2025:Program
Wikimania 2025 Programming Call for Proposals
Programming propopsal application has closed. We are now reviewing the proposals. We will communicate decisions about proposals starting in May.
Sessions
The Heart of Wikimania 2025
The theme for Wikimania 2025 is Wikimania@20: Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability and it highlights our vision for a Wikimedia movement that is accessible to all, fosters collaboration across diverse communities, and prioritizes long-term viability. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, this theme underscores our commitment to addressing global challenges, promoting inclusivity, and ensuring the sustainability of free knowledge for generations to come. Your submission therefore should have elements connecting to at least one of these.
- Inclusivity: Wikimania will be an opportunity to showcase regional and thematic groups as examples of inclusion: different volunteer groups, individuals, and affiliates, at different stages of development and from different cultures closely involved and collaborating in an equitable way.
- Impact: As a distributed, global event, Wikimania will be a way to learn from each other and share knowledge like community initiatives, tools usage, organizing events, governance, online campaigns and edit-a-thons, solving Wiki-related problems, and more.
- Sustainability: Wikimania 2025 will be significant to many Wikimedians as a forum to discuss various strategies , matters confronting the Wikimedia movement and other current and future priorities facing our movement, from technology to policy around the world.
Program tracks
We know that Wikimedians have been doing amazing work in the community and beyond and are eager to share this at Wikimania. To make the submissions easier for you, we have suggested 12 broad tracks. Information about the tracks , their categories and sub-categories can be found below. Think which one best fits your program idea. If you think your submission applies to more than one track, you can specify a secondary track in the submission form.
| Track | Description | Categories/Suggested Topics |
|---|---|---|
| Education |
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| GLAM, heritage and culture | This track provides a space for initiatives and programs in heritage and cultural conservation, collaborations with cultural institutions that include Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums. |
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| Partnerships | This is a space in which we explore and talk about initiatives pairing the Wikimedia movement and its activities with external institutions to produce beneficial results | Collaborations with mission-aligned partners |
| Technology | This is a space in which we discuss anything related to product and technology in the movement |
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| Community Engagement | Proposals under this track could explore the dynamics of wiki culture and community, and provide a forum for participants and researchers to share methods for community management, engagement, participation, and conflict resolution |
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| Community Health | This is a space to address issues related to retaining contributors that are already active. How to provide them with what they need to keep on contributing. |
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| Research (including science and medicine) |
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| Diversity & Inclusion |
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| Legal and advocacy | This track includes established topics of discussion, such as copyrights and digital accessibility, and newly emerged issues, such as rising censorship and misinformation in the world, as well as public policy and human rights. |
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| Open data | This is a space for community initiatives in data use and reuse, linking different Wikimedia projects together and beyond. |
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| Governance and strategy | This track supports community discussions focused on governance, structures and reform, key initiatives from the Movement Strategy |
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| Wild ideas | * A future-oriented open track for Wikimedians to discuss wild ideas and predictions of the future... for good or bad.
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Session formats
We will support onsite, virtual, and hybrid sessions. We'll share more on the logistics side at a later date. Now though, we can confirm that:
- Virtual sessions can be delivered live by dialing in or in a pre-recorded format. However, we advise all virtual speakers to record their session ahead of time for backup in case of connectivity issues.
- Both presenters and the audience may dial in to take part in hybrid sessions. However, live interactions between the remote and onsite participants may be limited.
Session types
We intend to have a number of programming formats including lectures and presentations, panel discussions, lightning talks and workshops among others - all focused on sharing and skills development. There will also be sessions dedicated to social interaction. We are also open to new or original program format ideas, including combinations of types.
Please note that the total time indicated includes questions and comments where applicable
The standardised durations shown here do not include the time needed to change rooms
| Type | Description | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Workshop | One or two moderators present(s) a topic by actively interacting with the audience.
The audience is actively interacting with the topic, usually focused on practical work, acquiring or strengthening a specific skill, or accomplishing a specific task. |
85 minutes |
| Demonstration | The presenter(s) introduces the methods of working with a tool, a technological innovation, a workflow or a program and gives the audience a live presentation. | 40 minutes |
| Lecture | The presenter(s) normally offers an oral presentation that is intended to introduce information, share ideas about a particular subject, or summarize the results of a project.
This followed by questions and comments from the audience. |
25 minutes |
| Panel |
A small group of people (could be subject matter experts or those with real lived experience) presents or discusses a particular topic before an audience.
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55 minutes |
| Roundtable |
This is a structured conversational process for discussing specific topics, sharing knowledge, and often collective decision-making |
40 minutes |
| Lightning talk |
This is a short, sharp presentation to enable a speaker to share a concept or idea, often as a teaser or a starting point for the audience to learn more. Lightning talks will be organized as a succession of speakers one after another. |
10 minutes or less |
| Poster |
A topic is presented on a poster that is displayed on a visible place in the venue
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TBD |
| Other |
These are all other activities such as entertainment , outdoor activities, pre-conference events, photography walks, edit-a-thons, datathon, resource, and citation hunts, etc. Note: Please specify what it is in the notes session |
25 minutes (duration may vary) |
Proposal review process
- Proposals that are received during the submission period through Eventyay will be reviewed by the Program Committee.
- Each submission will be rated on a variety of factors including but not limited to the likely level of impact and expected outcomes; expected community interest; and how well-connected the submission is to the theme or a focus area. Committee scores will be averaged and the top portion of submissions will be accepted as they fit into the schedule.
- If there are multiple similar submissions on the same topic, the Program Committee may suggest combining these submissions.
Programming working group
The application for the programming working group has ended. Review period will last approximately 4 weeks and will run from early April to early May. The estimated total time commitment is 10 total hours per volunteer.
Proposal form questions
General
| Question | Required |
|---|---|
| What is the title of your session submission? | X |
Session type.
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X |
Track. This is your session's primary thematic category.
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| Language. What is the primary language of your session? Sessions delivered in English will receive live interpretation into all Wikimania Nairobi languages. Sessions delivered in other Wikimania Nairobi languages will have live interpretation only into English. | X |
| Abstract. A brief description of your session. (Please write at most 150 words.) | X |
| Description. A full description of your session, including aims and objectives. (Please write at most 500 words.) | X |
| Additional speaker |
Questions
| Question | Required |
|---|---|
What other themes or topics does your session fit into? Please choose from the list of tags below.This will be shown publicly.
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X |
| How does your session relate to the event theme Wikimania@20: Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability? | X |
| Tell us a bit about yourself and your experience in relation to this submission. | X |
| Do you have any experience in public speaking, leading workshops or trainings, participating on a panel or delivering sessions? If yes, please describe. | |
| Have you presented on this topic before or do you have any related references? If yes, please share a link. | |
What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
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X |
How do you plan to deliver this session? You will be asked to confirm this closer to the date in case of changes to the format.
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X |
What would the desired time for your session be?
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| Are there any other needs or requests for your session not mentioned elsewhere in this application (all rooms have microphones and projectors but, for example, will you need a flip chart, markers, sticky notes, etc)? | |
| Have you applied for a Wikimania Travel scholarship from the Wikimedia Foundation? This will NOT be shown publicly and is only used for cross-referencing with the scholarship process | |
| Should your session be selected for the program, do you consent to having your session and supporting materials released on-wiki and on the eventyay platform under CC BY-SA 4.0? If you selected “Do not record this session” your session will not be filmed and no video will appear online. | X |
Speaker info
| Question & Info Text | Required |
|---|---|
| Speaker image. Please upload an image from Wikimedia Commons. This will be shown publicly in your speaker profile on eventyay. | |
| Image attribution. Please provide the author name and image license info. | |
| Image attribution: Please provide the image credit URL from Wikimedia Commons. | |
| Name or username. Please enter the name you wish to be displayed publicly. This name will be used for all events you are participating in on this server. | X |
| Biography. Please provide a brief personal biography with information about your past involvement in the Wikimedia movement. This will be shown publicly in your user profile on eventyay. | X |
Program FAQ
Have questions?
Please see the Program FAQ subpage