This July, the City of Light welcomed Wikimedians from all over the world. Some 1,250 attendees joined in person in Paris, while nearly 2000 joined Wikimania 2026 online. In total, more than 3200 of us came together to participate in conference sessions, discuss collaboration around “Freedom, Equity, Reliability”, and celebrate the joy of contributing.
Two-thirds (66%) of those who attended Wikimania Paris in person came from outside the host region of Northern and Western Europe. According to this crowdsourced map, an estimated 105 countries were represented. More than a quarter (26%) of in-person attendees were users with extended rights and more than a third (34%) were under the age of 35, making this Wikimania an important part of connecting multiple generations of high-impact contributors.
From taking selfies with Baby Globe, to experiencing the impressive lineup of Lightning Talks, attendees have not been shy about sharing their favorite Wikimania moments that helped them celebrate the joy of contributing. Please keep your posts coming! We have also received your suggestions for how to make Wikimania even better and are inspired to bring many of those ideas to life in 2027.
And now for a closer look at what the movement and the media are saying.
Movement News
Through the eyes of first timers
One of the most-read articles about a first-timer attending Wikimania, is “After Wikimania Paris 2026, I see Wikipedia in a different light” (original article in Malay). Author Rruunnaa writes, “I came as a participant, but I left as part of the community”.
One of the most important things I learned at Wikimania Paris was the value of the connections made throughout the event. I used to think that the success of attending a conference lay in gaining as much knowledge as possible from the sessions. But in Paris, I realized that casual conversations, new encounters, and the relationships formed were also among the most meaningful parts of the experience. Every person I met had a different story to tell. Some had been contributing to Wikimedia for a long time, some worked in specific fields, and others, like me, were still learning and figuring out how to contribute. Although we came from different countries and cultures, we shared one common belief: that knowledge should be shared openly.
A Diff post by NikolasKHF from Indonesia shares the perspective of a first-timer attending the users with extended rights (UWER) pre-conference, providing a lightning talk on improving Wikimedia Incubator, and meeting informally with a Wikiversity admin from France and one of the editors of WikiJournal.
Other first-timer posts include “Reflections from Wikimania Paris 2026” by Ifedohlapo of Nigeria who posted on their experience presenting at the preconference Advocacy workshop, and counted the GLAM-related sessions among their favorites. Scholar Evelyne Rwakaana from Uganda shared “3 Eye-Opening Sessions at Wikimania”. And back in Uganda, ASallyRuth wrote that as a virtual attendee, she “never felt far from conversations happening in Paris”.
Preconferences
Two attendees wrote about their experiences at the Wiki Women+ Summit preconference. “Yellow Shirts and Bold Questions”, discusses favorite moments including presenting “How Editorial Decisions Reach Beyond Wikipedia”, while another interviews Sana Sabir (CosmicCodex) about her key takeaways.
Meanwhile, Maximilano WDU shared highlights from the Pre-Conference on Information Integrity in Climate Change with institutional participants from UNESCO, the International Panel on Information Environment, the Forum on Information and Democracy, and many others.
Posters
The quality of posters at Wikimania 2026 were impressive. The winner for Overall Favorite documented Senegal’s cultural heritage, while the honoree for Content Quality shared their experience in bringing Internet-in-a-Box tools to a refugee camp in northern Cameroon.
Wiki Loves Butterfly’s Ananya Mondal shares insights from her numerous poster session conversations and curiosity about their multilingual storybooks for children.
Wiki fashion, youth meetups, and more
On Instagram, ferfivesos continues to delight the Wikimania community with her fabulous Wiki Outfits and her perspective as a “Bring the Youth!” panelist from Latin America. (Group photo from the Wiki Fashion Show.)
Back on Diff, Alli Khalil from Iraq gave particularly high marks to the youth panel, as well as meetups for young Wikimedians globally.
In a short video, itsdondiestro asked, “What has four tires and spreads free knowledge around the world?” (Wait for it.) “The Wiki Bus!” Meanwhile, mattprebeg playfully asked, “Have you ever broken the rules of Wikipedia?”
WikiChoir
Without a doubt, “Oh Wikipédia!” performed by the WikiChoir and WikiOrchestra at the closing ceremony was an earworm for many Wikimania attendees – playing over and over again in our heads long after we had left Paris. (The lyrics are here.)
Reflections from the Board of Trustees
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees provided their reflections on Wikimania 2026 based on what they heard and observed in Paris. Among their observations: Wikimania showed both the unity and diversity of opinion within the movement and AI has emerged from a specialist topic to the central strategic question.
Wikimania Paris in the news media
Wikimania 2026 was covered by 63 media outlets, including feature articles in major French newspapers – Le Monde, La Tribune, and La Croix. A podcast on Radio France featured French Wikipedia admin Baidax, while a podcast on RFI debated “Should Wikipedia be saved?”, featuring Adélaïde Calais from the Wikimania 2026 Core Organizing Team.
The conference themes of “Liberté, Equité, Fiabilité” (Liberty, Equity, Reliability) were prominent throughout. The feature article in Le Mondewas a nuanced look at how the Wikimedia community approaches AI – from having used it for many years as a tool to detect vandalism, to differing rules around its use across the French and English Wikipedias.
Rémy Gerbet, executive director at Wikimedia France, told La Croixin an interview that misuse of AI is threatening the reliability of articles.
“The addition of false information and false sources of information is a crucial issue. It can be difficult for contributors to detect, and there is more and more of it…We need to create partnerships, alliances to help the community detect this kind of content, with fact-checking associations, for example.”
Gerbet went on to list partners that Wikimedia France is working with, such as the government agency Viginum and others who were panelists at Wikimania Paris.
Much of the coverage featured long-time Wikimedia community volunteers, such as Anthère, also a member of the Core Organizing Team, interviewed by Le Monde; Dirac, featured in a widely syndicated article by L’Express; and Jules*, our Wikimedian of the Year for 2026 who was featured on NEXT.
Many thanks to everyone for bringing your kindness, curiosity, and generosity to Wikimania Paris – both in-person and online – and inspiring more collaboration in the months ahead.
We look forward to welcoming you to Santiago (August 18 to 21, 2027), to debate, discuss, and define “The Internet we want”!
In the meantime, happy editing, keep welcoming new readers and contributors to the Wikimedia community, and help us spread the word about the joy of Wikimania.