Newsletter November 2025
New director of Wikimedia Netherlands: Cristina Fodor
We begin our newsletter by welcoming Cristina Fodor.
Effective December 1, 2025, Cristina Fodor will assume the position of Director of Wikimedia Netherlands. She will succeed Sandra Rientjes, who is retiring after thirteen years of service.
Cristina brings a wealth of professional experience to the role. Trained as a linguist in Romania, she worked there as a university lecturer and researcher before moving to the Netherlands in 2005. Since then, she has built a strong career in communication, marketing, and fundraising, including at Utrecht University, the Amsterdam Museum, and the Fonds Podiumkunsten.
“It is an honor to become director of Wikimedia Netherlands,” says Cristina. “Having grown up in communist Romania, I know from personal experience the value of reliable, relevant, and open information—and the lack thereof. In this age of online manipulation, ‘alternative facts,’ and AI, the reliability of Wikipedia is more urgent than ever.”
Cristina has an extensive network in the Dutch cultural sector. She is a board member of Public Space, the Flemish-Dutch house for culture and debate deBuren and the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar.
Good luck to Cristina from the entire Wikimedia Belgium team. Of course, we would also like to sincerely thank Sandra for her tireless dedication, drive, and the warmth she brought to our community throughout all these years.
On behalf of Wikimedia Belgium, we wish her all the best in this new phase of her life—with plenty of time for everything that makes her happy.
You can read the full press release here.
📝 Volunteers wanted for writing sessions around International Women's Day!
Heritage institutions are very interested in organizing sessions too—which is fantastic! But to ensure that all these sessions run smoothly, we need extra volunteers to help supervise participants.
👉 Do you have experience editing Wikipedia and want to inspire others? Sign up and contribute to a day full of knowledge sharing and visibility for women on Wikipedia. Be sure to let us know which region you live in, so we can take this into account when assigning locations.
More information about the event will follow here.
Wikipedia turns 25🎂!
Next year, Wikipedia will celebrate its 25th anniversary. On January 15, 2026, we will celebrate a quarter century of free knowledge, built by millions of volunteers worldwide. What once began as an ambitious experiment has grown into one of the most consulted sources of knowledge in the world — and we would like to celebrate this together with the community.
On January 15, 2026, at 5:00 p.m., the Wikimedia Foundation is hosting a big virtual birthday party with fun activities, surprise guests, and, of course, a healthy dose of wiki nostalgia.
But the anniversary isn't limited to a single moment: 2026 will be a year-long celebration. There will be community events, a special campaign, new designs, and all kinds of fun extras launched throughout the year. Anyone who wants to organize something themselves—from a local watch party to a creative hackathon—is invited to add it to the international calendar.
In addition, the Foundation is working on a comprehensive retrospective of 25 years of Wikipedia: milestones, developments, and notable moments in the platform's history. This is a great opportunity to see how much has been built in a quarter of a century — and how much still lies ahead.
A little bit of Wiki history
- 2000 – Nupedia is founded, an online encyclopedia with experts and scholars. They write only 24 articles and exist for three years, but the idea lives on.
- 2001 – Wikipedia is launched on January 15. Within months, it becomes clear that an encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone needs guidelines. This leads to the creation of the “Neutral point of view”, which is set up by volunteers and remains a basic principle to this day.
- 2001 - Several language versions of Wikipedia are launched: German, Catalan, Japanese, French, Chinese, Dutch, Esperanto, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Arabic, Danish, Polish, and Hungarian.
- 2003 - The software behind Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects is named MediaWiki (a play on words on Wikimedia). In the same year, the Wikimedia Foundation is established.
- 2004 - The Monobook skin becomes the default look for Wikipedia. It features a blurred photo of a book in the background.
- 2005 - Wikipedia enters the top 40 in the Alexa rankings (of websites).
- 2007 - The first mobile version of Wikipedia is launched.
- 2009 - Time Magazine ranks Wikipedia 25th among the 50 best websites on the internet.
- 2010 - The English Wikipedia reaches 3.5 million articles; the French Wikipedia reaches 1 million articles on September 21.
- 2013 - Multilingual growth: Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Polish reach one million articles.
- 2015 - The Visual Editor is introduced, allowing you to edit Wikipedia in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) manner.
- 2020 - A pivotal year: Wired refers to Wikipedia as “The last best place on the Internet”, and Wikipedia's COVID-19 coverage is praised. The WHO grants permission to use their content in Wikimedia projects.
- 2024 - Dark mode is introduced on Wikipedia, bringing peace to nighttime readers.
- 2025 – That's NOW “This article is about a current event; information may change quickly.” Wikimedia continues to grow and evolve, but one thing is certain: in 2026, we will celebrate 25 years of free knowledge.
We will keep you informed of all updates in the coming months.
2026 will be a year to look forward to!
GLAM Wiki 2025 in Lisbon: a brief review
Discovering culture & preserving heritage
Thanks to a practical bus pass provided by the organizers, participants were able to visit various museums in the city. The diversity of objects and stories highlighted the richness of Portuguese heritage. During the Wiki Loves Monuments photo walk, heritage was not only discovered but also actively documented. The joint effort to capture monuments for Wikimedia Commons created a strong sense of community.
Insights from the sessions
Panels and workshops focused on one central question: how can GLAM institutions and Wikimedia reinforce each other? Important themes included:
- Digital Accessibility: how collections can be shared worldwide.
- Community Resilience: the power of diversity within our movement.
- Technology & AI: opportunities to improve metadata, make collections more visible, and connect heritage — with an eye for ethics and context.
During the hackathon, it became clear how creative and practical this collaboration can be, with innovative tools that increase the impact of GLAM projects.
A community that connects
In addition to the substantive program, the conference offered countless opportunities for exchange. Participants from all corners of the world—from librarians to curators and volunteers—shared their experiences and ambitions. Despite their diverse backgrounds, they were united by a single conviction: open knowledge connects people and contributes to the preservation of cultural heritage.
Going home with new ideas
The conference demonstrated how valuable collaboration between GLAM institutions and Wikimedia can be. The insights and ideas shared during GLAM Wiki 2025 form a solid foundation on which to continue building an accessible, sustainable, and global digital heritage.
Computers Meeting Day at the Ghent Industrial Museum
Because much of the early IT heritage no longer exists in physical form, the museum has opted for an alternative approach: collecting the stories of people who witnessed the developments firsthand. The call yielded a diverse group, ranging from software developers and computer scientists to illustrators, teachers, and business leaders. Wikimedia Belgium also participated.
In various rounds of discussions, participants shared their experiences with the first mainframes, the rise of the mini-computer, the role of companies such as Apple, Agfa-Gevaert, Telindus, and Proximus, and the impact of digital tools on graphic and academic workflows. The contributions painted a clear picture of how rapidly and profoundly the sector has evolved.
“Writing my doctoral thesis on an IBM 360 computer was a very slow process. I had to put numbers on tape, which were then read in. At night, I took a camp bed with me to wait: when the computer started rattling, I woke up.”
Together, those present created a timeline on which they collected their first computer experiences and important technological milestones. This made the difference between the room-sized systems of the early years and today's portable devices particularly tangible.
“The biggest change? The evolution from a room-sized computer with 128K of memory to a cell phone with 256GB of memory!”
The meeting day not only provided valuable content for the 2026 exhibition, but also created a warm exchange between generations of IT professionals. With the stories collected, the museum can continue to build an exhibition that brings an important piece of Belgian IT history back into the spotlight. Want to know more? Be sure to keep an eye on the website of the Industry Museum.
WikiconNL 2025: an inspiring day at the Wereldmuseum Leiden
Want to read more? Check out the report on the Wikimedia Netherlands website.
WikidataCon 2025: a conversation with organizer Danny Benjafield
“The program was… a bit of a colorful puzzle.”
How do you actually start a conference program for a project as diverse as Wikidata?
Danny laughs: “Admittedly, it was rather haphazard... We had grand plans for a neatly organized scheduling system via pretalx, but when we actually had to start organizing sessions, we ended up with a colorful mix of formats and durations. That's why the program feels so ‘kaleidoscopic.’ But in a good way.”
About partners and teamwork
Danny emphasizes that WikidataCon would never have been possible without a group of silent forces behind the scenes: “MOR Design created fantastic, dynamic graphics. And our technical support and the Events Team... they are truly the silent heroes. They did everything they could to make our wild ideas possible.”
“Online-only sounds logical... but it remains a huge puzzle.”
Serving a global community is no easy task. “You have to deal with time zones, varying internet quality, overlapping conferences... and even Halloween,” says Danny. Nevertheless, they tried to make the schedule as accessible as possible, including a special program day for participants from Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania.
What really stood out
Two sessions particularly stuck with Danny. About PoliLoom, a new tool that uses AI to help verify political data, he says: "This was the first time it was shown at a Wiki event. The discussions were incredibly fascinating."
He also enthusiastically mentions lexicographical data: "Raisha Abdillah's session on Lexeme Modeling Across Languages was fantastic. They brought insights from more than 30 languages. And that at an impossibly early hour in their own time zone."
Looking ahead to 2027
Danny looks ahead with optimism: “This was my first WikidataCon as an organizer, so I'm mainly relieved that everything went smoothly. For 2027, we definitely want more opportunities for community involvement. And because the next edition will be hybrid, that opens up a huge range of possibilities: both for online participation and for physical meetings.”
Curious about the full story, with all the insights, challenges, and anecdotes?
➡️ Read the extensive interview on DIF.
Agenda
🍻 Writing sessions on the history of beer in Denderland
Volunteers and participants work together with historical sources about breweries and pubs in the region.
Objective: to better document this rich beer culture and make it visible on Wikipedia. No prior knowledge is required; guidance, Wi-Fi, and light refreshments will be provided.
📅 November 29, 2025
⏰ 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
📍 De Cabere, Gotegemstraat 17, 9450 Haaltert
📅 December 13, 2025
⏰ 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
📍 Grand Café des Arcades, Statieplein 8, 9300 Aalst
You can register here.
Wikicafé Ypres: buildings under construction
During this session, participants will explore the street plan of Ypres and investigate the stories behind well-known and lesser-known buildings. We will create new Wikipedia articles or supplement existing pages with sources and images, so that Ypres' rich architectural history becomes more visible.
Participants register in advance and then choose a building from the list of articles. On the day itself, the relevant source material will be available.
📅 Date: December 10, 2025
📍 Location: Yper Museum (Ypres)
🌐 Register
Public Domain Day 2026 and award ceremony Wiki Loves Heritage
Every year on January 1, new heritage works enter the public domain, but they often remain difficult to access. During this Public Domain Day, we bring together experts, policymakers, practitioners, and advocates to share experiences and best practices on how to make this material more accessible.
📅 Date: January 15, 2026
📍 Location: Royal Library of Belgium (KBR), Brussels
🌐You can register here.
Contact us
Wikimedia Belgium NPO (WMBE)
Antwerpselaan 40 Boulevard d'Anvers B-1000 Brussel/Bruxelles
+32 471 82 20 26 (voice/sms/Signal/Telegram/WhatsApp)
Enterprise 0563.775.480 – RPR Brussel
www.wikimedia.be •
info@wikimedia.be