing and guided assignments
• Participate in resource mobilisation and community development training
• Collaborate across linguistic and regional boundaries
• Contribute to improving visibility of African scholars and scientists

This selection ensures geographical and linguistic diversity while promoting inclusive participation across Wikimedia communities in Africa.

Mentors

The programme is supported by experienced Wikimedia contributors and community leaders who provide structured guidance, technical support, and strategic direction.

• David Palfrey is Wikimedian with over 20 years of experience in movement governance and community development. He is in charge of a one month Wikidata mentorship training.
• FuzzyMagma An experienced contributor with over a decade of work in Wikimedia training, content creation, and community engagement.
• Shefiu Muib is an active Wikimedian focused on closing content gaps related to African academics and scientists
• Blessing Ojewuyi Timothy is a wikimedia trainer and African Wiki Women member with expertise in gender gap reduction and capacity building.

Expected Impact

Through this mentorship model, the Wiki Afrodemics Project aims to strengthen contributor capacity, improve content quality and quantity, and support the emergence of local leaders within the Wikimedia movement. It also seeks to promote long-term engagement by equipping participants to independently lead future Wikimedia initiatives.

Ultimately, the programme contributes to ensuring that African scholars and scientists are accurately documented, widely accessible, and equitably represented across Wikimedia platforms.

This past May 2026, the two of us, Anthony Diaz and Jessie Mi, headed to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for the ESEAP Conference 2026. We weren’t just there to represent Art+Feminism; we were there to talk about a major turning point for our movement. For years, our focus has been on editing Wikipedia articles; we introduced a shift that we feel is critical for the future: co-creating a Feminist Data Commons.

As Network Organizers for Art+Feminism, we have spent years working alongside a global community to fill gaps on Wikipedia related to gender, feminism, and the arts. But as the internet evolves and as search engines, algorithms, and AI increasingly rely on structured backend data, our strategy has had to evolve too.

Why We’re Diving Into Wikidata

During our talk, “A+F Strategic Transformation: From Editing Articles to Co-creating a Feminist Data Commons,” we got straight to the point about why Year Two of our campaign is centered on Wikidata.

When people asked us “Why Wikidata?”, our answer was simple: it’s the backbone of the internet. It feeds the search results people see every day and acts as the training data for emerging AI models. If the structured data on the backend is biased or missing, that bias ripples across the entire digital ecosystem. By organizing data activism on Wikidata, we can tackle systemic bias at its root. Plus, for newcomers, Wikidata’s structured format is often less intimidating to edit than a Wikipedia article. To put it plainly: if we want the internet to tell feminist stories, we have to start building feminist data structures.

Real Talk: Labeling and Erasure

One of the most meaningful parts of our session wasn’t on our slides. It came from a question about a very real dilemma we face in the movement: How do we label LGBT people on Wikipedia when there are no traditional “reliable sources” or references available?

This is the heart of the problem. In many places, the “published” record has intentionally erased or ignored queer and trans lives. If we only follow the standard rules of verifiability, we risk becoming part of that erasure. We discussed how a Feminist Data Commons can help us move past this. By working with community-led archives and oral histories, we can find ethical ways to document these lives safely, ensuring they aren’t written out of history just because they were written out of the mainstream media.

Building the Future Together

The internet of tomorrow is being trained on the data we provide today. If we want a “Feminist Internet,” we have to build the structures to support it now.

We’re inviting everyone, editors, GLAM partners, and activists, to join our Conversation Series and Virtual Editing Tables. Let’s keep this momentum going. Huge thanks to the ESEAP Conference 2026 organizers for giving us the space to share this vision.

The Visibility of Communities in Nigeria on Wikidata 2.0 project was launched on 17 April 2026 as a follow-up initiative focused on documenting Nigerian communities and cultural entities on Wikidata. Hosted by the Igbo Wikimedians User Group and facilitated by Bridget2023, the project centered on communities in South-South Nigeria while welcoming contributions from other parts of the country.

The initiative featured a week-long online contest and edit-a-thon from 17–24 April 2026, bringing together volunteers to create and improve Wikidata items. Through collaborative contributions, participants helped expand the availability of structured information about Nigerian towns, villages, and cultural heritage on a global open knowledge platform.

Project Highlights

The project aimed to improve the documentation of Nigerian communities by creating and enriching data related to towns, villages, and cultural entities. It also promoted cultural preservation, tourism, inclusive representation, and contributor capacity building.

Activities began with an online launch event on 17 April 2026, followed by a week-long editing campaign. Throughout the project, participants collaborated virtually to create new content and improve existing records.

A total of 45 participants,  including both new and experienced Wikimedians, took part in the initiative. Through training, mentorship, and hands-on editing, contributors developed their Wikidata skills while supporting efforts to improve the online documentation of Nigerian communities and indigenous knowledge.

Key Outcomes

The project achieved the following outcomes during the campaign:

• Over 300 new Wikidata items created.
• More than 1,000 existing items improved.
• Over 5,000 edits contributed.
• Increased documentation of towns, villages, and cultural entities across South-South Nigeria.
• Participation from 45 contributors, including both new and experienced Wikimedians.
• Capacity building through training, mentorship, and collaborative editing activities.

Why This Matters

Many Nigerian communities remain underrepresented on open knowledge platforms despite their cultural and historical significance. By creating and improving community-related data on Wikidata, the project increased the discoverability of these communities, supported cultural preservation, and improved access to structured information for researchers, educators, and the general public.

The initiative also demonstrated the important role local contributors play in documenting and sharing knowledge about their communities.

Looking Ahead

The achievements of this project provide a strong foundation for future open knowledge initiatives in Nigeria. Building on this momentum, future efforts will focus on engaging more contributors, improving existing data, and expanding coverage to additional regions.

By fostering collaboration, skills development, and community participation, the initiative will continue to support the documentation of local knowledge and make more places, cultures, and histories accessible through open data.

For more details, visit the event page:

https://w.wiki/KzWS

• From the team: May Global GLAM Call Recording and June Call Announcement
• Australia report: Celebrating #1Lib1Ref Australasia
• Brazil report: GLAM Connection: Fashion, History, and Biodiversity in May
• France report: New Wikimedian in Residence
• Italy report: Connecting the Arctic and Sicily through Wikimedia Projects
• Mexico report: How the cultural, governmental, educational, and museum sectors contributed in unison to Wikimedia projects
• Netherlands report: Setting up your own platform (part 1): from wish to the creation of a wiki
• New Zealand report: ESEAP Conference 2026 and the NZBSI WiR update
• North Macedonia report: Wikimedia MKD Shares GLAM Experience at International Conferences
• Poland report: Partnerships, Participation, and Open Knowledge
• Serbia report: May in Wikimedia Serbia
• Spain report: El Prado en femenino III
• Switzerland report: Museum for Communication, Panel IMD, Wikipedia Day
• UK report: Early Qurans on the front page of Wikipedia
• Biodiversity Heritage Library report: Updates on work by BHLWiki Working Group members
• Special story: New tools for multilingual audio, video and metadata
• Memory of the World report: New articles in Urdu
• Calendar: June’s GLAM events

The Igbo Wikimedia Community successfully organized and participated in Feminism and Folklore 2026, a global campaign that seeks to bridge gender gaps on Wikimedia projects while documenting folklore, oral traditions, and indigenous knowledge. Through the campaign, contributors worked to improve the representation of women and cultural heritage on Wikimedia platforms in the Igbo language.

Feminism and Folklore is an international initiative that encourages communities around the world to document stories about women, gender-related topics, folklore, traditions, and cultural practices that are often overlooked in mainstream knowledge spaces. For the Igbo Community, the campaign provided an opportunity to preserve local knowledge while increasing the visibility of notable women, cultural narratives, and traditional practices on Wikimedia projects.

Community Leadership and Campaign Coordination

The campaign was led by the organizing team of Hilary, Akwugo, and Pascaline, who coordinated community engagement, participant support, training activities, campaign communications, and overall implementation. Their collaborative leadership ensured that participants received the guidance and resources needed to contribute effectively throughout the campaign.

To maintain fairness and recognize quality contributions, the community also constituted a jury team that reviewed and evaluated submissions across the participating Wikimedia projects. For Igbo Wikipedia, the review process was led by Chinonso Chidi and Timzy D’Great. Contributions to Wikidata were reviewed by Hilary Ogali and Charles Chiemere, while submissions to Igbo Wikiquote were assessed by Akwugo and Pascaline Nwonnwu. The review process helped ensure that contributions met project standards while recognizing participants whose work made significant impact during the campaign.

Building Capacity Through Community Training

The campaign began with an online training session designed to introduce participants to the goals of Feminism and Folklore and provide practical guidance on contributing to Wikimedia projects. During the training, participants learned how to create and improve articles, contribute data to Wikidata, and document knowledge in ways that align with Wikimedia’s standards.

The campaign attracted 41 registered participants, including 29 new editors who joined Wikimedia projects for the first time. The training helped equip contributors with the skills needed to participate effectively and contribute meaningful content throughout the campaign period.

The strong participation of newcomers demonstrated growing interest in open knowledge initiatives and highlighted the potential of thematic campaigns to attract and retain new contributors within the Wikimedia movement.

Documenting Women’s Stories and Igbo Cultural Heritage

Throughout the campaign, participants worked on topics related to women, folklore, cultural traditions, indigenous knowledge, and notable figures whose stories have historically received limited coverage online.

Contributors focused on creating and improving content in the Igbo language, helping to expand access to knowledge for Igbo-speaking audiences while preserving important cultural narratives for future generations. By documenting both women’s experiences and traditional knowledge systems, participants contributed to addressing two significant knowledge gaps: the underrepresentation of women and the limited availability of indigenous knowledge online.

The campaign also demonstrated the value of local-language Wikimedia projects in preserving cultural heritage and ensuring that knowledge remains accessible within the communities from which it originates.

Remarkable Contributions Across Wikimedia Projects

Participants made substantial contributions across multiple Wikimedia platforms, including Igbo Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Igbo Wikiquote.

By the end of the campaign, contributors had collectively made more than 19.6K edits across Wikimedia projects. They created approximately 1.75K new articles and improved more than 9.28K existing articles, significantly expanding the breadth and quality of content available in the Igbo language.

On Wikidata, participants recorded an impressive 15.9K edits, improving structured data and strengthening connections between knowledge resources across Wikimedia projects. These contributions help make information more discoverable, reusable, and accessible to readers and researchers worldwide.

The scale of participation and content creation reflects the commitment of the Igbo Wikimedia Community to addressing content gaps and enriching the Wikimedia ecosystem with locally relevant knowledge.

The campaign outcome can be found at: Outreach dashboard 

Recognizing Outstanding Contributors

To celebrate excellence and encourage continued participation, the campaign recognized contributors whose efforts stood out throughout the competition period.

The prize winners were selected based on the quality, quantity, and impact of their contributions across the various Wikimedia projects involved in the campaign. Their dedication helped drive the success of the initiative and inspired other participants to contribute meaningfully to the campaign’s goals.

Beyond the prize winners, every participant played an important role in expanding knowledge about women, culture, and folklore within the Wikimedia movement.

Igbo Wikipedia Winners

• 1st Place – User:Chinemeremprince 
• 2nd Place – User:Nifer O 
• 3rd Place – User:Noila’snancy1 

Wikidata Winners

• 1st Place – User:Nachi kim 
• 2nd Place – User:Adimora Chidinma 
• 3rd Place – User:Chrysella 

Igbo Wikiquote Winners

• 1st Place – User:Pheviourite 
• 2nd Place – User:Vivian Amalachukwu 
• 3rd Place – User:Adimora chidinma 

Strengthening the Igbo Wikimedia Community

One of the most significant achievements of Feminism and Folklore 2026 in the Igbo Community was the successful engagement of new contributors. With 29 new editors participating in the campaign, the initiative served as an important entry point into the Wikimedia movement for many community members.

The campaign demonstrated how thematic editing initiatives can simultaneously address knowledge gaps, preserve cultural heritage, and build sustainable volunteer communities. By combining feminism and folklore, participants were able to contribute content that is both culturally significant and socially impactful.

The experience also strengthened collaboration among community members and reinforced the importance of documenting local knowledge in indigenous languages.

Honorable Recognition

In addition to the project winners, special recognition is extended to all participants whose dedication and contributions contributed to the success of the campaign. The achievements recorded during Feminism and Folklore 2026 demonstrate the strength of community collaboration and the growing commitment to preserving knowledge, culture, and women’s stories on Wikimedia platforms.

Looking Ahead

The success of Feminism and Folklore 2026 highlights the growing capacity of the Igbo Wikimedia Community to contribute high-quality content that reflects local perspectives, cultural heritage, and women’s experiences.

As contributors continue to build on the momentum generated by the campaign, the community remains committed to improving the representation of women and indigenous knowledge across Wikimedia projects. Through continued collaboration, training, and participation in global campaigns, the Igbo Wikimedia Community is helping to create a more inclusive and diverse knowledge ecosystem.

By documenting stories that have often been overlooked, participants are ensuring that the voices, histories, and cultural traditions of their communities remain visible and accessible for generations to come.

Screw worms and the plague are indigenous to the USA. When left untreated they are deadly. They appear regularly as key in the Youtubes the algorithm presents me. Consequently I often add data on Wikidata.

Recently I did some work on Kenneth L. Gage. He is/was with the CDC. Given the amount of papers to his name, he has/had a distinguished career. Mr Cage has/had many co-authors. Many of them work/worked at the CDC. They are the ones who protect/protected the USA against the plague.

At Wikidata we know about Mr Gage, his papers, his expertise. We could know about his career at the CDC and the careers of his co-authors. Given that these are facts that you do not easily find anywhere else it easily gives the WMF a platform with established facts, not necessarily neutral from a political point of view but verifiably true. 

With a platform where Youtubes get connected to Wikimedia sources we could provide information that the USA press no longer offers. They are bought and verifiably no longer bring the news, all the news.

Thanks,

      GerardM

Wiki Education is pleased to welcome a new staff member to our team, Derek Bigelow! 

As our new Programs Operations Specialist, Derek will manage the systems, data, and communications infrastructure at the heart of our programs. From guiding participants through their first engagement with Wiki Education to maintaining the data integrity that informs our decision-making, this role shapes the experience of our participants at every turn.

Derek brings a wide array of email, marketing, and operations experience to Wiki Education, including work across the tech, travel, and nonprofit sectors. Most recently he led merchandising strategy and operational efficiency as a program manager at Chewy and previously served as the Email and Digital Marketing Specialist at Cascade PBS.

Derek earned his Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Marketing from Daemen University and is looking to further his education with a degree in Nonprofit Leadership in the coming years.

Derek has called Seattle home since 2005 where he enjoys exploring the city and natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest, playing sports with friends, attending concerts, and tinkering with his list of ever-growing hobbies.

The Release-Engineering-Team of the Wikimedia Foundation just deployed an upgrade of Wikimedia Phabricator.

If you use a web browser more than 11 years old: Please upgrade. Visiting Phabricator now requires Chrome 36, Edge 14, Safari 12, Firefox 39, Opera 23 or newer, in order to have the webfont rendered.

Some of the bug fixes and improvements:

• Projects UX:
  • Render project tags of archived milestones in Disabled style
  • Set parent project color for milestones in autocompletion fields
• Project workboards:
  • Milestone creation: Propose importing previous milestone's columns (by Valerio)
  • Scroll only long left sidebar instead of page (by A smart kitten)
  • Hide the arrow on collapsible column headers on Safari browser (by A smart kitten)
  • Do not create a second default workboard column on an existing disabled board
• Conduit API:
  • Many improved, clearer error messages for invalid input
  • Docs: List the available Supported Values for more select field options of Edit endpoints
  • Settings: Add a Copy button to Personal API Token dialog
  • Settings: Allow setting a custom name for Conduit Tokens
  • maniphest.search: Support outputting subtasks (dependsOn)
  • maniphest.search: Support outputting parent tasks (dependedOnBy)
  • project.search: Support outputting alternative project hashtags
• Dark Mode: Should be finally pretty usable under "Personal Settings > Display Preferences > Accessibility"
• Files:
  • Increase maximum Image File Transform pixel dimensions
  • Always show 'Authored By' (by Valerio)
  • Disable numerous interactions for temporary files
  • Fix wrong image file dimensions in "Default Alt Text"
• Diffusion repository browsing: Display associated project tags on repository main page
• UX:
  • Prevent accidental closure of some form popups (by Valerio)
  • Object selection dialog: Fix word-break on long titles
• Global Feed: Show Additional Details link in Feed (by avivey)
• Phame blogs: Add text/html self link in Phame atom feed
• Passphrase: Allow filtering credentials by author (by Valerio)
• Search:
  • Fix missing user results in "open items" search results
  • UX: Display Query Errors also below the Search form area
• Account Registration UX: Provide specific details why a username is invalid (by Pppery)
• Pholio Mocks:
  • Fix altered breadcrumb and header on validation error (by Valerio)
  • Do not allow to unset the image title (by Valerio)
• For Admins only:
  • Policies: Introduce Named Reusable Policies (by avivey)
  • Use Security Session instead of MFA Token for comment removal
  • Allow filtering Bulk Job Query results by status
  • Require Multi-Factor Auth to Disable/Enable apps (by Valerio)
  • Allow user account creators to send Email Invitations (by Valerio)
  • All Settings page: Grey out settings of disabled applications
• For folks who enjoy code interaction: "Personal Settings > Developer Settings" offers a "Developer Tools" mode
• Translations: Numerous internationalization support improvements (by Pppery)
• many other small fixes and future PHP compatibility improvements
• numerous small accessibility, performance, CSS fixes/improvements

Downstream deployment task: T410849: Update to Phorge/Arcanist upstream 2026-06-01

Upstream changelogs:

• https://we.phorge.it/source/phorge/history/master/
• https://we.phorge.it/source/arcanist/history/master/

If you have comments or questions about Phab, please bring them up on the Phabricator Talk page!