Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin 2026 Issue 13

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Here is a quick overview of highlights from the Wikimedia Foundation since our last issue on July 3. Previous editions of this bulletin are on Meta. Let foundationbulletin@wikimedia.org know if you have any feedback or suggestions for improvement!

Highlights

  • Reflections from around the puzzle globe: Wikimedia Foundation CEO, Bernadette Meehan shares her reflections from around the puzzle globe.
  • Wikimania 2026Wikimania is happening this week! After the event, all streamed sessions will be linked in the program on Eventyay and later uploaded to Commons.
  • Grantmaking: The Global Resource Distribution Committee has published a Grantmaking Strategy draft that sets out a renewed approach to how the Wikimedia Foundation’s Community Fund is distributed across the Wikimedia Movement. The GRDC is requesting feedback from volunteers and affiliates, regardless of whether they are grantees or not.
  • Movement EcosystemA proposal that would update movement affiliate recognition and establish new, connected criteria for eligibility to receive Community Fund grants is now available for community review. You are invited to read the proposal and participate in the discussion until August 7.
  • AI’s impact on Free Knowledge: How AI threatens the social contract of free knowledge and what we can do about it.

Annual Goals Progress on Engage

See also: Growth · Product Safety and Integrity · Tech News · Language and Internationalization · The Wikipedia Library · list of movement events · Wikifunctions & Abstract Wikipedia

  • The Wikipedia LibraryFive new collections were added to the Wikipedia Library and a course developed by leading experts in academic publishing and open knowledge was launched.
  • Women+ contributions in Wikimedia TechA guide based on lived experience on how to address some of the invisible barriers for women+ in more technical Wikimedia spaces and recommendations to become more inclusive. Help further by filling out this survey to better understand technical contributions by women+ across Wikimedia projects until July 20.
  • Structured ExperimentationA reflection on the first year of structured experimentation highlights successful experiments such as Paste Check, Reference Check, and Tone Check, which improved editing outcomes and have been rolled out to more users, as well as experiments that did not lead to product changes.
  • Revise Tone test ended: The A/B test of Revise Tone ended on July 9. It showed that newcomer task completion rates increased by 38.7% compared to the default Copyedit task, with no decrease in edit quality. The feature is now available for everyone on the Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese Wikipedias. The plan is to release Revise Tone to more wikis.
  • Keeping mentor list up to date: Administrators on wikis where Growth features are available can now automatically remove inactive mentors by configuring the settings at Special:CommunityConfiguration/Mentorship to keep the list updated. Mentors are experienced contributors who opt in to help new users on-wiki through the Growth Features.
  • WikifunctionsHow Abstract Wikipedia fits into the Wikimedia Foundation’s annual plan FY26/27.
  • Wikidata: The latest Wikidata Platform newsletter (July edition) shares how to identify and rewrite queries that rely on Blazegraph-specific extensions and affected by the migration off Blazegraph.
  • Discussion Tools: On English Wikipedia, DiscussionTools‘ Usability Improvements has now become default for talk pages. You can opt-out of these changes at any time in user preferences. With this, Discussion Tools are now fully available at all wikis.
  • Tech News: The latest highlights from Tech News week 28 and 29 include the new Parsoid parser continues to be deployed to additional wikis, making it easier to introduce new reading and editing features. See also the 72 community submitted tasks that were resolved over the last two weeks. Overall, from April – June 2026 about 337 community tasks were resolved by the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • Language inclusivity at Wikimania 2026New approaches to translation and interpretation will be tested at Wikimania this year.
  • Call for submissions open for Wikimedia Latin America Conference 2026: The Wikimedia community in Latin America has opened the call for session proposals for the Wikimedia Latin America Conference 2026. Community members are invited to submit proposals for the conference program by August 10.

Annual Goals Progress on Protect

See also: Global Advocacy blog · Global Advocacy Newsletter · Policy blog

  • AdvocacyChina again blocks the Wikimedia Foundation as a permanent observer to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
  • UK Online Safety Act: Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s Office of Communications, announced that Wikipedia is not designated as a Category 1 service under the Online Safety Act (OSA). This is an important and welcomed outcome as a Category 1 designation could have included privacy and safety risks to our global community of volunteers.
  • UN Open Source Week edit-a-thon: Volunteers created 60 new Wikipedia articles and made nearly 700 updates to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of UN and open source topics at the second UN Open Source Week edit-a-thon co-hosted by Wikimedia Foundation.
  • “Don’t Blink”The latest developments from around the world about protecting the Wikimedia model, its people and its values.

Annual Goals Progress on Reach

See also: Wikimedia Apps · Readers

  • “A Wiki Minute” videosNew videos are added to the series answering some of the most common questions such as “Do you still need Wikipedia when AI can answer anything?” and “Does Wikipedia push a political agenda?”.
  • Wikipedia 25 brand collaboration in Indonesia: On 4 July, the Jakarta-based street wear company Ageless Galaxy launched a Wikipedia 25 collection, the first ever Wikipedia Brand Collaboration in Asia. The apparel collection featured hats, t-shirts, and a jigsaw puzzle cardigan. Wikimedians in Indonesia joined Ageless Galaxy for a launch party.

Other updates

Board and Board committee updates

See Wikimedia Foundation Board noticeboard · Affiliations Committee Newsletter

  • Board Elections Eligibility: There are new proposed eligibility criteria for standing as a candidate in Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election now available for feedback. The requirements are more specific and detailed than in years past, to both inform the community of what the Board needs and to create multiple pathways to the Board for Wikimedians.

Other Movement curated newsletters & news

See also: Diff blog · Goings-on · Planet Wikimedia · Signpost (en) · Kurier (de) · Actualités du Wiktionnaire (fr) · Regards sur l’actualité de la Wikimedia (fr) · Wikimag (fr) · Education · GLAM · Milestones · Wikidata · Central and Eastern Europe · other newsletters

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