Newsletter December 2025
🎉 End-of-year message from Wikimedia Belgium – 2025
- With the arrival of our first official communications manager, this evolution gained momentum: the newsletter was now sent out regularly in a more professional format, our websites, from Wikimedia Belgium to the Fund were refreshed and made clearer, and we took visible steps toward a stronger external presence, including through our participation in the De Standaard Solidarity Award.
- Wikimedia Belgium also made its presence felt internationally. We participated in Dutch, European, and international meetings, exchanged expertise, and brought back insights that enrich our work. The highlight was Wikimania 2025, where the power of the global Wikimedia movement became tangible once again: a place where volunteers, partners, and professionals work together to build free knowledge.
- The heart of it all remained our community of volunteers, the driving force behind everything we do. In 2025, we brought people together, both online and offline: from the lively volunteer group and the outing in Antwerp to the weekly virtual open meeting on Tuesday evenings.
Volunteering at Wikimedia is not only useful and meaningful, it is also connecting and inspiring. To everyone who made edits, shared knowledge, helped others, or simply showed up: thank you.
At the same time, we are looking ahead. Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects operate in a rapidly changing context, with new social and technological developments, including AI, that present both opportunities and questions.
That is precisely why our mission remains crucial: reliable, free, and human-driven knowledge, built by many, for everyone. With that conviction, we are moving toward 2026.
Thanks to all your efforts, from a single edit to large heritage uploads, we have contributed together to expanding, preserving, and sharing knowledge. Every article, every photo, every contribution counts.
Let us enter 2026 with the same curiosity, commitment, and passion. Let us continue to build: on inclusion, on heritage, on free access to knowledge for all.
To everyone: volunteers, donors, partners: a sincere and warm thank you. Here's to a new year full of discoveries and shared heritage!
📅 Public Domain Day 2026 – January 15, Brussels
In 2026, we will celebrate the public domain on January 15 at KBR in Brussels, with speakers and partners from Belgium and abroad. Anyone who works with public domain collections, from collection managers to researchers and policymakers, is welcome to come and be inspired and discover the latest developments.
What can you expect?
- Plenary keynotes, Belgian & European track: updates on new works in the public domain, the (re)use of material, and the ‘’'award ceremony for Wiki Loves Heritage Belgium.
- Workshops & hands-on sessions: learn about tools such as Tapestries to bring digital objects to life, discover CommonsDB, or take part in creative crowdsourcing events such as Pattern-a-thons.
- International insights: panels on policy and practice, and practical cases concerning copyright, dates of death, and creative reuse.
Practical
📍 Location: KBR, Kunstberg 28, 1000 Brussels (Belgian track physically; European track also online)
🕘 When: January 15, 2026, from 9:30 a.m. to 18:00 p.m.
💻 Bring your laptop for the workshops!
📝 Registration required, deadline January 7 – participation is free
➡️ Register here.
25 years of Wikipedia: looking back and looking ahead
In our November newsletter, we announced that this anniversary will be celebrated extensively. This moment is also ideal to reflect on what 2025 brought and on a quarter century of Wikipedia: a global collaborative project that continues to grow thanks to volunteers.
This year's figures show how vibrant and dynamic Wikipedia is. Together, users contributed to 2,205,034 articles, spread across 4,746,041 pages and 267 portals. More than 1,484,080 users contributed, supported by 29 moderators who help ensure quality and reliability.
Behind every figure lies collaboration, curiosity, and the belief that knowledge should be accessible to everyone.
In early December, the Wikimedia Foundation also published a list of the most viewed English Wikipedia articles of 2025. The top five shows how Wikipedia keeps pace with current events, history, and social debates:
As we close out the year, we look back with pride on everything we have built together, and look forward to 2026 with equal enthusiasm. On to the next chapters of free knowledge, with 25 years of Wikipedia as a solid foundation.
🤝💙 Participate and support: everyone is welcome at Wikimedia Belgium
Volunteers can contribute to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects at their own pace and according to their own interests: by writing, improving, sharing photos, contributing ideas, or participating in our activities. No experience yet? No problem, the Wikipedia crash course will teach you step by step how to get started.
You can also formalize your commitment by becoming a member of Wikimedia Belgium vzw. Membership is open to everyone and helps us to strengthen free knowledge in Belgium. Members can contribute ideas about how the organization works, participate in or organize projects themselves, and oversee the board. Editors of Wikimedia projects can become members free of charge; other interested parties pay an annual membership fee of €20.
Donations help us support volunteers, enable projects, and keep heritage accessible in a sustainable way. For donations via the King Baudouin Foundation (Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund), a tax certificate is provided for donations of €40 or more.
Practical
You can become a member by sending an email with your name, title, email address, preferred language, and address (optional information is possible). For payments, you can use IBAN BE63 5230 8084 2808.
Your personal data will be processed confidentially and in accordance with the law.
Together, we are building an open, reliable, and free knowledge world—edit by edit, project by project, with the support of many. 👉 Want to start writing right away? Follow the quick start guide.
💡 Submitting a project: making heritage and knowledge visible together
Museums, libraries, archives, and other heritage organizations can come to us to make their collections more accessible to the general public. Through a Wikimedian in Residence project we guide organizations in the use of platforms such as Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons to document and contextualize their collections and make them visible worldwide.
What do we offer?
- Professional guidance from experienced Wikimedia experts
- Up to €7,500 in funding through the Friends of Wikimedia Belgium Fund
- Opportunities to deploy your own staff or recruit new employees (e.g., through a BIS job)
What are the benefits?
- Improved collection management and greater visibility
- Greater public engagement and collaboration with researchers and volunteers
- Inspiration from strong international examples
On our website, you will find an overview of current and completed projects, including a timeline that shows how a project grows from idea to implementation.
👉 More information and project examples.
Agenda
🎪 Wikithon circus history at the Wintercircus
During these collective writing sessions, we will work together to showcase the rich past and present of the circus via Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.
In the run-up to the Wiki Café, a great deal of collection material from the Huis van Alijn was made accessible via Wikimedia. New Wikidata items were also created for circuses, artists, and circus professions.
During the Wikithon, we will build on this: writing, supplementing, illustrating, and connecting free knowledge about circus culture.
Practical
📍 Location: Wintercircus
🗓️ Thursday, January 22 (5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
🗓️ Friday, January 23 (5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.)
🗓️ Saturday, January 24 (2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)
Everyone is welcome, no prior knowledge of Wikipedia is required. Please bring your own laptop and create a Wikipedia account in advance. Do you have any relevant sources on circus history? Feel free to bring them along.
👉 Registration is required via this link so that we can properly supervise all participants.
Together, we are literally writing circus history. 🎭✨
🤝 Informal Wikimeet in Ghent
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Do you have questions about Wikipedia or Wikimedia projects? Would you like to share experiences, get tips, or simply meet other volunteers? Then this Wikimeet is the ideal opportunity. Both experienced contributors and curious newcomers are welcome.
This gathering is also a great warm-up for the special International Women's Day writing afternoon planned for March.
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📍 Where: Ghent
🗓️ When: Saturday, February 28, 2026
🎯 Purpose: Ask questions, get help, have a chat, and share experiences
ℹ️ All information can be found here
Come along, meet other Wikimedians, and share your passion for free knowledge. ☕✨
🔮 Wikimedia Futures Lab: looking ahead together
The Futures Lab aims to achieve three goals:
- Strengthening solidarity within the movement': participants share perspectives and local contexts and work together to build a shared vision for the future of the Wikimedia movement and our platforms.
- Gaining insight into global trends: together with experts and researchers, we deepen our understanding of international trends that impact Wikimedia and discuss their impact at the regional and local levels.
- Exploring new strategies: participants develop ideas and “safe-to-try” experiments to remain relevant in a changing digital environment.
Practical
🗓️ When': January 31 – February 1, 2026
📍 Where: Frankfurt (Germany)
👥 For whom: Affiliates, volunteers, and guests from the Wikimedia movement. The event is limited to 100 selected participants. Registration is now closed.
During this multi-day, in-person event, participants will work on questions such as:
- What does the further spread of AI mean for human-created knowledge, now and in the next five years?
- How is Wikimedia content reused on the internet, today and tomorrow?
- What do (future) contributors expect from online knowledge platforms?
The Futures Lab will develop a set of testable hypotheses and concrete experiments that can be picked up and shared locally within the movement. The event in Frankfurt is part of a broader process in which Wikimedia learns, tests, and adjusts together as it moves toward the future.
All information can be found here.
💻 FOSDEM 2026 – Open source meets the community
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With hundreds of talks, developer rooms, and thematic tracks, FOSDEM offers a unique overview of the latest developments in free and open source software. All sessions are streamed live and made freely available afterwards.
🔗 More info and the full program.
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