A Clash of Ideas and Discourse: Highlights of the 2026 ESEAP Conference

Between the 15th to 17th May this year, I had the opportunity to attend the ESEAP Conference in Kaohsiung in Taiwan. The experience was pretty novel to me, as this is the first time I ever visited a country that’s unrecognized by my country and probably most of ASEAN. The decision to pick Taiwan to host the conference, I believe, is based on its steadfast commitment to free and open knowledge. its cross-strait counterpart decided to take the other route and decided to curtail the Wikimedia (and practically any open knowledge movement) with its Giant Firewall. Additionally, the same country also blocks Wikimedia’s membership in the World Intellectual Property Organization, for the same reason we’re hosting this conference in Taiwan.

Looking back, the landscape in Taiwan has the same vibes as Jakarta, with the main difference being that it’s very clean. Even though there are some traces of trash here and there, overall, it reminds me pretty much reminds me of Japan vibes (from what the internet said). Some of my friends noted the abundance of CCTVs, even in minor roads, highlighting Taiwan’s security forces commitment to the safety of both the populace and tourists. The main source of discomfort that I frequently experience is the language barrier, as my observation suggests that Taiwanese people learned Japanese, instead of English, as their secondary language. The language barrier impeded a smooth communication with a significant section of the populace, although from what I observe most youngsters and university students were able to communicate the language more smoothly.

On to the conference itself. What makes this conference interesting is the presence of a separate thematic track each day, with a special room dedicated for a day-round topic. The separate thematic room is dedicated to presentation on women on the first day, while on the second day the thematic room is allocated for the establishment of the ESEAP Youth Group, with presentations and workshops aiming at empowering the youth as well as sharing stories of youth and college wiki clubs and communities from all over community. Some of my fellow Indonesian friends from the UB Wiki Club, Annida and Rafliyan, was among the presenters in the thematic session. The last day was dedicated for general discussions on the ESEAP Hub, with various users from different chapters delivering their ideas for the further improvement of the Hub. Needless to say, I was very amazed with the discourse and the diversity of thought among the presenters, as well as the lessons learned from the various projects. I sincerely believe that these could pave the way for a future, brighter, and a more inclusive ESEAP community.

Aside from these thematic presentations, there is also an assortment of presentations on all walks of topic from the community members. These presentations ranged from technical matters such as the ones regarding citations and uploads, to a more general and overarching topics such as WikiEdu, in which all walks of users are invited to take part, either as educators or participants, to partake in the spread of Wikipedia to the general public through education. Another session noteworthy of mention is on Citoid by Robert Sim, which gave me insights on the much-awaited automation of the tedious citation process in Wikipedia. I am really grateful to be able to attend this session and exchange ideas on training, in relation to the previous Wiki training sessions I’ve either organized or taught in the past.

I also participated in sharing my knowledge during the conference with a presentation on my experience handling articles relating to politicians and other politically significant figures in Indonesia. I showcased Politisi Project, a small-scale project involving five Indonesians Wikipedia contributors in the English Wikipedia that focused on writing and improving articles on Indonesian politicians and related figures within the English Wikipedia. To my surprise, my presentation garnered quite an attention, as I initially believed that the topics was too niche for the general audience. A lot of inquiries and responses on my presentation revolved less on the Project itself and more on my experience dealing with the Indonesia government stakeholders, especially the more sensitive military. I revealed my personal experience where I refused a lucrative offer to write articles on all military district commander by a high-ranking defence ministry official, despite the hefty sum being paid for a per article basis. My intuitions proved correct as Wikipedia’s SUL page was blocked a few days later by the digital ministry.

Overall, I was satisfied with how the committee’s organizing the conference, although some fine-tuning needs to be in terms of communications. I truly felt proud to be able to connect and engage in all sorts of discourse with the diverse and open-minded folks of the ESEAP Hub. Looking forward for future discussions and the long-awaited next year’s summit in Osaka!