Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, organized by the community of contributors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Topics of presentations and discussions include Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, other wikis, open-source software, free knowledge and free content, and social and technical aspects related to these topics.
Since 2011, the winner of the Wikimedian of the Year award (known as the "Wikipedian of the Year" until 2017) has been announced at Wikimania.
Conferences + Wikimania conferencesLogo Conference Date Place Attendance Archive of presentations Wikimania 2005 August 4–8 Frankfurt, Germany 380Main Page – Wikimania 2005. wikimedia.org slides, video Wikimania 2006 August 4–6 Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States 400 slides and papers, video Wikimania 2007 August 3–5 Taipei, Taiwan 440 Commons gallery Wikimania 2008 July 17–19 Alexandria, Egypt 650James Gleick, Wikipedians Leave Cyberspace, Meet in Egypt , Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2008. abstracts, slides, video Wikimania 2009 August 26–28 Buenos Aires, Argentina 5592009 Wikimedia.org slides, video Wikimania 2010 July 9–11 Gdańsk, Poland about 500Wikimania 2010 site – Attendees. wikimedia.org. slides Wikimania 2011 August 4–7 Haifa, Israel 720 presentations, video Wikimania 2012 July 12–15 Washington, D.C., United States 1,400 presentations, videos Wikimania 2013 August 7–11 Hong Kong, China 700 presentations, videos Wikimania 2014 August 6–10 London, United Kingdom 1,762 presentations, videos Wikimania 2015 July 15–19 Mexico City, Mexico 800 presentations, videos Wikimania 2016 June 21–28 Esino Lario, Italy 1,365 Report of Wikimania Esino Lario https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_bids/Esino_Lario . presentations, videos Wikimania 2017 August 9–13 Montreal, Quebec, Canada 915 presentations, videos Wikimania 2018 July 18–22 Cape Town, South Africa over 700 presentations, videos Wikimania 2019 August 14–18 Stockholm, Sweden over 800 presentations, videos Wikimania 2020 (cancelled) August 5–9 Bangkok, Thailand Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic – Wikimania 2021 August 13–17 Virtual environment Unknown presentations, videosWikimania 2022August 11–14 presentations, videosWikimania 2023August 15–20Singapore and Virtual environment 761 in-person and over 2,105 virtually presentations, videos Wikimania 2024August 6–10Katowice, Poland1,150 estimated in-person, over 2,200 totalpresentations, videosWikimania 2025August 5–9Nairobi, Kenya776 in-person and over 1,900 virtuallypresentations, videos Wikimania 2026 July 21–25 Paris, France1250 in-person, and over 2,000 virtually presentations, videos Wikimania 2027 TBA Santiago, Chile
2005
Wikimania 2005, the first Wikimania conference, was held from August 4 to 8, 2005 at the Haus der Jugend in Frankfurt, Germany, attracting about 380 attendees.
The week of the conference included four "Hacking Days", from August 1 to 4, when some 25 developers gathered to work on code and discuss the technical aspects of MediaWiki and of running the Wikimedia projects. The main days of the conference, despite its billing as being "August 4–8", were Friday to Sunday of that week, from August 5 to 7. Presentation sessions were scheduled all day during those three days.
Keynote speakers included Jimmy Wales, Ross Mayfield, Ward Cunningham, and Richard Stallman (who spoke on "Copyright and community in the age of computer networks"). The majority of sessions and conversations were in English, although a few were in German.
Sponsors of the event included Answers.com, SocialText, Sun Microsystems, DocCheck, and Logos Group.
2006
Wikimania 2006, the second Wikimania conference, was held from August 6 to 8, 2006 at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society in Cambridge in Massachusetts, United States, with about 400–500 attendees.
Speakers included Wales, Lawrence Lessig, Brewster Kahle, Yochai Benkler, Mitch Kapor, Ward Cunningham, and David Weinberger. Dan Gillmor held a citizen journalism unconference the day after.
Wales' plenary speech was covered by the Associated Press, and printed in numerous worldwide newspapers. He chronicled how the Foundation evolved from him "sitting in his pajamas" to the maturing corporate structure that it is now; the frequent push for quality over quantity; Wikipedia will be included on computers distributed through One Laptop per Child; both Wikiversity and the creation of an advisory board were approved by the Foundation board; and that Wiki-WYG is in development thanks to private investment by Wikia, Inc. and Socialtext.Jimmy Wales' plenary speech at Wikimania 2006 (MP3). supload.com.
Answers.com was the Wikimania 2006 patron sponsor, while Amazon.com, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Nokia, WikiHow were Benefactors-level sponsors, Wetpaint, Ask.com, Yahoo!, and Socialtext were Friends-level sponsors, and IBM, FAQ Farm, Elevation Partners, One Laptop per Child, and the Sunlight Foundation were Supporter-level sponsors of the conference.Wikimania 2006: Sponsors. wikimedia.org.
Three other teams submitted hosting bids, for the cities of London, Milan, Boston, and Toronto; only Toronto and Boston were passed to the second round of consideration by Wikimania organizers. In Toronto's case, the event would have been hosted in the University of Toronto's Bahen Centre.
2007
As announced on September 25, 2006, Wikimania 2007,Wikimania 2007. wikimedia.org. the third Wikimania conference, was held from August 3 to 5, 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan. It was the first Wikimania event to hold a volunteer training course."Volunteer Training 2006". wikimedia.org.
Three other teams submitted hosting bids, for the cities of London, Alexandria, and Turin. Bids for Hong Kong, Singapore, Istanbul, and Orlando failed to make the shortlist."Talk:Wikimania 2007 Bid List". Wikimedia.org. The winner was announced on September 25, 2006.
On August 3, 2007, New York Times reporter Noam Cohen wrote: "The conference has attracted about 440 attendees, a little more than half from Taiwan, who want to immerse themselves for three days in the ideas and issues that come up making an entirely volunteer-written encyclopedia."In Taipei, Wikipedians Talk Wiki Fatigue, Wikiwars and Wiki Bucks" . New York Times. Noam Cohen, Saul Hansell (ed). August 3, 2007. The workshops cover practical topics like how to collaborate peacefully; what importance to give 'expertise' in a project that is celebrated for allowing anyone to contribute, including anonymous editors".
2008
Wikimania 2008, the fourth Wikimania conference, was held from July 17 to 19, 2008 at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, with 650 attendees from 45 countries. Alexandria was the location of the ancient Library of Alexandria.Noam Cohen, Wikipedia Goes to Alexandria, Home of Other Great Reference Works , New York Times, July 17, 2008. Three proposed cities were in the running at the end, the other two being Atlanta and Cape Town. Proposals for Karlsruhe, London and Toronto were also submitted, but later withdrew. There was a controversy about the conference, and even a call to boycott Wikimania 2008 because of Egypt's alleged censorship and imprisoning of bloggers during Mubarak's era."Is there a boycott of Wikimania 2008?" . Los Angeles Times. July 2008."In Egypt, Wikipedia is more than hobby" . International Herald Tribune. July 21, 2008. Mohamed Ibrahim, a graduate of Alexandria University who worked to bring the conference to Alexandria, told the BBC "I think we have the right to develop and to make freedom of expression on a larger scale."Spreading the wiki footprint , BBC, July 23, 2008. One of his goals was to help grow Arabic Wikipedia which he contributes to since early 2005. An Egyptian cabinet minister spoke at the opening ceremonies on Mubarak's behalf.
2009
The fifth Wikimania conference was held at the Centro Cultural General San Martín from August 26 to 28, 2009 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with 559 attendees. The city was selected over other bids from Brisbane, Karlsruhe, and Toronto.
With keynotes from Richard Stallman and Jimmy Wales, the conference included a Wikimania Codeathon (hackathon) and an informal Chapters' meeting. It was organized in two scopes: Casual and Academic tracks, each comprising the same four themes: Wikimedia Communities, Free Knowledge, Latin American challenges, and Technical infrastructure.
2010
The sixth Wikimania conference was held from July 9 to 11 at the Polish Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk, Poland. The starting day on July 9 overlapped with the end of the WikiSym academic conference. Bids for Amsterdam and Oxford lost by a small margin. Wikimania 2010 was the first conference which included a big focus on the cultural aspects of the hosting nation, particularly a concert of a philharmonic orchestra, celebrating the tenth anniversary of the death of the most important contemporary Polish composer Władysław Szpilman and the premiere of the film Truth in Numbers?. At the conference, WMF executive director Sue Gardner said the foundation aimed to grow the number of visitors to Wikimedia sites from 371 million to 680 million a month, over the next five years.
2011
Wikimania 2011, the seventh Wikimania conference, was held from August 4 to 7, 2011 in Haifa, Israel.Wikimania 2011. wikimedia.org. The conference venue was the Haifa Auditorium and adjoining Beit Hecht cultural center on Mount Carmel. Keynote speakers at the conference included Yochai Benkler, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and Joseph M. Reagle Jr. of MIT, author of Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia. Head of the Science and Technology Committee at the Knesset, Meir Sheetrit, also spoke at the conference, as did Yonah Yahav, the Mayor of Haifa. One of the sponsors of the event was Haifa University. The conference featured 125 sessions in five simultaneous tracks and was attended by 720 Wikimedians from 56 different countries, including some that have no diplomatic relations with Israel.Wikimania hits Israel as conference opens . The Jewish Chronicle (August 5, 2011). Retrieved on April 20, 2012.
In an interview with Haaretz, Wales noted that there had been boycott calls against the conference in Israel, as there had been against having it in Egypt in 2008. He said that despite conflicts among editors on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and efforts by a pro-Israel group to recruit more Wikipedia editors, he believes Wikipedia articles largely remained neutral on the topic; he stated "NPOV is non-negotiable."Aliyana Traison, Wikipedia founder: Israel-Palestine is heavily debated, but we're vigilant on neutrality , Haaretz, August 5, 2011.
Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner spoke to the conference about the Western, male-dominated mind-set characterizing Wikipedia. At the end of the August 7 closing ceremony, Wales was presented with the first day cover of the first-ever Wikimedia-related postal stamp, issued by the Israeli postal service in honor of the event. Among new projects discussed was collaboration with cultural institutions such as galleries, libraries, archives and museums.Yaron, Oded. (April 2, 2008) Wikipedia leaders outline their vision as conference opens in Haifa . Haaretz.com. Retrieved on April 20, 2012.
After the conference, participants were offered a free tour of Haifa, Jerusalem, Nazareth or Acre. Shay Yakir, outgoing chairman of Wikimedia Israel, said that for Israel, holding the conference in Haifa was like hosting the Olympic Games.
2012