Three collaborations in Nairobi: My Wikimania 2025

At this year’s Wikimania in Nairobi, I was able to experience three collaborations and implement one small plan.

My first collaboration was a presentation on the topic of “Storytelling and Learning with Diff” with Diff editor Rae Adimer. I didn’t have much experience giving presentations in English, but Rae’s support from the preparation stage helped me complete the presentation successfully. I believe I was able to convey to many people that by contributing to Diff, I gained a deeper understanding of Wikimedia projects, communities, and the Wikimedia Foundation, and that this experience opened the door to the Wikimedia world, connected the community, and broadened the scope of our activities.

The second collaboration was that Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight invited me to join the Core Organising Team of the WikiWomen* Summit, and I invited my friend Narumi to join the Team. The Summit was carefully prepared, and I learned a lot, and the WikiWomen* Lunch was also very fulfilling. This experience opened up a rich world of WikiWomen* that I had barely known before. Above all, I will never forget the experience of being able to interact directly with the Wikimedians from around the world who support it. I feel proud to be a part of WikiWomen*’s activities, which have been nurtured over time within the Wikimedia ecosystem.

And thirdly, the WikiOrchestra project I participated in last year in Katowice was planed into a WikiChoir this time, so I also entered that. Together with Wikimedians from around the world, we tried our hand at singing Swahili songs and were able to perform on stage at the closing ceremony. The choir experience lasted only four days, from rehearsal to the performance, but the collaboration I experienced there will continue to enrich my life. The Swahili songs “Malaika” and “Jambo Bwana” are still running through my head.

These three collaborations allowed me to share my experiences with many Wikimedians and encouraged me to do better in the future. But I also had another plan: to distribute paper cranes.

When I heard about this year’s Wikimania, the first thing that caught my eye was the dates. The opening date, August 6th, is the Hiroshima Day, and the closing date, August 9th, is the Nagasaki Day. After thinking about what I could do as a Japanese person with that history, I came up with the idea of ​​making and distributing paper cranes, a symbol of peace. So before my trip, I folded 100 origami cranes and placed them on the exchange table during the event. I attached a QR code for the English Wikipedia article on “Orizuru (Paper Crane).” The article mentions Sadako Sasaki, who was exposed to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, and the thousand paper cranes. At the venue, many people were touched by picking up the colorful paper cranes.

There is a limit to what one person can do alone, and the world is full of conflicts. However, as Wikimedian who believe in collaboration, I will continue to do what I can, one step at a time.