Hello everyone and especially the Linked Open Data community,

Kris Litson here, the Head of the Software Communications Team at Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE), and I would like to give you an overview of the upcoming three years of Linked Open Data (LOD) at WMDE.

This will be very high level, but I will include links to the more detailed announcements for Wikidata (including our Wikidata for Wikimedia Projects and Product Platform teams), Wikibase Cloud and Wikibase Suite should you be interested in learning more.

*The Background*

Every three years we work with the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) to align our aims within the Linked Open Data ecosystem. We identify existing challenges within the ecosystem, where we can have the most impact for the broader Wiki communities, and those goals that align best with the Movement vision.

Internally at WMDE we’ve also worked hard to make sure that this combined vision fits in with our own 2030 Strategic Direction https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/Strategic_Direction_2030 and the 2025-2038 Strategic Pillars for LOD (see below).

These discussions concluded earlier this year and we now have a joint plan for the next three years. Note that these are US Financial Years so the specific time frame is July 2025 to June 2028.

*The Outcomes *

In the broadest terms our LOD teams will be working towards the following three strategic pillars:

1.

Make Wikidata’s growth sustainable 2.

Improve engagement and resilience of contributor communities 3.

Increase mission-aligned data reuse

As aligned with the WMF each of WMDE’s LOD teams will have one or focus areas within these pillars. Click the team name for more details.

● Wikidata https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Development_plan/Wikidata_2025-2028

Focus on data modelling, community engagement, and mobile editing.

Aim for robust infrastructure and increased editor support.

● Wikibase Suite https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikibase-cloud@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/QYFWLXGQWQUQM747ZGYQ6Y4VIKHT2JGZ/

Ensure easier adoption and operation of self-hosted Wikibases.

● Wikibase Cloud https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikibase-cloud@lists.wikimedia.org/thread/5XOVK76ZL6IMX55JSWRUYJMKZ35VSKRL/

Drive federation and data governance execution.

If you have any questions, please take them to:

-

The talk page for the Wikidata https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata_talk:Development_plan/Wikidata_2025-2028 announcement -

The Wikibase feedback survey https://wikimedia.sslsurvey.de/Shared-Wikibase-Survey-Q2-2025-

We’re all looking forward to continuing our work building a space that works for and with all of you!

Thanks for all your ongoing support of our projects and, most of all, thanks for your contributions. We couldn’t do what we do without all the love and effort that you put into Wikidata and Wikibase.

Here’s to a great three years,

The WMDE LOD Teams