Christchurch Hosting A Weekend For Wikipedians
This weekend, a group of Wikipedia editors from across the country will gather in Ōtautahi Christchurch for WikiCon 2025 – the annual gathering for editors of Wikipedia and its many related projects.
Wikipedia is one of the top visited websites in the world, and it is maintained by around 120,000 volunteer editors across the globe. Aotearoa does their bit too – there are thought to be a few hundred regular editors throughout the country, who spend their time reviewing and improving content, correcting typos, updating facts, and monitoring vandalism – all in the name of making knowledge freely available for everyone.
WikiCon will provide opportunities for editors and contributors to connect face-to-face, helping to create collaborative relationships. The conference will also provide opportunities for editors and contributors to share and develop their skills and knowledge in editing.
Held in Te Puna Wānaka at the Ara Institute of Canterbury, the schedule for the weekend includes sessions on all sorts of topics relating to Wikipedia – copyright, finding reliable sources, modelling iwi, hapū, and rūnanga correctly, and how Wikipedia deals with disinformation.
Attendees include Mike Dickison who is currently Wikipedian at Large on the Banks Peninsula, Tamsin Braisher who recently completed a project creating a new Wikipedia article every single day for a year to help combat gender bias on the site, Axel Downard-Wilke who led the battle to get macrons on Wikipedia, and Siobhan Leachman who was the 2023 Wikimedia Laureate, and works tirelessly to make scientific knowledge as open and connected as possible.
The conference is being hosted by Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand (WANZ), an affiliate of the international Wikimedia Foundation. WANZ supports people and organisations to contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects. This includes providing training to new editors, supporting experienced editors to continue to grow and develop their skills, running workshops and events, developing projects to address gaps and bias, and advocating for open access of knowledge.
WikiCon 2025 is the fifth conference for Wikipedians to be run in Aotearoa, and the first time it is being held in Christchurch.
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