Dear all
Happy New Year! I hope you've all had a good start to 2026. I wanted to
share with you our plans for celebrating Wikipedia's 25th birthday and the
15th anniversary of Wikimedia UK becoming a registered charity.
Firstly, we are treating the whole of 2026 as the birthday year, and not
focusing solely on 15th January (although we will be doing something that
day - more later). We are planning a mixture of events and campaigns
targeted at different stakeholders, including the media, supporters and
partners, as well as - crucially - volunteer contributors.
I've included a brief overview here of what we currently have in store, but
will obviously be in touch with more details about specific events and
campaigns nearer the time, once details are confirmed:
- Next week, we will launch our *Birthday Gifts campaign *encouraging
contributions, donations, content releases and more
- We will be hosting a *Watch Party for the Wikipedia 25 Virtual
Celebration
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Wikipedia_25_Virtual_Celebration> *at
the British Library. RSVPs are essential (see below).
- Please save the date for the *Big Birthday Party on Thursday 2nd July*.
Venue tbc but this will be in person, in London.
- We are planning to hold events in *Scotland* and *Wales*, which we
will share once dates and venues have been confirmed.
- Our budget for *volunteer microgrants* has been increased to £5000 for
the birthday year
- In addition, we're hoping to support more *volunteer attendance at
Wikimania Paris *this July
- In November we will *celebrate the 15th anniversary of Wikimedia UK
becoming a charity* with a public-facing campaign
- Our annual *Community Celebration* will take place online in November,
as per the previous three years
We are also working with the Wikimedia Foundation on joint press activities
for the birthday, as we are hoping to secure positive media coverage of the
UK editing community and chapter.
Whilst our focus in terms of bringing people together to celebrate this
milestone will be the birthday events in London, Scotland and Wales, we
will be *hosting an informal Watch Party of the Wikimedia Foundation's
Virtual Celebration, taking place next Thursday 15th July.* Please join
staff and trustees for a drink from 3pm, in good time for the pre-party at
3.45pm. We are holding the Watch Party at the British Library and RSVPs by
Tuesday 13th June (to me please) are essential for security reasons.
As always, we are very open to your suggestions for how best to mark this
year, including local meetups and other initiatives.
All best
Lucy
--
Lucy Crompton-Reid
Chief Executive
07803 505 169
*My pronouns are she/her and my name is pronounced like this
<https://namedrop.io/lucycromptonreid>*
Hello everyone,
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely break and are settling into
2026 well.
Wikimedia UK is kicking off 2026 with an Online Public Edit-a-thon on*
Thursday 5th February 6pm - 8.30pm. *The event will focus on *enhancing the
coverage on Wikipedia of Women involved in the Sustainable Development
Goals <https://sdgs.un.org/goals> of Climate Action, Life Under Water and
Life on Land. *
If you are new to editing Wikipedia this is the perfect place to come and
learn how you can contribute to the largest free online encyclopedia and
have an opportunity to practice your first edits in a structured learning
environment.
If you already edit, you can come along to brush up on your editing skills
and ask any Wikipedia editing related questions you may have.
The first half of the session will include an Introduction to Wikipedia
Editing Presentation and then there will be some time to make some edits
and ask questions along the way!
You can book your tickets using the link below.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1977498554409?aff=oddtdtcreator
<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1977498554409?aff=oddtdtcreator>
Further details about the session, including Zoom link, will be sent to all
participants who sign up.
Please spread the word amongst your networks if you know groups /
people who may be interested!
Best wishes,
Rupal Karia (she/her)
Outreach and Community Coordinator
*My pronouns are she/her and my name is pronounced like this
<https://namedrop.io/rupalkaria>*
Working hours - Mondays 9am-3pm, Wednesdays and Thursdays 9-6pm
[image: https://wikimedia.org.uk/donate/] <https://wikimedia.org.uk/donate/>
Wikimedia UK <https://wikimedia.org.uk/> is the national chapter for the
global Wikimedia open knowledge movement.
Follow us on Twitter <https://twitter.com/wikimediauk>, Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaUK>, LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/company/496119>, and Instagram
<https://www.instagram.com/wikimediauk/>.
Wikimedia UK is a registered charity in England and Wales No.1144513
and Scotland
No. SC048644. Company Limited by Guarantee, Registration No. 6741827.
Registered Office C/O Wikimedia UK, Level 4, Room 46018, 96 Euston Road,
London, NW1 2DB
Hello all, and happy new year!
Just a little reminder that Wikimedia UK, Wikimedia LGBT+, and the
Volunteer Supporters Network would like to invite you to our event on *17th
January*, *Navigating challenging topics: Creating a toolkit for supporting
editors.
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Navigating_challenging_topics;_Creati…>*
*A bit about the event: *
*As Wikimedians, we’re part of a global movement that collaborates to share
the world’s knowledge.*
*We know that some topic areas can be fraught with more conflict than
others.*
*So what do you do when things go wrong, when you disagree, or when you’re
targeted for the kind of edits that you’re making? And how can we design
work so as to avoid that kind of conflict in the first place?*
*This event is intended to draw together advice and best practice both for
editors and those supporting editors who work in on-wiki areas which might
be considered more challenging.*
The event will not be recorded, but we intend to create an e-booklet
afterwards, summarising both our speakers' main takeaways, and key points
from our workshop discussion.
You can sign up to attend here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Navigating_challenging_topics;_Creati…
We hope to see you there!
Best,
Sara
--
Dr Sara Thomas
Programme Manager, Wikimedia UK
07803 505 172
*My pronouns are she/her, and my name is pronounced like this.
<https://namedrop.io/sarathomas> *
https://wikimedia.org.uk/home/scotland/
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Wikimedia_in_Scotland>
*I work part time, my usual days are Monday - Thursday.*
<https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/>
*Wikimedia UK* <https://wikimedia.org.uk/> is the national chapter for the
global Wikimedia open knowledge movement.
Follow us on Twitter <https://twitter.com/wikimediauk>, Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaUK>, LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/company/496119>, and Instagram
<https://www.instagram.com/wikimediauk/>.
Wikimedia UK is a Registered Charity No.1144513 (England & Wales) SC048644
(Scotland). Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
Scotland, Registered No. 6741827.
Registered Office c/o British Library, Room 46018, 96 Euston Road, London,
NW1 2DB
Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia movement. The
Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate
Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
*Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*