Arctic Knot – envision the future of your language community

June 24–25 we invite you to the Arctic Knot Wikimedia Language Conference! The conference is fully digital. It will be a conference for every Wikipedian and Wikimedian interested in indigenous and underrepresented languages. It is also for organisations and cultural and educational institutions working in the field of indigenous and underrepresented languages. 

Here we will give an overview of the conference, why you should join, what will be covered and how to register.

If you are already convinced you can register here.

What is it all about?

At the Arctic Knot Wikimedia Language Conference 2021 we want to look at the future of indigenous and underrepresented languages and their presence and use on the Wikimedia projects. The 2030 movement strategy, and the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages provides an opportunity to look into our future efforts for language diversity on the Wikimedia projects. During the conference we will get to know several indigenous languages from the Arctic region and outside, and learn from the achievements and challenges with the Wikimedia projects. But most importantly, this conference is about building and strengthening the community of small and indigenous languages across the Wikimedia movement.

The Wikimedia movement is rooted in the vision of “a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge”. This conference is all about making more humans able to share their knowledge in their language, for the benefit of future generations of language speakers and the survival of the language.

Why should you join?

• To connect with Wikipedians and Wikimedians engaged in language technology
• To learn more about tools and technologies, like Wikisource, Abstract Wikipedia and Wikidata. There is even a workshop where you learn to use a digital language archive! 
• More about how the Wikimedia projects are developing in smaller languages, what challenges do they face, and how do they solve them. 

What will be covered

The full program is available on Meta-Wiki.

The conference will cover a wide range of topics from getting to know Wikipedias in indigenous or underrepresented languages and how they are moving forward to exploring tools and technologies. There will be enlightening talks, discussions and workshops. However, first and foremost the conference is about getting together, to continue building a strong and supporting community for indigenous and other small languages on the Wikimedia projects.

It is the Arctic Knot after all, so we will make sure that all attendees get a stronger understanding of the Sámi languages, history and culture throughout the two days of conference.

You don’t want to miss this!

To warm up, why not watch videos from last year’s conference?

Conference history

The Arctic Knot Wikimedia Language Conference 2021 is part of the Celtic Knot series of conferences, and the first one to be held outside of the British Isles. 

The conferences have been hosted by various institutions, in collaboration and support from Wikimedia UK. The first Celtic Knot Conference was organized by Edinburgh University and Wikimedia UK in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2017 (focused on Scottish Gaelic), followed by Aberystwyth, Wales in 2018 (focused on Welsh, hosted by the National Library of Wales), and Falmouth, Cornwall in 2019 (focused on Cornish, hosted by Cornwall Council). In 2020, the conference was planned to be organized in Limerick, Ireland with a focus on Irish, but was changed to a fully remote conference and was delivered by Wikimedia Community Ireland and Wikimedia UK.

Throwback to the 2018 Celtic Knot Wikipedia language conference

Conference team

Arctic Knot Wikimedia Language Conference is led by Wikimedia Norge in collaboration with The Arctic University of Norway, Wikimedia UK and Wikimedia Deutschland. We are also happy to have Wikitongues and Art+Feminism as part of the organization team for the conference.

We look forward to connecting with you!