Every moment is special: My Wikimania@20 Nairobi journey

This year’s Wikimania took place in Nairobi, Kenya, a city located in Africa, where I observed unique handmade artworks and a captivating wild nature. This Wikimania also held a very special meaning. We celebrated the 20th anniversary of Wikimania.

In this summary, I would like to briefly share with you an interesting session I participated in as a speaker, some inspiring things I learned from other sessions I attended, friendship projects, and my social time at Wikimania.

Pre-Conference: Users with Extended Rights Convening

Unlike previous years, this year I attended a pre-conference event. As one of the interface administrators on Turkish Wikipedia, I found answers to some technical questions.

During one part of the event, when people started gathering at round tables designated by their interests, I sat at Martin’s round table about CentralNotice. Because the banner announcements that appear from time to time on the Turkish Wikipedia have always attracted my attention, and I wanted to learn how they are done. Martin first gave a brief introduction to CentralNotice and then explained how to design and submit a banner from beginning to end. I listened carefully to Martin’s presentation and took some helpful notes for myself. For example, we should request a CentralNotice banner at least 14 days before the event. This was a point I didn’t know, and it is very important information for the announcement.

Seeing users with such extended rights together, I was also motivated to contribute to the dark mode adaptation of the Turkish Wikipedia. I started experimenting with this at the Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 in Istanbul, but I really started doing it at Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi. With some help from experienced users, I started updating the non-dark mode compatible pages and templates bit by bit using Codex design tokens.

Wikimedians of the Year 2025

As last year’s Media Contributor of the Year, I followed this year’s awards ceremony with even greater excitement because I was quite curious about this year’s Media Contributor and the other award winners. Congratulations to this year’s winners:

• The Wikimedian of the Year: Robertsky
• The Wikimedia Laureate: Risker
• Media Contributor of The Year: 1Veertje
• Newcomer of the Year: Dadrik
• Functionary of the Year: AramilFeraxa
• Tech contributor of the Year: Eugene233
• Honorable mention: Nitesh Gill
• Honorable mention: Ammarpad

More information about their contributions can be found in the Wikimedia Foundation’s Diff article:

Meet the Wikimedians of the Year 2025

Some interesting sessions I attended

Photo permissions for Muggles: creating efficient processes with VRT

The first session I attended on the first day was a presentation by Antanana on creating efficient processes with VRT. The session began with an explanation of the meaning of the acronym VRT, followed by an explanation of the process Antanana uses to upload people’s photos with VRT. First, she said she doesn’t send messages to people randomly or according to a specific plan, and that it takes time.

Later in the session, Antanana shared with us what she had accomplished in the first 100 days; she mentioned that she wrote to exactly 163 different individuals and had reached nearly 80 photographers via Facebook, Instagram, and email. As a result of these communication efforts, permission has been obtained for 135 photographs.

Additionally, Antanana shared with us a simple 4-step process that answers the question I sometimes ponder: how can I ask a photographer to donate photos?

• Get in touch with the subject matter
• Check the copyright and other rights, such as those for the original file
• Contact the photographer
• Add the photo to Wikidata/Wikipedia.

Frankly, finding an answer to one of the biggest questions in my mind during the first session I attended at Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi, excited me about the other sessions and events I would attend throughout Wikimania.

Preserving History, Empowering Communities: The Power of Multimedia Archives on Wikimedia Commons

Archives, archiving… I can say that a Wikipedian (at least if they are involved with Commons) has an interest in archiving (Because I know from my own experience 🙂). It was a pleasure to listen to my friend Ferfive Coronado, whom I met at this year’s Wikimedia Youth Conference in Prague, talk about their archival work and the process in this presentation.

Coronado first talked about what a media archive is and why it is important. She then shared with us her archive, which she calls “Memories on Wheels” (Automóviles clásicos y Antiguos en Aguascalientes), and the steps she took to create it:

• Identifying a historical gap or need
• Establishing collaboration with local communities
• Choosing a platform
• Collection of materials
• Using Flickr and Flickr2Commons
• Organizing categories & materials
• Share with the world.

Her archive of antique and classic car photographs is quite valuable. It deeply impressed me and encouraged me to do similar things.

The WikiLearn challenge – Build a course prototype for your community in 65 minutes

Another session I learned a new tool was a workshop on how to build a 65-minute course prototype for communities with WikiLearn. The workshop began with an explanation of what WikiLearn is, and continued with us learning that we could build a course on the platform ourselves.

At the workshop, we all worked together to build a course prototype. For example, I created a course prototype where volunteers in Turkey could learn about Wikidata and SPARQL queries in detail.

Media relations tips, tricks, and best practices for Wikimedia volunteers and affiliates

This session was very important for developing my communication skills with the media. It was a session that provided tips, useful information, and best practices regarding the relationship between volunteers or communities and the media.

The session featuring speakers Vidhu Goyal and Gwadamirai Majange from the Wikimedia Foundation began with a brief icebreaker. Here we answered questions such as “How many of you have explained your favourite Wikimedia project to people?”, “How many have explained our model to the press?”, and “What has been the most common misconception you’ve had to clarify about Wikipedia/your work on Wikimedia projects?”

As far as I summarized; we need to tell our story to the media in a compelling way and be sure of the main message we want to convey. To do this, we should briefly tell our story; we should make it conversational, support it with relatable issues and statistics, make important conclusions our opening statements, and give a clear call to action.

I believe that I will revisit and review what I learned in this session when I need it in the future.

Wikimedians of the Year Showcase

As past winners of the Wikimedian of the Year awards, we came together and organized a session called “Wikimedians of the Year Showcase.” In this session, we gave short presentations on our interests and then answered questions from the participants:

• Diff by User:Eugene Ormandy
• Wikibreak by Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (User:Rosiestep)
• Why visual storytelling impactful for Wiki events? by Yılmaz Caner Özyayıkçı (User:Kurmanbek)
• The case for a multimedia Wikimedia by Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado)
• Reaching a wide audience in a good way thanks to the new CentralNotice guidelines by Martin (User:DerHexer)
• Wikimedian Movement in Malaysia by Taufik Rosman (User:Tofeiku)
• All about indexing by Robert Sim (User:Robertsky)

Among these presentations, the Wikibreak presentation was particularly caught my attention. In the presentation, I learned that taking breaks when needed is actually a good thing, that it recharges a person, and that using it when necessary can be beneficial.

My presentation

In my presentation, I mentioned that a conference design can actually be a visual storyteller. That’s why visual storytelling is so important. Just as every event has its own unique story, visualizing that story captures participants’ attention, instills a sense of belonging, and increases memorability. I also mentioned that I blended event-related elements with elements of Wiki culture specifically for Wiki events. I showed some examples from the CEE Meeting 2024 Istanbul and Wikimedia Hackathon 2025 Istanbul designs.

Planning the future with friends

Another great aspect of Wikimania is being able to meet fellow Wikimedians from around the world and discuss potential future collaborations and evaluate existing ones.

Wikimedia Japan-Türkiye Friendship Project

My Wikimedian friend Eugene Ormandy from Japan and I talked a bit about our Japan-Türkiye friendship project, which we started at Wikimania 2023 Singapore. We discussed what we might be able to do in the future within the scope of the project.

Malaysia-Türkiye Wiki Friendship Project

Although it was a relatively new project, we, the Wikimedians from Malaysia and Turkey, launched it with great enthusiasm. At Wikimania, we exchanged ideas about what we could do in the future. I talked about the Malaysia-themed Wiki edit-a-thon we plan to hold in Turkey. We also exchanged ideas about collaborating on social media to make joint content.

Turkic Meetup

As members of the Wikimedians of Turkic Languages User Group, we organized a meetup. At this meeting, we discussed activities the user group could do in the future, cross-wiki projects, regional challenges, and more. We also shared activities in our own local communities with each other.

Youth Meetup

Although I couldn’t stay until the end of the meetup, it was exciting to see many young volunteers participate in the meetup. This shows young people’s interest in Wikimedia projects. The idea of collaborating with young participants to develop free knowledge has always excited me.

Outcome

Wikimania 2025 Nairobi was an event where I strengthened my existing relationships, discussed potential collaborations with volunteers I met for the first time, and learned some interesting facts and tools to become more active in different areas within the movement. I’m already excited to use what I’ve learned here in my own community and to learn more next year and share my experiences in more sessions. I would like to thank the Wikimania 2025 organizing team for hosting us in Nairobi, Kenya!