Wikimedia Indonesia once again organized WikiCendekia, a capacity-building program for volunteers of Wikimedia projects. This year, WikiCendekia 2026 was designed for administrators (admins) of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects in Indonesia as a space to share knowledge, skills, and experiences related to adminship of their respective Wikimedia projects. The in-person training was held on 7–8 February 2026 in Surabaya.
WikiCendekia 2026 was implemented through a combination of online and in-person learning, attended by 30 administrators from various Wikimedia projects in Indonesia, including Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wiktionary, and Wikiquote, both in Indonesian and local language editions. The majority of participants were relatively new administrators (<1 year or 1–5 years) in their respective projects. Therefore, we provided “Using Administrative Tools” modules at both basic and advanced levels, enabling new administrators to equip themselves through self-paced learning sessions via the LMS throughout January 2026. Among them, we invited 20 administrators to attend the two-day in-person session. This gathering became an important opportunity for administrators to meet one another, exchange experiences, and strengthen collaboration in managing Wikimedia projects in Indonesia.
Several topics presented during WikiCendekia 2026 were compiled based on a needs assessment shared with administrators. These included creating and running bots (Pywikibot), abuse filters, editing the MediaWiki namespace, and digital safety for administrators in Indonesia. We also collaborated with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Trust & Safety (T&S) team to provide reading materials and presentations on safety-related topics for admins, starting from an introduction to safety on Wikimedia ecosystem to safety considerations for admins, both in general and within the Indonesian context. Hands-on practice of the theories presented was considered by participants to be particularly helpful and directly applicable to their daily administrative work.
“WikiCendekia opens opportunities for new administrators to learn together with experienced administrators.” – WikiCendekia 2026 participant
In addition to presentation sessions and guided practical activities, Cangkruk sessions (peer practice-sharing) were also organized to allow newer administrators to learn technical topics from more experienced peers. Participants shared that they gained new technical insights, ranging from discussions about bot to the process of preparing potential new projects from the Wikimedia Incubator. We also facilitated Warung Kopi sessions, or small-group discussions, focused on real cases, best approaches to handling community issues, and exchanging cross-project perspectives. These sessions helped many participants better understand the complexity and diverse needs of each wiki project. Participants described their experience at WikiCendekia 2026 as memorable, particularly because they were able to interact directly with fellow administrators.
“Discussions during all the Warung Kopi sessions were the most memorable for me because I gained many interesting insights from fellow administrators, both technical and non-technical. In my view, the Warung Kopi discussions were very productive and produced outcomes that I can personally implement in my role as an administrator.” – WikiCendekia 2026 participant
On the first day, we held a Warung Kopi session titled “The future of Wikimedia project adminship in Indonesia” to identify key challenges, opportunities, and strategic directions for adminship in Indonesia. The discussion highlighted issues such as insufficient technical capacity among some admins, increasing vandalism and misinformation, limited representation of administrators in local-language projects, difficulties in translating technical terminology into local languages, and the declining number of native speakers actively contributing to the projects. At the same time, new challenges are emerging with the rise of generative AI and the growing dominance of short-form content that attracts internet users’ attention.
Despite these challenges, the Wikimedia community in Indonesia is rooted in strong foundations. The movement is driven by a shared vision of free knowledge, a spirit of volunteerism, support from global Wikimedia volunteers, and a consensus-based decision-making system. The diversity of projects and the richness of unique content are additional strengths, including the role of Wikimedia projects in preserving Indonesian and local languages. The increasing participation of women in the Wikimedia movement is also a positive signal for diversity and the long-term sustainability of adminship.
WikiCendekia 2026 marks an initial step and reflects Wikimedia Indonesia’s commitment to supporting administrators in sustaining the free knowledge movement, while strengthening the role of local communities in developing and managing Wikimedia projects in Indonesia. Strengthening administrative capacity must be nurtured through continuous learning spaces, open dialogue, and meaningful support for administrators.
“May we continue to interact with one another, both within this forum and beyond!” – User:Salsa66syifa, one of the WikiCendekia 2026 participant
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