Wikidata’s Post

This was high overdue: Wikidata can now better record lexicographical information. That will make the word's largest open knowledge system work better for non-English speakers, and will be more nuanced in representing meaning.

Today Wikimedia Australia released two really important documents: the Wikimedia Australia Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) and Indigenous Data Sovereignty Guide, and its companion white paper CultureStrong Platforms: Setting the Standard at Wikimedia. This work is really important to WMAU and the Wikimedia movement worldwide – even if they don’t know it yet. The wiki world must do better at respecting ICIP and Indigenous agency over Indigenous content – we must do this because the knowledge that is shared on our platforms should arrive there in ways that are inclusive, just, equitable, reciprocal and sustainable. For knowledge to genuinely be open the owners of that knowledge must want it to be. My deep thanks and admiration to Dr Terri Janke, Shevaun Wright and Matilda Langford at Terri Janke and Company for walking this path with us. I also extend respect and gratitude to the Indigenous Expert Working Group who have helped inform the guide – Leonard Hill, Dr Jessica Russ-Smith, Dr Kirsten Thorpe, Dr Tamika Worrell PhD, Yanti Ropeyarn and Miriam Corowa. https://lnkd.in/gn4Ti_UW #Wikipedia #Wikidata #WikimediaCommons #WikimediaMovement Wikipedia Wikimedia Foundation Wikimedia Foundation Policy

What a session! Today at Wikimania Paris 2026, Dr Terri Janke and Shevaun Wright of Terri Janke and Company shared the work behind the CultureStrong Guide — developed with Wikimedia Australia and an Indigenous Expert Working Group to help Wikimedia contributors respect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) and Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) on open knowledge platforms. It was a thought-provoking session, and a real highlight was hearing from audience members already doing similar work engaging with their own Indigenous communities. We're looking forward to more of these conversations with Wikimedians throughout the week in Paris! The Guide and white paper are available now — download them, have a read, and tell us what you think: https://lnkd.in/gCPWAR_2 #CultureStrong #Wikimania2026 #ICIP #IndigenousDataSovereignty #OpenKnowledge #Wikimedia 📸 AlphaLemur, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Writing in Research Information, our Head of Product Anthony Apodaca unpacks the integration tax that's holding publishers back. “For a society publisher with a small team, the real cost of a new tool is the time required to evaluate, procure, integrate, and maintain it. When that cost is weighed against the risk of disrupting a workflow that currently works well enough, inertia wins. The tools exist. The capacity to adopt them does not.”

"We’re living in something of a golden age for publishing technology. But, for publishers, this isn’t spurring the efficiencies and breakthroughs you might expect. Because managing these [scholarly publishing] tools, and ensuring they actually work in sync, is a huge challenge" https://lnkd.in/e8RZj7vm Read Anthony Apodaca's piece on Research Information ChronosHub

NEW EXPERT VIEWPOINT: We have more tools than ever. So why are we still stuck? https://lnkd.in/eMBsKDu8 The scholarly publishing sector needs interoperability, not more tools, argues ChronosHub’s Anthony Apodaca ChronosHub Anthony Apodaca

Dearest gentle readers, One of the most thought-provoking sessions I attended at Wikimania 2026 as a virtual participant today focused on contributor motivation and the future of the Wikimedia movement. The research presented by Tanja Andic, PhD Daisy Chen, Anbar Jayadi, Isaac Johnson, and Galen Weld highlighted a sobering reality: many people create Wikimedia accounts but never make an edit, and of those who do make their first edit, about 94% never return. That statistic made me pause. If knowledge is built by people, then retaining those people becomes just as important as recruiting them. One question from the presentation stood out to me: What are the key moments in a contributor’s journey that we need to get right to ensure they stay engaged and continue to grow? I believe that question deserves more attention across our communities. From my own experience organizing trainings and mentoring new editors, I have learned that people rarely stay because they attended one event. They stay because they feel welcomed, supported, and connected to a community that values their contributions. Motivation is not a one-time event. It is something that must be nurtured throughout a contributor’s journey. If we truly want a more equitable Wikimedia movement, we must invest not only in attracting new contributors but also in creating environments where they can learn, grow, and choose to stay. After all, communities are not sustained by sign-ups. They are sustained by people who keep coming back. #Wikimania2026 #Wikimedia #CommunityBuilding #OpenKnowledge

If your company is looking for a way to help open source projects in a sustainable way, we have a blue print for you! This joined effort between Bloomberg, Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) and OpenTelemetry made a huge difference for the project and everyone involved: almost 120 PRs, 70 of them merged across Collector, Python, Go, Erlang, Rust, Docs, Demo and Ecosystem Explorer. THANK YOU to everyone involved!

In April 2026, Bloomberg's Open Source Program Office partnered with CNCF and OpenTelemetry to run a structured 10-week contributor cohort with 48 engineers. Alyssa Wright shares what they learned. Over 10 weeks, the cohort submitted 118 pull requests across 11 OpenTelemetry repositories, had 70 merged, and logged 842 volunteer hours. Most participants had never contributed to open source before. The biggest bottleneck wasn't motivation. Most participants wanted to contribute but didn't know where to start. The cohort's curated issue list and real-time mentor support changed that. https://lnkd.in/giy_rTMX Bloomberg team: Florian Bourgey, Mikiyas Bokan, Larry Zebaze, Devpriya Dave, Yoga Ramalingam, Alyssa Wright, Thomas Baldwin, Stephan Black OTel mentors and maintainers: Juraci Paixão Kröhling, Liudmila Molkova, Kemal Akkoyun, Martin Thwaites, Pierre Tessier Severin, Neumann #CNCF #CloudNative #OpenTelemetry

Dearest gentle readers, Day two of Wikimania 2026 continued with important conversations around the future of knowledge, especially the challenge of keeping information accurate, relevant, and updated. One point from Evelin Heidel’s presentation that particularly stood out to me was the issue of outdated content on Wikipedia and the reality behind why it happens. Wikipedia is built on volunteer contributions, but maintaining high-quality knowledge requires continuous effort. Scientific fields, especially climate science, evolve rapidly. New discoveries emerge, policies change, and existing information needs regular review and improvement. The challenge is not always the absence of knowledge. Sometimes, it is the absence of enough dedicated contributors with the time, skills, and resources needed to keep that knowledge current. This brings an important conversation to the forefront: supporting the editors who do this work. While Wikimedia thrives because of volunteerism, volunteers are still people. They have responsibilities, careers, and personal commitments. Providing support through fellowships, grants, mentorship, training opportunities, and community programs can help dedicated contributors continue doing the work more effectively. Supporting editors does not take away from the volunteer nature of Wikimedia. It strengthens it. The people who spend hours improving articles, checking sources, translating information, and maintaining knowledge ecosystems are often invisible, but their work has global impact. As we think about the future of Wikipedia and open knowledge, we must also think about the sustainability of the communities behind it. Knowledge does not maintain itself. People do. #Wikimania2026 #Wikimedia #OpenKnowledge #CommunityBuilding