Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2025 Issue 4

Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on 24 February. Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let askcac@wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

Upcoming and current events and conversations

Let’s Talk continues

• Annual Planning: Help shape our early-stage thinking around our Product & Tech work and provide feedback before budgets and measurable targets are committed.
• Global Trends 2025: As part of annual planning, we identify a list of global trends that will impact the Wikimedia movement, such as changes in how and where people search for and contribute information online, the rise of misinformation and disinformation in online spaces, and evolving regulation of online information providers.
• Wikimania 2025: Apply now to speak at Wikimania 2025 whether to lead a workshop, host a panel, present a poster, or showcase a tool demonstration. Submit your session by March 31 anywhere on earth. If you’re interested reviewing proposals for Wikimania 2025 and helping shape the program, you can fill out a short form to apply to be a program reviewer by 17 March.
• WikiConference North America 2025: Scholarship applications are now open until April 4. This conference will take place in New York City from October 16–19, 2025, under the theme “Wiki’s World Fair”.
• Wikimedia Enterprise and Global Advocacy at SXSW 2025: Wikimedia Enterprise is coming together with Creative Commons on March 9 for a day of conversations and panel discussions at SXSW 2025 that tackles the challenges of AI and the preservation and ethical development of open data. Global Advocacy is participating on a panel on March 8, diving into conversations about the future of the internet.
• WikiCauserie: The online bi-monthly meeting aimed at bringing together the French-speaking member communities of WikiFranca will be held next on March 21 at 18:00 UTC.

Annual Goals Progress on Infrastructure

See also newsletters: Wikimedia Apps · Growth · Research · Web · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · other newsletters on MediaWiki.org

• Datacenter Switchover: All wikis will be in read-only mode for a few minutes for a datacenter server switchover on March 19 starting at 14:00 UTC for up to 30 minutes.
• Tech News: The wikimedia.org portal has been updated – and is receiving some ongoing improvements – to modernize and improve the accessibility of our portal pages. It now has better support for mobile layouts, updated wording and links, and better language support. More updates from tech news week 09 and 10.
• Wikimedia Recommendation API: We will be removing the recommendation API from the current offerings after March 31. This API is no longer used by newer versions of the Wikipedia Android Mobile application, which was its sole user.
• Wikifunctions: We deployed and tested one of our main milestones for this quarter: the ability to get the right Lexeme given a Wikidata Item, or, put simpler, to get the right word from a thing.
• Wikimedia Apps: We are inviting users to help improve Wikipedia mobile app’s reading and editing experiences in offline or limited internet use. We will organize focus groups to discuss these experiences in more detail. Share your thoughts and help improve the app by joining the discussion.

Annual Goals Progress on Knowledge Equity

See also a list of all movement events: on Meta-Wiki

• Women’s History Month: Wikimedia Foundation is running a campaign to spotlight some of the Wikimedians working to close the gender gap on Wikimedia projects. The campaign, Knowledge is human. Knowledge is her., is aimed at reaching external audiences in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Wikimedia Research Showcase: “Gender Gaps” will be the featured theme for the next research showcase taking place on March 19 at 16:30 UTC.
• Global Resource Distribution Committee (GRDC): The call for candidates is being extended until March 31.

Annual Goals Progress on Safety & Integrity

See also blogs: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog

• Privacy and Transparency: Finding the balance between privacy and openness to stay safe in an open movement.
• Legal Victory: The Wikimedia Foundation has won a legal victory in Germany’s courts that sets a legal precedent defending the Wikimedia projects and volunteers against “forum shopping”, choosing a court in a jurisdiction whose laws might be more favorable to them.

Annual Goals Progress on Effectiveness

See also: quarterly Metrics Reports

Wikimedia Enterprise: Wikimedia Enterprise and French AI startup Pleias have joined forces to show that structured, machine-readable knowledge can drive AI innovation while upholding openness, verifiability, and ethical development.

Board and Board committee updates

See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter

• Ombuds Commission: Announcing the 2025 Ombuds Commission.
• Universal Code of Conduct: Wikimedia Foundation has chosen to appoint Jacob Rogers, Associate General Counsel, to the Foundation advisory seat on the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C).
• Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees: The Board met virtually on 11 December to hold its quarterly business. See the most recent corporate actions taken on the Board Noticeboard.

Other Movement curated newsletters & news
See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · The Wikipedia Library · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters

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