Wikimania 2024 celebrates global volunteers contributing to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects: Indian volunteer receives ‘Wikimedian of the Year’ award for technical contributions

Katowice, Poland: Wikimania 2024, the nineteenth edition of the flagship annual conference that celebrates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, and the volunteers (Wikimedians) who make them possible, is taking place this week in Katowice, Poland.

This year, 13 Wikimedians from India are attending the conference on scholarships awarded by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that hosts Wikimedia projects, and one of its Indian partners, CIS-A2K. These volunteers will not only attend the conference but also present sessions about their work on Wikimedia projects to participants from over 130 countries, strengthening India’s representation among Wikimedians and other leaders in the digital space. Furthermore, throughout the conference, attendees will have opportunities to connect, collaborate, and build partnerships with other participants, enabling individual and volunteer community growth not just in India but in the South Asia region at-large.

As part of the event, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales presented the annual “Wikimedian of the Year” awards to exceptional individuals and communities who have made significant contributions to Wikimedia projects, helping to make reliable knowledge available to people around the world. Among the seven winners of this honor this year, Siddharth VP, a software engineer based in Bangalore, has been awarded the title of ‘Technical Contributor of the Year’, for his contributions to MediaWiki, the software platform that powers Wikipedia and many other Wikimedia projects. This is the second time the winner of this award has been from India. In 2021, Jay Prakash won the inaugural edition of the award for his technical support to Indic communities, including fixing bugs, building new tools, and spearheading technical outreach.

Siddharth, has been a technical volunteer on Wikimedia projects for over a decade and is deeply valued by his peers for his work on scripts, bots, and gadgets that help contribute to the smooth running of the projects. For example, Siddharth created the “Articles for Creation” submission interface, which has come to be the primary way for new Wikipedia users to submit new articles for inclusion on the site. Over 6,000 new article drafts are submitted every month.

Talking about the motivation behind his contributions, Siddharth says: “Wikipedia’s wide readership is a critical factor for me, as it means that even small technical enhancements can improve the experience for countless users. I also feel motivated by the opportunities to learn new technologies along the way.”

A further six volunteers have also been recognized in the Wikimedian of the Year awards, hailing from Canada, Germany, Turkey, Ukraine, South Korea, and Venezuela. They have been recognized across several categories, from new contributors to long-time volunteers, highlighting the diverse and vibrant volunteer community that makes the Wikimedia projects possible.

Nearly 300,000 volunteers are behind creating the information on Wikimedia projects, which are viewed more than 22 billion times every month. Wikipedia alone is edited in over 300 languages by more than 265,000 volunteers every month around the world. Together, they compile and share information on notable subjects, according to editorial policies and guidelines that ensure knowledge remains neutral, reliable, and fact-based. The Wikimedia projects demonstrate how hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life can effectively reach consensus based on facts.

India contributes to one of the highest number of views to Wikipedia in the world, with about 1 billion page views per month. In terms of content contributions, India has the third-largest number of contributors to English Wikipedia after the US and the UK. Wikipedia is a vital resource for people who are looking for educational content in their local language. It is available in more than 25 Indic languages. This includes nearly all of the 22 scheduled languages of India, which is the largest number of languages represented from one country on the online encyclopedia.

The theme of Wikimania 2024 is Collaboration of the Open, underscoring the importance of the open, collaborative work undertaken by volunteers in building and maintaining the world’s largest repository of human knowledge online.

“Wikimania is an annual celebration of the humans who power the knowledge behind Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. It is a chance to connect and learn from Wikimedians about the power of collaboration in building the world’s largest online collection of human knowledge.” said Maryana Iskander, Wikimedia Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer.

Besides Jimmy Wales and Maryana Iskander, Polish futurist Aleksandra Przegalińska, and Polish philosopher Łukasz Lamża are among the notable attendees at this major gathering in Poland, where over 2,000 Wikimedians and leaders in the digital space from more than 130 countries are present. More information about the programme can be found here.

The Wikimania conference is also available to watch live on virtual streaming platforms.