Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-09-04/Wikimania

This August, over 1,100 people met in person (with an additional 1500+ joining online) to celebrate the Wikimedia movement and its contributors, in Katowice, Poland. People came from 143 countries on all continents (except the continent with no countries), and were engaged in discussions about the future of our movement and the direction in which Wikipedia and her sister projects are heading.

The conference lasted from 6 to 10 August, with the main programme held on 7–10 August. It was available in six languages through online translations: Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian. In total, over 300 sessions (on 12 tracks in 8 parallel rooms) were available to the community. In addition, the WikiWomen Summit and Wikimania 2024 Hackathon, and many other side events took place during the event.

On the first day of the conference, the WikiWomen Summit took place. This event, created by the community, was attended by a group of female Wikimedians to address gender imbalance within Wikimedia projects. Discussions focused on the challenges faced by women in the movement, the persistence of stereotypes about them on Wikipedia, and the exploration of new technological solutions and other strategies to close the gender gap.

During the official opening of the conference, we met the Wikimedians of the year, awarded by Jimbo. This included a new category for the award: "Functionary of the Year". This year, the following contributors were recognized:

• Wikimedian of the Year: Clovermoss, for her project "Editor reflections"
• Wikimedia Laureate: DerHexer, longest-serving Steward in the Wikimedia Movement
• Media Contributor of the Year: Kurmanbek, for his volunteer work on graphic design for Wikimedia conferences
• Newcomers of the Year: Wayuu community, represented by Leonfd1992
• Functionary of the Year: Vira Motorko, administrator on the Ukrainian Wikipedia and active UK-EN translator
• Honorable Mention: Gu Eun-ae, executive director and co-founder of Wikimedia Korea
• Tech Contributor of the Year: Siddharth VP, a contributor to MediaWiki core infrastructure in the Echo and Gadget extensions

You can read more stories about this year's winners on Diff.

Wikimania 2024 was unique in the type of contributors it brought together. Over half of all participants were under the age of 35, representing the generational shift in the structure of the Wikimedia Movement. For almost 50% of all participants, Katowice was the first Wikimania they ever attended. Previous Wikimaniae in Europe (but not the CEE region) were Stockholm, Sweden, in 2019 and Esino Lario, Italy, in 2016). Special youth-oriented meetups took place, which allowed community members from various countries to exchange their ideas, learn about new projects, or just get to know each other.

The Wikimania 2024 Hackathon was one of the hottest (and not due to the AC malfunction!) events this year. On Phabricator you can check out the tasks that developers were engaged with during Wikimania. The Wikimedia Foundation presented their strategy for the future of MediaWiki and discussed the Foundation's current work on the MediaWiki software's core infrastructure. One of the other topics discussed was the Trust & Safety (T&S) Product's tools that presented the research results of the T&S team that will lead to improving blocks on the Wikimedia projects, with the aim to limit the collateral effects of the blocks, and the current developments in temporary accounts.

Wikimania serves as a means to introduce its participants to the country's culture and the region in which it takes place. This year, the cultural elements of Poland and the Central and Eastern Europe region were present in the conference's design. Polish wycinanki were a base for the Wikimania 2024 graphic design. The attendees of the conference had a chance to visit the museums of Katowice, take guided walks through the historical Nikiszowiec neighborhood, and participate in the traditional Bolesławiec pottery workshops. During the day, the traditional Łowiczan group performed dances and songs from their region.

With over 200 people attending the Wikimania 2024 Hackathon, the focus on technology and product work was visible throughout the Wikimania program. Sometimes, the interest was so overwhelming that there was no more space in the rooms, and even the in-person attendees had to listen to the session online! The day was dominated by discussions on the Wikimedia Movement's infrastructure and its integration with the broader internet. Among the topics of the sessions were cooperation of Wikipedia with the GenAI developments and the panel on how the Wikimedia Foundation is proceeding with its own Artificial Intelligence activities. In the second part of the day, attendees participated in the poster session, where over 30 different projects were introduced.

All posters are available on Wikimedia Commons.

During the last day of Wikimania, we wrapped up the program by thinking about the future of our Movement. Among the topics discussed was the Future of Wikimania, which guided our thinking about the upcoming Wikimania conferences. We had a chance to talk about the position of Wikipedian in Residence in the Wikimedia Movement and how the role has evolved since it was first introduced, as well as how we can address our Future Audiences. There were also presentations of the candidates in the upcoming Wikimedia Foundation 2024 elections.

During the closing ceremony, the first-ever international performance of the WikiOrchestra took place. It performed two short pieces of Polish music: Nocturne in E-flat major op. 9 no. 2 by Frédéric Chopin and Karliku, a Silesian traditional folk song by Zdzisław Pyzik. The 5th edition of the Coolest Tool Award was presented, with the following winners by category:

• Quality: Web2Cit by Diegodlh,
• Editor: Cat-a-Lot by Magnus Manske, Ilmari Karonen, DieBuche, Rillke, and Perhelion,
• Experience: InteGraality by Jean-Frédéric,
• Tiny: Wikidata Walkabout by Yaron Koren and Sahajsk,
• Newcomer: View It! by SuperHamster, JamieF, and Dominic
• Honorable Mention: CampWiz by Nokib Sarkar, Mst. Rukaiya, Islam Tonni, Tiven2240, Mrb, Rafi, Wasiul Bahar, and Joy
• Eggbeater: ISA Tool by Anthere et al.

Each Wikimania is a Herculean effort by the volunteers who organize it. Over the past 20 months, since we learned that Poland would be hosting Wikimania 2024, we have gathered an amazing group of people to work on the event: from the Wikimedia Foundation, from Wikimedia Polska, and most importantly, from the community.

In total, over 80 volunteers from 20 countries participated in Wikimania 2024 preparations, to whom I am personally amazingly grateful. We took over 200 meetings together and exchanged more text in e-mails and Slack/Discord messages than there is in the The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Special thanks go to the members of the Core Organizing Team (COT) and the Extended Organizing Team:

• Käbi & Kiur Laan from Estonia (COT) – who headed a team responsible for reviewing over 3600 scholarship applications and was the organizer of WikiWomenSummit,
• Wojciech Pędzich from Poland (COT) – who oversaw the creation of the Wikimania 2024 programme puzzle out of over 300 individual fragments and 550+ applications,
• Tar Lócesilion from Poland (COT) – who created and oversaw the execution of the Wikimania 2024 communications strategy and made the Wikimania 2024 Hackathon happen,
• Kiril Simeonovski from North Macedonia – who co-created the Wikimania 2024 programme,
• Janbery from Czech Republic – who coordinated Wikimania 2024 social media presence
• Msz2001 from Poland – who was the wiki-wizard behind the Wikimania 2024 wiki
• Natalia Ćwik from Poland – Executive Director of Wikimedia Polska and a liaison with their amazing team who helped the Wikimania 2024 come true!

There are many amazing people on the Wikimania 2024 team who deserve credit for their help in creating this event with us – you can see all of them Wikimania-wiki page. I feel proud of leading such an amazing and diverse team, the past 20 months have sure been an adventure!