2025:Program/Edit-a-thon: Analyzing and Improving climate migration coverage across Wikimedia

Session title: Edit-a-thon: Analyzing and Improving climate migration coverage across Wikimedia

Session type: Pre-conference event

Track: Diversity & Inclusion

Language: en

This interactive session and edit-a-thon explores how Wikimedia can better document climate migration and the overlooked communities most affected, such as Indigenous peoples and displaced populations. Designed as either a pre-conference workshop or parallel edit-a-thon, the session aims to build long-term collaboration and a more inclusive climate-related knowledge across Wikimedia platforms.

Taking advantage of Wikimania 2025's location in Nairobi, the workshop invites collaboration with NGOs and institutions like UNEP and UNHCR. Through discussion, hands-on editing, and planning, participants will assess current Wikimedia coverage, identify content gaps (e.g., missing articles on the Walande people of the Solomon Islands), and propose new projects.

Activities include reviewing multilingual content, improving Wikidata modeling, evaluating multimedia assets, and drafting best practices or a WikiProject. The session will also create prioritized lists of at-risk communities and outline partnership strategies for sustained impact.

Description

How might we improve Wikimedia content related to climate migration and the often overlooked individuals affected by changing environmental conditions?

This session aims to serve as discussion, workshop, and edit-a-thon, to collaboratively analyze and improve Wikimedia topics in this area. Wikimania 2025 being situated in Nairobi provides a unique opportunity to engage stakeholders such as United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Human Rights Watch, and others.

Land, loss and liberation: Indigenous struggles amid the climate crisis, World Economic Forum, Feb 9, 2024 https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/02/indigenous-challenges-displacement-climate-change/

As climate crisis alters their lands, Indigenous Peoples turn to the courts, UNEP, August 8, 2023 https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/climate-crisis-alters-their-lands-indigenous-peoples-turn-courts

Specific examples include the plight of the Walande people of the Solomon Islands, as Wikidata and Wikipedia entries for the land and people do not exist. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, World Vision, and local newspapers have documented their plight.

"Walande’s residents face ongoing struggles after climate-induced relocation, with no land security or adequate support." - Tavuli News (https://www.tavulinews.com.sb/walande-climate-relocation-struggles/)

"All he sees is the water rising every year and his rock wall – which he keeps building up – becoming incapable of keeping out the high tide." https://www.solomontimes.com/news/life-alone-on-a-disappearing-island/9451

Activities could include, but are not limited to:

• Measure current coverage of climate migration ropics across Wikimedia sites, in multiple languages
• Analyze the Wikidata modeling of at risk groups and locations due to environmental changes
• Evaluate multimedia assets to assist in illustrating climate migration issues in Wikimedia Commons (photos, videos, infographics, et al)
• Propose improvement projects and ideas on how to address gaps in coverage
• Create prioritized topical lists of locales and at risk communities from partner institutions and NGOs
• Identify and define best practices in the form of a WikiProject or case study
• Define action plans for collaboration and partnerships beyond Wikimania

The session could be a half-day workshop, a pre-conference to the main Wikimania, or an edit-a-thon run in parallel with the main Wikimania conference.

How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?

This session connects well to Wikimania@20's themes: Inclusivity, Impact, and Sustainability. By looking closely at climate migration—an important but often ignored global issue—the session promotes Inclusivity by highlighting the stories of marginalized groups, especially Indigenous peoples and displaced communities who suffer significantly from climate change. Through teamwork and content creation, the session aims for real Impact by filling knowledge gaps, raising awareness, and giving affected communities a stronger voice on Wikimedia platforms. Sustainability is also a key part of this proposal, both in addressing climate migration and by creating lasting partnerships and practical tools (like WikiProjects and clear guidelines).

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Speakers

• Romeo Ronald Lomora

Ronald Lomora is deeply committed to making expert information accessible for the greater good. With a background in humanities, teaching and advocacy in Open and free knowledge platform usage, Romeo focuses on reshaping interactions between expert communities and committed volunteers. The belief is in the importance of these connections to create a public knowledge commons capable of addressing global issues such as human rights, education, and climate change.

As an Open Knowledge South Sudan leader, Ronald Lomora spearheads initiatives ensuring open access to critical information. Contributions span diverse projects encompassing Wikimedia, OpenStreetMap, and other related projects like the All in Africa GitHub program for North Africa. Through these efforts, the primary goal is to empower individuals by harnessing the transformative power of information and fostering collaboration for positive global change, hence positively affecting the better delivery of services for communities like education, health etc

• Andrew Lih

Andrew Lih has been a Wikipedia editor since 2003 and is an administrator on English Wikipedia and Wikidata. He is the author of the 2009 book The Wikipedia Revolution: How a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia. He is a passionate advocate of collaborative efforts between the cultural and heritage sector and the Wikimedia community. In the United States, he serves as Wikimedian at Large at the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum, education, and research complex. In 2022, he was named one of the first Wikimedia Laureate for his lifetime of work with the Wikimedia movement.