Writing Diplomacy: The Story of WikiDiplomasi and Indonesian Wikipedia (Part 1)

The first part of two series on WikiDiplomasi, a project funded by Wikimedia Rapid Fund, to improve the quality and quantity of diplomacy and International Relations-related contents on Indonesian Wikipedia

We all have that one topic that we aspire to improve on Wikipedia, for us it is diplomacy and International Relations (IR). We are a band of university students and academics from the Department of International Relations, Universitas Brawijaya and what a better way to introduce our own wiki club (KlubWiki Universitas Brawijaya) and experience in IR than through WikiDiplomasi?

Our team from KlubWiki Universitas Brawijaya has recently wrapped up WikiDiplomasi, a project to enhance the quality and quantity of diplomacy and International Relations topics on Indonesian Wikipedia. The project was funded through Rapid Fund by the Wikimedia Foundation over a five-month period from February to May 2025. Our team consists of six community members: Kanyadibya Cendana Prasetyo (User:Kanzcech), Wishnu Mahendra Wiswayana (User:WMWis), Rhani Lilianti Kata (User:Rhani Lilianti Kata), Fariz Oktavian Rosu (User:Farizor), Almasiva Tirta Maedy (User:Almasiva Tirta Maedy), and Yohanes Melanthon Hasudungan Tambunan (User: Hamilton Tjendra).

To be honest, it’s not our first rodeo to conduct Wikipedia training or edit-a-thon, what makes it different are the scale of the project thanks to Rapid Fund grant and our familiarity with the topic. The idea stemmed from WikiNusantara 2024, thanks to Raymond of Creative Commons Indonesia, who introduced Rapid Fund to the volunteers during workshop and group discussion sessions. At the time, I immediately thought what if, I, as an International Relations lecturer join forces with fellow lecturers and students to develop more comprehensive and high-quality content in the field of diplomacy and International Relations on Indonesian Wikipedia. Long story short, we developed and submit our proposal to the WMF. We also made initial contacts to several universities and adjacent Wikimedia communities. Thankfully, we got the grant and activities going!

Our activities and results

Initially we conduct a content analysis on Indonesian Wikipedia to find the gaps within diplomacy and IR topics. We discovered gaps in both the amount and quality of available articles, thus, warrant further improvement. Then, we conducted meetings with relevant stakeholders and held a training for trainers for internal team to increase our knowledge of Indonesian Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

We conducted the workshops and trainings in Jawa-Bali, Indonesia from February until May 2025, as detailed below:

• WikiDiplomasi at Universitas Brawijaya (15 February 2025), with KlubWiki Universitas Brawijaya
• WikiDiplomasi at Universitas Gadjah Mada (24 February 2025), with Wikimedia Yogyakarta Community
• WikiDiplomasi at Universitas Diponegoro (27 February 2025) with Wikimedia Banjarnegara Community
• WikiDiplomasi at Universitas Indonesia (24 April 2025) with Wikimedia Jakarta Community
• WikiDiplomasi at Universitas Budi Luhur (25 April 2025) with Wikimedia Jakarta Community
• WikiDiplomasi at Universitas Udayana (27 April 2025) with Wikimedia Denpasar Community
• Hybrid WikiDiplomasi Meetup/Edit-a-thon (4 May 2025) with Wikimedia Bandung Community

We have achieved and even surpassed some of our targets. The number of participants from six workshops and training and one edit-a-thon were 207 (target: 150); the number of editors were 133 (target: 120), the number of organizers were 21 (target: 22). In addition, 104 new articles were created (target: 120) and 239 existing articles were improved (target: 120). There were 788 edits made, with 383,800 bytes added. We also upload more than 100 photos and videos of our activities to Wikimedia Commons.

During our project, we found that the approach to combine workshop with Wikipedia training was most effective in achieving the results. The workshop gave an overview of a specific diplomacy or International Relations topic and introduction to Wikimedia and Wikipedia. While the Wikipedia training was conducted afterwards to train the participants in using, editing, and creating new Wikipedia articles.

Moreover, the WikiDiplomasi project has garnered a significant interest in diplomacy-related content and Wikimedia movement in general, extending beyond just six universities and six Wikimedia communities we partnered with. The widespread enthusiasm, coupled with inquiries from other universities, highlights a great opportunity to scale up WikiDiplomasi in the future.

Lessons learned

These are the top three lessons we learned while conducting this project. First, we learned that having established cooperations or connections, for example through MoU, will ease the process with the universities or Wikimedia communities. Our project could run smoothly thanks to the wonderful collaboration among all stakeholders, local volunteers, and Wikimedia contributors.

Second, we found that keeping participants consistently engaged was tough, as the schedule sometimes clashed with their classes or other commitments. Thus, for the next time, we will work more closely with universities to ensure the participants’ commitment and engagement until the activity ends. We also think of new ways to convert the participants to engaged Wikimedia volunteers by sharing new Wikimedia projects or activities and connect them with their local Wikimedia community.

Third, the project highlights the importance of thorough preparation and implementation, from the technical, operational, and financial standpoints. Keeping the records of articles and participants is key to our project’s success. We utilized Programs and Events Dashboard as well as Google Forms to track participants’ involvement and progress. Brief meetings and continuous communication among all parties involved are important to avoid miscommunication and oversights.  Since the project was run for almost five months, sound financial management through thorough financial record-keeping and reporting proves to be essential.

Moving forward

Moving forward, we would like to continue the WikiDiplomasi project to cover more universities in Indonesia and organize a national Wikipedia competition for public. We also hope we can cultivate knowledge about diplomacy and IR-related contents in Indonesia Wikipedia and beyond. We believe Wikipedia and its sister projects could provide valuable support and resources for students, educators, researchers, and general public and help improve access to the knowledge. We also aim to involve more volunteers to collaborate to open knowledge movement.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thanks to all partner universities, guest speakers, local volunteers from six Wikimedia communities, and all participants who have involved in this project. See you at the next WikiDiplomasi!