Wikimedia Foundation

Twenty-five years ago, Wikipedia was an unlikely idea: a place where anyone could share free knowledge. Today, it’s one of the most visited sites on Earth, not powered by corporate ads, but by people. Across 300+ languages, volunteers have written and refined more than 65 million articles, helping billions of readers find context, learn, and understand the world. Wikipedia has become part of how we research, report, build technology, and even train AI. The mission hasn’t changed. Every edit is proof that collaboration can create something meaningful for humanity. Here’s to 25 years of free knowledge, built by a volunteer community for everyone. Celebrate with us ➡️ https://25.wikipedia.org/ #Wikipedia25

In a milestone moment, the Wikimedia Foundation was invited to speak about Wikipedia’s role in global digital governance at the United Nations General Assembly hall during the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in New York City in December 2025. The speech delivered by Jan Gerlach, Public Policy Director at the Wikimedia Foundation, drew the attention of UN member states to the role of digital public goods such as Wikipedia in supporting equitable access to information, innovation, and participation in the digital economy. The Wikimedia Foundation is grateful to be recognized and will continue to work with the UN and member states advocating for and representing communities who make free and open knowledge possible worldwide. Watch Gerlach's speech at the United Nations General Assembly hall.

Under the project Wiki Documents Bengal Terracotta, the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group has been bridging the gap between researchers studying the terracotta panels of South Asia's temples and Wikimedia Commons. Covered with intricate images of humans and animals, depicting mythological scenes and local folklore, the panels can be challenging to document. To achieve results, the volunteers have combined the efforts of photographers and researchers to make the registers more accessible and easily found. The Wikimedians have also collaborated with academics and history professors in the field. So far, the team has completed photographing six temples, pushing the research forward with creativity and resilience. Expand your knowledge and get inspired by their clever solutions ➡️ https://w.wiki/FnNW

Everyone knows Wikipedia. But not everyone knows the nonprofit organization that keeps it running. The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit that hosts collaborative free‑knowledge projects, maintains the servers and software that power them, and develops open‑source tools. More than 265,000 people around the world contribute to Wikimedia projects; initiatives focused on community health, machine‑learning tools, and gender diversity help these communities thrive. The Foundation does not work alone. Partnerships with organizations such as Google, the Biodiversity Heritage Library, and UNESCO help close knowledge gaps and expand access. The movement’s call to "Open the Knowledge" urges a radical commitment to knowledge equity and inclusion. By hosting the infrastructure and supporting volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation ensures that Wikipedia and its sister projects remain free, secure, and independent. It champions a world where everyone can participate in and benefit from the sum of human knowledge. Get to know the Wikimedia Foundation ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dyQXZTQP

Sometimes a mission starts with just a typo. Nearly two decades ago, User:Risker saw a mistake in a Wikipedia article about singer James Blunt and fixed it. Seeing her edit appear instantly was empowering. Since then, she has become one of English Wikipedia’s most trusted leaders: an administrator, member of the Arbitration Committee (twice), oversighter, and checkuser. She has helped shape policies, improved technical tools, prevented vandalism, and delivered presentations about the Wikimedia mission. Beyond English Wikipedia, Risker served on the Funds Dissemination Committee, engaged in movement strategy work, and created Risker’s checklist, a guide for developers to identify potential issues in content‑creation tools. Risker’s advice for newcomers to the Wikimedia movement is to avoid focusing on just one task: variety prevents burnout and keeps contributing fun. She highlights the range of activities and community connections. When she’s not editing, she enjoys live music, gardening, spending time with her family, and reading. Her journey from fixing a single typo to guiding global policy illustrates how small actions can lead to significant impact. Risker was awarded the 2025 Wikimedia Laureate award in honor of her contributions.

What makes an article a good article? When you land on an English Wikipedia page, you're seeing the product of ongoing evaluation. Content assessment is the process volunteer editors use to rate articles on a scale from "Stub" (a very short start) to "Featured Article" (the highest standard). Assessors look at accuracy, sourcing, structure, and readability, and their ratings help identify where improvement is needed. Most assessments are done by volunteers, sometimes with help from machine‑learning tools that predict quality and feed statistics into bots. So far, more than 8 million articles have been assessed on English Wikipedia. The letter grades (Stub, Start, C, B, A, Good Article, Featured Article) describe how close a page is to being comprehensive and well‑written. Think of it as editors' way of making sure articles are always improving. Anyone can assess articles below Good Article status; higher ratings require formal peer review. These internal assessments don't replace your judgment as a reader, but they help editors monitor quality and track progress across millions of pages. They are one of the background systems that keep Wikipedia reliable and ever‑evolving. Look behind the scenes ➡️ https://w.wiki/48M9

The Wikimedia community doesn't waver on these 3 standards ⬇️ Since its early days, Wikipedia has relied on three core policies to ensure that articles are balanced, sourced, and fact‑based: neutral point of view, verifiability, and no original research. Neutral point of view: Wikipedia articles must present information fairly as far as possible without bias. Verifiability: All information must come from published, reliable sources that readers can check themselves. No original research: Wikipedia doesn’t publish personal opinions or new interpretations – it summarizes what has already been published elsewhere from reliable sources. These community‑driven rules were drafted more than two decades ago and still guide hundreds of thousands of volunteer editors. To support editors, the Wikimedia Foundation recently launched a neutral point of view course on the WikiLearn platform and convened a global working group to study how neutrality works across languages. Together, these policies create a blueprint for building trust in the wider digital ecosystem. In a time of pervasive misinformation, the Wikipedia model demonstrates that transparency and reliable sources are cornerstones of credible online content. Learn more about these lasting pillars of free knowledge ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dt5qSTap

The landscape winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2025 will help you get a new perspective of our world. Much of the world's natural beauty and animal species rest in places none of us will ever visit. So why not let one of the world's highest quality photo contests bring them to your virtual doorstep? Swipe to see the photos awarded in the landscape category of Wiki Loves Earth 2025. Get up close and personal with the winners of the macro/close-up category ➡️ wikilovesearth.org