WikiConference India


WikiConference India is a national Wikipedia conference organised in India. The first WikiConference India conference was held in November 2011, in Mumbai, the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was organised by the Mumbai Wikipedia community in partnership with Wikimedia India Chapter
with the support of the Wikimedia Foundation. The conference is positioned as the annual national flagship event for Wikimedia in India and is open to participation from citizens of all nations. The focus is on matters concerning India on Wikipedia projects and other sister projects in English and other Indian folk languages. WikiConference India 2023 took place in Hyderabad from 28 to 30 April 2023. Wikiconference India 2025 is in the planning phase.

2011

WikiConference India aims to provide a common platform for all Indian Wikimedians to interact, share ideas and collaborate. The conference ran from 18 to 20 November 2011 and was held at Mumbai University in South Mumbai, the largest talks in the university's historic convocation hall.
The conference was inaugurated by a keynote address by Jimmy Wales. Arnab Goswami spoke on "Neutrality" as an invited guest speaker. Barry Newstead spoke on the last day.
Tracks showcased at the Conference included topics such as Wikipedia Impact, Gender Gap, Indic Language wiki track, MediaWiki Translation Sprint, Institutions and Wikipedia, Fair use Workshop, etc. It also included Editathon and WikiAcademy sessions. Various sessions on topics such as:
  • Free knowledge and free content
  • Legal Aspects of Wiki Culture
  • Usage of Ajax and jQuery in Wiki
  • Wiki Bhasha: Our Experiences with Multilingual Content
  • Wiki Women Web: Bridging the Gender Gap
  • GLAM project initiation in indic language Wikipedias
Concurrent with the conference was a Hackathon, hosted by the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Kala Ghoda, South Mumbai. Other activities included a city tour and a Heritage walk. Wikimedians and non-Wikimedians from all over India and other countries, Wikimedia Foundation staff and co-founder A hundred applicants got scholarships based on their experience and contribution to Wikipedia and other projects. More than 700 people attended the conference. Microsoft Research, Omidyar Network, Kalnirnay, Yebhi.com, were the sponsors; and eRegNow.com, Avignyata Inc., Kores India Ltd., Text100, Digital Signage Networks and Panache were the partners. There was a demonstration outside the conference by protesters against the map used by Wikipedia to show the borders of India.

2016

The second WikiConference India was held in Mohali, a city of Punjab State near Chandigarh. The venue of the Conference was CGC Landhran. Katherine Maher, Executive Director of WMF, and Nataliia Tymkiv, Board Member of WMF, attended this conference.

2023

WCI 2023 was a national-level conference that provided a common platform for Wikimedians and stakeholders interested in Indic-language Wikimedia projects and other aspects of the movement in India and a few South Asian regions. This was a space to meet, connect, share stories, learnings, best practices, and challenges, and discuss the future strategy of the region. The conference took place in Hyderabad from 28 to 30 April 2023.