WikiCon
WikiCon is short for "Wikimedia/pedia Conference" or "Wiki… Convention"
The use of the terms is sort of a gray area. To clarify:
- Conventions are usually "big" and more community-oriented, they are a broader celebration of shared interests
- Conferences are usually "small" and more professionally oriented, their main goal is to share expertise
However, size is an arbitrary concept also related to local perceptions; as of 2025 on Wikidata for example d:Q625994 include both[1]. In the wiki-world "wikimedians" can be both standard volunteers as well as expert users with a professional background (GLAM, research, software development), with no defined partition, and events reflect such nature even when more inclined at professional stakeholders.
For all these reasons, there has not been a clear consensus, and on Wikimedia Commons wikimedians' events called both "conferences" and "conventions" ("WikiCons") were categorized together.[2] [3].
Local or regional WikiCons
editThe term is commonly (and was originally) associated with users communities from specific geographical areas or language groups, and it is used for structured gatherings that require participants registration or support, dedicated funding, and an organizing committee—distinguishing them from simpler local meetups.
Events that encompasse more than a country can be also called Wikimedia Regional Conferences
Theme-based WikiCons
editThe term WikiCon has also been used as a general abbreviation for all conferences and conventions of Wikimedians, including theme-based events that usually have international dimension.[4]
The events that have more specific focus are often adopting a format closer to a conference than a convention.[5]
| Name | Theme/Topic | Editions (Links) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikimania | Global | 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 | Included here for ease of reference |
| WikidataCon | Wikidata | 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025 (WIP) | moved to hybrid format in 2021. Wikidata Days (progressively adopted in various countries) could also by considered a type of local and "light" WikidataCon |
| Wikicite | Bibliometry | 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2025 (WIP) | on-line in 2020, moved to hybrid format in 2025 |
| AdminCon | de-N sysop | 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 | |
| MUDCon | MediaWiki developpers | Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025 | successor to two conferences: EMWCon, or the Enterprise MediaWiki Conference (2016-2023), held annually in North America in the spring, and SMWCon, or the Semantic MediaWiki Conference (2009-2023), since 2016 was annually in Europe in the autumn |
| GLAM Wiki | GLAM | 2018, 2023 2025 | Mostly fragmented among similar local events, some of these events had a strong international outlook, and it seems to reach a clear defined status only in recent year (no general descriptive pages yet) |
| Celtic Knot Conference | (indigenous) language | 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024 | Originally localized around hte British isles, it's expading thanks to the hybrid format |
Hybrid WikiCons
editAfter the COVID-19 pandemic and a phase entirely on-line many WikiCons were reimagined with an integrated hybrid format, with one or more local hubs and other sessions designed to be handled on-line.
- ↑ d:Q2020153 (academic conference) has a dedicated term, but not the concept of conference per se.
- ↑ The category name was therefore shifted to a composite name to avoid any ambiguity. It could be possible to create subcategories for the two types of events, but that might be a complex task; a decade of experience seems to show that "Con" is also used as a generic umbrella term and it could be expanded in both ways with similar sister initiatives, depending on the language or the perception of the target community.
- ↑ Unconferences (participant-driven meeting often with no fees) of wikimedians were also listed in such category, another example of the composite nature of these events.
- ↑ Such use can be seen in the creation of the category (redirect) on Wikimedia Commons in 2014, that was never questioned over the years. It might be perceived as less formalized within community jargon, probably because these events often cater to specific interest subgroups within the Wikimedia community and usually occur in English, whereas local WikiCons tend to have a more direct impact within a particular homogenous language community, and therefore the use is more clear among different stakeholders, so more universally associated at least with that type of local gathering.
- ↑ Please notice that the conference format still does not imply a full academic event, because the community is still a crucial factor. This concept could be grasped comparing these initiatives to the Wiki Workshop for example: that is a defined academic event, which, despite the affinity of the topic, clearly started off-wiki outside the community. It was a side-event of other academic conferences and it appeared with its own page on meta only with the 2025 edition.