We are proud to WikiCelebrate Juan Kulichevsky today, known across Wikimedia projects as User:BugWarp. Juan has contributed to Wikimedia projects since childhood and is passionate about sports photography, free knowledge, and community building in Argentina and beyond.
“Little did I know that this would be the start of something great”
Juan’s Wikimedia journey began in a pretty unusual way when he was just 10 years old.
“It’s quite funny actually, if you look at my account, I’ve been registered since July 2009. I was only 10 years old then! Already back then we used Wikipedia a lot with my friends at school so we could finish our homework,” Juan remembers. Inspired after a friend’s father donated to Wikipedia, Juan decided the “coolest thing” he could do was create an account himself.
“Little did I know that this would be the start of something great. Many years later, I remembered that you can freely contribute to the project, and I started uploading pictures to Commons of people and things that weren’t available on Wiki, and then I took the courage to start editing and writing articles.” Juan says.
Today, much of his work focuses on sports photography and improving the visual representation of athletes across Wikimedia projects.
Building connections through sports photography
One of Juan’s proudest Wikimedia memories dates back to 2018, during the Winter Olympics. While editing the article about the Argentine delegation, he noticed that many athletes lacked freely licensed photos. “The delegation for the games was quite small, but even so, I wanted them to have a full article, so I got to work,” he says.
Juan decided to directly contact athletes to ask whether they would share photos from the Games. To his surprise, several responded positively. “We got some beautiful pictures. Even to this day, I still talk to some of them from time to time,” he remembers.
Later that same year, Juan received photographer accreditation for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires together with fellow Wikimedians from Argentina and Germany. “It was a remarkable experience that not only helped a lot of new athletes to have their first picture on Wikipedia, but it set me on this new path of covering sports events that I still continue to do to this day,” he says.
Contributing for the love of it
Beyond editing and photography, Juan has also played an active role within Wikimedia Argentina, serving as a board member and supporting the wellbeing.
To the question of what motivates him to continue contributing, his answer is simple: joy. “First of all it’s a fun activity. I enjoy researching sources for a new article, I love going out on the streets with my camera and taking pictures for things that normally I wouldn’t have appreciated or even paid attention to,” Juan says.
“Despite the current political environment we are living in, despite the rise of AI, despite all the mistakes we make: People still trust us,” he notes. But most importantly: “We mostly do this stuff just for the love of it, and I think that’s a lesson a lot of people could use in their daily lives.”
Looking toward the future of the movement
Juan sees the current challenge rise of artificial intelligence and the difficulties of maintaining strong connections across communities and affiliates: “We spend a lot of time looking at ourselves and yet the relations between chapters, user groups and the community as whole is showing a lot of disconnect.” But he remains optimistic. “Events like the Youth Conference are helping, and I remember that I must assume good faith. In 99% of cases I know everyone is doing their best to improve Wikimedia,” Juan says.
Thank you, Juan, for all that you do. We celebrate your work today and every day! And if you know any other Wikimedians who should be celebrated, recommend them for celebration!
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