Wikimania
Enable an AI agent to recognise Wikimania, assess the readiness and participation conditions of its editions, and identify supported actions without mistaking conference activity for Wikimedia-wide authority.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise Wikimania, assess the readiness and participation conditions of its editions, and identify supported actions without mistaking conference activity for Wikimedia-wide authority.
Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement's annual global conference, staged by local volunteer organising teams with Wikimedia Foundation support, at which contributors, affiliates, staff and researchers present work and debate Wikimedia projects, other wikis, free knowledge, open-source software, and the social and technical conditions of that work.
It can be Resolve a Wikimania reference to the series, an edition or an edition activity using official evidence.; Assess whether registration, session submission or scholarship application is currently available.; Construct an attendance plan from confirmed sessions, time zones, language support and access requirements.; Route programme, logistical and conduct concerns to the published responsible channels.; Compare announced activities with delivery evidence and identify unresolved follow-up.; Locate conference outputs and assess their attribution and reuse conditions..
Distinguishing features
An official Wikimania source identifies the event as an edition of Wikimania; Wikimedia-related subject matter alone is insufficient.
Its series identity is a global gathering across Wikimedia projects, rather than a single-project or regional conference. [Wikimania 2025 About](https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2025%3AAbout)
It is organised by Wikimedians with Wikimedia Foundation support; the model must distinguish these roles from ownership of Wikipedia or authority over its content. [Wikimania 2025 About](https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2025%3AAbout)
A session, satellite gathering or associated hackathon belongs within an edition only when its relationship is evidenced; it does not independently establish another Wikimania edition.
Scope
+ Wikimania series identity and recognition of official editions
+ Edition lifecycle, organising responsibilities and decision authority
+ Programme proposals, sessions and associated activities
+ Registration, scholarships and accessible participation
+ Conference delivery, participant conduct and reporting routes
+ Published outputs, documented outcomes and continuity between editions
- Wikipedia articles and the content of other Wikimedia projects
- Wikimedia Foundation or affiliate organisational models
- Regional Wikimedia conferences and independent edit-a-thons
- Standalone software projects developed during associated activities
- Individual travel bookings, immigration cases and accommodation contracts
- Wikimedia-wide policy adoption and project governance outside the conference
Characteristics
- Official edition recognition
- Edition linked to an official Wikimania announcement or archive, with verification date Prevents conflating related Wikimedia gatherings with Wikimania.
- Edition lifecycle
- Proposed, announced, preparing, underway, concluded, postponed, cancelled or unknown Determines whether planning, participation or retrospective actions are appropriate.
- Participation format
- In person, online, hybrid or unconfirmed, qualified by activity A streamed session does not establish remote participation for the entire edition.
- Conference timing
- Start and end timestamps with time zones and confirmation status Supports attendance planning and distinguishes conference days from associated activities.
- Organising mandate
- Responsible body or role linked to an edition, decision type and evidence Routes requests to actors entitled to decide them.
- Participation pathway status
- Not announced, upcoming, open, closed, waitlisted or unknown for each registration, proposal or scholarship pathway Prevents recommending an application route whose window has closed.
- Language and access provision
- Published languages, interpretation, captions and accessibility provisions, each marked confirmed, requested, unavailable or unknown Determines whether a particular participant can use a particular activity.
- Programme commitment
- Proposed, accepted, scheduled, changed, delivered, withdrawn or unknown per activity Separates intentions from reliable attendance options and completed work.
- Output reuse conditions
- Published licence, attribution requirements, consent restrictions or unknown per output Controls whether an agent may reproduce or redistribute conference materials.
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 7 bundles · 13 layers · 20 findings · 42 questions.
Wikimania identity and editions Recognises the registered series and distinguishes its editions from neighbouring Wikimedia events.
An agent must resolve what a Wikimania reference denotes before attaching dates, organisers or participation rules.
Series recognition
Evidence that the referenced gathering belongs to Wikimania.
Official Wikimania identity
Record the official identification and Wikimedia-wide scope supporting recognition as Wikimania.
- Which official page identifies this gathering as Wikimania? provenance
- Does the reference denote the series, an edition or an activity within an edition? definition
Edition boundaries
The temporal and activity boundaries of a recognised edition.
Edition and associated activities
Record edition designation, confirmed dates and evidence connecting pre-conference, satellite or co-located activities.
- Which designation and dates identify this edition, and which announcement confirms them? provenance
- Which associated activities are officially included, and which are independently organised? boundary
- What evidence would require updating the edition's dates or cancellation status? action
Wikimania organisation and readiness Edition-specific responsibilities and evidence that the gathering can proceed.
Community organisation and Foundation support must be represented through actual mandates and confirmed commitments.
Organising responsibilities
Who can decide, approve or answer particular conference matters.
Edition decision mandates
Record the responsibilities of the organising team, programme and scholarship reviewers, and supporting bodies where documented.
- Who is authorised to decide programme acceptance, scholarship awards and operational changes for this edition? action
- Which published mandates establish these responsibilities and their limits? provenance
Delivery readiness
Confirmed dependencies behind the announced conference format.
Venue, platform and support readiness
Record readiness evidence for venues, online services, staffing and other dependencies needed by the edition's actual format.
- Which delivery dependencies are confirmed, unresolved or no longer available? measurement
- What published contingency applies if a venue, platform or essential support service fails? action
- Which lifecycle state is justified by current evidence rather than by the planned dates alone? measurement
Wikimania programme and contribution How Wikimedia-related contributions become scheduled and delivered conference activities.
Agents must distinguish an idea or submitted proposal from an accepted session and a delivered contribution.
Programme entry
Edition-specific opportunities and requirements for contributing to the programme.
Proposal eligibility and selection
Record the actual call for contributions, review route and proposal status without assuming that older editions' rules persist.
- Which Wikimedia topics, session formats and contributor requirements does this edition's call specify? definition
- Is the relevant submission route open, and what deadline and time zone apply? measurement
- What evidence establishes acceptance rather than submission alone? provenance
Programme delivery
What participants can attend and what was actually delivered.
Session participation contract
Record session timing, format, language, prerequisites and supported participation modes.
- When and where does the session occur, and which schedule revision supports that information? provenance
- Can remote participants watch, ask questions or contribute, and what language support is confirmed? action
- Was the session delivered, changed or withdrawn? measurement
Wikimania participation and scholarships Practical routes into the gathering, including supported attendance.
Registration, programme acceptance and scholarship awards are distinct decisions with different conditions.
Attendance access
Requirements and confirmed provisions for participating in a chosen mode.
Registration and access fit
Record registration availability and the participant's fit with documented access provisions, using only necessary personal information.
- What registration, fee or capacity conditions apply to the intended participation mode? action
- Which accessibility and language provisions are confirmed for the activities the participant intends to join? measurement
- Which travel or entry requirements require referral to separate authoritative guidance? boundary
Supported attendance
Scholarship opportunities and the limits of an award.
Scholarship route and coverage
Record eligibility, selection status, covered costs and obligations for the specific scholarship route; criteria and coverage must be checked for the edition. [Wikimania Scholarships](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Scholarships)
- Which scholarship route is applicable, and what published criteria and deadline govern it? action
- Which costs and dates does the award cover, and which remain the participant's responsibility? boundary
- Does the evidence show application, selection, acceptance or completed travel arrangements? measurement
Wikimania conduct and media Applicable participation rules, reporting routes and permissions for recording or sharing.
An agent needs edition-specific evidence before directing a conduct report or treating public attendance as permission to publish media.
Participant conduct
The conduct rules and response channels applicable to conference spaces.
Applicable rules and reporting
Record the applicable friendly-space or other conduct policies, their scope and the designated reporting channels.
- Which published conduct policies apply to the edition's physical, online and associated spaces? provenance
- What channel should an agent direct a participant to for the reported concern? action
- Which response powers belong to conference organisers and which require another responsible body? boundary
Recording and publication permissions
Conditions governing session recordings, photographs and shared presentation materials.
Media consent and reuse
Record permission and licence evidence for each material or activity; do not generalise a submission rule into universal recording consent. [Wikimania 2018 Submissions](https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions)
- What recording or photography restrictions apply to this session and its participants? boundary
- Which licence and attribution requirements govern the specific material? provenance
- Is the intended publication or reuse supported by the available permission evidence? action
Wikimania outcomes and continuity Evidence of delivered outputs, follow-up commitments and learning across editions.
A conference discussion can inform Wikimedia work without itself creating a binding movement decision.
Outputs and authority
Traceable conference outputs and the status of claims made about them.
Documented results and commitments
Record session materials, summaries and follow-up commitments while preserving who made each claim and their authority.
- Which recordings, notes or reports evidence the stated result? provenance
- Is the result a discussion summary, voluntary commitment or decision made by a separately authorised body? boundary
- Who accepted responsibility for follow-up, and what next action was documented? action
Edition learning
Comparable evidence and documented lessons that can inform later editions.
Participation evidence and handover
Record reported participation measures, limitations and organiser lessons without inferring movement-wide impact from attendance alone.
- How were registrations, attendees and online participation counted, including any deduplication? measurement
- Which documented lessons or unresolved issues were handed to future organisers? provenance
- Which outcome claims remain unsupported by the available evaluation evidence? boundary
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- in-person edition
- fully virtual edition
- hybrid (in-person and online) edition
- pre-conference (hackathon, training, fringe events)
- scholarship-supported attendance
- cancelled edition
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata item - Q1072488 - Item for the conference series; individual years are usually separate items of type Wikimania edition.
- English Wikipedia title - Wikimania - Canonical encyclopaedia article for the series.
- Wikimedia edition code - wmYYYY (e.g. wm2024, wm2025) - Short codes used on Meta and the conference wiki for each year's bid, scholarships and evaluation pages.
- Official conference wiki - https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/ - Central site for current and recent editions; older years used year-prefixed wikis such as wikimania2006.wikimedia.org.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikimedia Foundation: legal host/support body and steward of Wikimedia trademarks used by the event.
- Wikimedia community bid process (documented on Meta-Wiki): an international jury of community members selects the host from competing location bids.
- Host-state public-health, visa and assembly law: evidenced by the 2020 Bangkok cancellation for COVID-19 and by official travel/visa/vaccine guidance for later hybrid editions.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Editors, programmers, photographers, chapter and user-group members, Foundation staff and academic researchers gather for multi-day talks, workshops, training, meetups and celebrations of Wikimedia projects.
- Since 2011 the Wikimedian of the Year (formerly Wikipedian of the Year) is announced there.
- A Wikimedia Foundation scholarship programme pays travel for many attendees; others self-fund. Recent in-person registration has been subsidised (USD 100 in Katowice 2024) while the virtual stream has been free.
- Sessions are recorded and deposited on Wikimedia Commons; recent hybrid editions offer live interpretation and a clickable multi-track virtual programme.
- Location is bid for by local volunteer teams and is meant to rotate continents; Paris 2026 was the 21st conference, Santiago is listed for 2027.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- in-person attendance - 380 (Frankfurt 2005) to about 1,762 (London 2014); recent hybrid hosts about 761-1,250 - people
- virtual attendance (hybrid era) - about 1,900-2,200+ - people
- countries represented - about 45 (Alexandria 2008) to 143 (Katowice 2024) - countries
- main-programme length - 3-5 conference days, often plus 1-4 pre-conference days - days
- programme volume (recent) - on the order of 100 programme hours / 300+ sessions (Nairobi 2025 and Katowice 2024 reported at that scale) - hours or sessions
- subsidised in-person registration fee (example, 2024) - 100 - USD
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Whole-edition cancellation: Wikimania 2020 (Bangkok) was called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic; 2021-2022 ran only online.
- Visa, vaccine and travel-cost barriers keep many contributors from the in-person hall even when scholarships exist.
- Host-country politics: boycott calls over Egyptian censorship (2008) and over holding the event in Israel (2011); a sitting Egyptian cabinet minister spoke at the 2008 opening.
- In-person oversubscription: Nairobi 2025 in-person places filled in about three weeks.
- The conference can reproduce the movement's known participation skew (Western, male-dominated editor base), which organisers have treated as a programme problem rather than a solved one.
- Hybrid streaming does not give remote attendees the same hallway, meetup and scholarship-network access as those in the room.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- The series is designed to move: Meta and the Foundation describe hosts across more than 15 countries and six continents; English remains the working language, with host-language sessions and, recently, live interpretation into about five or six languages.
- Venue type varies sharply: capital convention centres (Katowice, London) versus a mountain village (Esino Lario 2016) versus a UN-embassy district (Gigiri, Nairobi 2025).
- Africa hosting is recent in series time (Cape Town 2018, then Nairobi 2025 as the first East African host); 2027 is listed for Santiago, Chile.
- Each edition carries a local theme, sometimes issued bilingually (Paris 2026: Liberté, Équité, Fiabilité / Freedom, Equity, Reliability).
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikimedia Hackathon - A developer-and-tool event; Wikimania is the movement-wide annual conference covering editorial, social, affiliate and technical tracks together.
- Wikimedia Summit (formerly Wikimedia Conference) - An affiliates-and-governance meeting of chapters and user groups, not the open global volunteer conference.
- regional WikiConferences (WikiIndaba, CEE Meeting, WikiConference North America, etc.) - Continent- or language-region gatherings; Wikimania is the single annual global edition selected by an international bid jury.
- WikiSym / OpenSym - An academic symposium on wikis and open collaboration; it overlapped Wikimania in Gdańsk 2010 but is a research venue, not the movement conference.
- Wikipedia - The encyclopaedia (and sister projects) that the conference is about; Wikimania is the meeting, not the site.
- Fandom (formerly Wikia) - A commercial wiki host that has sponsored or been mentioned around early Wikimanias; it is not the Wikimedia conference or the Foundation.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of Wikimania this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- Wikimania - English Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) - Series definition; 2005 origin; edition table with dates, cities and attendance; 2020 COVID cancellation; Wikimedian of the Year; boycott and host-country controversies; 2027 Santiago listing.
- Wikimania - Wikimedia Meta-Wiki (Wikimedia Foundation) - Movement-facing definition; who attends; attendance band; rotating-continent practice; volunteer plus Foundation organising model; international bid jury; wmYYYY edition codes.
- 2025:About - Wikimania wiki (Wikimedia Foundation) - Current self-description as the annual volunteer conference; hybrid format; East Africa first hosting; visa/vaccine travel practice.
- 2026:Wikimania - Wikimania wiki (Wikimedia Foundation) - Twenty-first edition dates and Paris venue; official theme in French and English; hybrid in-person/online form.
- Wikimania 2025: Connecting Wikimedians across the world for 20 years - The Wikipedia Signpost - Twenty-year mark from Frankfurt 2005; in-person capacity filling in three weeks; 100-plus programme hours; live interpretation; Commons recordings.
What the second pass must settle
- Does an existing Vercy world model already cover Wikimania or its series-and-edition structure, requiring this registry entry to link to that model?
- Which official authority and records conclusively establish edition recognition, particularly for cancelled, renamed or distributed formats?
- How are responsibilities divided among series-level bodies, edition organisers, Wikimedia Foundation teams and local partners across different editions?
- Which associated hackathons, satellite gatherings and pre-conference activities belong inside each edition's operational boundary?
- Which participation, accessibility and outcome measures are consistently documented well enough to compare editions?