Estonian Challenge 2025: Collaboration and Open Knowledge Between Cultures 

The Estonian Challenge 2025 has concluded with resounding success: 809 articles published in five languages, 53 participants, and an international community that has once again demonstrated the power of open source knowledge as a bridge between cultures. 

During the month of April, volunteers from various language communities worked together to improve Estonia’s presence on the various versions of Wikipedia, promoting content about its history, geography, politics, culture, and society. The initiative, organized by Wikimedia Estonia and coordinated jointly with Wikimedia Spain, Amical Wikimedia, Galipedia, and the Basque Wikimedians User Group, far exceeded initial expectations. 

Numbers that speak: Estonian Challenge 2025 

The overall results of the competition reflect high engagement: 

Articles edited: 809 

• New articles: 754 
• Improvements to existing articles: 55 

Participants: 53 

• New editors: 3 

By language: 

• Catalan: 208 articles 
• Galician: 202 
• Basque: 192 
• Spanish: 134 
• Estonian: 73 

It’s important to note that the numbers are higher than those recorded by the tracking bot, as many contributions were not captured by the automated tool. 

From Estonia: depth, visibility and international cooperation 

Estonia emphasizes that, while much attention has been paid to the gender gap on Wikipedia in recent years, there is also an equally significant cultural gap. Collaborations such as the Estonian Challenge 2025, between geographically distant countries like Estonia and Spain, are a concrete way to reduce it. 

There is also the possibility of addressing this gap by systematically working on key issues for each country. In Estonia’s case, they have a list of the 1,000 most important articles that guides such efforts. 

Furthermore, the Estonian community emphasizes the need for articles in their language to be longer than those in other versions. The goal: to compete with the English Wikipedia and offer content that motivates people to consult the Estonian version, thus strengthening the vitality and use of the language. 

Galician Wikipedia: diversity, openness, and discovery 

For its part, the Galician community believes that the project’s success was not due to any magic formula, but rather to a collective commitment and a shared desire to expand Galician with content about Estonia. The desire to open the Galician encyclopedia to the world was, in the words of its editors, the true driving force behind participation. 

One of the Galician Wikipedians added that his motivation stemmed from his own ignorance: he had barely known Estonia before the project. The opportunity to write about its history, culture, geography, and society was not only a way to collaborate, but also a perfect excuse to learn. As he translated and documented, his knowledge and appreciation for the Baltic country also grew. 

Communities that grow through collaboration 

The Catalan and Basque Wikipedias also celebrated the project’s impact. In Catalan, 195 new articles were added and more than 200,000 words were added, making it the language version with the largest volume of work. In Basque, 185 new articles were added, 592 images were uploaded, and 1,425 bibliographic references were added. 

Spanish, although with more modest figures, also closed with 134 new articles, thus strengthening the content about Estonia in one of the Wikipedia versions with the greatest global reach. 

Wikimedia Spain’s assessment 

At Wikimedia Spain, we highly value this experience with the Estonian Challenge 2025. Not only has it allowed us to improve the content about Estonia in our languages, but it has also strengthened international cooperation between chapters and communities. It has been a concrete example of the value of open knowledge as a tool for bringing together different cultural realities and promoting multilingualism. 

We deeply appreciate the efforts of all those who participated, and especially Wikimedia Estonia, for their involvement and for making this connection possible between countries so different but united by a common cause: building a world where knowledge is free, open, and available to all.